Attitude, Effort, and Safety: Lessons from the Field with Justin Counce

In this episode of On the Surface, we sit down with Justin Counce—Delta’s Safety Coordinator—to explore the unconventional path that led him from chemistry labs and chromatography machines to job sites, quarry pits, and the front lines of safety culture. From studying finance for “30 minutes” to working in manufacturing and eventually discovering a passion for helping people work smarter and safer, Justin shares how curiosity, real‑world experience, and relationship‑building shaped his entire career.

He walks through the evolution of safety at Delta—from the early days of reactive compliance and paper forms to proactive culture-building, CI teams, and digital inspections that keep crews protected and projects moving. Justin opens up about the shift toward collaborative safety, the importance of trust on a job site, and how complacency can sneak in even for the most experienced workers. He also breaks down what safety really looks like today: navigating regulations, supporting crews across multiple states, investigating incidents, managing environmental compliance, and preparing for a future filled with sensors, AI tools, autonomous equipment, and smarter training.

Justin also draws surprising parallels between his role at Delta and his life coaching youth sports. From teaching attitude and effort to managing emotions, building mental toughness, and holding people accountable with empathy, he explains how lessons from the baseball field translate directly into leading teams and keeping people safe. Along the way he shares stories about wins, missteps, tough inspections, community complaints, and why treating everyone with respect—no matter their job title—remains his guiding principle.

It’s an inside look at the human side of safety: the culture, conversations, and coaching that make a difference long before any paperwork ever does.

Thanks for listening!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome back to On the Surface, the go-to podcast for construction and materials. I'm your host, Seth Stevens, and this week I sit down with Justin Counts to discuss safety, building culture, and lessons learned coaching kids' sports. Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

You know, I was a uh financial major for 30 minutes. Oh yeah. Yeah. 30 minutes. Uh so I I really wasn't sure what I was gonna do. And so um I went in. This was, I guess, my uh junior year, sophomore year. I w I I was in that somewhere in there where I was trying to figure out what I was gonna do. I was like, I don't know, I guess I'll do finance, you know, finance. I don't know. I mean, I'm okay at math. Let's try. And I walked in the building and I was like, nah, it's too stuffy for me. And I went and signed up for all the science classes. Really? So I was like a financial major or finance major taking. Because you were calling it finance and not finance. Finance.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Probably should have stuck there. Yeah. Yeah. So then that's how you got into all the science stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

I just kind of ran out of ideas and I was like, I'll do science.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

And then what was your major science? Chemistry. Chemistry. Yeah. So I Googled um what made the most money at the time and pharmacists. Oh. And I was like, okay, what degree do you gotta have? And you had to have prerequisites in a lot of science. Yeah. You could do biology or chemistry. Okay. So I just picked one chemistry.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Probably the key to that is grad school to be a pharmacist.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Well, it's not it's uh pharmacy school. Okay. So you have two you can become a pharmacist without graduating with undergrad. You can do two years of your prerequisites. Yeah. You go through and you hit every class that you need to take, get a your GPA that you need, and then you can apply as a s I mean as a junior. And if you get in with those prereqs, then you go straight into pharmacy school, which is another four years.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Yeah. And then what? You have a bachelor's or a master's or a PhD, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

No, it's a it's it's a ancology. Yeah, doctorate. I don't know if it's I don't know what the acronym or the I don't know. But it's a yeah, you're a doctor. You can write prescriptions as a pharmacist. Yeah. Now you don't typically do that as a pharmacist because it's kind of conflict of interest there because you're feeling what you're you know what I'm saying? But you could if you know. So That's true.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

I think you have the the le you legally you were okay to do that. I guess most people I know that are now pharmacists like went to pharmaceutical school from day one. So it was like a six-year program.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Like they knew they wanted to do it.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Most people do. Like there was um when I worked at a pharmacy, my f I worked in f uh pharmacy through college, and a lot of them that's they knew kind of what they wanted to do. So they went to ASU for their first two years to get those prereqs. Then they took the PCAT and then had the GPA and got accepted into like UAMS, you know, farm the pharmacy school. So I gotcha. Yeah. So I didn't have that.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

You didn't do that.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

I was like, I'll get a degree, and then I'll and then it took me five years, which is I don't know, not bad. Oh, to get a degree. Yeah. I thought maybe you're saying to find a job.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

No, five years. And then um That's not bad. No, no, especially if you didn't really declare a major until you were sophomore and junior.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

Yeah. So five years, and then um I was really burnt out of school. I don't know, five years a long time. Yeah. I mean, you know what I mean? You go to school I went five and a half. You go to school your entire life, and then you go to college if you choose to do that, and then it's another five years, and you're like, man, all right, I'm ready to do something else for a minute.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Are you in favor of the kids doing that skip year now between high school and college? I think so. Will you fund it for your children? No. So I worked. Are we starting this or it's going?

SPEAKER_03 4:21

Okay. You either get a skip year or a wedding. It's up to you. Okay, so I worked with a guy, really smart guy at a factory out of college. He got a degree in physics. All right. And this dude was like super smart. Yeah. And I was talking to him one time and he's like, dude, I felt out of college when I first went because I didn't know what I was gonna do. I just started taking classes. I didn't have any um, I I didn't have an idea what I really what I wanted. So I just went, did terribly. You know, my parents said I had to come home, and then I started working at KFC, and then he was like, I did that for a year, and I was like, okay, I need to get my act together. And then he went back and then he got a degree in physics because he knew what the other side was like.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Yeah, plus he would yeah, so he was just like way more concentrated going into it. 100%. Yeah, I believe that.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

And so like man, it's hard as an 18-year-old to know what you want to do with your life. Mm-hmm. Some people who do. I mean, you might have, I mean, you may have had a finance.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

You didn't? No, I didn't know. I mean, I thought I knew. I thought I knew. Really? But I went in as like undeclared math and science major.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

But you were lean, you leaned towards finance?

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Uh well, so I was math. Like I was initially declared, like after the undeclared, then I declared as a statistics major. Because I thought that I wanted to be an actuary, which I mean What's that? Uh they like do risk analysis for like insurance companies and stuff, basically. Really?

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Did you know somebody was an actuator?

SPEAKER_02 6:03

An actuary. Actuary? Actuator. Whatever. Uh no, I think it was one of those things where my mom was like, oh yeah, these are people that make a lot of money, type of thing. And knowing what I know now, I'm really glad that I didn't do it because I don't know if they like really talked anybody. I think they're just like the computer. Plus, technology probably runs most of the risk now. I don't know. Yeah, that could be something AI is kind of Yeah. I mean, who knows what that job ends up looking like. But so I was doing that and I had I was minoring in business because that's like typically what one of those programs is like at a university, but SEMO didn't have it, so that was like the workaround was to do that. And then I realized that was a lot, like a lot, a lot of math and like really high-level statistics classes when you start working in like crazy calculus and everything, just it doesn't.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

I was like, nah. That sounds terrible. Yeah. So it like I was in school the whole time. I didn't actually take a break out, but I was working the whole time and I think had enough time and flip-flopping majors to be like, yeah, this is like I don't really care about this. And then had some business classes for my minor. It was like, I like this a lot more. So I went to that, and then I would say it was like a way more focused approach. Yeah. And then I was like all business to get out of there. Right. Everybody else is like younger kids in the classes that I'm initially in, and I'm like, nah, dude, I'm here to get out.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

That makes I mean, when you get that senior year and you got some underclassmen in some of these classes, you're like, all right, I gotta get my act together. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

As many of those classes on the front, I was like, Well, will you just waive this credit? Because I took like a a 500-level math class over there. It should like that's like way more advanced than this. And some classes they were like, nope, you gotta take it. Thanks so I would just try to take those as like four-week summer classes online or something. Anyway. But yeah, you get like a whole you gain a whole new perspective of Oh no doubt. And have a way more like focused approach to what you want to do.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

I mean, I think um like what we're doing now with the internships. Mm-hmm. Like before we did that, someone asked me what what's one piece of advice coming out of college. I was like, do an internship because you just don't know. Mm-hmm. Like you we had that one finance major that shadowed me for a little bit, and she's like, or no, she was a uh engineer. Engineering. And she just was a great joke.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

She finance reported to Brad and was shadowing Brad, and he scared her into being an accountant, basically.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

I took her and a couple other interns out to the quarry, and it's hot. It's like bad hot. And they were like hiding underneath the equipment, like trying to find shade. And I'm just like standing on the, you know. Just sweating. Yeah, I'm just standing out there showing them the, you know, showing them everything, just wearing it, you know, just and they're just like, you could just tell they were just not ready. Yeah. So anyway. When did we get to leave?

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Yes. That's all I think about. Yeah. Did you do an internship? Mm-mm. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

So what did you do after you got your chemistry major? I went and worked at a factory, worked in as a QC technician for four and a half years. Nice. So um did a lot of I mean, worked with a lot of chemicals.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Like developing packaging. Like that's how chemistry plays into it, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

So we did um um it was uh like a wet wipe factory, and we we used uh HPLCs, uh chromatography was the name of the equipment. It's sounds it's a lot scarier than what it was, but anyway, it's just a lot of analytical testing to make sure the chemicals that were that were being applied to the the wipes were within tolerance, what they were supposed to be. Oh. I mean, similar, you know, same as similar to like what we do now. Yeah, QC, what we do. You know, we would have to make lab batches and test it against what we were running. That's what, you know, that they do um with their mixed designs and stuff. Um, so I you know, and then I guess I got into safety. They didn't have a safety person there. They had one safety person up in um the corporate office that would come down, you know, randomly. Like not local. Not local, yeah. No. And then um, you know, I started kind of dabbling in that. We had so you know, I was around those chemicals all the time, and then we we ended up, which we were supposed to retain a lot of those chemicals. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

And what the way you said that. What I was around those chem, like I thought that was gonna go into a story, like you grew an extra thumb. Oh no, I was really safe.

SPEAKER_03 11:27

Okay. Um gosh, I would hope so. Yeah. So anyway, so we had all of these chemicals on site that were that we didn't need anymore. So we had to lab pack them out. And um, so I got um basically kind of certified to do that. And then you have to you have to uh ship them appropriately, you know, like all the tags and stuff are on the truck, so you have to make sure that you're shipping them correctly. Some can be trout, you know, some can't go by air, some can't go by water. So I had to get a certification to do that called Rickra. And then that's kind of how I and then I was like, okay, this can like I was getting out of the lab. I hated being in the lab, which our lab is a lot different than where I where I was at. Yeah. They're out in the field, they're tall, you know what I mean? Yeah. I was in You'd be like a stereotypical lab. Yes, and I did not like that. So then I started dabbling in safety, and then I um asked the plant manager if I could do my OSHA class. So I did the OSHA 30, OSHA 10, and then whatever trainings they let me take.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

And then what? Then you were just done. Well, then I started um there was a program we did like a safety champions. We would just do walk around, which I didn't really know what I was doing. You know what I mean? I didn't have anybody mentoring me. Okay, yeah. You know, I'm just making it up as we go. Yeah, winging it, really. And uh, which looking back, I wasn't far off, you know. Like it's funny. But we uh yeah, we did like we would, you know, I would ask for help with people that worked out in the factory to help me look at things. Mm-hmm. And um, which is what I do now. Like cross audits. Yeah. I mean kind of just people that working out in it, you know, they they know they know a lot of times. Oh yeah. You know, and most of the time everybody's willing to share as long as it's going to a good cause. Like they think something's gonna be done about it.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Um so we started doing these cross audits and and then, you know, it just kind of I was like, okay, well, I think I might want to do this. And then uh I saw a job for Delta, which they weren't hiring a safety person. They were still, I think they were considering it, but the factory was a really safe place. And I'm not saying that we're not, it's just there is really controlled. You know what I mean? So there wasn't just a whole lot other than you know, you had forklifts buzzing around and some maintenance and stuff, but everything's pretty controlled.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

It's a controlled environment with like way more minimized risk just because it doesn't change. That's right. Which are manufacturing sites are similar, correct, but then like construction sites are Wild West.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Uh yes, considering, yeah, comparatively. Comparatively, yeah. So yeah, then I saw Delta was Wait, what were we hiring for? Safety coordinator. Oh, okay. We're just throwing it around. Yeah, there was a safety coordinator position. Uh found it on uh Indeed jobs. Yeah. And then I went to the interview and uh Debbie Robinson, she's like, How did you hear about us? I was she was I said indeed. She says, I didn't post that on there, whatever. It works, you know. So anyway. Glad he found us.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Yeah, anyway. I think he started like right after I did. 2016. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Beginning of the year? September. Oh, September. Mm-hmm. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

Cause I I came in and everything was kind of slowing down a little bit. Like, I mean, we were still we were still busy, but it wasn't like just pedal to the metal, you know, like mid summer. And so it was a good time to start really, because you can't kind of get out and getting a feel for things and just getting to know people really and understanding what's happening. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Because I came from a different world. Yeah. You get to start at a time in a time period where you it's easier to ask questions, I guess. Yeah. Rather than like starting in July.

SPEAKER_03 15:50

That's right. Yeah. So it was it was good. I mean, we you know, and everybody like the foreman and and yeah, I mean the foreman were pretty pretty helpful. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

So then you're still in safety, but it's changed a lot. A lot over ten years or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

Mm-hmm. So like the um when I started, we were starting cat safety. Yeah. We had just started that journey. Yep. I think um we had already developed, we had one CI team, maybe two that had completed it their the safety meetings was already established, and I think orientations had just rolled out. And so then I kind of came on like after that. I really I think I came on at CI team three, because uh it was a funny story. I go, uh John Bennett is like, hey, you're going to this CI team rollout. And I've been here maybe, maybe a month, maybe. And uh I was like, okay, yeah, yeah. So I was eager to learn, whatever. So I go to this report out, and like right before he sat down, he's like, get ready to speak. And I was like, I looked at him because I couldn't get a read on John early on. Yeah. And I was like, is he messing with me? And then it started, you know. And sure enough, so like I was taking notes, you know, like the whole time. Cause I was like, are they gonna call? I mean, I just started. Sure enough, Don Rosenbarger, you know, he's famous for getting everybody out of their comfort zone and speaking. He called on me. I was ready though. I mean, I'm glad John gave me that heads up. Yeah, because I'd have been just probably just, you know, just listening and everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Anyway. Um that is funny. John, that was John liked to do that. But you really never knew if he was being serious. I know.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

He would say it and then kind of grin. Yeah, I don't know if this dude's messing with me or not right now. Couldn't get a read on him. But yeah, so we started the safe uh caterpillar safety, and um, you know, Bruce Mickey was just hired. He hired him with me like like the same week. Oh, yeah. Or two within each other. And so we were we were learning together the new the new ways, which he had been doing safety for a while, but he was into that, you know, the old reactive safety culture. Yeah. And this is a more proactive.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Yeah. Proactive and like developed from the people closest to the work. Right. Right. The people rather than a top-down. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

That was the that was the motto to get to get more people involved and stop the injuries from happening. Mm-hmm. You know?

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 18:43

Be be uh be ready for it. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

So I'd say it works. Yeah. For sure. I mean, we've had a ton of buy-in and like still have a ton of people involved with it on a regular basis. We're there's not as much like low-hanging fruit now as there used to be. Like it's harder to come up with, you know, things to like facilitate and fix or whatever. Like it just becomes way more complicated, plus you start getting into like all the I don't know, just like mental decision making stuff and all that.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

But yeah, I think it's uh I mean I think we did what we set out to do, like build a culture where we were thinking about things. And it took some time. You know, it takes a long time. It just takes the right people. You know, you still have um you know, the people who have to buy into that. Um but and we've come a long, long way. And uh the safety meetings was a good start. Um getting people just talking about and it doesn't always have to be work-related, right? People were talking about at home experience, things like that. Yeah, that's true. So the majority of it really is. And and now we're advancing, you know, getting better quality meetings, getting um uh better quality orientations, getting really diving deep into like our stickies and our near misses and things like that where we're you know, we're we're trying to take care of those big ticket items that can seriously hurt somebody. So what's your like elevator pitch of what you do? Uh I guess a low-hanging fruit would be keep us compliant, right? Oh yeah, that's true. That would be uh keep us out of trouble with OSHA, MSHA, whatever regulatory. Um and just uh, you know, build help help support our guys and and help with that culture building process, um, help be a a resource to them. Like if if they're doing something, um, you know, I feel like that we do a good job of calling and talking through things before we we get started and doing yeah, yeah. You know, and so working a more of a collaborative effort safety-wise. So I mean, my yeah, it would be keeping us out of trouble, keeping us compliant, but also helping being a really good support system for the for the people out there working.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Right. Yeah. Which it wouldn't have necessarily been like that before. No, like before we were really doing in those roles. I mean, it would be a lot of probably I guess a lot more compliance and like don't do this, don't do that, do it this way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

Um the safety cop.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

Yeah. Some of them guys still call me that. If they're listening to the safety cop. Yeah, they do it messing with me. But uh Yeah, I don't know. Maybe they're not. I like to think Is that the biggest misperception? About that role. Yeah, probably. That we're out like when I come out there, I'm like trying to catch somebody doing something. And I'm I'm really not I'm looking for it. Don't get me wrong. I mean, I'm looking to make sure we're doing the right things. But um if I see something, I'm trying I'm I'm I come at more of a coaching moment. Yeah. Helping someone understand why we're doing it that way. And a lot of times it's, you know, just sharing experiences in which we've gotten better at, like communicating through coloss in general, like sending out alerts and things that are happening other and what I've seen is all of the all of our serious incidences or really close calls are pretty in line with what everybody else is saying.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

So Yeah, that's that's interesting. It's similar stuff everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

Similar stuff everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

What's um to be able to like take that approach and for people to like listen to what you have to say, you have to build a relationship with them beforehand, which I think you're you excel at that, so you're a good fit into this role for moving into this type of like safety culture rather than like a top-down gotcha type of thing.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

How have you how do you do that? Um, like you said, building relationships, building trust, um, making sure that I come when when we're talking about safety and things, that it's not uh like a like I'm not trying to be punitive like you know, get someone in trouble. I'm I'm genuinely there to help. And and and you do that by your actions, you know. You don't build trust by talking. You gotta you gotta show 'em. So um that's what I try to do. And um I mean, yeah, that's you know, I I think coming from a like an industry outside of this gave me a like I'm seriously the most like non-traditional safety guy out there, probably. I mean, I didn't, you know, I didn't have a military background, I wasn't in law enforcement. Um you know, I never planned to kind of do that compliance or regulatory stuff. But it gives me kind of, I don't know, maybe a fresh take, fresh eyes on and and um and and helps me see things that that guys have been doing this a long time maybe overlook and oh yeah. You know, if you've ever been to a rock quarry and you go to the button house and you stand, you watch the those jaw crushers crush rocks, and you're not intimidated, like there's you know, that's scary stuff. And you know, if you get you know used to that, it could be dangerous too, you know, complacency. We talk about it a lot. So that's true.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Yeah, it just becomes normal. You kind of become numb to it. Why do you think you like this?

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Well, I get to interact with a lot of people, yeah. Yeah, get to talk to um get to learn a lot. So I get to touch a lot of the business um and a lot of you know, learn from different perspectives, different um people that know more than me, you know? So I've always been pretty inquisitive, you know, just wanting to learn. And so I don't know, I like I like being out there talking to people and engaging with other people and like sit building relationships, things like that. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

So you're just like generally curious. That's why you think you like were drawn to safety and then have definitely liked this role. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:57

I'd say so.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

Yeah, yeah. I would agree. I mean, I see the same thing. Yeah. I'm just curious what your take is on it.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Yeah. Um you know, and I I um I like helping people. I played uh sports my entire life, so I've always been a part of a team, and I feel like I don't know, it's just contributing in in my own way, I guess, to that team. It sometimes it may not seem like it to some, but I promise I'm out there for the yeah, everyone's benefit. Yeah, you know. How's coaching going? Love it. It's uh it's good. It's helped me, it's helped me alert. I'm learning doing that too. Yeah. Telling coaching like 10, nine, 10 year olds. You know, I'm super competitive. Very competitive. Yeah. Are you only coaching baseball? I help coach football, um, but I can't, I've got to take like me and my son would be button heads every day if I coached him in all the sports. Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, that's something you gotta work on as a dad, like you know, coaching and stuff. Yeah. Um I was talking to Andy about that yesterday because you you're we're you're when you're coaching your your own kid, you're their biggest fan and but biggest critic. So you kind of gotta I don't know, you kinda gotta gauge that, you know, and it's hard to do in competitive situations. So anyway, but yeah, I coach his competitive baseball team, and it's it's good. I mean, it's what I love doing growing up and what I played, you know, played uh in high school and college. So I love teaching others and and and showing them how to love the game. Yeah. Yep. So how do you do that? I think I would lose my mind. I don't know. I think you just gotta love it. You know, I just loved it since I was a kid, and then like the sport. The sport? You love the sport. I love the sport. Coaching can you can lose your mind on 10-year-olds, you know? Yeah. Um, which I've had to like bite my hat before. Cause, you know, like I just want to just You just rip it off your head just crouch down on your You ever seen um a League of Their Own? You know, no. No, they're oh, you haven't? I don't think so. No crying in baseball. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm familiar with the the second time you're just shaking looking at it. Anyway, I feel talking to them most of the time. Um because like they they're very literal. Yeah. You know, they don't see the big picture. And I'm like trying to talk to them about mental toughness and stuff, and they're just like, you know, looking at me. I'm like, I don't know if they're hearing me or what, but what's like an example?

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Does one stick out?

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Well, I mean, it's all the time. Like I we we had practice the other day about bass running, and then we get in a game and the kid does exactly the opposite what I tell him to do. And I'm like, is anything there? You know, like but but they're 10.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Like all the practice stuff, like running into place for cutoffs, and then you don't actually get the yeah, they were not there yet.

SPEAKER_03 29:12

They're we're we're just yeah. I mean, I'd like to be. Yeah, that's yeah, anyway. That's if it were totally up to you, it'd just be a machine. The one thing like I'm trying to teach my son and all the kids is what they can control because they get really upset at this age. I don't know if it's hormones or what it is, but you know, I at the beginning of every practice, I ask them, what can you control? Attitude and effort, you know, and everything else is you know, let let it let it be what it is. And um anyway, we're getting there, but but that applies to work too.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

That's what I was just thinking. Attitude if you relate that to work, maybe subconsciously, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

100%. I mean, if you have a good attitude and you show up, you gotta leg up on most of the workforce.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Yeah, yeah. No, I agree. I mean, you can see you see that with like a ton of people, and people um, you know, some people have the mindset, I guess, of like, poor me, or why has this happened to me, or that kind of stuff. But every day that you wake up, you can decide if you want to be happy and in a good mood and look at things positively or negative in a bad mood.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Yeah, we wanna we wanna be victims a lot, you know. It's easy to do that. That's what I talk to the kids about. And and I've got a, you know, it's easy to complain, you know, things may not be going right, but if you can control your attitude, if you got a good outlook on that day, and then you give it whatever you're doing that day the best you can do, uh you're gonna do well. You're gonna be successful.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

May not be that day, but eventually that'll work out.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Do you like still I mean, you're it sounds like you're still super interested in like the psychology of all this stuff. Do you like actively look up things about it, or do you still take a lot of what you've learned from your sports and work experience? Does that make sense? I think both, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

Okay. I think you're right about the psychology of it, you know. Um I'm not as tuned in as like Brad is, you know, I know he he he likes that stuff, but he just says it a lot, but does he? Okay. Um but yeah, I think I yeah, I I think my sports, I think sports, if you play sports as a kid, it it it just if if you have if you're in the military or if you're you know, you do hard things. It's just character builder. Yeah. You know, adversity's character builder, right? And it and it just makes you a better human, better person and a really good employee. If you can if you can overcome hard things. And but at the same time, like from a safety perspective, um we have to set expectations and we have to hold people accountable. And that's not a negative thing, it's just it's just the right thing to do. Um and it's hard. It's I mean, going up and talking to someone and telling them they're not doing the right thing is hard to do. Trust me. I've had it. Yeah. I've had How do you do that? You just gotta suck it up and do it. I mean, you know, break the initial ice. If you don't, if you Yeah, I mean, well, having that relationship and trust there makes it easier. So now at this point, you know, I I know the guys, at least in Arkansas. Yeah. And we can have a lot of people. Where you're like coming at it from a place of like care and love rather than Yeah, they they know me and they've b been around me f long enough to know that it's yeah, it's genuinely I'm trying to try to help. But in the beginning, it's tough because you don't have that relationship, but you have to hold people accountable. Um because it it doesn't serve anybody well. It doesn't, you know, you're gonna lose their respect. They know. If you're doing if somebody's doing something wrong and and it's not address and and you and they see that you saw them do it, you know, they're gonna lose respect for you. Mm-hmm. You know. Um and a lot of times, Seth, people may not understand what they're doing is wrong.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

You know, it's not all the time that when I first started, I was out on the job side and they were they were cleaning out with a tracco somewhere. And I've told this story to a lot of the and uh like new hires and stuff, but I was standing there and I was like the safety guy, you know, so I was like, it's supposed to be over safety, you know. I was still new though, learning. And Daryl's like, hey, Daryl was standing behind me. I didn't know he got behind me. He's like, hey, you're too close. And I was sitting there thinking, which I'd been here long enough to know better, honestly. Um, and I was. I was more worried about I was worried like watching everything happen that I didn't realize how close I was to the tracco. And and that happens all the time.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

So, you know, that accountability, like I'm like I'm saying, like it's not people are doing things wrong intentionally. Most of the time they don't even they don't even realize that they're doing it. Yeah. And you bringing it up to them may make a difference.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

That's true. Yeah, yeah. So you can get sucked into the like environment and task that at hand at the moment, and then you yeah, yeah. It's easy to do.

SPEAKER_03 35:02

It's easy for sure. You know, you're you're around the same equipment all the time, you're hearing the same alarms all the time, you know, you you know, you s you just get numbed to all these sensory things, and you just put yourself in a bad position on your own.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

It's like when I'm cooking bacon at my house and my exhaust fan is not great enough to pull the smoke out. So my smoke alarm goes off like almost every time. And some people freak out. And I'm just like, well, there it went again. And I just walk over there and turn it off.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

That's right. You're just numb to that, yeah, you know, and that happens, you know, quite a bit. Yeah. In our industry where we just get relaxed. I used to get MSH fatality alerts and in an email. I still do sometimes, but it would always be someone that was new, seemed like, or someone like 35 years experience. Oh yeah. And the They either didn't know any better. Or they've been getting away with it, or just started getting complacent with it. Yeah, that's true. Those are tough. For whatever reason. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

So but yeah. What's um what's like the your worst experience? Well it could be I guess it could even be at the manufacturing point or uh packaging place, but well, any uh anytime you gotta deal with third party complaints that's that that's not not fun.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

The phone calls. So there was a job highway 90 up around Piggott, and there was a chip seal. You remember this? It was a nightmarish. Yeah. So we were the prime, but we subbed it out. I'm not gonna say any names. We subbed it out, and there was a lot of loose gravel left. Yeah. And that was a highly traveled high speed highway, yeah. Two-lane highway. And I started getting phone calls and phone calls about people passing and getting rocks thrown and damaging their windshield, and they would send me pictures and it looked like a side of the truck got shot with a shotgun. Just chips all in it. Yeah. It got so bad that Piggott had like a Facebook and they posted my number in there. Oh no. Yes. So I was getting blown up phone calls. And then the contractor, so I'm trying to call them, like, hey, what's going on? What happened? They turned their phones off. They just stopped answering their calls. So then all of it started funneling through me. So anyway, that was that was a nightmare.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Yeah, I think I do remember this. You coming down to my office every other day. Oh, man. Got another one. Yeah. I don't know if this was from five years ago or yesterday. I mean, it was everybody in Piggot that needed a new windshield was hollering at each other.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

They tried and word travel and then they're wanting to get everything repaired. That and then uh dealing with uh any type of utility company. Oh, yeah. When we're when we're digging or doing earthwork. Mm-hmm. I don't know. I don't know if it's just an Arkansas problem or if it's a problem everywhere, but for some reason, some of these utility companies just not do not move their utilities like they're supposed to. Like on time? Pre-construction. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then we get out there and we do what we're supposed to do. We're we call our one call and we um, you know, m look for markings, things like that. But we're, you know, excavating and doing things and we hit it. Well, um, you know, at, you know, at the time, usually how it goes is like, oh yeah, yeah. The utility company was supposed to move that. You know, it no big deal. You're you're fine, you're not responsible. And then like eight months later, I'll get a bill for like$15,000 for a fiber optic line. And then another one will come in, another one come in. I'm like, holy smokes. So that the I hate those because they take so long. And then you'll like anything with claims. Yeah, claims take so long, and then you're trying to regroup and get so I've learned my lesson on that. Anytime we're taking lots of pictures, lots of documents, making sure we're saving all over one call tickets, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 39:33

That's true. Yeah. There's no way you could go back and remember all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Yeah.

unknown 39:38

Dang.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Yeah. What's like one of your best experiences?

SPEAKER_03 39:43

Um oh man, that's easy. That's uh second place at the cook-off this year. That's your best work experience. Okay, but second place in chicken. Yeah. Oh, it was just you or overall? Well, didn't we place overall? I don't know. No, I don't think we place. Me and Shane, I got second in chicken and shane. Moody got second in brisket, I think. Oh, okay. No, but that I I guess the work experience would be going to those associations and things. Like there's been good things that happen at work, and you know, yeah, yeah. But like um, you know, building relationships outside of work with your Delta team and also um networking and meeting people in the other industries, and that's helped uh mecause you start talking to people about what they're doing at their companies, and maybe we're missing things here, and so we're able to learn from others, you know.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

So um that's been a it's also makes for some good stories. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. What's the what's like the best story you can tell on a microphone? From the associations? Uh really, I guess just your work time, but maybe associations. Oh no, maybe come back to that. I'll think you'll think of a story. Probably involves Don Bromley somehow. Um what's so like where do you see safety going in the future for our industry? Like, do you think is technology and AI and stuff playing a big part in safety?

SPEAKER_03 41:21

Yeah, I think so. Um Yeah, that's what I was gonna, that's exactly what I was gonna say. I think the technology piece, um utilizing that's gonna be helpful. Um, you know, we do it now with Samsara in in our trucks. And they're they just rolled out where they have side camera views now for pedestrians and alert systems. So I think you'll see more of that.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

Um, you know, more more ways of detection, I guess, of pedestrians or vehicles or um it's basically like all the sensors that are built into new cars. Yeah, but you can add it on like Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:04

And they'll probably end up coming standardized.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

I don't think any over-the-road trucks are new.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

No. No.

SPEAKER_02 42:12

They're all they're all early 2000s, Peterbilts and Macs and stuff. Yeah, you gotta retrofit them.

SPEAKER_03 42:19

That I yeah, that I'm aware of. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, but also it'll be understanding those systems, like safety-wise, like um like the autonomous uh units equipment that we're doing, like understanding how those work and how the safety features work, and you know what I mean? So it's gonna take some learning there. Um but mainly I think it's the positive, you know. I think that you know, we're already in that proactive state of of of our safety culture. You know, I think we're a little ahead of probably some.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

Um I could see like in the autonomous stuff, I mean, you have to really I guess you already are kind of uh in a consulting type role sometimes, but even more so with that and like new technology and new processes, like you would be the consultant of say of being like, hey, well, it needs to be able to do this or like shut off at this point or do this to stay safe, or have we thought about these types of sensors or whatever? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:33

I mean, it's just we're gonna have to, as safety professionals, we'll have to understand the application and how it's working and how now um this stuff's pretty sophisticated, so I think it's Yeah, that's true. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 43:46

I I don't think it'll be a big big hurdle, but um so it's really like additional I mean I guess like the two cores of it are additional monitoring and then in a more Roundabout way, like automating things so that we remove people from dangerous situations completely.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

Yeah, that would be the core. And there's and and then also like any reporting and things, because we do have a lot of you know No way. You do paperwork? That's what I'm saying. Like the misconception is like we just do paperwork. Well, we do a lot of it, but that's not the only thing we do. Uh but having like we use HCSS has made a big difference. I mean, I pulled out a file the other day in my filing cabinet. It was like it was like 2017. It was an old safety meeting and incident report, and I was like, my God, I would never want I would never want to get it.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

You had to collect all those back then. Yeah, that's tough.

SPEAKER_03 44:44

I was I was like, I can't believe I made it through that. You didn't know. You're just, you know Yeah, you don't know what you don't know.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

Don't know what you don't know. You're just collecting pieces of paper and then manually typing it into an Excel file so that we could create some kind of report or dashboards. Now all that stuff is you seem like the stupidest people ever.

SPEAKER_03 45:03

I know. Looking back. Like I feel like our generation has grown with the technology. Like we've had we know what the world was like before and we see it now afterwards. Yeah, that's true. That's true. So we're got a foot in each. Yeah. So, you know, maybe that helps us in a way.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

Um I think so. I've listened to like a keynote generational speaker a couple times, and they talk about that. I mean, it's very obvious just because of like the years that the millennial generation was born. Like you started with out technology and like having to be creative and uh play outside and all this kind of stuff. You still had like and then as we grew up, like you get all this technology, it starts with like probably more advanced desktop computers and more advanced like gaming systems and all that, and then the iPhone came out, and like you're like learning about all of this. It's all being developed at the same time. You're like giving feedback on how to make it better, so you know just enough to handle it all and like what really made it, and then you get into like the younger generations or like our kids don't know any different. They don't know. Like they uh they we're so like uh I guess rejoicing and dumb that when we're out at dinner and they're two years old and they're throwing a fit, we're like, here, just take this super addictive rectangle with my hand and like watch a show. Or we would just get the good old hand, you know. Yeah. Or we wouldn't be there. Yeah, just we're not leaving, so you better figure it out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:54

No, I think, yeah. So uh I think uh that's a that's a role I can play is just helping, you know, bridge that gap between the older workforce and the newer workforce.

SPEAKER_02 47:08

Yeah, that's true. That's a tough um I mean, well, I guess it's it's tough, but everybody's facing it right now because I think there's we have like four generations in the workforce currently. Really? It's like the the if not the most ever, it's the most in a long, long time because you have baby boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. I think Gen Alpha might just be turning 18, some of them, and like entering the workforce. So I guess you could have five. That's wild.

SPEAKER_03 47:48

And everybody's very different. That's hey, and I didn't touch on this when you're talking about the technology, but training. Oh yeah. Training's a big, you know, I know Reeves, they have that simulation, that dozer simulation. And I'm from the school from the school of hard knocks, you know, I've done it all. Yeah. I've done I've sat through the just bore your eyes out training videos, and then you you'll probably remember the VR room. Oh yeah. And I would spend the majority of my time teaching them how to work the virtual reality. But I think this newer generation will probably be a lot more.

SPEAKER_02 48:32

So that may be I remember having that VR thing, and you would just sing praises about some young kid that would come in and already know how to work the VR and you're just like, thank God. Yeah. Because it would just take up so much time.

SPEAKER_03 48:45

It would take up so much time to and it, I mean, it was a great like it's awesome when you got in it, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

But you got people like hitting filing cabinets and walking into walls, and I can't see anything.

SPEAKER_03 48:59

It it really slowed down the new higher read measure process. Let's put it that way. Um But I mean, like the experience was great. So like and you know, that's kind of like virtual reality, the OG, you know, the the original. So I'm sure it's like a lot better now. But I think the training and engaging, you know, like I I I bet you that younger generation, their attention span's probably not as good as like you better have their attention from the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

Oh, yeah, for sure. So all the short videos and TikToks and Yeah, I mean, like it's gotta be real tight.

SPEAKER_03 49:40

You know, I've I've you know, some of the training things that I've done in the past, I've started using like TikTok videos and things, you know, with some humor and some but some relevant stuff. And yeah, it seems to go over well because that's just I mean, that's everybody's just doom scrolling these days and looking at videos.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

So that's true.

SPEAKER_03 49:59

Trying to incorporate some of that.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

We always love to use like the office clips of like the fire in the office, right? Which is the C PR stuff. Yeah, I I mean I like that. Everybody likes it, it's great, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:10

We love it. I mean we use it a lot, yeah. So I think that'll be another part of that technology is training, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Yeah, true. What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given? Or one that sticks out to you now?

SPEAKER_03 50:30

Man, I think this is it's probably an easy question. Um, okay. Something I was told when I was probably four years old is treat people like you want to be treated. You know, I don't I don't know if anybody's used that yet on this podcast, but No. Okay. I feel like especially not remembering advice from when they were four. Yeah, I mean I feel like it's something my my dad, my my parents have, you know, no matter what title you have, you just treat everybody with respect, no matter if you're Zach Green or the flagger. You know, um just treat people how you want to be treated.

SPEAKER_00 51:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:09

Um it's a simple, simple golden rule to live by. Yeah. It serves everybody well. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

I mean, at work, people are just fulfilling different roles in order to move the business along, right? But at the end of the day, everybody's gotta eat. That's right. Everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time. That's right. Everybody has to brush their teeth. That's right. Or should.

SPEAKER_03 51:31

We're just all, you know, we're all just trying to make a living. And there's no sense in in, you know, just being disrespectful for somebody just because. So I think you'll get a lot out of people if you just show them respect.

SPEAKER_02 51:47

Yeah, true. True. What's something that you want to accomplish in the next year?

SPEAKER_03 51:55

So I've been working on a project with Bruce. This is more environmental-wise, but when I first started, our environmental management was uh shambles maybe, you know, somewhere. We were doing it, but it was just not organized. Okay. Yeah. And um luckily now we have technology. Yeah. Right. Uh-huh. So well, at least in the the Arkansas um area, we have started doing all of our, we've moved all of our environmental inspections and things into HCSS. We're able to schedule those inspections, make it easier for the supervisors. And right now we're working on getting all that done in Missouri. And then once we get Missouri, we'll move over to Reeves and help them get organized. So it's pretty pretty big goal. I mean, it'll I think it'll once we get it done, you know how anything it's it's tough at first, because that's a lot of people. But um if I can get everybody doing their inspections, and it's not just environmental, there are a lot of safety inspections and stuff in HCSS too. If I can get everybody doing that, then that would be a huge win.

SPEAKER_02 53:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:14

That's not easy to easier to manage, you know, and to and and if someone, you know, if someone misses something, you know, able to reach out and say, hey, you're you know, you're you need one of your monthlies, you got to get that done.

SPEAKER_02 53:28

So it's always like fun and seems easy to like think about new processes and technology and ways you can make things better. And then what's really the toughest part is like following that through and getting that rolled out to everybody, especially when you're part of like a you know, 1500 employee organization or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 53:53

It's a lot, a lot of people to touch. That's a whole other thing. I know. So that's uh that's it's a big goal this year for us. Um and then we're always like safety-wise, we're always looking for ways to improve and make um, you know, just and safety improvements make it easier for our employees. You know, right now we're looking at Pappers, um, which is uh purified air supply respirators. Oh. And, you know, that would, you know, it's blowing basically cold air on your face while you're in a confined space. So we're we're looking at the cost and things like that, but we're always looking at other ways that can we're still being compliant, we're still being safe, yeah, but also make life easier for everyone. For sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

So nice. So there's I'm impressed that you went at that with like uh you answered that question with a work process. I thought it was gonna be first place in chicken.

SPEAKER_03 54:55

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 54:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:58

There are there is something between the ears up here. But first place of chicken. Um yeah, it'd be good. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have an idea of how you get there? More more voodoo, holy voodoo seasoning. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's all seasoning. Maybe I'll ask Gary Price to help me next year. Good idea. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

Um, yeah. Those are fun events. I'm sure I'm sure there's a good story from that. Usually it's probably not podcast worthy.

SPEAKER_03 55:30

Yeah, I know. They're great times. I mean, you know, Heartland comes down and um and and it's not just the AAPA cook. It's just doing those things with Yeah, with yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 55:44

You know, it's just fun. Yeah, with coworkers and everything. You're kind of building um you're building relationships and you don't realize it or at the time, but that's building trust with people, which makes it a lot easier to have conversations and be real with them and hold them accountable and get them to do things and vice versa. All right. So tradition is a question gets left for you by the previous guest. All right. So your question is what's one challenge you faced recently that changed the way you approach your work?

SPEAKER_03 56:22

We had um an ADQ inspection that was uh um let's see, a couple years ago and we were not organized in our inspections and that employee uh doesn't work for us anymore anymore. But it wasn't the reason why they left. They they left on another for another reason, but it left us holding the bag of all of these, you know, I mean we were out of compliance, just for like, you know, that's that's what we were. And we I had to talk with the state and we didn't get any type of um we weren't issued any type of noncompliance, but I had to um basically show them the things that ways that we were correcting our behavior and and showing them that we were moving to a new digital process that had a dashboard where we could monitor when these inspections were being done and um oversee the entire process and not leaving it up necessarily to the uh to the the plant.

SPEAKER_00 57:40

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 57:41

You know, because and and those guys get busy and we have time off, right? Mm-hmm. So you take two or three months off. Yeah. And then you kind of get out of your routine, and then then things stop happening, you know. And if nobody's asking, you know, though that can that can happen. Well, I did ask, but I didn't check.

SPEAKER_00 58:02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 58:03

And that was on me, right? And I should have checked, but I I had a good relationship with this employee, so I took him at his word. And um, but anyway, yeah, so we just wanted to come up with a better process to to make sure that we were uh, you know, monitoring what we were supposed to be doing.

SPEAKER_02 58:22

Yeah. Makes sense. You had to do a lot of extra work on the back end because we didn't have our stuff together on the front end.

SPEAKER_03 58:31

So what's ironic about this story is that the person that wasn't doing the inspections was the one that was coming to me asking for an electronic way to do them. And I was working on it before this happened. So it wasn't they knew it wasn't they forgot to do the inspections. They just were choosing not to, you know, and uh and end up they ended up l getting let go for another reason and then all this stuff came afterwards. But anyway, we were I see. And we did find after that employee left, we found um, you know, we found that it wasn't getting done, then we started doing it, which helped us, you know, like if we just just decided, you know, we started from the day one where the new uh supervisor took over. Oh yeah. And we just had a gap there in that compliance data. And so, you know, we and we were truthful with them. Yeah. And anyway, we were we were able to keep it out of any type of regulatory uh compliance issue, but they did, you know, they they expected us to to fix the issue, and that's what we that's why we really started taking taking this HCSS inspection system and running with it.

SPEAKER_02 59:50

Yeah. Yeah. Nice. It's always easier to just do stuff right on the front end.

unknown 59:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:58

Yeah. Please do it right. Cool. Yeah. If y'all enjoyed the episode, please rate our show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, and check out Delta on all social media platforms at Delta Companies, and our website at Delta C O S looks like Deltacos.com. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week.