Are you juggling the relentless demands of your business while trying to keep your content fresh and impactful? Taylor goes solo once again today to share his candid experiences, navigating the complexities of delegation and the evolution of his content creation.
What if the very things you're holding onto are stunting your progress? Embracing strategic delegation and adapting your content, especially with pivotal industry events like CONEXPO-CON/AGG on the horizon, can pave the way for significant growth and a more manageable workload.
Today’s episode offers invaluable lessons for construction professionals and business owners aiming to scale and capitalize on industry networking and learning opportunities.
Topics:
- Learning to let go through delegation
- Creating content that reflects business reality
- Long-term success over one-time profit
- Why CONEXPO-CON/AGG is a must-attend event
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Episode transcript:
Taylor White: Welcome back, everybody, to the CONEXPO-CON/AGG Podcast. I am your host, as always, Taylor White. This podcast is brought to you by our good friends over at John Deere Power Systems. Thank you so much. Before we begin today’s podcast, I want to let everybody know that the wait is almost over. CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 is back in Vegas, March 3rd to the 7th, and it is shaping up to be the biggest yet - five action-packed days of heavy equipment, cutting-edge technology, and the top minds in the industry. Muah. Me. I am the top mind in the industry. Just kidding. People way smarter than me are going to be there. And if you are in construction, this is the event to be at. We are a few short months away from tickets going on sale in August, okay? We’re in June. You got July, and then boom, they’re on sale. And newsletter subscribers get discounts delivered straight to their inbox. Click the link in the description to sign up today, please.
In the last solo podcast, we talked about a lot of different dynamics going on: the stresses and the anxieties of running a business, and and just a lot of back-and-forths about what’s going on. And one thing that I thought was - two things, actually. I want to prefix this by saying, tomorrow is my birthday. And this is June 12th today, okay? So, tomorrow is my birthday. And guess what? Turn 30 years old. I’m going to be the big 3-0. I am no longer in my twenties. I am going to be a full-blown 30-year-old man-child, which is crazy to think about, but it’s happening. I have three kids. I’m under 30. And we got two businesses going on, YouTube channel, CONEXPO podcast, just a bunch of different things going on. So, in the last podcast, we talked about everything surrounding everything that I just talked about, essentially, and the mindset going into that.
One thing I want to talk about today is delegation, because I recently just had a conversation with Jake, who does all of our in-house filming and editing. And I know a lot of other people could probably relate when I talk about this stuff too, as well. You know, there’s so many times where social media and the marketing side of things have just been an afterthought in my life right now. And they're being an afterthought because there’s so much going on all the time between the two different businesses and then family life. And when I first brought on a videographer and filmer onto our team, it was because I lacked the time to film and edit, because that takes a lot of your time. To constantly be thinking about different angles of the shots as you’re actively shooting, and then not only that, but then at the end of the day, or on the weekend, or at night, is when I’d be editing most of the time. Now, that time is just not there for me. I was never ready to fully pass the torch off in the sense of, "Oh, here’s access to our Instagram and TikTok and YouTube. Okay, you take care of uploading and looking after that." Well, here we are now, seven years later after I started this journey of social media, and ready to delegate that off onto Jake. So, we had a meeting yesterday.
And let me prefix this by: sometimes when you think about delegation, you’re not ready to delegate, you’re not ready to give up that certain aspect. And I was never ready. I compared it to him like quitting smoking, you know? When I smoked, I always talked about quitting smoking, and, you know, I’d quit and then fail, and then quit and then fail. And it wasn’t until I was actually fully ready to quit smoking, because I knew I was ready. I could just tell, it just clicked, that I was done smoking. Same goes with this sort of stuff. Honestly, it’s the same mindset. Like, I was I was never ready. And now, I know I’m 100% ready because it doesn’t bother me to pass off those tasks. And I also have - I never had that right person where I had that comfort level of being like, "Okay, this is going to be a good thing." So that's where Jake comes in. And yesterday I brought him in and I’m like, "Hey, let’s sit down, let’s talk. These are some things that I want to go over with you." And he was all for it. And it actually made me feel even better going out of it. Like, he walked out of here fired up. He was like, "Dude, like, I’m super pumped. Like, I know that we can take this to the next level." Because here where I’m at with social media: our Instagram and our TikTok is being used primarily for showcasing the employees, the culture, and the jobs that we’re actively doing, right? To showcase the company as a whole, not so much myself, where before it was used to showcase myself - the stories, I’d bring you along in the stories for the day. Things just change in time with that sort of stuff because the clients change, the growth of the business happens.
But with YouTube is where I’ve been really lacking. I haven’t made the time to post on there. And I’ve been really struggling with what’s the type of content that I want to showcase on YouTube, and what’s the type of content that we should be putting on there that also represents me and I want to upload and post? Because, and and maybe a lot of our fans are watching right now, but, you know, I’ve really kind of like let them down. And I feel like I’ve let down a part of what put Ken White on the map was our YouTube, and I and I’ve let that aspect down. But essentially, I’d be lying if I said I wanted to make videos like I used to make all the time now because it’s just not my life. I actually couldn’t even get a way to go into the podcast studio today. Well, Jake’s working in there right now, but I’m just wrapped up with emails and meetings and calls today. And, you know, all this morning, and then we just had a lunch get-together, and then after this, I have another meeting that I got to run out to. And that’s my life these days, is meetings and, you know, problems and issues, and dealing with those at a higher level, but also having my fingertips on everything as well too, and dealing with some some minor tasks within Ken White Construction as well. But I want to make content around that, is what I’m trying to say. I want to make content around growing both businesses, Ken White Construction and PriTec, because that’s what I’m interested in right now.
And what we’re trying to figure out with Jake now is - when I say "we," I mean me and Jake, that would be our new marketing team - is trying to figure out a workflow, being like, what do these new videos look like? What does that entail? Because we grew an audience showing the montages of the construction machinery, which we still want to show, and they’re still going to show. Don’t think I’m not going to show that. Because I also can’t just post a 15 to 18-minute-long video of me sitting here on my desk like this, being like, "And then I sent an email to my civil contractor, and he said, 'No way you can get stormwater management on this site.'" And I was like, "What?" That’s boring. No one’s going to listen to that. So, it’s through working with Jake, delegating those tasks down to him, and figuring out, "Okay, you have a full-time job to dedicate and time to dedicate to thinking about what type of videos we should be uploading, what those videos should look like." And I don’t have the time for that. I have time to review them. I have time to obviously work as a team with you, but for me to - it’s a full-time job, and I don’t have a full-time thing to sit there and talk and and and think about it.
So, I thought that was a really good topic for today. And I’d love for people to reach out online as well too and talk about that. But it’s hard letting go of some stuff. For me, it was always hard, like letting go of tasks. It was easier letting go of the tasks that I wasn’t so good at. I’m not the best estimator in the world. I’m not the best coordinator in the world. I’m not good at HR. So, you get people that go in those positions, right? But with marketing, like, I am very good at marketing. I know how to grow a social media platform, and I know how to grow a business, and I know what gets clicks. I know my audience better than I honestly believe I know anybody else. I know who watches our content. I know what kind of music they like. I know what kind of videos and photos that they want to see. And I think that’s why it’s so hard to let go, is because that’s what I’m truly good at and what I do truly enjoy. But my life is changing, and I truly do enjoy what I’m doing now with our new business, PriTec, as well as Ken White Construction, growing those two, you know, hand-in-hand. And it’s what needs to be done. With PriTec, our other general contracting business is construction management, but for argument’s sake, I say just GC business. It required somebody to go in-depth and dig away at it. And that’s what, honestly, 85% of my time right now is just being dedicated to, it is PriTec and trying to make things go over there, keeping our customer and our client, that line of communication open.
And we have a lot of cool things on the go right now. I guess to update people on my life there, it’s been really crazy. We have multiple projects signed with them, signed with clients to start doing. Took a couple prep shop - prep shops, which is like for a dealership, but not really - it’s not a dealership themselves. It’s not even a mechanic shop, really. It’s a prep shop. It’s like basically for detailing and getting vehicles that are are, you know, haven’t been PDI’d [Pre-Delivery Inspected], you know, some accessories put on them that maybe somebody who bought the the new vehicle would be getting on them: mud flaps, you know, fender flares, stuff like that, visors, window tint, stuff like that. So, we’re doing a couple dealerships like that, a couple buildings like that - sorry, not dealerships. And that’s been really exciting. The biggest thing for me, I guess, with that is just learning something totally new. And that kind of relates into a good conversation because there’s an old saying that is, you know, "fake it 'til you make it." And that is true, and and I I do think that that does work, and I think that I am good at that. I’m good at sitting in a room. But there’s a sense of like faking it 'til you make it so that you can sit at the dinner table, but then you got to be able to actually eat the food. Meaning, fake it 'til you make it so that people think that you deserve a spot at the table, but don’t start going in and talking about stuff that you actually don’t know about. Or when someone asks you, like, "You’ve done this before. Like, you know this stuff, right?" Be honest. Don’t say, "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no problem, for sure. Yeah, I can do that, for sure." That’s when you get yourself into trouble. And I’m saying this from experience, not with PriTec, but on the Ken White side, right? Biting off more than we could chew, telling somebody, "Yeah, yeah, I can do that. We’ve done that before." And I have a big problem with saying that because I hate saying no to people. But it’s a fine line of holding yourself presentable and knowing enough about what you’re talking about, but not lying about it. And that’s why I think we found so much success with this business, is because I’m able to, you know, connect with people and be like, "Hey, look, like, I’m a dog, and I will push, and I will work, but I’m not trying to act like I have put up a prep shop before. But guess what? I’m going to figure it out, and we’re going to hire the right people and the team to delegate tasks to, and we’re going to remain on budget - try to. We’re going to remain in a good timeline, and I’m going to try to do it fast for you guys, but also do a really good quality job." And that’s what we’ve been doing over there. And we’ve been relying heavily on the team that we’ve kind of built up over there of engineers, designers, and architects to kind of help us push through.
But I feel like to anybody listening right now, if you’re kind of like, "All right, man, I get it. Like, you know, we’re dirt people, we don’t want to talk about that." But like, it relates back even into your dirt business. Learn from my lessons. Fake it 'til you make it, but also don’t lie. Lying is bad. Presenting yourself in a way to make people think that you can do it is different than telling people you can actually do it or you have done it when you have not done it. I am - will be the first person to tell you that when people are in a position of power or wealth or, you know, you got a woman or a man that is a CEO of a business, they’re smart people. And they know when they’re being lied to, and they know when someone’s not being honest, and they know when you’re not being transparent. And they might not tell you that they know that you’re full of shit. They probably won’t. I deal with people every day where I’m like, "You’re full of shit." But I’m not going to call you out on it because I just won’t use you or or talk to you again. No one likes a liar.
But that’s an important lesson, I think, even if you’re going into dirt work, right? You’re a smaller construction guy and or girl, and you’re and you’re trying to figure out to get to that next commercial step. And somebody’s like, "You’ve done all this like servicing before, right? Like, you could do a big water tie-in." "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure." Next thing you know, you got your 5-ton excavator buried down into a hole with, you know, a 6-inch water main blowing water out everywhere because you, in fact, did not know what you were doing. So, you can really get yourself into trouble with that sort of stuff. And it’s an important lesson for a lot of people because everybody wants to grow, everybody wants to grow fast, everybody wants to make more money. But you got to play the long game with this stuff. And playing the short game is just going to get nobody anywhere. It’s not going to get your employees anywhere, it’s also not going to get you anywhere.
And that even goes with money as well, too. You’re not going to retire off one job. Don’t try to retire off one job. Don’t try to get rich off one job. Play the long game, always, especially when people get into change orders on commercial projects. It’s easy to be like, "Do that, or do this," and, "We’re going to make so much money." It’s like, well, if you do that, that developer or contractor might not call you back to do the next one because they know that they’re getting hosed. And although it may not be their money that they’re spending, because it’s, you know, their client’s money, but they know that they’re getting hosed, and they’re not going to do that. I'm not saying that from experience on the contractor side, because I personally haven’t even put up a single building yet. We haven’t got to that point yet. But working with good people and playing the long game is very, very important.
But I did mention - also want to talk about this. It is my birthday tomorrow. Every year on my birthday, let’s talk about some funny stuff, you know? Every year on my birthday, something bad happens. Like, what was it? Two years ago, our brand new 315, the operator was operating it and called me on my birthday and said, "Hey man, guess what? Smashed the grapple into the front of the machine." Not only did I smash the entire front windshield, but I dented the track that like the window slides up and down in. So, we had to completely bend that out and and refix that.
This year, on Monday, I had a text from my cousin who works for me - he drives a dump truck with us - and he smashed the windows. He smashed the window out of our 8-ton excavator with ground mats that he was carrying around the yard in the skid steer. And then today, I got a call about - we’re doing some roof repairs for a client on the PriTec side, and a contractor that we use over there, I guess their employees got into like a fight on site, and like a couple guys stormed off, and like nobody got hurt or nothing happened like that. It's just like this whole scene, right? So then the owners of the buildings, like the owners’ owners, were like, "Dude, this is not a good look for our business. Like, you have your trades that you guys hired screaming and yelling at each other, and we’re trying to operate a business." So, that’s been a fire that we’ve been putting out today as well, too, just in the past actually hour this has happened. So, that’s fantastic.
So, everything happens in groups of threes. And Daniel, who does our screening - and I can see him screening from here - he mentioned to me this morning that, you know, the 308 - or the window was one of three things that was going to happen this year. So, I texted him and said, "Hey, news flash, we got number two of the two of the week now." And then tomorrow is the actual final day. So, I’m going to send a message tonight to everybody and say, "Hey guys, just let everybody know, tomorrow, let’s do circle checks, like triple circle checks on the vehicles, triple circle circle checks on the heavy equipment. Let’s not do anything risky." Not that we normally would do anything crazy, but I mean like even digging in a ditch to put a culvert in because we might hit a gas line, even though we have locates. Like, I don’t want to attempt anything crazy tomorrow. Whatever happened last year, I remember saying, "Everybody gets a day off." Well, we can’t just do that now because we have too much work that we have to do.
But, yeah, I don’t know what it is. And not only that, my birthday is Friday the 13th, which is crazy. Absolutely insane. And actually, Trent Harris, he messaged me last night, and I was telling him that it was my birthday, and we were talking about the previous podcast that we had. This just reminded me of it. But, we were talking about on the last podcast with Trent, kind of actually about delegating as well, too. And I love Trent, he’s a really good guy. If you guys haven’t gone and listened to that podcast, please go and do that. Also, please go and check out Trent's TikTok. It’s pretty entertaining as well, too. He does a really good job with that.
But we were talking about the CONEXPO, and, you know, I was just messaging the good people at AEM who put on the show. And we’re talking about rooms and what’s going on, and me and Jake, our filmer, are going to be there for, I think, a total of like eight days. We’re going to be there like pre-show, getting some content so that you guys are all super well informed about what’s going on. And there’s a bunch of actually, like, stay tuned to our page as well, too, like the KWC 2000 page, because I’m going to be posting some content starting soon about the show, just getting some hype going about the show. Not that CONEXPO needs more hype, but we want to make sure that everybody fully understands that, hey, this thing’s coming up. It’s the best show. But obviously, if you listen to this podcast, you probably have been or you want to go.
And I cannot stress enough to people how awesome this show is. And I actually just want to genuinely talk about the show because I don’t think I actually have ever just done a solo podcast talking about like CONEXPO, the good people there, and everything. And I want everybody to understand that like this was not on an agenda for them. They’re like - they’re not like, "Hey, like talk about the show and how awesome it is. Make sure it sounds…" Like, they never tell me what to talk about on these episodes. But it just came to my mind today before I came on here, and I’m like, "People got to know that haven’t been there, like how incredible and truly awesome this show is." A totally unscripted, like, conversation about CONEXPO. And guys, like if you have not been to this thing - three years ago was my first year going, ever. Like, hand to God, I’m not trying to exaggerate, you know, "Oh, I’ve been going forever." Transparency: first time, three years ago. Since then, I was like, "I will never miss a CONEXPO." Regardless if I’m doing a podcast or not, or I’m involved in some capacity. I hope I’m involved in some capacity in every single show because it’s truly that amazing. And the people that - the massive team that put - like, first, the amount of people it takes to put on this show, like, they deserve so much credit and appreciation.
Because like there’s a bunch of smaller events that we put on here. Like, I’m part of an antiques committee that puts on like a fair, you know? This is like a massive fair, but at a completely, completely different scale. And the amount of people that it takes to put this thing on. And I feel like nobody ever is like, "Hey guys, like thanks for putting on a great show." They’re always like, "You better thank me for coming to your show." Unbelievable. And I know that people that go there are like, "Dude, this is crazy," with the amount of stuff they have here. And guess what? All that stuff, all the exhibitors, all the vendors, the sponsors, the people - the people that do everything with it, like, the show would not be the show without them. And when I talk with the team, obviously the people at AEM, but I know AEM and everybody appreciate - like, the people that come back every single time, and the new people that come back as far as putting booths up or this or that. And there’s always like, you know, those highlight booths. But like, every single booth, whether it’s big or small, are the ones that truly, like, are the heroes of the show. Because without people going there and bringing all their stuff at, you know, big expenses, the show wouldn’t be what the show is without the people. And I think that is what the coolest thing is.
And I think when you guys think about, like, you’re listening to this podcast right now because CONEXPO is like, "Hey, we want to invest money into getting information about the construction industry out there to the masses, to the people." They don’t have to do a podcast. That was something that they’re like, "Hey, this is cool. We want people to stay connected and stay involved with us." But I think it’s fantastic for them to gain knowledge and experience and bring the people on. And the people that I’ve gotten to talk to on this podcast has been crazy. And the people when you’re at the show, it’s so invaluable. I have met long-time - like, I have met friends that I’ve been friends with now for three years because of the show. And I met them for the first time. You know, someone like Luke Payne from Western X. That was somebody I met for the first time at CONEXPO, and we text a couple times a week, for sure, like every single week. Someone like Trent Harris. Now we stay in touch, and we just we met at the show, did a podcast, now we’re staying in touch. And I think that’s the true beauty of it. And that was probably my most fun thing about it. And I’ve mentioned that in previous shows, that it’s just like walking around, seeing people, understanding that everybody has different roles all within the industry - even not in the industry. Some people go there that have nothing to do with construction, and they’re like, "This is just - I wanted to come and see it. This is so cool." I was actually in a meeting this morning with an architect, and he was like, "Yeah, we're going to go to CONEXPO just like check things out." I’m like, "That’s so cool." There’s so many different aspects of the show that’s going on. So, I just wanted to touch on that and make sure everybody knew that like if you have the opportunity and the means to go - I know not everybody does, but genuinely, I would make sure that you do that.
And I would say that you’re going to get benefit out of it. And make sure that you totally immerse yourself in it. Like, if there was like, "Taylor’s tips for taking on CONEXPO," immerse yourself within the show. Be one with the show. What I mean by that is, it’s fine, you just want to go there, hang out, chill, walk around. You can do that. But you can also go there, hang, chill out, but involve yourself with the show, right? Like, go up to the booths, interact with the simulators, interact with the people that are standing at the booths. Go outside, check out, run machinery. There’s machinery that you can even get in and do stuff with. Like, immersing yourself in the show, making the best, and making the - having the full experience is truly like talking to the people, going to the booths, doing the stuff that’s there, going to all the different zones that CONEXPO puts on. Last year, there was a zone where we did a live podcast. There was like this thing up front. It was such a cool experience. And there was other stuff, like different panels. Make sure you’re going to the panels, all of them that you can get to. Obviously, you couldn’t go to every single one. But that’s what I mean.
So, that would be actually like tip number two: Go to all the panels and discussions. The panels and discussions, and the people that they choose - I’m biased because I have a little bit of insight of, you know, possibly maybe some of the people that are going to be talking there. And everybody will have a chance to to see those as well, too. Unbelievable, guys. These aren’t people that they’re just like, "Oh, well, we asked them or whatever." These are people talking about stuff that they specifically are like experts on, or they’ve done it. They’re big business owners, they’re small business owners, they’re women in construction, they’re men in construction, like from all different aspects, which is really, really cool. And you can find each panel that would be tailored to something that you want to talk about. And not only at these things - I was on a panel last year, a bunch of other people. Matt Stanley actually was one of them, and we’re trying to line up a podcast right now with him too, Raised on Blacktop. Shout out, Matt. And people got to ask us questions. People got to like reach out where they normally wouldn’t get the opportunity because we just don’t live nearby, right? And they don’t - we just don’t have each other’s cell phones. Not because we’re like, "Oh, you can’t talk to us," but because they just - here’s an opportunity, ask us questions. And they got to ask tailored questions to, you know, Matt or or or Missy or or whoever they wanted to talk to. Uh, you know, Jimmy Starbuck from Starbuck Excavation. Which is really cool.
That's my spiel on CONEXPO, but I just wanted people to know if I had, you know, anything to say about the show and the tips would be: immerse yourself in it, go to the panels, talk to people, be one with the show. It truly - they have so much to offer. And do not - okay, last tip, tip number three. This is how my brain works. I’m a scatterbrain. Last tip of Taylor’s Taylor’s tips on taking on CONEXPO: Don’t go in there with the expectation that you’re going to see everything because it is so vast. And don’t get me wrong, I definitely think somebody could curate you like a plan and be like, "Day one here, day two here, day three here." For sure. But I think the beauty is that in three years, you can come back and finish off where you started. And also revisit things that you really wanted to check out. I’m sure they have a dead-set plan somewhere being like, "Okay, if you want to see everything, this would be like the ultimate hack on how to do that." But my tip would be, don’t go there with the mindset of, "I have to go there, I have to see every booth, I have to see every piece of equipment, I have to go to every panel." Because it’s just - it won’t happen because they have so much niche, tailored stuff to do this or that. And it’s okay, because in three years, you can come back and you can see it again. And that’s the beauty about it with it being every three years, is like that lead-up, that hype, you want to be back there in three years. You want to see it again. So, that would be my last tip.
I definitely want to make sure everybody understands that this show, March 3rd to the 7th this year, tickets go on sale in August. Over 2000 exhibitors and 2.9 million square feet, which is insane. And the tickets do go on sale in August. I’ll have info on my Instagram as well, and I’ll probably be talking about it on YouTube as well, too. You’re going to see some YouTube content like my last trip to CONEXPO and showing you guys. It was a ball, it was a blast. I I actually brought my buddy Dylan from D2, who’s going to be there again this year. I feel like we have a really cool pack of people that are all going, and I want people to like go there and come up and shake hands. Like last year, it was so cool seeing people in Ken White gear. Um, like the Work Carhartt hoodies and stuff, like on Fremont Street at night or just walking around the shows during the day. That was really cool. We’re bringing, I think, eight people from Ken White down there coming up in March, which is really cool. I’m actually bringing my salesman from Caterpillar as well. I told him when we did our trip to Peoria, I’m like, "Yeah, you got to come and check out this show with us. It’s really cool." So, I try to tell everybody that if I had the means, I would pay for everybody to come do it. But because it’s every three years, try to allow yourself to go and have a good time and immerse yourself in the show.
But that’s all I got for today’s episode. I wanted to make sure that I talked about things that were currently on my mind. That’s what I like about these solo episodes, is, you know, I like talking about today. We literally had a talk about delegation. Thank you for John Deere Power Systems for sponsoring the podcast. And thank you guys for tuning in. We will catch you on the next one. Take care.
