Dirt Talk Podcast

This week on the first episode of 2023, Aaron and Alex take a look back at 2022. They discuss the progress and successes of BuildWitt over the past year. The guys mention that their marketing services have had remarkable success and that they have been able to engage with high-quality companies. They also mention that the BuildWitt Training software, while successful, has not had the expected speed of adoption and the cost of that overestimation. Aaron also shares his struggle to talk about successes and tends to focus on what they can do better and the next steps for the company. They also discuss the way their company organizes and prioritizes its goals, using the "rocks" system in which each level of the organization has goals that feed up to the larger goals. Aaron expresses his concern that the "rocks" system may constrict their ability to create and do things that have never been done before. He also mentions that they've had to correct course in the past year due to mistakes of thinking they were smarter than they were and growing too fast. And those mistakes cost us. Thankfully, there were also plenty of lessons to be learned, especially in the hard stuff, and so we march forward with both momentum and lessons learned in tow.

If you have feedback or questions, reach out at [email protected]. Thanks!

Lots of exciting stuff ahead for Dirt Talk and the greater BuildWitt mission, so for now…

Stay Dirty!

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Welcome to Building BuildWitt! For the last 4 weeks, we’ve published pieces of a 4-part story chronicling Dirt Talk host Aaron Witt’s upbringing far away from the Dirt World and how a series of disconnected experiences and decisions led to the formation and growth of the company that became BuildWitt. 

In the final episode of this season, we’ll hear how and why Aaron started hiring people, how he almost got arrested in Saudi Arabia, and why its so vital to tell the stories of the Dirt World.

Thanks for listening. If you have any questions, stories, or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected].

Listen to Dirt Talk:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GK5UWkulNJ6tNFXvWngMt?si=2332acb8e2954301 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirt-talk-by-buildwitt/id1494235724 

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnV6enNwcm91dC5jb20vNzc5NjAz

Stay Dirty!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Building BuildWitt! For the next 4 weeks, we’ll be bringing you pieces of a 4-part story chronicling Dirt Talk host Aaron Witt’s upbringing far away from the Dirt World and how a series of disconnected experiences and decisions led to the formation and growth of the company that became BuildWitt. 

In episode 3, Aaron tells of his experiences working for Kiewit (and why he turned down their full-time job offer), why he moved to Texas, and why he left construction altogether.

Thanks for listening. If you have any questions, stories, or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected].

Listen to Dirt Talk:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GK5UWkulNJ6tNFXvWngMt?si=2332acb8e2954301 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirt-talk-by-buildwitt/id1494235724 

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnV6enNwcm91dC5jb20vNzc5NjAz

Stay Dirty!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Building BuildWitt! For the next 4 weeks, we’ll be bringing you pieces of a 4-part story chronicling Dirt Talk host Aaron Witt’s upbringing far away from the Dirt World and how a series of disconnected experiences and decisions led to the formation and growth of the company that became BuildWitt. 

In episode 2, Aaron tells of the punch in the mouth that came in the form of “going to college for engineering”, what he realized that he loved about working in the field, and why he came in last place in an estimating competition. 

Thanks for listening. If you have any questions, stories, or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected].

Listen to Dirt Talk:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GK5UWkulNJ6tNFXvWngMt?si=2332acb8e2954301 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirt-talk-by-buildwitt/id1494235724 

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnV6enNwcm91dC5jb20vNzc5NjAz

Stay Dirty!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Building BuildWitt! For the next 4 weeks, we’ll be bringing you pieces of a 4-part story chronicling Dirt Talk host Aaron Witt’s upbringing far away from the Dirt World and how a series of disconnected experiences and decisions led to the formation and growth of the company that became BuildWitt. 

In episode 1, Aaron shares the story of his childhood love of the trash truck (and its driver), his formative years working on a ranch in Montana, and the career-shifting experience of his first construction job. 

Thanks for listening. If you have any questions, stories, or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected].

Stay dirty!

Listen to Dirt Talk:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GK5UWkulNJ6tNFXvWngMt?si=2332acb8e2954301 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirt-talk-by-buildwitt/id1494235724 

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnV6enNwcm91dC5jb20vNzc5NjAz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nate Emerson runs Armadillo Excavation in Chattanooga, TN. Nate grew up on a 100-acre farm in Giles County, about an hour south of Nashville. After 2 years of college studying construction management, Nate knew that it wasn’t for him, and made a hard pivot to working in the music industry, selling merchandise, and doing stagehand work. After some office work experience, Nate found himself staring out the window into the Chattanooga mountains and realized that was where he needed to be. So he started chatting with local contractors and before he knew it, he was digging a basement on the side of a mountain. The rest, as they say, is history.

This week on Dirt Talk, host Aaron Witt and Nate Emerson of Armadillo Excavation discuss the primal instinct to want to get out in the dirt, learning the hard lesson that building a business is mostly just making it up as you go, and doing hard things for your own mental wellness. 

Follow along with Nate’s story on IG at @armadilloexcavationllc. 

—

DirtWorld.com

Without the Dirt World, we wouldn’t have the food, clean water, electricity, roads, or shelter required for survival. Demand for the industry is growing, yet over 40% of our workforce will retire by 2031. We must add hundreds of thousands of people every year only to keep up...

So let’s fix that.

What if society viewed our profession as noble? What if parents were proud when their kids declared they wanted to be in the Dirt World? What if a workforce shortage was no longer a worry?

Now is the time for us all to work together to build a movement. We need to tell our industry's story, further care for and train our existing workforce, and create clear pathways for people to join and succeed in the Dirt World. It's all possible, but only together, and time is of the essence. Help us secure the future of the Dirt World.

Listen to Dirt Talk:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GK5UWkulNJ6tNFXvWngMt?si=2332acb8e2954301 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirt-talk-by-buildwitt/id1494235724 

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnV6enNwcm91dC5jb20vNzc5NjAz

Stay Dirty!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Dirt Talk, Aaron and Alex ditch the original topic planned as they have a frank and honest conversation about the complications of serving an industry without being in the industry directly, why the work in the Dirt World is SO vital, and why the narrative about Blue Collar work in today’s society must change. If you’ve been following along with BuildWitt and care about the Dirt World, you know that the narrative shift must start with us.

Stay Dirty!

Listen to Dirt Talk:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GK5UWkulNJ6tNFXvWngMt?si=2332acb8e2954301 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirt-talk-by-buildwitt/id1494235724 

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnV6enNwcm91dC5jb20vNzc5NjAz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Dirt Talk, Aaron and Eric discuss strange emissions laws, plus answer questions about Whistlin’ Diesel, patching highways, and the Dirt World effects of increased interest rates.

—

DirtWorld.com

Without the Dirt World, we wouldn’t have food, clean water, electricity, roads, or shelter required for survival. Demand for the industry is growing, yet over 40% of our workforce will retire by 2031. We must add hundreds of thousands of people every year only to keep up...

So let’s fix that.

What if society viewed our profession as noble? What if parents were proud when their kids declared they wanted to be in the Dirt World? What if a workforce shortage was no longer a worry?

Now is the time for us all to work together to build a movement. We need to tell our industry's story, further care for and train our existing workforce, and create clear pathways for people to join and succeed in the Dirt World. It's all possible, but only together, and time is of the essence. Help us secure the future of the Dirt World.

Stay Dirty!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DirtWorld.com

Without the Dirt World, we wouldn’t have the food, clean water, electricity, roads, or shelter required for survival. Demand for the industry is growing, yet over 40% of our workforce will retire by 2031. We must add hundreds of thousands of people every year only to keep up…

So let’s fix that.

What if society viewed our profession as noble? What if parents were proud when their kids declared they wanted to be in the Dirt World? What if a workforce shortage was no longer a worry?

Now is the time for us all to work together to build a movement. We need to tell our industry's story, further care for and train our existing workforce, and create clear pathways for people to join and succeed in the Dirt World. It's all possible, but only together, and time is of the essence. Help us secure the future of the Dirt World.

Let's build a better Dirt World — together.

Listen to Dirt Talk:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GK5UWkulNJ6tNFXvWngMt?si=2332acb8e2954301

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, hosts Aaron Witt and Alex Horton laid out the plans for Aaron’s trip to Germany with Chase Lyons, a Director/Videographer at BuildWitt. Those guys are now back stateside and they uh… got into some stuff over there. 

Aaron lays out their time at the bauma trade show, a construction and mining machinery trade fair held every three years in Munich. It’s the largest tradeshow in the world, but the guys got to spend a lot of time meeting folks in the Dirt World and seeing some badass machines. Keep an eye out for the vlog on Aaron’s YouTube channel.

This week on Dirt Talk, Aaron shares his experiences in a MASSIVE underground salt mine, the joys of watching a crew work a marble quarry, and riding in an “elevator” on the end of a crane arm. 

—

DirtWorld.com

Without the Dirt World, we wouldn’t have food, clean water, electricity, roads, or shelter required for survival. Demand for the industry is growing, yet over 40% of our workforce will retire by 2031. We must add hundreds of thousands of people every year only to keep up...

So let’s fix that.

What if society viewed our profession as noble? What if parents were proud when their kids declared they wanted to be in the Dirt World? What if a workforce shortage was no longer a worry?

Now is the time for us all to work together to build a movement. We need to tell our industry's story, further care for and train our existing workforce, and create clear pathways for people to join and succeed in the Dirt World. It's all possible, but only together, and time is of the essence. Help us secure the future of the Dirt World.

Listen to Dirt Talk:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GK5UWkulNJ6tNFXvWngMt?si=2332acb8e2954301 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirt-talk-by-buildwitt/id1494235724 

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnV6enNwcm91dC5jb20vNzc5NjAz

Stay Dirty!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices