Dirt Talk Podcast

Aaron Answers Your Tough Questions!

In this Dirt Talk episode, Aaron is joined by himself to answer your questions submitted via Instagram. No script and plenty of nonsense.

He discusses what BuildWitt does, how he stays sane, whether he prefers a booth or table, and many more important and controversial dirt-related topics.

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The word "autonomous" is a hot topic for cars, planes, and any other machines that move. While self-driving cars are neat, this isn't Car Talk; this is Dirt Talk.

Enter Built Robotics, a Bay Area start-up racing to automate skid steers, bulldozers, and excavators. Started only a few years ago, they're making serious progress in their quest to create robots capable of digging ditches, grading roads, and building house pads.

Like any other technology in the Dirt World, there's plenty of skepticism and misinformation surrounding Built's work. To learn fact from fiction, I visited their headquarters outside of San Francisco late last year to meet their robots. Boy, was I impressed.

I was so impressed that I knew I needed them on the podcast to spread the word about what they're really up to.

To learn more about their technology and robots, check out their website at builtrobotics.com.

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Since we’ve received plenty of feedback about interviewing more people who “do the work,” I finally heeded your advice and sent Pat a DM on Instagram asking if he’d lend me an hour or two of his Sunday morning. He said sure.

Pat’s a long-time operator and has spent his entire adult life running heavy equipment. He started out working as a laborer for his family contracting business and quickly made his way to all sorts of heavy equipment-related companies across the Northeast and Canada.

Today, Pat works at New Era Excavation, the same company referenced in DT039 when we talked to Tom Gardocki, AKA The Dirt Ninja. Pat works alongside Tom and his partner Craig as the third member of the New Era team.

While Pat’s typically running equipment on the job, he has a fantastic amount of autonomy to run the projects as he pleases according to the vision laid out by the business partners.

To follow Pat’s adventures online, check him out on Instagram at @patallen30.

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Marty Leum grew up traveling the country to race dirt bikes. Since he was around tracks so much, he began helping out where he could, whether it was hanging banners, or eventually, running equipment to clean up and build tracks.

He had a knack for building tracks by shaping the earth with heavy equipment, and Marty traveled from event to event. After many nights away from home, he needed a more stable job closer to his family back home, so he went to work on the railroad. Said to be the best job in his town, he couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to get back to the dirt. With an old skid steer, he quit his stable job and officially started in the excavation world.

Anyone who's followed Marty has seen his attention to detail and badass looking hot rod red Caterpillar equipment. He's done some fantastic work so far, and he's just getting started.

Check out Dirt Monkey Excavating on Instagram at @dirtmonkeyexcavating!

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American mining is hugely misunderstood and, as a result, demonized by many. The irony is most people who denounce mining couldn't live their lives without it. Electricity, roads, cell phones, and just about any other aspect of the physical world is thanks to the hardworking men and women working day and night to make it all happen.

Frankly, even I misunderstood mining until I recently began to experience it on a deeper level through our work with North America Coal, Mitigation Resources of North America (MRNA), and North American Mining. It turns out that extracting the resources we need to live and being environmentally conscious can go hand in hand.

When visiting one of MRNA's operations in Mississippi back in November, I met Rebecca McGrew, whose formal title is Manager, Environmental and Regulatory Affairs at North American Coal. She was extraordinarily knowledgeable about mining and mitigating the environmental impacts of extracting resources from the earth. Since I learned so much from our conversation, I thought I'd have her on the podcast to have a real discussion about the realities of mining.

To allow the conversation to be as free as possible, we have to say everything Rebecca expresses is solely her opinion!

To learn more about North American Coal and MRNA, check out https://www.nacoal.com/.

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Thanks to some recent internet criticism (I should know better about going down this rabbit hole, and yet here I am), I decided to take to the podcast to explain my stance on safety, photographs, and the mining world. Keep in mind this is me thinking aloud. I'm trying out new things on the podcast, so we'll see how folks like this one!

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While Ron Kellish was working for a big four accounting firm in Chicago, he got a call from Larry Ames, who recently began his new earthmoving company, Bemas Construction. He and Larry had worked together in the past, and as Ron admits, Larry was the only one who could've talked him into coming back to Denver.

Larry Ames grew up building the family business, Ames Construction, into the behemoth it is today. After helping to move 100 million yards of earth for the new Denver International Airport, Larry wanted to return to his roots by leaving the big family business and starting Bemas after buying a small scraper spread.

Since Larry's always in the field and doesn't even have an office at Bemas' headquarters, he's relied on Ron and others to help lead the business while he does what he loves: moving dirt.

While Ron's title is CFO, he wears tons of hats and touches all aspects of the business. In this episode, we talk about the money side of earthmoving, why it's essential to take care of people, and how Bemas structures its benefits to give everyone a lot more than just a paycheck.

To learn more about Bemas, check out their website at https://bemas.net/

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After a long career as a Sheriff in Fresno, Josh McCahill took out a second mortgage on his house to buy an old bulldozer to start his ag business. Today, after years of six and seven-day workweeks, McCahill Enterprises works with large agricultural corporations to remove old trees and vineyards to prepare farmland for more profitable crops.

To remove hundreds of acres of trees at a time, Josh's company uses all sorts of custom dozers, excavators, and loaders. It's such unique work full of challenges and seems to wreak havoc on equipment, but his company loves to roll with the punches.

Check out Josh's daily adventures on Instagram at @mccahilldozing -- their work is badass!

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Dan Briscoe, COO of BuildWitt, and I sat down to discuss what we learned and accomplished in 2020. We talk about our business model, how we've grown, and where we're heading into 2021.

Many people still don't realize that BuildWitt is a marketing agency well beyond a "kid with a camera," as we often say (I occasionally miss those simpler days).

Since "transparency wins" is one of our company's core values, we tried to be as transparent as possible with this episode. Hopefully, this episode provides better insight into who we are and what we do!

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In this episode of Dirt Talk, I was lucky enough to chat with Kari Taylor (President, North America Sales) and Matt Ackley (Chief Marketing Officer) of Ritchie Bros, the infamous global equipment auctioneer.

As a dirt and equipment enthusiast, auctions have always fascinated me. I loved learning all about how Ritchie Bros manages to sell hundreds of thousands of machines annually.

While we spent a lot of time talking about their traditional auctions, we heavily explore their transition to the online auction world with the acquisition of IronPlanet and COVID. I've confirmed that you can, in fact, but a skid steer on your phone in any one of their weekly unreserved auctions.

To learn more about Ritchie Bros or participate in an auction, check out their website at https://www.rbauction.com/.

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