Feeling the pressure of wearing all the hats in your growing business? It’s a common battle, but what if the key to unlocking serious growth was learning to let go and trust others? This episode is for you.
Learn how Trent Harris transformed his Blue Collar Contractors business by embracing delegation and strategic risk when he reveals his journey from a solo operator to leading a growing team. You'll discover how he navigates the complexities of scaling, managing multiple ventures, and the mindset required to push through challenges.
Topics:
- Growth through risk, learning, and networking
- Delegating work and trusting the team
- Overcoming micromanagement and shifting to leadership
- Managing overhead, profitability, and equipment strategy
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Episode transcript:
Taylor White: Welcome back, everybody, to the CONEXPO Podcast. I am your host, Taylor White. I want to remind everybody that the countdown is on to CONEXPO 2026. It's going to be in Vegas March 3–7. It's going to be bigger and badder and the best show that you have seen ever in Vegas. And I can guarantee that. There's over 2,000 exhibitors, 2.9 million square feet of equipment and tech tools, and the brightest minds are going to be there. And when I say that, it's not because I'm going there, because I'm definitely not the brightest minds. But the guy I'm going to be talking to today, he is one of those brightest minds, and he is an incredible hard worker, and I can't wait to get into that. But please, tickets go on sale in August. So now is the time. Sign up for the newsletter for updates and get those discounts. Check the link in the description.
Let's get into today's podcast. Today with me, I have the one and only guy—I actually, to prefix this, met this guy at CONEXPO. We were on Fremont Street. We were ripping hoons in some old casino, right?
Trent Harris: Yes. Yeah, we were on Fremont Street. It was the whole, the whole group I went with and, and all the, all the KWC guys.
Taylor White: Yeah, yeah. So I have Mr. Trent Harris from Blue Collar Contractors with me here today. Incredible guy. And honestly, Trent, I can't believe I haven't had you on, and, and I'm super excited to chat with you because you motivate the heck out of me online, man. And what you're doing is awesome, especially even after talking to Trey Bo on one of the old podcasts. I was like, I, I can't believe I haven't had Trent on. I, I got to have this guy on. So thank you for being a part of this.
Trent Harris: Man, I'm, I am absolutely honored. You guys, likewise, that, that goes. I can't believe you're saying that to me. Love watching. Trey Bo's a different breed. And you guys, I don't know, that's, you know, that, that network is, is definitely how we've got to where we're at, you know, so appreciate it.
Taylor White: Yeah, dude, you're doing so much, and I envy that. I envy, I would say the most thing about you is your work ethic, and that is one thing that I wanted to touch on today. But I guess for the folks at home, you're a guy from Oklahoma, you have a dirt-moving business, you also are a firefighter, you have a family. Give us a little bit about yourself.
Trent Harris: Yeah, man, that's, uh, it's kind of, uh, hard to sum all up, but if I could, I'd say what you just said. Yeah, I'm full-time at the fire department, and then, uh, we're, we're moving dirt when we're not there. And then we've got a pressure-washing contract on the weekend that runs year-round. And then, obviously, the family. So it's, uh, it's full-time and trying to keep it all organized, you know, and, and in order is the, the tricky part and be present at each, you know. It's tough, but I picked it, you know, so find a way to make it work.
Taylor White: If there's one thing I've noticed over the years of watching you, damn, it's crazy to think that's going to be three years next March that I got introduced to you and knew of you and, and you've grown a lot. Like, you have grown so much, your business and even just the way you present yourself and everything, like in your personal life, you've grown as well too. Like, talk kind of a little bit about that growth. Like, where did you start blue-collar contractor contracting, and, and like, how has it kind of evolved into what it is today? Because you're on larger projects now than what, like, you are adding machinery to your fleet. Like, it's really impressive.
Trent Harris: Man, I appreciate it. It's been an absolute roller coaster. And, uh, I try to remind myself, Trey is good at reminding me that it's never going to not be, you know, the problems obviously just keep getting bigger and, and hopefully your solutions do too. So we started Blue Collar Lawn Care originally before I had a driver's license. I mean, we had a push mower and we went across the street and mowed grass and eventually kind of got into the dirt. And, uh, I had a diesel shop, Blue Collar Diesel, was the second thing to come along, I swear. And I started to kind of hone in, you know, on, on what I wanted to do and what was working, but it was, uh, all just a big risk, taking risks and trying to evolve and grow through it. You know, everybody talks about, I've mentioned this a few times, everybody talks about the hard work, but I feel like that can't be overstated. Like, that is an absolute prerequisite, you know, you have to have that. But also the, the ability to learn, willingness to learn, you know, and, and grow and, and network and be around other people that have done what you're doing and seeking advice from the people who are at least on the same path or ideally above where you're at, you know, putting yourself in that, in rooms with those people to try to just grow and, and figure out what you want to do. I don't know what I'm doing. This is all just a big experiment, man. You know, I'm, I'm trying to grow and scale as big as I can and, uh, not step on anybody in the process. That is, that is my goal and, and better my life in every aspect, you know, the family side, the financial side, the business side, all that stuff and try not to negate one too much, you know, while doing that.
Taylor White: I feel like everything you're saying, like, I feel like you are achieving what you're going after. I mean, just from what I've seen following you over the past three years, to me, it, it appears like things are going better, things are going well, things are going in the right direction that you want them to grow. At least that's what's perceived online. That's not to be confused. I know that, and I really appreciate about what you share online is you show some of the hard stuff, the hard times, the breakdowns, you know, getting machinery stuck when you're digging out that pond and you had your machine stuck—I think that was actually at your property or something like that. Like your D4 was stuck, your skid steer was nutted, like absolutely stuck. I forget which one it was. But anyways, what I'm trying to say is like, it's just really impressive because I, everything that you're talking about, it's aligned with what you show online. And I think that's what I really like about you.
And I also appreciate that you always talk about, you know, working harder. Obviously, my thing is, you know, work harder. And I love that that's what you're all about as well. But like you mentioned that, like aligning with people that also have that same mentality of working harder, like you've always kind of, we've always reached out to each other. And then hearing that, you know, you talk to Trey Bo or hearing you talk to these other people, like, it's super smart because that exactly is the key to making it all happen. It's like, for me to get through some of my toughest days, I have guys that I reach out to that don't even live in this country to ask questions about business or whether it be personal. I mean, I have a really close friend about personal stuff, but just stuff in business because people in our local community, they don't want to talk about, like, it's too competitive and you don't want to bring that up to somebody. So like, having that source of people that are aligned with your mindset in the same industry that you can be like, "Dude, like, cash flow sucks. I'm drained right here. I'm, I'm holding, waiting on my retainage on this big job. What the heck do I got to do?" Or, "What would you do in this scenario?" Oh, hey, I'm taking on this big risk with this big job. Like, that's so important. And I think that it's really awesome that you kind of like touched on that. And one thing that you've been talking about recently, and I want to get your thought process of, of how you get around it, is the weather. And I know that you've been mentioning on TikTok a lot, "Damn, dude, we're trying to get things going. We're trying to get projects off the ground, but it's just rain, and I can't control that." What's your mindset and, and what's your thought process into, "Now, here's something I can't control. I'm not going to be able to get stuff going like I, I thought I would." How do you go forward from there?
Trent Harris: Man, I wish I had had it figured out. It's still a struggle, and it's like each year I forget. Like, I know that season's coming, but then we get through February, we get through March, most of April, and I'm like, "Oh, where at least where I'm at." It's like, I forgot that rain was coming. And then now we're, we're struggling through all that. And it's a weird spot for us because we're trying to transition into more of me getting out of the machine. And I started this process probably seven months ago, and it's taken me this long to get to this point where I'm like, "Okay, I've got stuff scheduled where now I can oversee everything." And to answer your question about the rain, like right now, May was completely full, and we lost the first two weeks of it. So now we're to a point where we're going to have to run, you know, two or three jobs at once, which is not how we've done it in the past. So that delegation kind of goes hand in hand with the rain. I think God's kind of forcing my hand a little bit and being like, "Hey, delegate, let them handle it, you know, trust them and do what you're supposed to do and make sure everything's going right and line up more work in front of them and let these guys go knock it down." And seems to be working great in the 10 minutes of, like, I had a new guy start Monday. We got one day of work in, and I'm like, "Hopefully see you next Monday." I don't know, you know, there's just, there's not much we can do right now. So trying to, trying to struggle through. But like I said, when we started those commercial jobs, I think God kind of forced me to delegate there too because I couldn't do everything, you know. I tried. I tried to be in all four machines and running the trucks and—
Taylor White: That's when you really see it.
Trent Harris: Yeah, and, and they did great. The more I would just let go of the reins. I mean, yeah, there's hiccups, you know, but like, being humble enough to go, "Yeah, I'm still better than that guy." But, but no, they're going to do good with it, and they've done great with it. Giving them that accountability and the ownership of that piece of the project and being like, "This is your deal." Like Monday, we got three projects done, and I didn't get in a machine. And I didn't realize that till the next day where I'm like, "That's a big deal for me," you know, in the step, the step of the, the game I'm in, of always having a big hand in getting the project done to where now, like I said, kind of stepping back and I think that's going to help us make up for all of the rain delays if we can triple our production essentially by me getting out of the way and letting these guys run it and just overseeing it.
Taylor White: Yeah, you know, everything you're saying, I love it because it's a true testament to what I actually did, essentially when my operations manager and estimator last year, they left. And it put me in a position of, "Okay, now I can't be this site guy." It was always a joke that I was the site guy because I'm a machine operating, screening, helping the guys out on site. Like, that's what I, I thrive in and I love doing. And it made me realize that in order to grow the business, I have to be working on the business, not in the business. And that's exactly what you just said, is you are now working on the business, not in it. And I actually, you know, you made the joke about, you know, "They're not as good as doing it as me." Well, like, I have the same mindset. Like, I, my guy's screening sometimes and I'm like, "Dude, I could drive circles around this guy doing this right now." You know what I mean? Because you have, you always have this, but because it's my baby, you know? Like, it's our baby. I don't need to stop for lunch. I don't care about breaks. I don't care about that. I'll work later. I'll work earlier. But because it's our business, and you can't expect your employees to have that kind of same mindset, right? But I love what you're talking about and I love what you're doing because you're in this role, in this position where you're like, "Okay, now I'm, I'm going to see how my business goes, actually working on it." And I love hearing you say that it's, "Hey, it's working and, and things are, are going right."
Trent Harris: That's exactly it. Like, and I tried to lower my expectations of those guys because, like you said, that all, I think you and I see is production.
Taylor White: Yep.
Trent Harris: If I'm screening on our little operation or if I'm trying to get a job done or whatever, my wheels are turning in my head nonstop. Like, I'm not good at listening to the radio. I'm listening to the tracks turn or the tires turn, you know, just thinking about every piece. And these guys are trying to do what they're supposed to do and not necessarily kill themselves for it, you know? And that's to be expected, I think. We just have to, I think, remind ourselves of that. And there's a—have you read Buy Back Your Time?
Taylor White: I read that last summer.
Trent Harris: I finished that one and immediately restarted it. That one has been a big key. But he says in that book, you know, we were talking about them not being quite as good or not doing it as fast or, or whatever. But he, he has a line in there where he says, "80% done by someone else is 100% awesome." And I have to, like, I say that to myself a lot where I'm like, "Yeah, that's not quite there, but like, I didn't have to do it. I can go line up the next thing for these guys, and we can continue to help more people and grow the company and, and do what we're trying to do."
Taylor White: It's a really tough and difficult thing to do because I'm a micromanager. Like, even the size of business that, that we're at, we're, you know, not a massive company, but we're just not a small company. We're in this like middle kind of phase. I mean, for instance, on my way over here to our little podcast shed, like, I saw the guys were stockpiling sand at the yard today, and like, I saw a little bit of topsoil in it. So it's like, you know, now like, kind of like a project coordinator, project manager, I'm like texting the dump truck drivers in a group chat, being like, "Guys, like, you got to scrape your boxes out and clean before we haul. Now you just contaminated the sand." Reach out to the shop guy from there, "Hey man, don't push up that sand. Make sure you take out that dirt before you push it up in the pile because it's going to contaminate the rest of the sand." And it's like stuff like that where I feel like that reminds me that I'm like, "I still have to micromanage" because like, that little bit of thing that no one else was looking at could have been a really big deal on a job site when the inspector showed up and that load of sand now is dirty and we failed, the septic is not passing because the inspector saw dirt in it. It's like all these things turn in my mind, like you, you were saying, like you're thinking about different stuff. And it's like, dump truck driver might just be like, "Oh, a little bit of my load was left in from my topsoil. Okay, well, no big deal." But to me, it's like, that was a massive headache waiting to happen that we at least, you know, just try to avoid. But I struggle with micromanaging. They joke at me in the office. I got my cameras up all the time, so I'm always looking at who's in the shop, what the guys in the, in the, you know, they're doing. And do you struggle with, with micromanaging? Like, how have you been with this transition? Like, are you kind of like sit there itching sometimes? Like, "Uh, what are they doing? I got to get out there."
Trent Harris: Yes, as much as I don't want to admit it, I'm probably the world's worst. I think I've come a long ways. Like, I think I've gotten way, infinitely better.
Taylor White: Just the fact you're stepping back, dude. That's huge.
Trent Harris: Yes. It's been embarrassingly painful, you know, more than it should be to. And sometimes I'll have to just leave. As bad as that sounds, leave, like if they're screening. When I didn't see what they were doing, I came back to the yard and I was happy. I was like, "Heck yeah, we got a pile going." You know what I mean? So there's, not to just forgo it or just turn the other way, but I'll get so far one way and then so far the other way if I'm not careful about it. Because I'll do, like in your situation, in that case, that's one you were talking about. What I would do is then go back to the office and sit down and be like, "What if I wouldn't have saw that? And what else have I not caught, you know, that's going on? And how many other loads were contaminated? And what if they're doing this?" And it's a, a slippery slope where I'm like, "Okay, is my other option I just go do everything myself?" Because I've tried that a lot, and that wasn't working. So, how can I take this in stride and tweak this and, and who do I need to talk to to give them the ownership of that to be like, "Hey, your role is to make sure that this doesn't happen." And it's so easy to, to sit there and think all that until you get in those situations.
And I mean, every little detail, especially in the beginning of which way they're swinging with the trackhoe and why they're carrying that material instead of getting behind it and pushing, and why we're, you know, just all those things that limit production. And for us on the site work, we needed all the help we could get. You know, we're always trying to grow obviously and whatnot, but like in the beginning of those commercial site work projects, we need all the help we can get to be productive. And I would monitor every little detail of, of how they do it. And I've slowly letting go of the reins and instead of critique them for an hour and a half straight, just mention one little thing here, you know, if it's not going to be a major issue for us, then trying to just kind of let it go and mention it later and make that transition a little bit easier for them and me without me, my blood pressure going up and trying to do it myself. Because I was king of kicking someone out of a machine nicely, but like, "Hey man, let me, let me hop in there real quick." And then it ended up with me paying someone to watch me do all the work for a lot longer than I'm going to say out loud. So I'm finally rounding that corner, I think now, where I'm like, "All right, you don't need to be in the machine." If you have nothing else to do, if the phone's not ringing, we have no takeoff to do, there's no emails to respond to, and I'm sitting there at the gate in the truck, then heck yeah, where do you guys need me? But I'm trying to get to that point where I can go to my operators on site and say, "Where are you guys lacking here?" Well, we really need someone in the dozer. That's my ideal next step I'm trying to get to where I can show up and, and they're kind of telling me what they need rather than me telling them what to do.
Taylor White: You know, that just comes with time, though, Trent. Like, when we went from growing six years ago, when I came in with my dad and we had three guys, I mean, the first step for us though, I, I always stayed out on site. I did it a different way because, so, you know, family business, Dad had three employees and iron to stay busy on one job site. We had one dump truck and an excavator. And I really enjoyed the site stuff, and I was really good at doing the site stuff. I knew that I wasn't a good office guy at that time. So I actually was like, "Well, I want to grow and do more work." And I remember walking in on Dad's office, and on his desk, he had a pile of paperwork here and here. And I'm, and I'm like, "What's this?" And he's like, "That's invoicing that I got to do to get paid up on these jobs. I just haven't had time." And I'm like, "Well, what's that pile?" And he's like, "Oh, those are all jobs that people want me to bid, but I just don't have the time." So then I was like, "Okay, well, I'm not an estimator. I don't even know where to start on that sort of stuff. I could tell you how much a load of dirt is or this or that." But back then, I'm like, my dad never took the time to explain estimating to me. And how he estimated was he'd pull out a piece of paper, kind of like my interview with Trey Bo, and he'd be like, "All right, well, 15 load here, there, and some pipe. Yeah, you're probably $36,000 septic." That's just how he was, right? So I, I actually got an estimator. So I hired office staff to fill in where I couldn't. So I hired an estimator. And then from there, you're able to estimate more work, which then was like, "Okay, we got more work, more machinery, more men." And it just kind of snowballed from there. Then we went coordinator, and then project manager. I mean, we only have an office staff of four, and I'm one of those four. But it was just interesting that we kind of just went a bit of a different way.
But where I'm going with this is it's really important, like we have systems in place now, and we have to stand by those systems. Two years ago, I was like, "Okay, this is so stupid. Like, our site guys are going from operator to foreman to supervisor to ops manager and coordinator. That's so many people, guys. Just go straight direct, straight direct. Okay, we don't need this role." And I was like, you know, "This is dumb. Roles are stupid." Well, skip ahead, you know, once those people leave, you need to follow the ladder of communication. And you need to have that because, and that's what I realized. Because stuff gets lost because then the coordinator is sending the dump truck somewhere else, but because you didn't communicate that the foreman told you that they actually needed material on site. So now the dump trucks are all gone. So it's like communication is key. And what you were saying about the guys out on site and, you know, showing up and them telling you and communicating to you on site, that's really important because that's the conversations that we have all the time now. Is, "Okay, guys, I like running a lean crew. I know how to squeeze money out of our business. I didn't know that years ago. I know how to make this business profitable. We have to run lean. We have a big overhead. We have a big office and a big property for the scale of size of business. Like, a business that does maybe 40, 50 million a year would have the office and shop that we have. We don't do that much revenue, but we have that. So our overhead's a little higher. So we run leaner, which means that I'm really relying on really good quality people that, and you got to pay them well and communicating and me saying, "Guys, let me know what you need out there. Do you need a dozer operator? Do you need another laborer carrying pipe? Do you need this? Do you need that?" And that is key. So everything that you're saying, we have done or and are doing. And I love, just keep your overhead super low. Try to keep your overhead as low as possible. And it's impossible to do because I remember last year saying, "We're not going to buy anything." We spent over 2 million on, on equipment since then. And we were like, "Ah, we're not going to do that." Well, you know, a dozer is 600 grand, a stacker's 200, a dump truck's this. It doesn't take long. And people will be like, "Don't take on debt, don't do debt." Hey, I'm a man of risk. I love risk. I've taken risk my whole life, and I see it with you too. And it's just like, I like the high risk, high rewards, so bring it on.
But overhead, as far as we were too heavy when we started doing what you were doing in the office. I had too much office staff, and I had too much field staff. So we were overstaffed. Our overhead in the office was high. We were buying pickups and doing this and doing that. And we let our overhead grow too much. It just was a stupid decision that we were doing. And I learned that the hard way. We went through two really good years of business during COVID when we should have been profitable, and we were not profitable at all. We ran at a loss. And it was like, at the end of the year, you're like, "We did all this and we lost money? How the heck does this work? Why can't we get ahead?" Well, we didn't realize that until I dove back into the business and I'm like, "Okay, our invoicing's been screwed up. Our overhead is terrible. We're not sending out bills long enough. Our receivables are backed up." It just was a mess. So I guess, to summarize my long rant, is I'm trying to give you and anybody else listening advice of like, "Okay, you're finally getting to the point where like you're going to start building out office and, and you're taking yourself out of the business." Just like, try to manage as much as you possibly can with yourself in the office until you can justify that overhead, that payroll, and understand the roles of those people that you're hiring and what they're doing, and then continue to grow.
Trent Harris: Absolutely, man. We didn't do a good job of keeping overhead. Well, you were talking about the, the size of your overhead versus your, your income.
Taylor White: Debt to income ratio. Ours was ridiculously high.
Trent Harris: I say that a lot too, with our equipment. I'm like, we have the fleet of a company doing, and not like to brag about it, it's the opposite, you know? Like, I'm like, I have a lot bigger fleet than the revenue we have, you know? Like, I look around and I'm like, "What other company has the iron I have, and what are they doing a year?" Because it's probably way more than we are. So, it's like, that's fine, you know, but let's work that direction. And to your point, you were talking about not doing it the right way or, you know, we should have done this or that. But that's something else I've heard Trey say too, about, he was like, "I don't regret," because I'm bad about that. I'll look at, I'll look at the yard and be like, "Why is that machine here? And why has it been here for the last four months? Why did we buy that? Maybe we should have done this or that." And you can start seeing, you know, in hindsight. But I've thought about this a lot, and I try to really make, you know, not just do dumb stuff, but really think it through and, and come to the best decision I think I can make and then just pull the trigger. Because the amount, like what you're talking about, you're speaking from experience, from doing it the wrong way. And that's how I've got here. And I'm not saying everybody needs to go do it the wrong way. Again, that's why I try to network with you and Trey and Sai is a new good friend, Sai Conn out of Rogers, like that are in different stages of the same process. And everybody's doing it a little bit different.
But I don't really have any regrets with any of it because I'm so thankful that I'm not still considering what to do. If that means make the wrong decision and come out the backside or still be sitting there for two years. Like, my biggest fear is to be saying the same sh— today in five years from now. Whether that's buying a rental property, let's add another dozer, I'd like to get on more commercial site work. My biggest fear is to still be talking about that in five years. Let's do our research and make the best, most educated decision we can and then dive in. Let's go.
Taylor White: You will always find a good reason not to do something. What you're saying is how my brain works as well too. It's like, it's stupid easy to buy a piece of machinery because anybody will lend you. I mean, Cat Finance, these people, like, they have really good programs and everything, but it's really easy just to sign on the dotted line and make a payment. Making the payment, sorry, is not the easy part because then you got to find the revenue for it. But buying a piece of machinery is actually super simple if you've been in business for longer than two years because you'll have some sort of credit. But like, it's just insane. But you will always find a reason to not buy a piece of equipment. And that's why I think me and my dad have actually worked so well. And that's why we're so successful, because we have such a good team. Because I'm like, up here, Dad's here, and we kind of level out somewhere in the middle. He's the voice of reasoning of like, "Ooh, that's a lot of money." Like buying the dozer. We thought about it for so long. Like that was a, that was a big purchase for us. I mean, you're talking 650 for a piece of machinery. And for us, that's a huge investment. And it was like, we're talking about it, we ran, we thought about it for a week. We looked at what we spent on rental that year. It made payments for like two years on a, on a dozer. We looked at the work we had ahead. We're like, "All right, let's do it." We could have sat for another two or three weeks and found every other reason to not do it. But at the end of the day, you reach down, you grab your nuts, and you go, "Yep, they're still there. Here we go." That's it. That's what it comes down to.
Trent Harris: And dive. I mean, what are you going to do at that point? Sell it back? Go. You made the decision. And I'm not telling anybody to go imp— like we talked about, you know, don't go impulse spend the money and not have the work for it. I've made those mistakes before. And again, I don't regret it. You know, just looking back like, let's line up the work. I was in the same boat. We got the go-ahead on a couple of projects, and I feel like we have a good likelihood of getting a couple more if it'll ever quit raining where we can get caught up on our residential stuff. We've got some commercial stuff and development coming up. And I'm on the phone with my, uh, salesman as soon as we got the go-ahead. "Hey, what's a new dozer with GPS? Who can show me how to spell GPS and how I'm supposed to work it because we need it?" That one was going to come out to like right around 300 with the machine controls and the, the dozer. And I kind of talked myself back off the hill knowing what I know now from the past and being like, "Okay, rental is going to be, say, 10 to 12,000 on that machine. Maybe we don't need to right now."
But I've always been the guy in the past that, well, I'm not going to spend that if I can, you know. So it was always a tricky balance there. I mean, we had a 30,000 lb trackhoe on rent because I didn't trust mine to keep up with the production. So I left it sitting here, rented one for like three months. And then you get into that tricky part where you're waiting on money off the commercial stuff, and you're spending, I think we spent like seven grand a month for three months. And I'm like, "Well, how much is a payment on that machine?" And then my salesman comes back and he's like, "Yeah, we got 90-day no pay as well." You're telling me I'm going to spend seven grand in 30 days, or I can spend three grand in 30 days over and over and over and, you know, forever. So, yeah, no, I'm right there with you. To me, we're to a point where if we're sure that we can keep it busy, and you're never sure, obviously, but if we're, if we're keeping stuff lined up, we kind of know what our schedule's looking like. I bought my very first new machine. That was crazy to me to buy something brand new. I bought a brand new machine probably last July, and I've bought two more brand new ones since then.
Taylor White: You got the itch.
Trent Harris: Yeah, because I'm like, you telling me I don't have to wor— of all the things I have to worry about in my head, I don't have to worry about that anymore.
Taylor White: Parts or payments. That's it, man. The only difference is when there's no work, there's no parts, uh, to replace, right?
Trent Harris: See, Garrett, uh, what's his name? GNM, Garrett Williams, I think's his name, up north up there by you somewhere. You guys are all in the same area in my head. He had a video where he said, "If you're using it all," essentially, I'm kind of summing this up, but he said, "If you're using it all the time and you're keeping it busy, buy new. And if it's going to sit a long time, then, then buy used." And at first I'm like, "Yeah, I see what you're saying." And this may change next month. I may change my mind. But from where I'm sitting right now, that is 100% our strategy. If it's gone all the time and we're keeping stuff lined up in front of it, we're going to trade that downtime and headache for a scheduled payment. And I would have argued with myself till I was blue in the face a year ago, maybe six months ago.
Taylor White: Yeah, it's fixed overhead, right? Versus variable. Which the parts is variable, so it's, it's easy to figure out your bottom line.
Trent Harris: Yes. And, and as an owner, with this new system I'm trying to put in place, that's one less thing I have to worry about. If that machine goes down, and then what's that operator going to do? And how soon can the mechanic get there? It's not even the repair cost. Like, I just had one of my trucks go down. It was, I think it was like four grand in repair. Don't get me wrong, that sucked, especially with in the rainy season coming out of winter. But it's the downtime and the trying to switch trucks around and all that kind of deal where, yeah, if, if it's staying busy and we can justify it, then we're, we're buying new. And like you said, at that point, go. Don't, don't think about it after you've done it. Think about it before. But once you pull the trigger, dive.
Taylor White: Yeah, I'm with you on that. I mean, uh, that's definitely my mindset as well. If it's busy enough, like I'm not going to, you know, like that old 336 that we bought, it had almost 10,000 hours on it, and I've got it for a hundred grand. And it was something where I'm like, "Okay, I can put out a hundred grand. I'm not going to finance it. We're just going to buy this 336. It can sit at the pit, and that's kind of a great pit machine, right? It's high hours. I don't care if it sits for two months at a time, three months at a time." But I'll tell you what, it made us realize that, holy crap, you can move a lot of dirt with a 36-ton. Like, we went from a 15-ton Komatsu to, uh, the 325 Cat. That was our first big, like, wow. And I remember getting that on a job site and being like, "Holy sh—, this thing can move a lot of dirt. Like, this is crazy." And then now with the 336, we bring it to some of our larger commercial sites now, and it's just like, oh my God. That would have taken us however long with a 315, however long with a 325. And it's been six hours and we dug this whole basement, and we're done. And I'm floating it and moving on to the next thing. I love it. There's no cap. You think like, "Okay, I'd be good with the, this size." And then it's like, "Wow." Like I would have never thought that I needed a D5 to D6N size dozer, and here we are. And it's busy right from, like, we're moving it tomorrow to a job, and it's going to go from three jobs over the next three months and just busy. I would have never thought that.
Trent Harris: That's freaking awesome. Like, that's what, that's your goal, right? And maybe eventually, depending on, there's a cap there depending on where you want to go with the company, as far as, you know, just the gross amount of earth you're moving. But like, there's people that look at that dozer as a toy, that definitely look at mine as a toy. And I'm like, I'm over here running a skid steer, an open cab originally, a little 46-horse open cab. So when I went to the, like that Develon is a beast. It's 115-horse. But then when you park it and go hop in the dozer, you're like, "Hm, I should have done this a long time ago." You know, I'll be too lazy to get out of a machine to go get in the dozer if we need to make a big cut or something. And then once I finally do, I'm like, "I should have done this three hours ago." Like, it can move so much dirt to me. But if you ran the old D4H, you'd probably run right over the top of it with your D5 while you're getting it out of the way. You know what I mean? So, yeah, there's, there's always the next level to it. I mean, that, we've got that 312, that old 120 size, and it's big to us. We can move a lot of dirt compared to our 60. You know, it's double the size. But, yeah, then when you double that size again to go to that 336, or that's more like triple. It's crazy the amount of production you can get taking the next step.
Taylor White: You're talking a lot about commercial, and I love it because that's exactly what we, we're doing to grow. But you're not planning on totally getting out of residential, right?
Trent Harris: No, I don't think I do.
Taylor White: In our area, in our market, this is what I would say to somebody: higher profit margins in the residential, payment terms are way better, and your residential will cash flow your commercial.
Trent Harris: Boom. All of that, but that last line especially, because not having the resources, like I mentioned earlier, in the beginning, doing the commercial stuff, I mean, we worked 104 hours a week for like three weeks to make up for lack of experience, you know? No one's going to suffer here but me. You picked us. This is going to go right. If another crew would have been able to do it in half the time, cool. I'll be here at 3:00 in the morning, and we're going to get this done. We're going to make it work, and we're going to learn. That being said, I was already so spread thin. It was me and one other guy at the time, and we're trying to do a five-man experienced crew worth of work. So we've kind of turned off that residential faucet. I've always still stayed really good at communicating with them. Like, I'm not just going to not answer them, but I would kind of explain to those customers, "Hey, it's going to be a couple months where, you know, call so-and-so, call this guy." And then when we got through that on the backside, going into December, everything slowed way down. We had no residential stuff. We thought we did until the dust settled from trying to punch through all these commercial jobs all at the same time.
Going into these projects we've got coming up, that's where I'm at with, with hiring the three guys I've got now, is to, even if I just have one guy out keeping up with all the residential stuff. And in a way, he's, that, that residential guy, in a lot of ways, it's kind of opposite of how it seems, but he's got to really have the eye, right? Like, on a commercial job, it's kind of right or wrong. I mean, you've got plans, you've got engineered plans. Hey, if this elevation is what it is. Whereas, I mean, obviously it's got to function on the residential side, but it's 90% appearance and tediousness. So if I can take an operator and, and at least have one or two crews running to keep up with all the residential, that's kind of what we're looking at doing right now to keep that money coming in throughout that project, so we're not leaning on the account as much on funding that project. And then being able to still have that faucet, you know, once we get through that one and, and roll right back into that stuff while we're waiting on the next commercial project.
Taylor White: Yeah, everybody's natural path to growth is always commercial, commercial, commercial. A lot of people turn their backs on the residential, and it's just not smart. It's just not good. I mean, we're on some commercial. I mean, we did jobs back last June, and I'm still waiting on holdbacks from it, you know? And like, that stuff sucks. And thank God there's residential to help you cash flow that. But a lot of people try to put all their eggs in one basket with the commercial because they're like, "Well, you know, residential, I got to find a new job every week because residential jobs like five days or sometimes three days. There's more planning involved." The commercial's nice. It's one big job, big, big paychecks, and I'm there for a month or two months. And that's fantastic. That's great. And don't get me wrong, it is great. It's way easier scheduling a commercial job than it is a residential. We just started a commercial today, nice big size commercial project. And we officially bought GPS, so we're trying that today, and it seemed really good.
Trent Harris: Dude, that's, that's exciting.
Taylor White: I'm honestly so pumped. Like, I've been calling the guys every hour. Like, "How is it now? What's it like? Like, how is it?" Like, dude, digging to the underside of footing, he's like, "Yeah, I just put my GPS right in the, right on the line on the tablet of underside of footing, and Daniel's put the 325 bucket right in the center of the line so that we have two-foot overdig, two-foot indig, so there's room for the forming guys." And like, no one has to come out here and mark them, and I'm not remeasuring, make sure we're square. He's like, he got down to grade and like, it's like within a centimeter. Like, oh. And then we're putting in the laneway. There's two laneways—you guys call them driveways. There's two driveways coming in on the property, one here and one here. And like, normally our project coordinator or manager would be sitting in their office being like, "Okay, I hope those guys put that laneway in the right spot. I hope they're putting, like, you know, edge of laneway to edge of laneway," because the city will inspect that and not pass that site if they're in the wrong spot. Like, it's a big deal. And now that worry is kind of gone because it's like, he's able to go up and go, "Boop, there's your edge. Perfect. Gravel here, boys. Done." Oh man, I'm beyond. I literally say this with everything. Like, we should have done this a long time ago, the GPS. I would advise you 100%. There's a lot of other things that you can go and blow 70 grand on real quick. Trust me, I f—ing know it. But dude, GPS, oh my God, it's the cat's ass.
Trent Harris: I haven't heard a single person that I value their opinion—I haven't heard a single person period, actually, that has went to GPS and then said not to, at all.
Taylor White: And I feel dumb almost sometimes. Like, I feel dumb even saying that because there's guys that are listening like, "Dude, I've had GPS for eight years," you know? And it's like, well, that's great. We had to get to this point. And it's a big investment. I mean, you can start at 70, but it costs a little bit more than that with everything by the end of it. But it's a big thing for us. But I, sometimes I feel dumb because it is kind of like an older technology, but it is constantly improving and getting better. But it's fantastic. It is fantastic.
Trent Harris: We saw, you're talking about the progression of everything. It's crazy. Like, a year ago at the old Trimble Expo, the whole deal out there, the Trimble guy came out, SiteTech, and was telling us about this stuff. And I'm like, "Man, this is a good chance for me to go to the bathroom or step out. You know, we don't need, I don't even know what this is. It's not applicable to what we do." And here we are a year later, and I'm like, "When's that guy going to talk? Like, when's, when's that guy?" You know, because we had a project where we, I was joking with a buddy that I kind of know through the same thing, we're talking about networking. And he stopped by to check on that site. Anyway, we get to BSing, I was like, "You want to finish this?" Completely joking. And he's like, "Ah, we can drop off the D5 and do it in a day." I'm like, "Huh?" Like, I shut the whole oper— we had sub-trucks. I mean, I'm way over, you know, like we've got all kinds of little site, and it was a Wednesday. And he goes, "You can't get the rock in here by Friday that we would need to do it." I was like, "I'll get whatever you need." And we still had concrete to demo. I mean, so much stuff going on. And I was like, "You watch me get every last piece of concrete out of here and every last rock you need in here before the quarry closes on Friday if you can put it in."
And after seeing him do that, and then we went back out to check grade, I rode around with him to make a lap around it because I was like, "Can you see? Like, what are you looking at?" And I'm so ignorant to the whole process, you know, like we've never been around it. And I'm like, "I don't know." Like, I get the idea, but I hop up there, I'm giving him the thickness of our, our subgrade, you know, and I was like, "All right, you've got six inches of concrete or whatever it was, you know, six inches of base rock, whatever." And I see, he just kicked back and clicks the button a few times, and you can see the blade change and the, it changes on the screen. And I'm like, "You can see the plans on the—" And he's kind of laughing at me, you know. He's like, "Yeah, how do you think this works?" And we start cruising, and he's showing me like the edge of the curb and stuff we had never seen. Like, we had never seen this side, obviously. We're building it. And seeing it laid out real time where it goes, and I'm like, "Huh, I thought that was a lot of money. This is good to know now." And when I got to Trey's, I was talking to that guy and that, uh, sales rep, and he was still almost kind of naturally trying to kind of talk me into it or tell me how it was beneficial. And I was like, "Dude, I'm, I'm giving you all my chips here. I'm sold. You don't need to talk me into it. I'm trying to figure out which piece I want right now." But I was like, "I'm not." He's like, "Oh, a lot of people don't, don't believe in it at first." I was like, "Let me stop you. I'm not that guy. I was that guy a year ago. Like, I'm, I'm sold on it now. I'm just trying to figure out which piece I want to start with." The people, because you would see like comments on TikTok or whatever, you know, of "Oh, real operator." And I was always kind of like, "Eh, you know, I don't know enough to know kind of what they're talking about." After seeing this technology in person and being on sites without it—
Taylor White: As a business owner.
Trent Harris: Yes! Yes. Where I'm like, it has nothing to do with being an operator. I can see the site real time. I can make sure it's perfect. And I don't have to go do a whole bunch of measurements and go back and forth and move my tripod and—there's more efficient ways to do it than how we do it with a laser and laying it all out. But a couple of those sites, we didn't even have staking. So we're scaling off of stuff on—
Taylor White: That's how we did it up until literally today was our first day with GPS. We're on commercial sites. They're scaling the drawings with scaled rulers on the back of the tailgate and pulling out the long tape, pulling out their laser levels. Like, that's just how we did it. And I honestly think, and this is what you were saying about like operators and stuff, like, I think there's value and like, I wouldn't want somebody to learn how to grade on a dozer with GPS. You need to know, right? Because then if you go to a house dig and you're doing something, they're like, "Oh, well, where's the plans for the GPS?" It's like, "Well, there is none." It's like, "Oh, well, I can't keep grade." Like, that's ridiculous. But it's insane. And if you're doing commercial work, like, just literally it's been since 7:00 AM this morning and it's 1:40 here. It's unreal. I can't even believe it. I was the same as you. I was, I'm ignorant to it. So like I'm like, "So that's the drawings? Like, so like, that's where we're going?" And the guy's like, "Yeah, man. Like, it's a tablet with the picture on it." I'm like, "Holy sh—. Can he do this?" Like, oh my God, he's showing the laneway. Like, I'm like a kid in a candy store with it this morning. And I could have spent all day doing it. But yeah, that, that is totally next step, next level.
Trent Harris: I was talking to one of them, one of those salesmen, I think, or somebody at one point, I was like, I'm talking to them on the phone, trying to grasp all this. I'm like, "It knows where you are on site?" And he was like, "What do you think GPS stands for?" And I was like, "Oh yeah, okay. I'm with you. I'm caught up now." It just blew my mind. I'm like, "You mean it knows once I'm localized where I am here and the elevation?" And, yeah, even without elevation, just being able to see where I, where I am on site would have been, would have been crazy.
Taylor White: That was it for me. My guys knock pickets over constantly. Surveyors have to then come back, or the guys that are doing the footing after, the contractor calling us being like, "You guys didn't dig far enough. You got to bring a machine back and dig this corner out." And that's like a loser move. Nobody wants to get a call from a contractor being like, "You know how you guys had to dig a hole? You didn't do it right." And it's like, oh my God, dude. Like, classic us. But it's like, the one thing that's cool about it too is, is like, let's say you have a change order for, you know, you run into some bad material on your underside. You're pricing it per cube, right, you know, uh, for the change order. We can do a takeoff of like, "This was the original, and then this is the grades that we shot afterwards." And it'll spit out and tell us a quantity and be like, "You moved 704.2 cubic meters extra." So I can go to the contractor or the client and be like, "Here's my bill for the extras." And there's no arguing like, "Well, we think it was more like this." It's like, "Nuh-uh, this is exactly what it is." Even our, our sand at the pit, the guy was showing us this morning, he's like, "Oh yeah, your guy will be able to like, if, an afternoon after you're done screening, go take a quantities at the, at your pit and show you how many cubic yards of sand you got screened up so I can know my stockpiles." Because I keep now, like with the bank, what I'll do is I, I'll keep a stockpile. I roll that into sometimes financing or to help us with like an operating line of credit because I'll be like, "Well, I got this much sand. I got 250,000 in inventory sitting there." So when it's winter time and I have no cash and I need to put out money for rock trucks, you know, fuel, payroll, I can go to them and be like, "Look, this is what the pit is going to have as far as inventory. Let me have this money so I can put out this and make more inventory."
Trent Harris: Dude, that's cool. So you can, you can essentially, when they're not making money, but they're producing a material like that, you can leverage that into money showing it as an asset, right? As an inventory.
Taylor White: We do. It's inventory. You know what made me think of it? Is our merchandise. All of our YouTube and social media and stuff, like, that gets ran through the business. It does not come to me. It goes all to the business because it's the business. Our accounting people were like, "Hey, we need your wife," because my wife does all of our e-commerce, "to do a running total of what you guys have for merchandise so we can add it onto your books." And I thought, I'm like, "Wait, yeah. Like," it was new to me because I'm like, "Why do they want that?" They're like, "You got $11,000 in inventory. Like, that's merchandise. We have to add that onto your books." And I'm like, "Yeah, true, that's right." So then that's what made us think about the sand, and then talking to our bank manager and he was like, "Yeah, no, like that's inventory, that's income, and we can borrow against that." It's like, "That's cool."
Trent Harris: That's crazy. I would have never thought of that. Good thing to keep in mind going forward. I mean, that's, that's product on the shelf.
Taylor White: Man, what is next for you? Like, where, where's the end goal, if there, if there is an end goal? What's next? What's coming up? How big do you want to get?
Trent Harris: I try to really stay open to possibilities, right? And, and what, what we could do. I didn't plan on being in the dirt before I was in the dirt. I mean, the first dozer I ran was mine, the first skid steer, first trackhoe, first all that stuff. At one point, I was going to be a diesel mechanic. That's what I was going to do. So, I don't know for sure. Right now, from where I'm sitting, I want to do this until one of my guys gets paid by whoever takes this over to throw dirt on top of me when I'm gone. I mean, that's, I want to get it as big as I can, and I, I would love to see it continue after. If my girls are interested in being a part of it, awesome. If not, then, uh, hopefully one of these days we'll, we'll decide to stop reinvesting at that point, a long time from now. Yeah, it's hard to say that. We'll see. And then, you know, we liquidate everything and go live on the beach and then ride off to the sunset. But more than likely, if they want to take this over and they want to run with it, then absolutely. They're not expected to. But that's all way down the road. Right now, I want to continue to grow and scale. And, uh, we're talking about multiple sources of income. That's always kind of right there in the back of my mind of—
Taylor White: Same. Dirt work's cool, but there's other things that are, you know, dirt work is not the most—contrary to popular belief, it is not the most profitable business to be in, and it requires a lot of overhead and capital. Like, so, yeah, sorry to cut you off, but yes, I'm on the same page as you. It's fun, but there has to be other things that you do in conjunction with. It doesn't have to be. You can make a great living doing this, but I have the same mindset, I guess, is what I'm saying as you, is I like, now that we're doing general contracting, I want to do some more real estate in the future, get some rental properties, do that, like some more passive income, because construction is active income. It's like you have to be in it or on it to be making money.
Trent Harris: You took the words right out of my mouth. Yes. I would like to, if there's another company that comes along or another venture like that that I'm passionate about, that makes sense, that I want to pursue, always open to that. And then also, no matter what, I want to add in those, that, that passive side of, like we're planning on, when we build, we'll have one rental, and then scale that from there in theory, you know, depending on how much of a headache it is, because I don't own a bunch of rental properties. So it's easier for me to sit here and be like, "Hey, those rental guys got it made. They don't know what it's like on this side."
Taylor White: It sounds like it. Like it's a good idea.
Trent Harris: Yes, exactly. Yeah. Then you get over there and you're like, "Nobody told me about these problems." So, kind of open, open to all of it. But I'm just not good at slowing down, I think.
Taylor White: Settling.
Trent Harris: Yes. Like, I want to be blissfully dissatisfied is a, is a good quote. Uh, and Mylett says that a lot. Blissfully dissatisfied. I want to be in a state of thankfulness, you know, and gratefulness from where I'm, for where I'm at and how we got to this point and all that kind of stuff, absolutely. But I'm still just not good at settling with where I'm at. Like, I have to be driven to go do more, or I just feel like there's no point. Like, I'm not good at. We went to Florida, had a blast. We were there for about a week.
Taylor White: I saw that you did that, by the way. Good, good for you for getting away.
Trent Harris: I think that was our third time to go. And the first year, horrible. All I thought about the whole time was wor— I mean, it was, and then I came home almost depressed, like—
Taylor White: More stressed out and anxious and—
Trent Harris: And thinking about how there went that opportunity with my family. And that's gone now, and I didn't do anything but work and stress about work. I wasn't in a good mood. So, I really kind of set a goal the next year, which would have been time before this, to really be present, you know, and focus and enjoy that time and try to soak it up. And, yeah, that's been, that's been crucial. But if I did that all the time, like, I can only take it easy for so long. And I'm still, you know, I'm still out there on our balcony at the, at the house in Florida doing takeoffs and looking at jobs that, that two of those projects came in.
Taylor White: Well, you're a business owner. There's no switch. You're not turning it off.
Trent Harris: Yes. And I'm, I'm thankful for that and trying to control that. It's a tricky deal, you know, trying to have that balance.
Taylor White: Is so difficult, man, because I think of that. Literally, my daughter, like, literally last night, like my daughter was, she was on her bed messing around. It was just before bedtime, and she's like handing me a book. And my wife was like, "Tay. Tay. Tay!" And I'm like, "Oh, what?" She's like, "Kara's been calling you for the past two minutes to like read this book." And I was like, "Damn." Like, "What a piece of sh— I am." Like, my daughter's like, "Dad. Dad, I want to read a book." And so like, even then, I'm like, okay, cognitive. Like, okay, phone upside down, you know, so I can't even see the screen light up. Let's focus on this, okay? Because it's during the week, I don't have much time with my kids, so let's, you know. Everything you're saying is 100%. And it's difficult. I don't have it figured out, and I don't think I ever will have it figured out. My dad never got it figured out his entire life. But you know what? I have a fantastic relationship with my dad. I have a fantastic relationship with my mom.
Trent Harris: I love Dave. Dave is a solid dude.
Taylor White: I can't wait to see you guys. You're coming to CONEXPO again, right?
Trent Harris: Absolutely. I will be there, and I'm going to show Dave the video I have of him dancing because he probably doesn't know I still have it.
Taylor White: No way, do you, honestly?
Trent Harris: I've got leverage over KWC 'cause—
Taylor White: Oh, dude. I think we're going to be staying at the Wynn. Last year we did an Airbnb, and, uh, it just sucked with like Ubering and, and getting back and forth. So this year we're like, we want to stay in it. We want to be on the strip because, like, old Vegas was a lot of fun as well, too, going there at night. Yeah, I'm getting giddy about it. Like, I honestly can't wait. I'm, I'm pumped to have this podcast because, like, I'm pumped to see you guys and all those crazy dudes that you have from down south there. Like, I forget the other guy's name, the guy that like outran the cops on a motorbike or something.
Trent Harris: Dude, there's no telling which one.
Taylor White: He was a bigger dude, and he was from Oklahoma.
Trent Harris: Was it Baggs, maybe? Brennan Baggs? You talk about a rowdy group.
Taylor White: Yeah, it seemed like it. It looked like a lot of fun. I'm super pumped. I, I can't wait. Like, you know what's funny? We actually set us—we set aside in, within our Kenworth Construction banking, a separate bank account that is literally just funds for CONEXPO. And all of our YouTube money, all of our ads, or ad revenue or anything, or merchandise, is just going directly into that right now, and we're acting like it's not even there so we don't spend it so that it's there.
Trent Harris: Why not, though? That's reinvestment.
Taylor White: Dude, we're bringing our team. We're bringing conc—like, you know how many people are pumped? Because three years ago, and I f—ed up, so remember this as you grow and like, you know, like over the three years when there is no CONEXPO and you have a couple of beers with your employees and you're like, "Yeah, I'll bring you next time. I'll bring you next time." Well, now we're bringing a full crew because I opened my mouth too many times. But you know what? I can't wait. It's going to be a blast, man.
Trent Harris: I've been counting down the days. Like, I'm so excited for it. There's nothing like it. And that was, like you said earlier, that was where me and you had met. We had talked, I think, a couple of times. His Baggs knew Dillon. Big old shout out to Dillon. Dillon is the man.
Taylor White: Oh my god, him like ripping multiple cigs on Fremont Street in his, in his nostrils. I still have those pictures. It was so funny.
Trent Harris: My favorite thing, he had, he had a "Work Harder," one of your tattoos on his neck.
Taylor White: He put the tattoo on his neck, and he's walking around all night. He's like, "You want some? You want some of that?"
Trent Harris: Dude, but this guy walks up with, with cover—you remember this? This guy walks up, I mean, covered, his whole face is covered in tattoos. This old boy looks kind of rough. And he, he's just kind of standing there staring at Dillon. And Dillon kind of looks at him, and that guy goes, I think he, I don't remember what he said. He was like, "You look pretty rough." Dillon goes, "Do what?" And he goes, "You got that neck tattoo, dude. You look, you look pretty rough." Dillon, dude, it was the most pri— because Dillon's face, like as he looks at him and then looks at us like, "Are you guys hearing this guy right now?" Yeah, dude, that was a blast. I remember getting with him, or Brennan did, or one of, however, and, "Where's Taylor at?" And he's like, "Oh, he's at whatever. Whose booth is he at?" "Oh, it's CONEXPO. He's, he's doing the podcast." We're like, "Oh, of course he is." And then we get down there. And then we were talking to Dillon about getting to go up in the helicopter ride. Dude, we went up in and took a helicopter tour, and it was awesome. And he's like, "Oh, Taylor's doing that?" We're like, "Oh, really? Is he doing Mavericks or whatever?" And he's like, "I don't know. It's, it's CONEXPO." I'm like, "All right, dude, whatever." But, uh, that was, I think when you had just got done with that is when you made it down there.
Taylor White: That was that night, yeah. Yeah, I made it down to go see you guys.
Trent Harris: Yeah. And getting to hang out with everybody. Corey, I mean, the whole crew, like it was just, and you guys were all, it was all what you are in the videos, you know? Like, it was cool to just get to hang out and, like you said, really bounce ideas off of each other.
Taylor White: That's what I'm more looking forward to this year, Trent, because I've met so many awesome people over even the past three years and doing the podcast and talking to so many people and like, even just us talking right now, I'm honestly so fired up next March to just like, let's go to dinner so we actually don't have to scream at each other on Fremont. We can go to Fremont after. But like, and I was even just talking now, and hopefully Melissa and the people from AEM are listening, like, I'd love to get like you, me, Trey Bo, and Dillon, and some of these other guys that are just these, you know, crazy cool personalities all at different levels and stuff within the industry and even talk on a panel or get a panel going and just shoot the sh— and just talk and, and talk about what we're doing and how we're doing it. I think that would be so cool.
Trent Harris: Do the same thing we would do at dinner, right? Or on Fremont Street. There's so much benefit to me, and hopefully to everybody, you know, that you named. But then for other people to listen to that, like Sai Kirby, I was, I mentioned him earlier out of Rogers, Arkansas. He has been a key piece to everything I've got going on because he's like, "Dude, I did everything you did, did it the wrong way, you know, went through, went through all the mistakes, and now he's starting to try to systemize and has, uh, chain of command as we would call it in the fire service, like you were talking about, of people that, you know." But yeah, having, having those guys in that group where I think it would be so beneficial to everybody. And if nobody else was listening, I'd gain a lot from it. So sign me up, dude. I think, I think people would love it.
Taylor White: If you're a viewer, listen, or a viewer or listener on this right now, DM CONEXPO and say, "We want a panel with Trent, Taylor, and Trey Bo, and Dillon." Us four would be a really cool panel. All have different outlooks and opinions on stuff, but all at different scales and sizes, but also can all relate on the, on the same stuff. And our personalities would be unmatched. So, man, it's been over an hour. I appreciate you coming on today, man. Honestly, like, I'm so happy we got to chat. Thank you so much for coming on.
Trent Harris: Dude, appreciate you more than you know. Like I said, it's been a blast. I was looking forward to it. Glad we finally were able to line it up, make it happen, dude. Means a lot.
Taylor White: May 3–7, coming up next March. CONEXPO. Sign up for the newsletter, everybody. Uh, it's going to be a blast. Uh, hopefully we're on, talking on a panel. But, uh, yeah, honestly, stay tuned. There's a bunch of discount codes for tickets as well. I also would like to thank that this podcast and the future podcast going forward are brought to you by our good friends over at John Deere Power Systems. Thanks, Trent, for being on, and we'll catch you guys on the next one. Take care.
