Most construction business owners believe that doing quality work is the only marketing they need. The industry is shifting rapidly, and competitors now use digital tools to capture attention and market share before you even get a chance to bid. Marvin Joles explains why staying invisible is a risk you cannot afford to take in 2025.
You might worry that posting videos looks unprofessional or feels awkward to your peers. Silence and invisibility are far more dangerous to your long-term survival than a few early videos that lack polish. Marvin shares how he overcame the fear of judgment to build a brand that dominates his local market and secures his company's future.
Learn how visibility protects your business when Marvin reveals the harsh reality for contractors who refuse to adapt.
Topics:
- Creating transparent, trust-building contractor content
- Tech, AI, and automation transforming asphalt workflows
- The rise of creator culture in the trades
- Why networking at CONEXPO-CON/AGG outweighs everything else
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Episode transcript:
Taylor White: Welcome back, everybody, to the CONEXPO-CON/AGG Podcast. I am your host, as always, Taylor White. Before we get into the podcast today, I would love to remind everybody that registration for CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 is live. I'm sure you guys all know this, but we cannot wait to see you there. Join us in Vegas March 3rd through the 7th, 2026, to see over 2,000 exhibitors, nearly 3 million square feet of equipment, gear, tech, and all the heavy hitters in the industry. And here's the kicker: You can save 20% on your admission right now with the code PODCAST20. This started at PODCAST40. These don't last forever. But don't wait, because again, like I was saying, this is only valid until March 2nd, and then you're full pop. So, PODCAST20, grab your crew, mark your calendar. We'll see you out there.
This podcast is brought to you by our good friends over at John Deere Power Systems. Thank you for being our sponsor.
Okay, from asphalt crews to podcast mics, today's guest is a guy who is changing how the trades tell their stories. With me here today, I have Marvin Joles. Marvin, thanks for being here today.
Marvin Joles: Hey, Taylor, I appreciate it, man. I'm really excited to be here today.
Taylor White: Hey, man. Yeah, no, it's... it's good. You know, the one thing I love about this podcast is you always get to meet new people. And my favorite part is diving deep into who you are and what you've been doing before we get on here. You got a lot going on. You're an asphalt business owner out in Wisconsin. You're the host of the In The Mix podcast. You work closely with the World of Asphalt, and you've done stuff... you're going to CONEXPO-CON/AGG. Give us a little bit of a rundown about what you have kind of going on.
Marvin Joles: Yeah, man, we've been excited. It's been a lot lately, right? We... we run our asphalt business in Wisconsin mainly during the summer months, obviously, because asphalt plants shut down and whatnot. And, you know, they kind of shut down on me a couple of weeks ago here. And then we gear up for conference season, and we tend to hit a lot of the conferences.
And see, when I first started attending conferences, it was mainly for my asphalt business, right? I was getting education, I was taking classes, and I was checking out pieces of equipment and getting to know suppliers and really trying to make my asphalt business flourish. And I think I was doing that at a unique time because right about then, social media started to really pop off. That was probably like 2010 to 2013 or so I was... I was doing that. I had this realization—I'm a huge Gary Vaynerchuk fan—and I probably consumed... you know, in the winter months in Wisconsin, if you don't have something to do, you don't snow plow or you... you don't put up Christmas lights or whatever it is that you would do, you get to service your equipment for about a month, and then you spend four or five months just kind of doing whatever, right? And I used to play Xbox, like a lot.
And then once I got into my business, I started to want to be a better business owner once I had children. And I just started figuring out social media, dude, and how to make it... make it... make my business better. I started posting pieces of content, but there wasn't a lot of people posting pieces of content about asphalt work. And next thing I know, people were going to, like, my business posts and breaking down aspects of the industry underneath my business posts. And I thought, well, this is kind of cool. But also there were people like, "Hey, why are you filling cracks? We don't, you know, we don't seal cracks." I'm like, "Yeah, you're in Louisiana. We're in Wisconsin. We... we do that," right?
So I was like, there has to be an outlet for our industry, for our community. And that's really when I started building groups on Facebook and doing the social media side. And ironically, I was just like, sometimes I say the wrong guy in the right place. Sometimes I was the right guy in the right place to make things start popping off. So we've snowballed that now, been over about a decade or so. We've been doing media for the asphalt and dirt world.
Taylor White: Tell us a little bit more about, like, specifically what type of content you're doing and I guess, you know, a little bit of insight to, like, you know, obviously you wanted to stick out, but I want to know more about the actual content that you are creating.
Marvin Joles: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm... I'm a contractor. I'm always a contractor at heart. That's how I grew up. When I was in... in school, when I was 12 years old, I started doing roofing. So I was picking up asphalt shingles and whatnot. And the company that I worked with, they had a sealcoat rig that we used once in a while. We didn't use it a whole lot. Most of the problem was that the work was really hard to get just because the contractors had made it hard to get. You know, it just really wasn't like a real standout, honest industry. So when I first started creating content, I was really just being 100% transparent. I believed that, you know, as I turned 18 and started my business, my body wasn't built for the roofs, man, it was built for the blacktop. I'm supposed to be on level ground, I have a feeling.
So I started creating content just that I would want to see if I was a client. That made me get a nice warm feeling that I was hiring the right person to do the job. So that's kind of the content that I started creating. And I would just bring people along and have them follow the journey from when we got asphalt or when we got seal coat or if we were line striping. And then I would show them the projects we were working on, which was local to them, right? So it really started to create this trust that was great content to make right away. And then once I started creating that content and the industry started bouncing back into my comment section and whatnot, and then I realized that I should be creating content that I would like as a contractor, right? So if I'm going to create content for contractors, it needs to be content that I would like as a contractor. And that's really where I really started to sharpen my craft.
I'm definitely not a media guy at heart. I don't do audio, video, all that well. Thankfully, I'm surrounded by people here in Nashville that do do it well and set my setup up good for me when I need it. Or at home in Wisconsin, I have some really good friends that help me out with that as well. And I really wasn't well versed in communication as much as I was creating content. If, you know, I go back and look at some of my older pieces, Taylor, and they make me cringe. But I tell people to go back—I keep them up there. My mentor told me, "Keep them up there so you can see how far you've come." And also it's been helpful for people that now that I'm, you know, I'm speaking at CONEXPO-CON/AGG this year about social media and how to create in a way that drives traffic. I like having those pieces up there to look back on because I can have people go back and look at my first pieces and be like, "Oh, man, Marvin went through the same thing. Like it was cringey for him. These are awful to watch. I gotta be... and now look at them."
So now when I... when I create pieces of content, it's really unique. I'm, you know, that was over a decade ago. I'm involved... recently got elected to the NAPA Impact Committee with the National Asphalt Pavement Association, which is exciting. And then of course, you know, I've been working with World of Asphalt, CONEXPO-CON/AGG for a long time. So I still create those pieces of content that as a contractor I would like to know about, like pieces of equipment, what technology is cool, where we're going. Sometimes I just post straight up satisfying videos. Like I'll just post stuff that I would want to see if I was a contractor that would have me like just sit there on my screen for a while. And then I also post from lighter sides of the industry. So I'll take pieces of content that people send me or they tag me in and we'll repost those and whatnot. Just to make this thing of In The Mix, just a hub of contractor and asphalt industry, dirt world, construction industry content that people can feel like, "Hey, this is our community."
Taylor White: Yeah, that's really cool. And I like the point that you touched on something as a content creator, a fellow content creator that I can relate to as well was, you know, like the cringiness of the before. And although, you know, I look at that stuff because I totally agree, like I've never taken down something that I've done. Like I'm even just in my mind right now thinking about some of the stuff that I've done and posted online or like what I used to post on my Instagram page and stuff like that. But I love it because it also, it's like a training book for people doing social media. Like what you were saying, right? It's like, look at, you know, from when I first started and post my first thing and I had bleached blonde dyed hair, you know, pushing snow in a backhoe... or any hair. It's a roadmap to how I found success doing social media marketing. And... and my page would be totally different from yours, which would be totally different from the next guys' or girls'. And that's the cool thing about social media. And I think that's what's important about us is that we... we don't try to hide that stuff because like everybody's roadmap is different. But also understand that it's totally okay. Like I even look back at the stuff I'm doing now. Like, I'm probably in 10 years gonna look back and be like, "I don't know why I showed that or talked about that. I shouldn't have done that." You know what I mean? It's just, it's an interesting space and it's a... it's a roadmap for people, essentially.
Marvin Joles: Yeah. I mean, we... you know, before In The Mix, Blacktop Banter was my podcast. I had huge success. Right. At least in relativity to the asphalt industry. There's plenty of space, and Aaron's content looks way different than my content. And what he talks about is way different than what I talk about. So there's plenty of space. Right. And you... you talked about the cringy stuff. My mentor, I had that panic attack, like, that anxiety attack when I first started posting my content. I'm like, "Oh, my God. My... my friends and family are gonna think I'm crazy." And for the first two weeks, that content that I posted, I took it down and deleted it. And when I did, my mentor was like, "No, don't do that. Right? Don't do that. You're gonna regret this." Yeah. So I think when you... when you talk about, you know, in 10 years, we're gonna look back and be like, "Man, what were we doing?" I kind of feel like that a little bit.
With Blacktop Banter, I niched us really, really tightly in the asphalt industry, but yet all these other outside kind of relative parts of the construction industry were like, "Hey, we want in there too." So I should have just done it In The Mix to begin with, whether it's dirt mix, concrete mix, asphalt mix, whatever type of mix, and branded that way. But you look back and I think, you know, when you think about the history of the internet, we're in, like, the infancy of it. I still don't know that we know what we're doing with it. Right. Ideally. So it's okay to kind of take these iterations and not grasp onto, like, what you're romantic about when, you know you're getting tugged in this other direction of what you should be doing and just make that adjustment. You know, there's people that are in the entertainment industry that have reinvented themselves plenty of times. There's businesses that started one way making this product, completely shelved it, and then went to this product and became a huge business. So it's okay. I think it's okay to kind of, you know, do the Plinko effect when it comes to creating content.
Taylor White: Yeah, no. And it's interesting because I guess you kind of found, like, the gap in the industry, in the kind of niche of industry that you were in and said, okay, you know, and kind of created, like, the birth of In The Mix podcast, which is really cool. How have you found that? How... how's the show kind of helped your business or the industry?
Marvin Joles: It's cool to be recognizable. And where we are locally in Wisconsin, I'm in Nashville now. I split time between Nashville and Wisconsin. We're pretty rural where we are in Wisconsin. I say that a lot. And we're in the second largest population in our county and it's 700 people. So we're on the west side of the state. There's not a lot of people. So it didn't take very long for us to become like, relatively well known. So once we hit like a ceiling, it didn't matter how much more content I created. We're the brand in that, in that area. When it comes to the asphalt business, right, which is great for us. Marketing dollars have been completely dwindled down to nothing when it comes to spend. And now we filter through a lot of leads and whatnot at Wis-Coat to really pick and choose the type of jobs we want to do. We're not stuck saying yes to everything. We get to choose what we want to do.
And I believe that any business in the construction space can do that if they brand their business really well. You know, we've been fortunate enough to consult with a lot of asphalt businesses and entrepreneurs and owner-operators and help them grow their brands to really big success where they are locally. So I believe anybody can do that level. And when it comes to our industry, the thing about the asphalt industry, you know, I'm fortunate to be able to kind of get a bird's eye view of all the industries doing what I do, going to CONEXPO-CON/AGG, meeting people from all the other industries. We go to other conferences. So I know about the green industry, landscape industry, all these other industries. The thing is, we're about 10 years or so behind the leading parts of our industry that are like really big into tech, understand social media, understand influencer marketing, and understand how like, those collaborations really make that specific industry bloom, blossom and be successful.
So it's... it's been interesting to see what I do because I feel like I like to be humble about it, but I like to think that I started what's going on here. And we got some great friends, we got great collaborators that are coming to CONEXPO-CON/AGG that are part of CONEXPO-CON/AGG, like Matt Stanley at Raised on Blacktop, good friend of mine. For me, I feel like we kind of kickstarted that. And then I realized it was a huge responsibility to make sure that our industry was shown in a way, you know, the best parts of it, you know, there's not always the best, the best parts. We're out there for a long time, man, in hot heat, weather, really got to be careful, stay up on our safety and all those types of things. And it's grueling, you know, physical work. But it was my responsibility to make sure that the world seen us as a very serious industry because we are a very critical industry because we are, we're what get people from point A to point B on these roads that we build. So I think for us in myself, it's been important to create the type of content that our industry is really proud of. The people that... that consume it and are part of the community, are proud that we put out of, right? Because they're able to share it and whatnot. And then it makes a difference for the future generations coming up through it. My son Eli is 14. He has some really big dreams on things he wants to do. But his fail safe is always the asphalt industry. He's like, "If... if none of that works out, going to make it good in the asphalt industry." And that's because he's been able to see the best parts of it by coming along with me on this journey.
Taylor White: Yeah, that's really cool. It's nice to share that with your son as well too. That is really cool. I can relate to that a hundred percent. What do you think? You know, talking about the industry so much and being in the industry, what do you kind of see as the state of the industry for 2025, going into 2026 for asphalt?
Marvin Joles: The one thing I'm really excited about is the adaptation of tech. You know, I felt like we should have been adapting to things a lot sooner. And our... our manufacturers and suppliers, it's a big lift to ask them to put in a lot of different things, which honestly makes a way for third-party companies like Trimble, right? When it's like, well, if they're, if they're not going to do this in-house at these big manufacturer suppliers, at least we have third parties that can collaborate with these big manufacturers and suppliers, put some cool stuff out. When we were at World of Asphalt, we seen a huge Cat. I put out a piece of content with Trimble and it was outfitted with Trimble's device that gave it that GPS technology to let it know what elevation we were at and how grading was going. Perfect, was fantastic. We're starting to see some of that stuff on some of our paving equipment and these types of things.
So I'm really excited about that. And of course the big buzzword is AI. I've been trying my best to keep up on the forefront of it and what it means for our industry, which is really hard. What I end up having to do is look kind of outside the parameters of the asphalt industry to see what other industries are doing. Because it's usually not long before somebody jumps over the wall into the asphalt industry and says, "Hey, we're bringing this to you." We've been checking out some really cool AI robotic line striping machines that have been coming along the last three or four years. Yeah, dude, they're crazy. And they're so satisfying to watch, right? On the internet. It's like literally as someone just standing there drinking a cup of coffee, watching this little robot go around and stripe parking lots and whatnot. So I'm really excited about that.
But what has me probably the most excited is I spent a lot of years alone creating content for the asphalt industry. And then I had a few friends come along where they started creating content. It's not easy to stay consistent and do because you don't really see the ROI on it. You know, if people are looking monetarily, that's the wrong ROI, I think, for the most part. But if there's other parts of what we do that really satisfy you in life, you get those ROIs. So what I'm really excited is about... about is to see our industry kind of take the reins as of late. And this posting the social media and... and putting your face on the camera and showing what you do is becoming a lot more normal in 2025 than it had the decade before. I think if there was a chart, it would hockey stick right now. And that's really exciting to me, man, because I show up, Taylor, at like CONEXPO-CON/AGG and there's all these people that I've been talking to on the internet and you know, you just go up and you're like, "Yo." And it's like you've known each other your whole entire life. It really brings our community together. And I think that initial thing where I was like, "We really need to show our industry in a great light to the world," I feel like a lot of other people in our industry, in the asphalt industry, dirt world industry, are taking up that mantle and being like, "All right, let's do it and let's do it together." So it's a really good feeling. Those are two really cool things, right? Of like, dude, we have a huge community now. It's like a giant family in the asphalt industry. And we got some really cool stuff to show off that's happening. And a lot of that is going to be at CONEXPO-CON/AGG. I know it is. I seen the exhibitor list. I'm super excited to start making content with them.
Taylor White: Yeah, no, it's going to be. So that's when we went in 2023, it was like, the coolest thing ever, because you're with all these people that you've been talking to, like you said, for so long, and then, you know, here you are seeing them in person. It's crazy. I saw a post today... today that was like, "Other business owners that you meet on social media often will be, you know, bigger supporters than people that you grew off with your entire life." You know, and it's so true because, you know, they share the same thing. And... and some of my closest friends now are actually people that I have met online, met in person, and just kind of continue the friendship through there. So I think, like, you nailed it. Like, that is probably the most important thing about CONEXPO-CON/AGG is the people.
Marvin Joles: Yeah, absolutely. For me, I know that if I was mute, I could go and consume classes, I could check out all the equipment, and I could see all these things and dream and make all my notes, but I would miss out on the best part, in my opinion. And honestly, that's the networking. Getting to meet people, and not just with, like, other contractors. I mean, the vendors and the people that work for the exhibitors and whatnot. They're some of my... my best friends, you know? And we... we talk about work and, like, the equipment and whatnot, maybe 20% of the time, but 80% of the time, we're talking about family, we're talking about life. We're seeing when they can come to Nashville and hang out. Before I got on the podcast with you today, I was talking with Lance Bradshaw at Sure Seal in Canada. He's not in Canada. He's in the Dominican right now. Lucky son of a gun. And he was just like, "I cannot wait to get to the conference and see you. And I cannot wait to come to Nashville and hang out." I want to go to the... wants to go to this supplier here, which is Crafco, which I know they're going to be at... at CONEXPO-CON/AGG. And he's like, "Hey, I want to see their... their facility. I want to see their stuff. I just want to hang out with you in general. We're going through life together, doing the same thing. We have this camaraderie built up," right?
So I'm really excited about, man. It's... it's... it's going to feel good. It's... I get to scratch the itch at World of Asphalt probably 75% of the way. But in the back of our minds, since 2023, all I've been thinking about when it comes to conferences is 2026, CONEXPO-CON/AGG. Right. Cause I'm just like, okay, it was my first time at the last one, and I was there three full days and two partial days, and I was walking, you know, creating content, doing all this stuff. I put on 68 miles.
Taylor White: Oh, yeah. And you probably didn't see the whole show.
Marvin Joles: No. Heck no, I didn't. Now that... now that three, you know, that 3 million square feet makes a lot of sense when you put that into context. I put on 68 miles walking, and was like, that could have been my first hundred-miler. If I would have been there the whole time and just kept walking, I would be my first hundred-miler. It's massive, but it has what you would like for everybody, and it has the people that are for you. And it's just a unique thing because you can catch that in micro doses. But at CONEXPO-CON/AGG, it's all there. It's all there for every industry. So I really enjoy that aspect of it, that it brings, like, all of these pieces together. You know, I'll be there, and then my friends from the green industry will be there, people from heavy civil will be there, people from the concrete world will be there. And normally we get to talk to each other and not see each other, but we're all going to be in the same spot at the same time. I'm going to be doing an event at the Community Zone that's going to be there at CONEXPO-CON/AGG. And my goal is to bring people from all industries together in the Community Zone for this event. It's going to be so cool because you're going to have not only people that you've been collaborating with that are your peers, but you're going to have peers that are doing what you're doing across all industries right there in the same spot, which is really unique. I don't think that exists anywhere in the physical besides CONEXPO-CON/AGG.
Taylor White: Yeah, and... and what I love about that, too, is it's also people at totally different stages. You could have people that, you know, you're doing 20 million a year. This guy's doing 80 million. You could have a guy that's doing $200,000. Like, and what's really cool is in those conversations, you realize that everybody's got the same issues. It's just different scales. That's what's really cool. What do you think... First timer says it was your first time in 2023, and that's what, you know... same with me. What do you think first timers don't understand about CONEXPO-CON/AGG that we haven't kind of touched on?
Marvin Joles: For me, I had never been to one that I couldn't wrap my brain around when I was there in the physical. And I feel like I was drinking from a fire hose when I first got to CONEXPO-CON/AGG because there's just so much. Now I know after putting on that many miles that if I would have planned better, I probably would have done better. Thanks to AEM, they had a huge... it was like a relief station, honestly. Had lockers for us and a podcast recording here for the media side of what we do. Otherwise, if I would have just been on the contractor side, that would have been my hotel room and I'd have been scrambling, man. So I think the biggest thing for people who are attending for the first time is if you really plan on getting the most out of it for yourself... I wouldn't just show up and be laissez-faire and be like, "Well, where's this? Where's that?"
Taylor White: Here's the app. There's a great app.
Marvin Joles: Yeah, yeah, use the app. And then, you know, I got a pen and paper here with me because I was like, dude, Taylor's probably going to say some stuff that I need to jot down. I want to plan the best I can plan to get the most out of it. CONEXPO-CON/AGG is there for... for plenty of days.
Taylor White: Educational session.
Marvin Joles: Yeah. If you're going to be there the whole time, you'll stop the tumbling and be like, "Okay, where's my bearings? And... and where am I going to go? What am I going to do?" But if you're only planning to be there for a couple days or a few days or whatever, you should really, really, really be planning and being like, "These are my top 10 vendors I want to hit. These are my top 10 classes I want to hit." And you're going to see Vegas, right? "I want to make sure I hit this at Vegas. I want to hit that at Vegas." You got to see the fountain at the Bellagio. If you can have dinner in Paris up on the Eiffel Tower, the venison steak—to die for up there. So for me, it's like, I want to make sure I'm getting all of it. The best way to do that, if you've never been before, whether you've never been to Vegas before, you should probably do that. If you've never been to CONEXPO-CON/AGG before, you should do that. But to put all those together, you definitely should be planning accordingly to use your time wisely when you're there.
Taylor White: Yeah, no, it's a really smart thing to say because you're right. Like if you're like, for instance, I'm there for eight days, right? Because I'm doing...
Marvin Joles: I hope you're documenting that. That's like a feat, man, to be able to do that. Three or four days in Vegas if... if you're just like taking it in... that's a test of the human will. Eight days? God bless you, man.
Taylor White: I'm looking forward to it. But what's really cool, I kind of mentioned it was, it's... AEM makes an app and it's really handy and it kind of shows the layout of the land where everything is. And then there's sections where you can look at the educational sessions. Like those to me are very important. I think that people that aren't going there to, you know, go listen to guys like yourself, you know, that they've watched for so long and being able to actually raise your hand, ask a question, get the answer, meet them face to face before or after the session, like that stuff is really important. And not from like a meet and greet, like fan standpoint, but from a standpoint of just like, here's somebody that I look up to in the industry or that I know has something cool going on, I want to chat with them and listen to what they have going on. Because I don't think there's any other trade show that has as much educational sessions or like sidebar stuff kind of going on than this show. Like there's always so much going on. So like, like exactly what you said: Lay it all out. This is what I'm doing. I fly in at this time, I'm going to get to my... like have a... have an itinerary, you know? Like, and you have to plan it all out because it's like it's next level.
Marvin Joles: Yeah. Well, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to load in the... the map to ChatGPT probably and I'll be like, "Hey, this is... these are the... these are the vendors that I want to hit. Make me the... the most perfect route density path that I can take in order to hit all them and know that I'm going to spend 15 minutes at each one." Like I'm probably going to integrate AI into my itinerary or my... my route for CONEXPO-CON/AGG and hopefully make it the most efficient possible.
Taylor White: Yeah, 100%. Shifting gears here. I had some couple questions I wanted to ask you for some, like, quick... quick hit questions.
Marvin Joles: Yeah, man.
Taylor White: Rapid fire questions. Worst asphalt job that you ever had.
Marvin Joles: Oh, man. We did one here a couple of years ago.
Taylor White: I like how you knew right away. You didn't...
Marvin Joles: Oh, dude, I know it, I know it. We did one here a couple years ago. I'm pretty good at diagnosing what's going on. And there just was an older driveway and it had rutted a little bit. And I was like, "Okay, the base is probably a little soft. Not a big deal." And it went into a house drive and then the backside was a garage, like a shed. And up to the end of the house drive was fantastic. Had a good base, had everything we needed. We tore it out, started working towards the back, and there was no base left. If there was gravel there at all, it was gone. And it was red clay. In Wisconsin, that red clay can go, I don't... you know, as deep as it wants to go. And this whole area was red clay.
So it was on a Saturday. So we end up trying to peel it up on a Saturday. We're going to put it down on Monday and we go to peel it up. And Taylor, like the... we had a brand new Bobcat skid steer and it was sinking, tracked and everything. It was the wettest, soggiest clay we'd ever seen. So we had dug it out. We ended up digging out as much as we could. Went down like 12 feet. Ended up coming back the next day and digging out as much as we could. Had to come back and put gravel in. But I just remember looking at it and just thinking, "How did this not show up on the surface? Like, how is it not sunk in in all these places?"
I ended up getting a good response. The guy loved Toyota Priuses. The only thing in that garage for the last decade were Toyota Prius. So that's the only thing he drove. And they were only there in the summer months. So when it was wet and soggy and gross, there was never any weight on it. There was never anything to crush it, right? So in my mind, I was like, "Man, I totally dropped the ball. And this is going to be a lot more labor, a lot more stuff to do." But it was the worst one. It was the worst one I had ever been to. The one where I just was like, "Oh, what did I get myself into?" You know, you just know that all is lost and you just got to keep working to make it right.
Taylor White: Well, I'm glad you knew exactly what that job was. That's funny. It didn't even need to finish the question. Another one. Coffee or energy drinks?
Marvin Joles: I'm not going to show a label.
Taylor White: Yeah, there you go. Nice. Okay.
Marvin Joles: I actually blend both. So in the morning, my wife Nikki and I, we... we're really, really fortunate. We get to work together a lot. She'll be with me at CONEXPO-CON/AGG. She'll be representing the company she works for. I'll be representing In The Mix. And we're really fortunate. And she loves coffee. She could drink three coffees a day. Sometimes does. And it's not just like a little coffee. She'll drink iced coffee or hot coffee or whatever. I prefer to start my morning with a hot coffee, but I usually only ever get one, and I don't ever drink the full thing, you know? So I'll drink like about half of it. I'll get to like 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning, and then all of a sudden I'll be like, "Okay, my belly, my palate, everything is ready to really kick it. We got a lot going today," right? So I'm like, "All right, we're going to do this thing."
But we live in Nashville, and there's so many coffee spots in Nashville. Right downtown here, we're in Germantown, and you can see downtown Nashville, Broadway from here. There's this thing here. I don't know if it's everywhere. It's not, but they're espresso tonics. So it's a tonic water mixed with espresso, and they put flavoring in there, and it's like both. It's like coffee and energy drink combined. And that, to me, is the holy grail. My son Eli hates the way they taste. Nikki hates the way they taste. But for me, I'm like, you know, it's like a... when I walk in there, it's like the light shines down right onto it. Like, "Ahhh! There it is, baby. The best flavor, the big kick." I'm a fan of the espresso tonic.
Taylor White: I love it. I love it. What is one thing you think asphalt contractors should stop doing?
Marvin Joles: Oh, this is going to be a hard one to hear. And that's going to be staying the same. I'm a huge fan of if it's not broke, don't fix it. But I also know that there are companies that existed where we lived, that had been there a long time, that were doing really well, but they failed to adapt to the times, and they did not take up social media. They didn't do all those things that I was doing. And my biggest piece of advice when I started speaking at events and writing magazine articles and whatnot was: If you do not do this, a guy like me is going to come and pass you by. It doesn't necessarily have to be the owner-operator if they're quote-unquote "boomers" or whatever. But, man, their son or their son's son probably would be pretty good at this because he's on his phone doing TikToks or the daughter is doing TikTok, making TikTok, doing whatever. Give her the duty and just put up, put together, like, "Hey, post one piece each day" or do whatever. And I think adapting to technology and showing your work, it's something that is very inexpensive, it's an easy lift and is going to pay dividends in the long run for you and your business, especially if it's a generational business. And it's really easy to learn, really easy to do. If you don't have somebody that can do it already.
Taylor White: I love it. That's... That's a great answer. One more quick rapid fire. Who's the best guest you've ever had or most surprising?
Marvin Joles: Oh, shoot. That. My favorite one to date probably has been... Oh, now I'm going to... I'm going to be playing favorites and all these things, but my... my favorite one to date is Koa Viernes. Koa Viernes is... Have you ever seen slap fighting where these big guys stand across each other and they like, slap each other and knock them out? Koa is the big bearded one with tattoos like mine.
Taylor White: No way.
Marvin Joles: Yeah.
Taylor White: How did you get him on?
Marvin Joles: He's a line striper as well. So he works doing line striping for a company.
Taylor White: That's sick.
Marvin Joles: The very first time I seen it happen, I didn't know he was a line striper. I reached out to him and was just like, "Dude, I just want to know about this." And he had a low follower count. I was like, maybe he'll talk to me about it. And he gets on and he was like, you know, he's like, "So, brother, what are we going to talk about?" And I was like, "Slapping the crap out of people, I guess. Like, I don't..." He's like, "Oh, I thought you want to talk about line striping." I was like, "Well, why would I want to talk about line striping?" "Because that's what I do, man. I'm a line striper." And I was like... my mind went blue.
Taylor White: Yeah.
Marvin Joles: And then, you know, to watch him ride this rocket ship of being the world heavyweight champion and go to Dubai and then, you know, be working with Dana White and Logan Paul, Jake Paul, all these guys has been really, really epic. That was probably my favorite one from the Blacktop Banter days. And the In The Mix days, we just did one with my guy named Chris from Texas, and he actually built Beast Mountain for MrBeast on a recent YouTube video. And the story is epic. We're about to drop that. The story is so epic. I can't wait for you guys to check it out. It's just same thing as my story. He happened to be the right guy in the right place at the right time. He had just moved from California to Texas, was looking for work, offered to help out a humane society. And within like a month, that humane society was contacted by MrBeast's team, and they're like, "Hey, we want to build this thing." Well, the humane society only had one contact, and it was Chris. Next thing you know, Chris is building this thing and he's... and he's totally social media guy. So the podcast is great. Um, you gotta check out his stuff too. I think it's Phillips' Driveways on Instagram. But it's a... it's gonna be a great story. I can't wait. They're a lot of fun.
Taylor White: Awesome. I love it, man. What... What's one thing you wanna, you know, leave the viewers with today? Anything that you want the audience to know. Any upcoming big projects?
Marvin Joles: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, man. Well, obviously, CONEXPO-CON/AGG is going to be big. I always try to encourage people and what I try to do in my content is let them know that I'm just like them. I'm going through the same things you are. If you listen to In The Mix or Blacktop Banter, you know, near the end of Blacktop and beginning of In The Mix, you understand, I'm just a human. I'm doing the same thing, going through the same life stuff as everybody else, trying to grow a business, trying to do cool stuff, trying to find my place in the world still. I just turned 40. I feel old, but everybody else tells me I'm young still. So I'm working through all that stuff.
Taylor White: I get the opposite. I feel like I'm young. Everyone tells me I'm old.
Marvin Joles: But the... The biggest thing for me is I'm just like you, man. So if you see me at an event or you... you're worried, like, "Hey, you know, I didn't want to approach you because I was worried about this or that." Don't worry about any of that. I tell everybody all the time, you know, if you DM me anywhere on social or you email me or whatever, I am going to get back to you. I never do not respond to anybody. I always respond to everybody. I was that kid. I was a kid that didn't know anything. And for the first 10 years of my asphalt business, I struggled to figure out how the heck to get this thing to go. The very first time I went to a conference, it was an asphalt industry conference. I made, like, five friends. And those friends are still my friends to this day. And they grew in their journey with me. But also, some of them were mentors. Some of them are 50 years old, 60 years old now. And the information that those people freely shared with us allowed us to create something that provided for our families, helped our industry, and just made us better people overall. So if you come to a show and you go to a class or you see somebody at an event, go talk to them, ask them if you can communicate with them. It never hurts, right? Worse they can say is no. But if you come to me, I'm going to say yes, because chances are you know something I don't know and I want to know it.
Taylor White: Yeah, I love it. That's... That's really good advice. I share the same problem. You know, I say yes maybe too many times, but that's okay.
Marvin Joles: It's true. That's a problem.
Taylor White: It's gotten me this far in life. But honestly, Marvin, I appreciate it. You know, you have a lot of cool stuff going on, and I can't wait to see a CONEXPO-CON/AGG. You're one of those guys that now, whenever I see you, we're going to be able to chat and link up, and I look forward to that.
Marvin Joles: Dude, I'm really excited, Taylor. It's going to be a great time. I haven't been excited for something like this in so long. Y'all have done a great job over at AEM putting this together, promoting it correctly, and having all the right people and all the right brands of all the right industries in the same place at the same time.
Taylor White: A hundred percent, man. Okay, well, thanks for coming on the podcast today. That was a CONEXPO-CON/AGG Podcast brought to you by our good friends over at John Deere Power Systems. We'll catch you guys on the next one.
