Dirt Talk Podcast

October 22, 2026 Building A Business That Outlasts You w/ John Scepaniak (DT 489) John Scepaniak is the Director of Aggregate Operations at Wm. D. Scepaniak, a family-owned company specializing in mobile aggregate processing and material handling. John grew up in the business, starting work as a teenager and eventually taking on a leadership role as the company expanded from its roots in Minnesota...

October 19, 2026 How is Building Around the World Different? (Building BuildWitt #75)  BuildWitt Update #75– DT 488 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buil...

October 15, 2026 The Conversation Construction Avoids w/ Kristi Ronyak Kristi Ronyak w/ Construction Angels – DT 487 Kristi Ronyak is the Founder and CEO of Construction Angels, a nonprofit providing immediate financial assistance and grief counseling to families after a construction worker is killed in a work-related accident. Growing up in a third-generation asphalt family, Kristi never really t...

October 12, 2026 2026 Australia Adventure Week Two! (Building BuildWitt #74)  BuildWitt Update #74– DT 486 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buildwitt.com...

October 8, 2026 You Can’t Lead From The Office w/ Luke Minger  Luke Minger w/ Minger Construction – DT 485 Luke Minger is the President and CEO of Minger Construction, a Minnesota underground utility contractor his parents started more than 40 years ago with a tractor backhoe, a pickup truck, and a ten-speed bicycle. After earning a construction management degree, Luke came home expecting to...

October 5, 2026 2026 Australia Adventure Week One! (Building BuildWitt #73) DT 484 BuildWitt Update #73– DT 484 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buildwitt.com...

October 1, 2026 Building Leaders Underground w/ Jason Miller - DT 483 Jason Miller is the President of Midwest Mole, an employee-owned underground construction company specializing in tunneling, boring, and trenchless work. After a year at Indiana University taught him what he didn’t want to do, Jason went to work in the field alongside his dad, expecting it to be temporary. Within weeks, he was h...

September 28, 2026 Hey ChatGPT, Write Me a Newsletter (Building BuildWitt 72) DT 482 BuildWitt Update #72– DT 482 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buildwitt.c...

September 24, 2026 What Happens When Heavy Equipment Starts Driving Itself? w/ Dick Zhang Dick Zhang is the CEO of Bluelight Machines, a construction autonomy company putting self-driving technology to work on real jobsites. In less than a year, Bluelight’s autonomous fleet has grown from fewer than 100 active machines to nearly 200, expanded from the U.S. to five continents, and surpassed 1.5 bil...

September 21, 2026 Why Does 2 Miles Of Concrete Cost $1 Billion?  (Building BuildWitt 71) DT 480 BuildWitt Update #71– DT 480 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! ht...

September 17, 2026 A Skid Steer and a Craigslist Ad w/ Tyler Marks (DT 479) Tyler Marks is the founder of Marks Clearing and Grading, a North Carolina land clearing and grading contractor he started at 18 with just a skid steer and a Craigslist ad. He grew the company alongside the Raleigh construction boom, buying oversized equipment before he needed it and betting on the market long before he ha...

September 14, 2026 What You Should Do Won’t Dent The Universe (Building BuildWitt 70) DT 478 BuildWitt Update #70– DT 478 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://bui...

September 10, 2026 The Newest Tools Won't Save Your Company w/ Christian Weibell  (DT 477) Christian Weibell is the VP of Engineering at BuildWitt, a software engineer with a PhD in instructional psychology and technology, and a former excavation contractor who spent eight years running a construction company while building a career in tech. He taught himself excavation by renting equipment,...

September 7, 2026 The World's Best Sales Strategy (Building BuildWitt 69) DT 476 BuildWitt Update #69– DT 476 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buildwitt.com/p...

September 3, 2026 Artificial Intelligence Isn't Taking These Jobs w/ Darren Paulson – DT 475 Darren Paulson is the VP of Product at BuildWitt and a construction technology veteran who spent more than two decades managing systems, data, and technology across some of the largest civil and concrete operations in the West. He’s touched nearly every corner of construction tech, from business systems an...

August 31, 2026 Knock Before Kicking In Doors  (Building BuildWitt #68) BuildWitt Update #68– DT 474 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buildwitt.com/produ...

August 27, 2026 The Invisible Billion-Dollar Industry w/ David Giannetto ( DT 473 ) David Giannetto is the CEO of Felix Construction, a 500-person water and wastewater contractor based in Phoenix. He converted Felix to an ESOP in February 2025, cut turnover in half within the first year, and watched profitability follow. Follow David on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-giannetto-882a...

August 24, 2026 My All Time Best Move In Business  (Building BuildWitt #67) BuildWitt Update #67– DT 472 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buildwitt.com/p...

August 20, 2026 He Says What Other Lawyers Won't w/ Matt Margolis (DT 471) Matt Margolis  w/ Margolis Law – DT 471 Matt Margolis is the founder of Margolis Law, based out of West Palm Beach, Florida. He built his entire practice on being the only lawyer in the room willing to tell clients what their contracts are actually doing to them, and one of the few legal voices in the industry making t...

August 17, 2026 The Power of “I Am Sad” (Building BuildWitt #66) BuildWitt Update #66– DT 470 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buildwitt.com/product Questions...

August 13, 2026 Building Something Worth Staying For w/ Jim Rhodes  (DT 469) Jim Rhodes is the Senior Vice President at Wayne Brothers Companies, a 750-person civil construction firm operating across the Southeast, the Chairman of ReGroup Carolinas, an Industry Advisory Board Member at UNC Charlotte. He reveals why the industry's workforce problem is a leadership problem disguised as a labor...

August 10, 2026   Shared Principles Make Big Decisions Easy (Building BuildWitt #65) BuildWitt Update #65– DT 468 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buildw...

August 6, 2026 Your Labor Shortage Is a Leadership Shortage w/ Nic Parish (DT 467) Nic Parish is the CEO of Burns Dirt, a civil construction company his grandfather and great-uncle started with two dump trucks in 1977, and a speaker who showed up to his first major keynote expecting 40 people and walked into a standing-room audience of 250. He spent a decade quietly stepping into a leadership role...

August 3, 2026   The Secret Formula For Winning (Building BuildWitt #64) BuildWitt Update #63– DT 466 Aaron recaps the wins and lessons learned at BuildWitt this week. Learn more about attending the 2026 Ariat Dirt World Summit by visiting https://events.dirtworld.com/event/summit-2026/summary Want to better train and develop your teams? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buildwitt.com/prod...

July 30, 2026 Your Office is an Operating System w/ Sean Dineen – DT 465 Sean Dineen is the founder of Iron Age Office, a furniture company he built from a single desk listed on Etsy while coaching soccer as a 23-year-old Brit who had just arrived in America with a graphic design degree and no plan. He faked a full product catalog using digitally rendered images until the real orders started comin...