Ever wonder what it really takes to build a multi-seven-figure construction company from the ground up? Many who dream of launching their own business encounter a landscape filled with immense risk, financial pressure, and operational chaos. The path from skilled operator to successful owner is rarely a straight line.
But what if you could learn the unfiltered truth from someone who navigated that exact journey in just three years? In this episode, Dylan Mercier of D2 Contracting returns to pull back the curtain on his rapid rise, revealing the critical mindset shifts and strategic decisions that fueled his growth. He shares the hard-won lessons on managing high-risk projects, the art of saying "no" to the wrong jobs, and the humble realization that sustainable success is about more than just aggressive expansion. This is a masterclass in grit and strategy, packed with actionable insights for anyone looking to not just survive, but thrive in the competitive construction world.
Topics:
- Balancing high-risk projects, pricing strategy, and saying 'no'
- Staying focused by blocking out industry noise
- Renting, buying, and RPO deals
- Motivation, leadership, and defining the owner's role
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Episode transcript:
Taylor White: All right, ladies and gentlemen, the wait is finally over. Registration for CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 is open. With 2,000 exhibitors, 2.9 million square feet packed with cutting-edge equipment, technology, and the best minds in construction, you won't want to miss it. The best part? You can save 40% on show admission right now by using code PODCAST40. This offer is good through Friday, September 12, so you better buy those tickets soon and join us in Las Vegas next March.
Welcome back, everybody, to the CONEXPO-CON/AGG Podcast. I am your host as always, Taylor White. With me here today, I have the third-time reigning champion coming back to me here. This is the third time that we have sat down together. We have done an in-person one, or did we not? Maybe that was just YouTube Live.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah, it was YouTube.
Taylor White: I got a good buddy of mine here, Dylan Mercier here at D2 Contracting, all the way from Howell, Michigan. Thanks, Dylan, for being here, dude.
Dylan Mercier: Thanks for having me again. I'm surprised they wanted me on a third time.
Taylor White: Yeah, I mean, you're pretty much a poster child for CONEXPO now. No, man, I'm super pumped that you're here. I was just down seeing you. A little bit of backstory for everybody at home: Me and Dylan are fairly good buddies. Dylan is a good dude. He's got his own business going on. Maybe if this was somebody, you know, just listening for the first time, recap maybe what you do.
Dylan Mercier: All right. I own D2 Contracting. We do general site work for middle-of-the-road-scale projects from a municipal, commercial, and industrial standpoint. So a lot of pre-engineered metal buildings. We do underground earthwork. This summer, we're working on a couple of fire stations at a community center for one of the townships around here. We're building a couple of private jobs, some bigger pre-engineered metal buildings. I think one's like 30,000 square feet and the other one's like 60,000, on the hook for possibly some more, but we do all kinds of stuff. And then we do a lot of underground emergency repair contracts for some local municipalities around here. And we dabble with wastewater and water treatment plants as well, most of it being like upgrades, but only because there's not a lot of new plants that go up around here, just because most of the infrastructure is existing already, but all kinds of things.
Taylor White: You've been really busy, and it's really interesting. I think the first time I was talking with you, you were working for somebody else. The second time was your first year in business. Are you in your third or second year this year?
Dylan Mercier: Yeah, we'll be three years old on July 27.
Taylor White: Dude, that is insane. I had something written here I kind of wanted to ask you about because I've never really gotten to ask you this. But over the past three years, from when you started doing your own thing to now, two parts: How have you changed over the years, both personally and in business, to make it so that you're doing what you're doing? And then what would you tell yourself starting out two years ago? Three years ago?
Dylan Mercier: How have I changed? I think the biggest thing is I've definitely become a more humble person. Before, I think there was a little bit of ego in the way, and I've slowly learned that this is so much harder than it looks. I kind of thought it was pretty easy when I first started out. Like, "Oh, this is easy. I can get the work. I can perform the work." But as you grow and get more work, I've learned that really performing the work and quality control is a big thing. And so when you start branching off and getting a couple of crews going, it's super hard to keep all your customers happy. And that was a big learning lesson for me last year, and I'm still kind of dealing with it this year. But that's a really tough question. But I think this last year, going into this year, I became a lot more humble. I've respected the hustle a lot more.
Taylor White: What would you tell yourself like two years, like three years ago starting out? What would you tell yourself now, knowing what you know?
Dylan Mercier: Slow down. I maybe would have taken on some smaller jobs in the beginning that I kind of shied away from starting out, where I could have made a little bit more money to help our cash flow. Whereas I was really looking at the bigger picture. I like the bigger jobs, the more complex jobs, but now we're in the full swing of things and it's kind of hard to go back. So I've just learned to deal with the stress and chaos that come from these bigger projects, but I wouldn't have it any other way. But I think if I could have started a little bit differently, I would have gone maybe a tad bit slower. Last year kind of slapped me in the face, and this year I know what I'm getting into, so it helps, but it's still tough to go through the day-to-day and manage all these - that's the biggest thing, is managing these bigger projects. Document control, like I said, just quality control. It's super tough, and you got to trust people. And yeah, I think that's probably the best way I can kind of put that without getting way too deep into it.
Taylor White: Yeah, well, you touched on a good point about how you kind of started off on larger jobs, because I remember when you first started, I was like, "Damn, dude." And you're doing these six-figure jobs right off the bat, and like, big six-figure jobs. And I was like, "Holy, Dylan's just going straight into it." So a question I had here was about risk, like high-risk versus low-risk. I always found it kind of interesting because you're definitely a high-risk guy. You definitely like taking the high risk. Is that something that you think you just kind of have within you? And you touched on it when you talked about being able to deal with the stress and cash flowing and all that. But would you recommend somebody go the high-risk route versus the low-risk? Because to me, you went the high-risk route, and it's paying off and it's working. You're still in year three, but you're still here, and you're still going. But you've also managed to do this all without running on a line of credit or all that stuff. That's super impressive.
Dylan Mercier: I think it varies. It all comes down to how much you know on the back end, too, because that's the biggest thing. These jobs that have a lot more risk, with maybe, I guess you could consider some better pay, obviously, if you perform and you meet the job deadline and pass all your testing at the end of the job, et cetera. Higher risk, is it worth it? Like I kind of touched on, there are definitely some times where I could have taken the lower-risk jobs and maybe made some more money. But again, I think my ego kind of got in the way, and I like these bigger projects, which, I think for me to admit that is a big thing because I wouldn't have been able to do that even a year ago or before that. I was always chasing the biggest jobs, and I'm glad I didn't get some of those bigger jobs because I would have screwed up royally. We landed in a really sweet spot where we were taking on some medium-sized jobs, going into some bigger jobs, and it helped, you know, to kind of learn on some of those medium-sized jobs before we got into the bigger ones. But from a risk standpoint, now I feel like I do a better job at assessing the risk prior to bidding the project.
For instance, there's a job that I just turned down. We kind of work in a 20- to 30-square-mile radius, and this one was kind of outside of our work area. And I felt really good about the price, and it was a tricky job, for sure, because it's on an existing manufacturing plant. But I turned it down just because of the risk involved with it if we couldn't perform and I couldn't keep this customer happy because it was so far outside of our work area. It would have caused a lot of turmoil just internally and also with that contractor, so I turned it down. Whereas before, like last year, I probably would have taken it on and screwed up and probably pissed somebody off.
Taylor White: Being able to say no.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah, you got to be able to say no.
Taylor White: That's a good spot to be in, though.
Dylan Mercier: It also means you need to bid a little bit higher, too, though, if you're winning jobs like that. I've learned that too. That's a big thing.
Taylor White: So what do you mean? So like, if people are, you know, if you keep winning and winning and winning, maybe it's like, "Hey, maybe I should jack up my prices or increase my prices accordingly so that, you know, I'm getting a little bit higher profit margin because maybe I'm a little too cheap because I'm winning everything."
Dylan Mercier: Yeah, that's one thing, too. It comes in waves, and I'm sure you know this, and maybe a lot of people listening know this too. You feel like you go a month or two, maybe even three months, where you don't win anything, and then all of a sudden, four, five, six months in, you win six, seven jobs in a row. And then you'll go a month without really winning anything, maybe win one project, and then you win two or three. This past month, we just won everything we were bidding, and I have slowly started to raise our prices up a little bit, and it seems to have kind of steadied out a little bit, which is nice because I was getting a little worried there for a while.
Taylor White: You said that you were good at doing stuff and focusing on what you need to focus on. And I found that interesting because I know that we've spoken before, and you're the type of guy who's like, "Oh yeah, I won't look at that because that's just going to mess me up," or "I don't even want to see that guy's stuff or this girl's stuff or whatever." To me, it's like you've always blocked out the noise, and I've always found that interesting. You don't want to pay attention to that because of this reason or that reason, and you kind of just want to focus on yourself in your own lane. Can you touch on a little bit of that and explain? You must know that you're like that, right? Like, "I don't want to see this. I just have to look at this. If I see that, that's just going to mess me up."
Dylan Mercier: Yeah, it's horrible for you from an internet standpoint, like Instagram, TikTok. It took me a long time to be able to see other people, even someone like you, a good friend of mine, or some of our other good friends, and watch some of the things you guys post or just see what you're doing on a day-to-day basis and be like, "Oh, why can't I be there? Why can't I be there?" It took me a long time to realize that. And the biggest thing I took away from that is obviously still looking at the bigger picture but not letting it totally consume your everyday reality because that's where it gets screwed up. And I think some people definitely get lost in that.
The way I look at it, and especially with the guys who work for me, I just always tell them, "We do cool stuff, and nobody does anything cooler than us." Which, I know at the end of the day that's not true. I may think that, and I may try and portray it that way, but I always just kind of look at everything you're doing. And even, you know, some of the other contractors that work in our area, I always drive by their job sites and I'm like, "Man, that's cool, but what we're doing is just as cool." I don't know, I try not to think about it too much because if you do, it'll screw you up. And I'm sure you could probably agree with that. It's one of those things where you just stay in your lane and do what you’ve got to do and keep the people you're working for happy, and everything will kind of work out.
Taylor White: Yeah, you got to keep the noise out. And yeah, I just always thought that was interesting because we'd be talking about stuff and you'd be like, "Oh, I didn't even want to watch that or see that because I just have to do my own thing." And I think that there's a lot to be learned from that as well, too. I mean, you went from doing everything yourself to now you have a good number of employees, you got your shop, you're getting machinery.
And speaking of machinery, I know this year you bought a few pieces, but then you also rent a few pieces as well. I know a lot of people have different perspectives on renting versus buying, and it's a topic of discussion, but I'm curious to hear your opinion on renting versus buying because you'll just rent rock trucks for like four months or that 84-inch drum roller that's sitting in your shop. I came back here and I texted my Cat salesman, I'm like, "Man, I need a roller. A 54-inch drumroller is not working." But then the rental on that thing was, you know, like $7,000 a month they wanted up here. So I'm just like, it's interesting. And obviously, talk into it too, because you're looking at rental purchase offers as well, right? So all the money you're putting towards rent, if at the end of it you want to buy it, that money goes down towards you buying it, which is a really good way of doing it too, right? With rental-purchase agreements. Talk a little bit about that, because you have a really mixed fleet of rented versus bought.
Dylan Mercier: I guess the best way to put it is for us, bidding season is from January to March or April. Once April rolled around - and I'm constantly staying in touch with our equipment manufacturers, our equipment dealerships about updated pricing and trying to work out deals with them throughout those months. Like, "Hey, if I get X, Y, Z jobs, and I can line them up perfectly to where we keep a piece of equipment for five months, what kind of rate can you give me for that five months or six months or four months?" And usually they're pretty apt to work with you. So once I line enough jobs up, and obviously the reason I go to them beforehand too is because I want to know that cost from a bidding standpoint, because then it helps me be a little bit more competitive versus just taking your basic rental price on a monthly basis from any dealership around here and just being like, "Okay, roller, seven grand a month, great."
But if you call your Cat salesman up or whoever and you're like, "Hey, I want to rent a roller for four or five months, maybe buy it at the end, what kind of rate can we get?" It's kind of crazy. And when I tell people this, most people are kind of like, "You can really do that?" You can get a better price if you explain to them, "Hey, I want to buy this, and I also want to rent it for half the year." But obviously, you have to keep the piece of equipment busy, too. So you want to make sure you have jobs lined up. And once April and May roll around and I know I have boom, boom, boom, boom jobs, we can go from project to project to project, and I can keep taking these pieces of equipment with me. That's kind of when I make that decision to pull the plug, and I'm like, "All right." I call whoever we're getting the piece of equipment from and I'm like, "Hey, send this out. We're going to have it till November. I want it on an RPO."
And obviously, there's a lot of interest that goes into that because it's not super beneficial for them to just rent me a piece of equipment for six months and say seven grand of rent goes into it, and then by the end of the six months, you know, I've spent quite a bit of money, and the equipment's still worth something to them. So there is some interest that builds up. But for me, it works better for us too, just because we don't have the credit backing. Going into our third year, at the end of our third year, it's still pretty tough to get financing. I have to put some pretty hefty down payments down, and that's not something you want to be doing in the middle of July when you owe suppliers and trucking companies hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it helps because once the year ends, that's when I go back to whoever I'm doing the RPO deal with in December, January, and I'm like, "Hey, that worked out. I know we're going to use it again next year. Let's work out a deal." But the biggest thing for me is just all winter long, I spend going back and forth with whoever we're working with from a dealer standpoint, trying to get the best pricing from a rental standpoint, which worked out for us this year. We got some pretty good pricing on a couple of pieces of equipment that if I would have just rented by the month and not mentioned any of the possible future deals, I think the pricing would have been a hell of a lot different.
Taylor White: Yeah. And then you also, beginning of this year, you bought a dozer and a shovel, right?
Dylan Mercier: Yep. Yeah, a 323 and a D3.
Taylor White: How have those been?
Dylan Mercier: The 323 is great. It's a great-sized machine.
Taylor White: The dozer or the shovel was more expensive?
Dylan Mercier: Oh, the 323 was, for sure. We wanted a D4.
Taylor White: Okay. And you bought the D3?
Dylan Mercier: Yeah.
Taylor White: Okay. Yeah. And are you looking at it now and being like, "Dang, I should have bought a D4?"
Dylan Mercier: Yeah.
Taylor White: Yeah. I see that job you're on right now. You could use a D5 on that.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah. We have like a 1.6-foot cut on the parking lot. It's just... Thank gosh we have the side truck out there because we're able to just pretty much do all our rough grade cuts with the excavator and the side truck, and then the dozer comes and trims it all. But it's still, when we're filling another side of the site and we do have to do some cutting with that D3 - and then we also, I have a D4 on RPO right now, so it helps a little bit. But in a perfect world, I would have rather bought that D4 this past winter and had a D5 on rent for a couple of months this summer or something because some of these sites are pretty big. So the D3 would be great for the parking lots, like doing all the stone in the parking lots and building pads, pushing sand and stuff. But other than that, any actual earthmoving, it's like using a skid steer in a parking lot or something. It's just not very fun.
Taylor White: Yeah, well, your work is large, right? Like you said, you first started off and you got into larger commercial projects. And I mean, I know you're on some smaller projects as well, but the majority of your work is larger projects. Anybody who checks out your Instagram right now as well too can see your stories. You're on a large earthmoving project right now. So, you know, I feel like that's a good-sized dozer, but maybe a D4 or possibly in the future for you, a D5, something that's high-track that can push a little bit more earth, definitely. But knowing you, you'll probably get one on RPO in the next month after this because you'll be like, "Yeah, I should. That'd be awesome."
Dylan Mercier: Be so sweet.
Taylor White: Oh yeah.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah, he's right.
Taylor White: Your work ethic. I don't know if I've ever asked you just what motivates you. What motivates Dylan? What motivates you?
Dylan Mercier: What motivates me? For one - and you're going to love this; it pains me for this to come out of my mouth, but I'm going to say it anyways, just for you and to give you a little fat boost today - I've always been pretty inspired by you yourself, like your whole "work harder" deal. One of these days, I'm going to get my first tattoo and put it somewhere, maybe right up here or something.
Taylor White: Yeah, CONEXPO 2023 style.
Dylan Mercier: And just the fact that your business, and I know you and your dad pretty well, and seeing how you guys have all kind of kept it in the family and passed it down to each other and how excited you are to get your kids involved in it, I think it's a cool thing. For me, it's a little bit different. I grew up around a family business, but it was completely - it was the polar opposite of what I do now. My parents own a painting company, so it's totally different. But the future of what's to come for me kind of drives me to do well. And I also... I don't know, it's cool to hear people say they're proud of me and they think what I'm doing is awesome. For it to come from somebody like you or my father, my parents, like my mother, some of my friends, Lauren, any of them. I mean, it's just cool to hear. So I think that's kind of what keeps me going.
Taylor White: Yeah. Well, that's nice to hear. And I definitely agree with you on that. It is cool for you to also mention the passing on to generations because although you can't look at me and be like, "Well, oh, you know, he started his own thing and he did this," it's cool, the perspective of looking at it and being like, "Man, one day I'd like to do that with my kids," you know, the dynamic that they have, which is pretty neat as well. So that's what motivates you, but how do you stay motivated?
Dylan Mercier: Short answer: money.
Taylor White: Yeah, it keeps you going, man.
Dylan Mercier: No, I know, and that sounds super ignorant.
Taylor White: No, but there's a part of it. You're right, though. There is a part of it. That's what keeps me motivated is - I mean, we're not going to go into details here, but we both showed each other our company accounts, and it's like, you know what keeps me going? I know what keeps you going, right? It's like, there's no coasting.
Dylan Mercier: No. And I'm a horrible people person, and I'm hoping, you know, in the near future I can find somebody to manage my employees on a day-to-day basis.
Taylor White: You need that. You need that.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah, dude, I know. Showing up every day and watching some of these people who've worked for me for a year grow is - or even two years is - the coolest thing ever. And also growing close to those guys, and the fact that some of them have come to me for personal issues in their life, it's just... that's cool, too. I think the camaraderie side of it, the team side of it - although I may not be the best day-to-day leader, it's still super cool to see. I think that's... Without all of us working together, I think those guys would be somewhere else and probably not be as happy and not get the opportunities that I've been able to give them. And I think that is the truth because I was in that position.
Taylor White: Shout out, Dante. You definitely give people opportunities that they normally wouldn't receive. And I think again, that goes back to you taking a high risk, because you take on these guys where you're not necessarily like, "Oh, okay, you know how to run a dozer, you know how to run an excavator." You're like, "All right, you're a good dude, you got a good work ethic, you're young, you're hungry. All right, cool, I'll hire you and I can teach you all the other stuff."
But I think it's pretty cool that you mentioned, "Hey, day in and day out, I might not be the best leader for everybody." I agree. I think you're a fantastic leader, but I think I agree that you need somebody to manage your people day in and day out and just keep you kind of honed in and focused on what you need to do. I just think that it's really important to understand and ask yourself - and I want to ask you - what would be your ideal? What are your strengths and what is your ideal... Like, this is my role within my business, and this is what I do.
Dylan Mercier: My strengths? I like to sell. I like the chase. I like chasing the new work, chasing new clientele. I like getting the work. I would say that's my favorite part of the business side of things.
Taylor White: Estimating or getting the connection and then getting the work?
Dylan Mercier: Getting the connection. Yeah.
Taylor White: Not sitting in front of a computer and playing Swift, going click, click, click, click.
Dylan Mercier: I mean, I can do it, and I've been doing that. And I still ultimately, you know, as we move forward with things and I find some people to help me with that, I think I'll still be sort of involved with that. But obviously, getting the work, not so much the paperwork side of things, and then performing the work, I think are by far the coolest things. And then just the connections that come out of it, the people you meet from suppliers, trucking companies, subcontractors, specialty contractors - I just, all of it's fun from a business standpoint. Like we mentioned earlier, managing people on a day-to-day basis is not one of my strengths, but definitely dealing with people in the scheduling side of things with some of the trades we work with. I enjoy talking to the people I get to talk to every day, which is cool.
Taylor White: I totally would agree. And I know that we kind of touched on that whenever I was talking down there with you, and I think you were working on something, hopefully bringing somebody in. And I'm not sure where that's at if it did work out or...
Dylan Mercier: I got a new CFO starting July 7.
Taylor White: Well, congrats, man. I'm happy.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah. Took a long time.
Taylor White: Yeah. So by the time this podcast is out, he's already working for you, so fantastic. Good job, man. I'm proud of you. That's a big step.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah, it'll be great. I'm really looking forward to it. He's brilliant. He's smarter than I am tenfold. And...
Taylor White: That's what you need.
Dylan Mercier: His strengths outweigh all of my weaknesses, so it's perfect.
Taylor White: That's awesome. Sounds like a perfect marriage.
Dylan Mercier: Well, we'll see, but I hope so.
Taylor White: One cool thing I wanted to chat with you about - and I guess a little bit of backstory for people listening if this is your first time - I met Dylan through social media, and we started chatting back and forth when he worked for somebody else. Since then, I think we've both seen social media go through different trends and different people to watch and different people to follow. I want to ask you, because obviously you're locked in on social media stuff. You used to post more videos and do more videos, which hopefully you continue to try to do more of in the future, because you have a really creative mind for it, and you have the brain to make content. And whether that's having somebody else do it, like with me, having somebody else do it but giving them direction and being like, "Hey, this would be kind of cool. Use this type of music," because you have that brain. And I think that's actually what will take your business to the next level once you have that guy who can help do what you're talking about and pick up on the stuff that you're not so great at, like you said. But looking at social media as a whole right now, what trends do you see that you like or you don't like? Or what direction do you see construction social media going in? Yeah, construction social media as a whole. What's your take on it right now?
Dylan Mercier: My biggest takeaway is that over the last two years, everybody figured out you could buy a DJI drone. It does all the color grading for you. You could clip it up on CapCut or something and post a video. So the days of posting a TikTok video or reel or just anything with five or six different clips and beat changes are over. I've seen enough of those.
Taylor White: That's what worked before, though, right? That's what worked. And that's what's crazy. That's what made us blow up, is because I taught myself how to edit, and I was like, "Oh, dang, I could use this trap remix of Waka Flocka and put it on the clips of a dozer." And people were like, "Whoa. Oh my God, this is crazy." It's funny, but it's very true. And now everybody's doing it, right? Everybody is doing that sort of thing. So okay, now we've situated that we're here. What's kind of the next, and where do you see it going or where do you want to see it going?
Dylan Mercier: You have to include personality. You guys do a good job of including personality. I see some other people on the internet, I won't name names, but you include maybe a little clip of some talking or one of the guys just saying something totally out of pocket, or guys or girls, it doesn't matter. Like the post that you got on Barstool, where what's-his-name was doing the Lil Uzi Vert. Yeah, something like that, that people can actually relate to. And it's like, that same kind of stuff happens on their job sites, just nobody gets it on video. And that's the best thing. Nobody wants to see the videos we just talked about. Nobody wants to see the boring, like, "Happy Memorial Day," "Happy Fourth of July," "Happy Canada Day"...
Taylor White: ... stagnant picture.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah. I will say I saw a super great Father's Day post from a local, a big company around us, where they had different photos of all the different - you know, all the men that work for them and their kids. And they did a really good job of putting it all together, whereas most people would just post a big group picture and say, "Happy Father's Day." Lately, I've been really disconnected from LinkedIn because it seems to be the same people over and over again saying, "This is what you need to do to be a better contractor," and selling these... I don't know what you want to call them, consulting...
Taylor White: I'm so indifferent about LinkedIn, man. It's funny because the last time we talked, you were like, "LinkedIn is where it's at." And yeah, you did post a lot on LinkedIn.
Dylan Mercier: Oh, it's great.
Taylor White: I don't know. I just find it... I don't look at my messages on there because all my messages are like, "Hey, thanks for the ad. Have you heard... like, do you want to recruit? Or are you looking for, you know, 10x your sales?" and this and that. And maybe some of those people could help, maybe they couldn't. I just find it really salesy.
Dylan Mercier: It seems somewhat fake almost sometimes. I got sick of seeing people who don't do this every day tell you how to do things. For a while, it was working. I think a lot of people did super well off that. But I don't know, I've been thinking lately, I like to share our work on LinkedIn because it does reach a lot of people, especially locally. That was the one reason I liked it. And I still meet people. I just met somebody at a golf outing last week who was like, "Yeah, I've seen your stuff on LinkedIn. It's great. It looks like you guys do a good job." And that is what I use it for. I am not super interested in reaching the audience even, you know, within a hundred miles of us, like different states, different territories. It's really about the local side of things. But I don't know, social media seems kind of dead right now, but there are still people putting out good content. I just like the stories.
Taylor White: Yeah, I like the stories as well too. But it's like for us, it's funny because Instagram used to be the place where we'd be, you know, dropping F-bombs and stuff like that. And we've kind of changed it now to where that's kind of our TikTok. But actually, it's just not us because I'm trying to represent the company in a really professional way that is modern and makes it fun, obviously, but isn't totally out of pocket. And recently, what I did, and I'm not sure maybe if you noticed, but Jake, my videographer, in-house videographer, he's doing everything now. He's actually posting. So it's the first time I've actually let somebody into our account on TikTok and Instagram and post for me, because I was just finding it really... I was struggling. My desk right now, if you could see below here, everyone's off today. I'm the only one in here, and it's just like paperwork with our GC business, Ken White stuff, like load tickets that I'm supposed to be invoicing. And it's just like, I went home and I just didn't have the time for it, so I delegated that aspect to it. And I think he's doing a good job of changing the posting up or having posts where it has photos and photos within the photos, or our video content kind of splitting it up differently...
Dylan Mercier: I like the three-tier.
Taylor White: Yeah. He's just doing different things that I definitely didn't think of. And maybe if it was my full-time job, I would think of that next best thing. But for me, I always find it an interesting conversation, especially with you. You're in the know-how with what's trending or social media or stuff like that. And I just think sometimes I get lost in trying to figure out, "Okay, what is that next thing?" But I think you nailed it with saying personalities, people on there, showing the culture, showing what it's like, and showing your work, but finding that line of being professional about it so that if a big client came and looked at it, it's like, "All right, cool, I want to trust these guys on my job site." But it's a hard line because sometimes you just want to get on there and post whatever, you know what I mean?
Dylan Mercier: Yeah. That's why I tend to use the 24-hour stories as more of, "I'm going to put whatever song or picture I want over this." Although it goes to the internet and it's out there forever, it technically disappears after 24 hours. Do you think social media still helps you from a hiring standpoint?
Taylor White: Oh yeah, like, oh yeah.
Dylan Mercier: Solely?
Taylor White: The only place.
Dylan Mercier: Do you guys still get a bunch of résumés, like constantly?
Taylor White: Listen, we get probably, I would say on average - because some days it could be two, but some days it could be 12. I would say if you average it out, four résumés a day we get sent to us.
Dylan Mercier: That's crazy.
Taylor White: Yeah. I mean, like every day, four consistent résumés. But the thing with social media is a lot of those guys are like, "Hey, I live in Montana," or "Hey, I'm in Australia," or "Hey, I'm in Finland." You know, and they're not even around here. And it's like, "All right, cool." But that's the only thing with social media is... We were looking at it yesterday, actually. Our audience, our insights, we're 55% United States of America. Over half of my audience is the United States. Then it's Canada, then it's Austria, and then it's something else. It does help with hiring, but it doesn't necessarily help us gain work. People think, "Yeah, how much work are you actually gaining from social media?" It's not really about that, but not none, really, if I'm being honest.
Dylan Mercier: Most people scrolling on TikTok and Instagram usually aren't, you know, spending ten, twenty million on a new building.
Taylor White: No, exactly.
Dylan Mercier: Your local operations of parks, your local city managers, they're not on there either, trying to look for people to install a new sanitary sewer main or storm sewer. That's not where they're at.
Taylor White: What's next for you? Obviously, the big thing is you have this CFO coming in. That's a huge deal. But what is next for you? What's next for the team over at D2?
Dylan Mercier: I want to solidify our clientele base. Everything from the private design-build, plan-and-spec contractors who maybe do a little bit of municipal but mostly private. And then also the few municipalities we do work with, I really want to become their go-to contractor for any emergency repairs, including new installs. And obviously, some of the new installs do get bid out, but sometimes, although you have to be the lowest bidder, there are some ways around that. But I don't know, I'm really just trying to develop our relationships and find the right teams and put the right people in the right places.
I have no interest in obtaining any of these super-large jobs, only because I can't compete with some of these guys around here at the moment, just because we're kind of in a weird spot where we need to grow our workforce and also acquire quite a bit more equipment before we can really jump to the next level. And when I say acquire, I think there's only so many pieces of equipment I can rent, which kind of limits us to the size of job. Like, I probably wouldn't take a job from a private standpoint, ground-up construction, that's over 10 acres. We can move - and we've done it once - we can move about 35,000 yards in two weeks. And then anything after that... We got a job that we're on - we're on the hook for with a couple of other contractors locally, but the award hasn't been announced yet. There's a job that's 58-some-odd thousand yards of dirt to move. And I think that's about as high as I want to go at the moment. Then you start talking scrapers and ADTs, side trucks... I just don't have the...
Taylor White: I think - and my two cents, and everybody listening, Dylan's a good buddy of mine, so this is why I'm going to say this - I think the best thing for you is to hire this CFO, perfect where you're at right now, perfect this level, and then work on, "Boom, okay, we're going to take things to the next tier now." Perfect how to drive profit out of the size that you are and how to stack a little bit of money right now so it gives you a little bit more buying power in the future. But perfect it before it gets too crazy and out of hand. And not that you're there at all. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying going to the next step from where you're at right now, that's a big one.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah, you start messing around with the big dogs, they'll chew you up and spit you out.
Taylor White: You got to have systems in place, right? You’ve got to have all your documents digital, and your tailgate forms are digital. And then you've got to have your foremen reporting to your supers, who are up to your coordinators. There's a ladder of stuff, and you're only one guy. You can't do everything in the office. I know you have help in the office, but yeah, that's... And I know maybe that is kind of what you were saying. It's like, you know, we're trying to just do what we're doing now and then take things to that next level.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah. Raise the revenue a little bit, better profit margins, be sitting pretty. But we got a lot of stuff to figure out, and I've become aware of it, and I'm okay with it. I've accepted it. I'm excited for what's to come. How about you? You need some advice?
Taylor White: Oh, I need a lot of advice, dude. Two businesses right now, it's crazy. But this podcast isn't about me. This podcast is about you, which, as I was just saying, I'm looking forward to the CONEXPO this year. I know that you're going.
Dylan Mercier: This year?
Taylor White: Yeah, that's March coming up. Under a year left. March 3 to 7. Tickets go on sale in August. People can sign up for the newsletter, they can get tickets as well there or just know where to buy them or when to buy them. There'll be discounts all throughout the year, but I'm pumped for it. I was talking to Trent, you know, I told you I was talking with him, and then I just talked to another guy the other day, and he's buddies with Trent, and he has a podcast as well, too. He's in Arkansas.
Dylan Mercier: Cy?
Taylor White: Yeah.
Dylan Mercier: Yeah, I saw Trent on his podcast.
Taylor White: Yeah, Cy Kirby. Yeah, I was talking with him. And anyways, it's just cool, like a bunch of all these different people can get together and chat and hang out. I think that's what I'm looking forward to is just getting a bit of a break and seeing you down there.
Dylan Mercier: I'm excited. Look out for those brochures, everybody, when you go buy your tickets. You got me standing right up on the front, posted up with the old Volvo.
Taylor White: Listen, you're super busy. I'm going to let you go, and I thank you for coming on today. This podcast is brought to you by our good friends over at John Deere Power Systems. Thank you very much, John Deere Power Systems, for sponsoring the podcast. Dylan, thank you for coming on today. Hopefully somebody learned something from this. You're the classic, awesome person for people to listen to this and be like, "This is how you can do it." You start from nothing, and here you are, you know, you're a seven-figure business now, well into the seven figures, and you've cut yourself short sometimes. So you've done very well, and you should be really impressed with how well you've done, dude. I look up to you as well, so I really appreciate you being on here.
Dylan Mercier: Thank you. And thank you, CONEXPO, for letting me come on for a third time.
Taylor White: That has been the CONEXPO-CON/AGG Podcast. We'll catch you guys on the next one. Take care.
