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

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...

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 mad...

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 st...

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 ex...

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

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...

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 c...

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 cor...

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...

Nick Frederick is Vice President of Witech Excavating (https://witechcompany.com/), a mass excavation contractor based in the Chicagoland area. Starting at Witech as a laborer and later marrying the owner's (Tom Witvoet) daughter, Nick is currently transitioning to lead the business as Tom retires. Even though Witech began from humble beginnings as an idea born out of ministry work and family hist...

Garrett Moss, President of Moss Utilities, has dealt with many general contractors as a utility subcontractor for large development projects around the DFW area. After speaking out against plenty of old school and harmful practices many general contractors believe in via LinkedIn, I figured I'd get him on the podcast to discuss his thoughts on the subject. While there are some great general contra...

Jarryd McNeil is a 15-time X Games motocross medalist who's traveled the world performing wild tricks on dirt bikes since he was a young kid. Growing up on a dairy farm, he fell in love with riding dirt bikes and operating heavy equipment. Once Jarryd was old enough, the ultimate goal was to become a professional rider in America. He left school early, moved to California when he was eighteen, and...

After being unexpectedly fired from the best job of his life, Dary Langfitt (@rockbottomenterprises on Instagram) told everyone in his family that he would start a landscaping business. How hard could it be? Once the Alaskan winter calmed down and the work season began, he kept his word by starting Rock Bottom Enterprises, a landscaping and now construction business still located in the great stat...

In this episode, I talk with Michelle Walker, VP of Finance and Administration of SSC Underground, about suicide prevention in the construction industry. According to the CDC, while we as an industry rarely discuss it, construction ranked #1 for suicides by career. It's a serious issue that Michelle and the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention are bringing to light. We discuss why...

Eric Jumper (@eric_jumper on Instagram) and I sat down at my kitchen table last week to discuss his upbringing in the dirt world, why building terrain parks makes for a wild job, how dredging works, and why / why not you should operate equipment with the doors and windows open. While thrilling isn't a word I'd use to describe our conversation, it was indeed dirty. Learn more about your ad choices....

Tom Gardocki, known as the Dirt Ninja online, co-owns a residential excavation company in New Hampshire. If you've ever perused the internet for dirt related photos and videos, odds are you've ran across Tom's stuff at some point. He's shared his daily excavation-related adventures online for ten years now. Starting at his parent's landscaping business, he still works there a few days a week while...

After many (at least two) requests, I reached out to Garret Wilson, who's said to be the world's best operator, and asked if he'd like to be on the podcast. He said no, but I managed to get him on anyway. While we start with antique heavy equipment, we eventually touch on mental health issues, parenting, starting as an operator, and a whole lot more. For a nervous wreck who has never done a podcas...

Sam Meeker is a Caterpillar dozer extraordinaire and is formally a Product Application Specialist for Track-Type Tractors. Starting in the agriculture world, he found his way into dirt with Caterpillar and quickly took to track loaders and now dozers. While he doesn't have a formal operating background like his excavator counterpart Mr. Ryan Neal, Sam knows more about Cat dozers than just about an...

In this episode of Dirt Talk, I talk with Mike Willhite, owner of Willhite Grading and Excavation, about his past controversies, life lessons, and business experiences. Most people know Mike from social media as he's shown off his Santa Barbara-based excavating business day to day for years now online. While he's spoken openly about some of the recent rough life experiences, we dive into it all, a...

Dane started his Bozeman, Montana-based excavation business a few years ago when he grew tired of his job. He abruptly quit, financed a skid steer the same day, and he was off to the races to build a business from nothing. While DC Excavation is small, they have an incredibly slick fleet with all the gizmos and gadgets imaginable from engcons to Trimble 3D GPS. Dane and I talk life, business, equi...

This episode is a whole new world for Dirt Talk! We finally took the podcast on the road to interview RAWSO Constructors foreman/superintendent Brett Baker on his site development project in Antioch, Tennessee. Brett is a self-proclaimed red neck from West Tennessee who now manages entire projects at only 24-years old. Initially studying nursing in college, he dropped out of school two semesters s...

In this episode, learn how Matt Moldenhauer went from big-time business consultant to southern logging business owner (Bellwether Forest Products). Even though he knew nothing about logging when he started, thanks to his consulting skillset combined with humility, Bellwether moves five times the wood than it did just a few years ago when Matt joined the business. Since Bellwether was one of the fi...

This past weekend, I made a post via Instagram stories asking for questions that I'd answer on an upcoming podcast episode. To my surprise, people actually submitted somewhat thoughtful questions. With that, I turned on the microphone and went down the list of questions cold-turkey. From business ownership to whether I believe mayonnaise is an instrument, I answered each as genuinely as I could. H...

In this episode, I stayed up well past my bedtime to talk dirt with Jimmy Starbuck, owner of Starbuck Excavation in Melbourne, Australia. If you're on social media, you've likely seen Jimmy's diggers with the enormous "STARBUCK" logo on the boom and counterweight. We get into how he went from working in a soap factory to buying an excavator with a car loan, how he's grown his business, how he's be...