37. Relationships and Culture with Sean Johnson

Andrea and Griff are joined by Sean Johnson, Area Manager in Geneseo, to talk about his history and experiences, the future of Geneseo, and the value of relationships and positive culture.

Also: rumor squashing and rejected load stats!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to Loaded, the Hahn Ready Mix Podcast with Andrea Meyer, Griffin Hahn, producer Lex, and a special guest today.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Yeah, welcome Sean Johnson onto the pod. How are you? Good. Thank you. Mayor Sean Johnson. Mayor Sean Johnson. Yeah. And for those that don't know, uh Area Manager over in uh with the Edwards group over in Geneseo. Yep. Indeed. Excited to have you on here. Well, thank you. I, you know, we didn't even have to twist your arm that hard. You're just like, sure.

unknown 0:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

He didn't know it was an option.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Well, cool. Should we do some uh announcements first and then we'll we'll dive in?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yeah, first I want to give everyone a Halloween update. I handed up over 100 hot dogs, and everyone who had a hot dog was very happy.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

I I need like a second source on this to verify.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

I sent you photos of it happening in real time.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

It was like the guy in the hot dog costume getting hot dogs.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

When the hot dog guy shows up to the hot dog house, it's an exciting time.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Yeah, excellent. How old was he?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

He was definitely in high school. But he enjoyed the hot dogs.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Our Halloween was overshadowed. Um, my my kids found a praying mantis on our front of our house. So now we have a new pet that is a praying mantis.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Wow. What is it, a terrarium?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

It's like a terrarium, yeah. With the we have a lot of stink bugs that get into our house in the winter, so we're just feeding them constantly to the praying mantis, which is wow. Super interesting. That is, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, I had a couple announcements. Um I periodically throughout the year run some rejected load comparisons looking at uh how we did the previous year versus the current year, looking, you know, by location and by reason. So, you know, if it was the air was high or the slump was off or the truck broke down or whatever. And we have set kind of a target goal over the last few years of 0.4% is a goal of rejected loads. So you know, one one tenth of four per four tenths of one percent, right? Um, and we have not quite met that goal. We've gotten close. The last few years been like 0.46 and 0.43. Um but this year with just two months to go, we are at 0.345, which is awesome. So we are we're for the first time in my career on pace to meet that goal, um, which is really exciting.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

I hope you're not celebrating too soon.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

No, no, we got two months to go. Um, you know, and uh, but it is a big deal. Not only is that's that that difference between last year and this year amounts to about$40,000 in savings on materials and and labor. But more importantly, you know, that's less impact to our customers if they have a you know a load they can't use, right? So they're not waiting on us.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Didn't we do an episode on rejected loads? We did. If we were a podcast who knew what we were doing, we would reference that episode right now for anyone who's interested in learning more about rejected loads.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

That knows what we're doing. Maybe we can put it in the notes at least. Yeah, perfect. Um, one thing that is I guess that we got to keep our eye on the ball is last year we had 10 water valve-related rejected loads. And we just spoke about this last week. Um and so that that's a lot. And this year we already have 10.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

And we haven't even gotten that, you know, had the first part of winter at the beginning of the year, but we haven't got the second part, and that's when those normally happen. So um let's be extra diligent on the water valve rejected loads, and and uh and we can hit our goal. So that's but overall, great news. I'm really pleased on on the improvement we've made on that front. And so that's good.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Very good.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

I also wanted to chat a little bit. I heard a uh an interesting rumor that's been going around that um we were going the the rumor is that we're going to have a 100% mandatory layoff for all the drivers. And um there definitely are rumors. Yeah, yeah. Uh I want to unequivocally say that is not accurate and um throw out again that if if anybody has, you know, hears rumors or has questions, you know, all of this stuff is verifiable. You can come see me, you can come see Andrea, come see Sean, come see whomever. Um but uh I to give some context, I I think I kind of know where this all might be stemming from. You know, this last winter we were very slow, and and we anticipate probably being similar this year, not really busy. And so last year we were down 37.6 percent. Let's just and I just grabbed January through March in volume versus 2024. So way down. Our labor costs were up 7.1%. So um those numbers don't match, and that's just not good management, and that's on me, right? That that we didn't um watch that more closely. So this year we are going to be watching that more closely and you know, anticipating that we're gonna have a little bit slower winter and probably similar to last year. Uh yes, we will we will be watching hours and we will be um trying to make better decisions. That's going along with we talked a little bit about inventories last week, um, trying to preserve cash flows there. It's also, you know, the capital improvements that we're gonna make on plants is gonna be less this year. So it's across the board. We're gonna try to be more responsible. And um, so yeah, so there might be some things that are done differently, but there's no way we can go through a winter without your drivers. It's just not possible.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

I appreciate you addressing that. And I think one thing that makes it hard to be transparent about and communicate is we really don't know. Like we don't know when the weather is going to turn and when the work is going to fall off. So it's really hard to give people, you know, clear direction on exactly what's going to happen because we honestly don't know until we get there.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Um, but what we can say is that we are going to follow the same process as usual, where we will do reviews at the end of November, beginning of December. We'll communicate with people as much as we know at that point. We'll ask people for their preferences if they, you know, want to work as much as they can or if they want to be laid off and we'll reverse the list the same way that we always do. Um, and we'll communicate the way that we have.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, absolutely. That's good. Good.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Another good time to remind everyone that uh the open enrollment dates are gonna be November 14th through the 26th. So if you have any changes to your insurance, you want to talk to me or Leah before Thanksgiving. And um, last week I thanked people for helping do a quick cleanup before an insurance visit. And we're gonna have a couple more of those over the next two weeks. So let's stay focused and keep everything uh clean and buttoned up as much as we can.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Yeah, great. All right, Sean, you ready? Should we get into this? Let's do it. All right. So uh first, just tell us about your life.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

This is the this is not an all-day podcast.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

How far in the back do you want to go? Uh baby stats, please.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Let's start with that. Um, basically, lifelong resident of Genosteal. I was born in Dubuque, Iowa, but we lived there not very long. My dad was transferred back for deer. So Genoseel is the only home I've ever known. Yeah. Um went to high school there, went to Blackhawk College three years, uh, ended up at St. Ambrose, got a bachelor's degree, and we're had a wonderful career with Edwards that entire time as well.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Yeah. Well, and you you were in law enforcement, right? You were sheriff's deputy.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Patrol cities. Well, I started Whiteside County. I worked two years up there before coming to the city of Genos. So I was I was a sheriff's deputy in Whiteside County, worked stationed in the uh Erie area, Erie, Illinois area, and then uh came back to Genosile. I got hired there in January of '96.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Okay. Yep. And then back full time with us. When was that?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

That was that was tw uh January 2016, 20 years later. So 22 years total law enforcement, 20 years with Genocale. Awesome. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

What did you start off doing? What was your first job?

SPEAKER_01 8:18

With Edwards? Yeah. You know, it was kind of a chance encounter. My parents built a new home when I was 15, and we moved into that home in like March of it would have been 89, I guess. And I got off the school bus, and the man across the street was trying to build a lawn shed, and he had all these walls formed up laying on the ground. And as I got off the bus, he's like, Hey, would you give me a hand a second? So I went over and helped him stand these walls up, and we started visiting. And that man turned out to be Dan Edwards. Yeah. And that led to some other uh, I'll pay you 20 bucks if you give me a hand for a couple hours this afternoon. And next thing you know, I was offered a job. And he's, I said, Well, okay, what would I do? He goes, Well, I have a concrete business. I didn't even know what that was at 15, to be honest. I mean, specifically what it was. And I remember going home and telling my mother, mom, and dad that I got a job. I'm gonna work this summer. Well, what are you doing? I go, So I'm gonna work at a concrete plant. Well, what are you gonna do? I go, Well, I really don't know. Yeah. And I actually started there. I would throw my bike in the back of his El Camino, ride with to work with him in the morning, and ride my bike home because I didn't get my driver's license till June of that year.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

So that is such a cool story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

They uh Dan and Donna Edwards actually kind of became like second parents to him.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

So it's been a neat adventure.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

So you resisted the impulse to be like, hey, can you grab this? And you could have been like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

That's right. Yeah. Go to hell.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Change your life. You never know what an open door could lead to. Yeah. Awesome. Well, so you you know, you had that platform. What what made you decide to kind of rejoin full-time and really dive into the industry again after your time in law enforcement?

SPEAKER_01 9:55

I'll be honest, because it that's always where I wanted to be.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Um I I actually when I graduated high school, I wanted to stay working at Edwards, but the late 80s and early 90s weren't the best economy at the time. Yeah. And my folks trying to look out for me like, nope, you're gonna go to college, you're gonna do something else. Right. And uh so my uncle was uh the sheriff of Henry County. Okay. Gibb Katie for geez, I think he served like 40 years or so. He at one point he was the longest tenured sheriff in the state of Illinois. Oh wow. Um, so I think that kind of I I suspect that's where I got my law enforcement interest from. I always really looked up to him. Um, so I went and got that and started working, and I thought, well, I'd probably just do this, you know, being a police officer 50 years, get a retirement pension, the whole deal. And so I was working third shift, had like Monday and Tuesday off, and Dan Edwards, he would bait me back every now and then on very busy days with the lure of some cash in the pocket. So I'd go back and work a day off here or there, and yeah, one day led to two, two led to three. And next thing you know, I was back on the payroll part-time, and I did that my entire career, actually. Yeah, yeah. Great. So as far as the question of what made me want to come back, is because this is always what I've loved doing.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Great, great.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

So uh the mayor, you you decided to to run for mayor. I did. And you've been mayor for how long now, Jason? Uh six years.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

I was two years on city council and then six years as mayor. So eight years of uh my political career, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Okay, all right. And four more years.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Yeah, coming. I just uh submitted my petitions. We actually are one of the few towns in Illinois that still only run or they run uh election cycle every two years. Okay. So yeah. So yeah, I'll be I'm on this for uh at least through 28 now, the way it looks. Great.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

So what made you decide to do that? That seems like a lot to take on.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

You know, uh my 20-year career with Genesis, I would say the first half was like amazing. Um uh administration-wise, down filtering down through the employees, the different departments. The second half got a little bumpy. And I'm always careful when I talk about like previous mayors, city administrators, et cetera, because you know, it's one thing to see it on the outside, but unless you're really in those shoes or part of that time, you don't know all the workings. So, but it was bumpy. Um, and I kind of felt like the city was going a different direction. Um, we were spending our spending was getting a little out of control. Uh in the sounds like Illinois. Yeah, exactly. Doing a lot of uh fluff projects versus infrastructure stuff. And I I don't know. I just I thought it was time to get involved. Okay, so right, because they always say you can sit around and complain and do nothing, or you could get involved and actually have a voice. So I decided to get involved.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Great, great. So that that has to give you a lot of very unique perspectives on things running running a city like Geneseo. Uh how does that like influence uh what you bring to your role with us uh and vice versa? How does that work?

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah, it it's really interesting the way the two cross paths, right? So for instance, when I first got on just city council, the city administrator at the times, I would always butt heads when it would when we would talk about um the budgets on the totality of the year versus expenses when we would approve bills, and and I would always push back on her that it's like running a business, right? Your revenues over expenses. It's real simple.

SPEAKER_03 13:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

I mean, I mean, I understand that part, obviously, with my role as Edwards, you know. Right. And she would always push back that you can't look at it that way. And I was I was always very frustrated with that, right? Because there's a tendency in city government, even something as small as a smaller community, that if it's budgeted, you should spend it. And uh that can become a plague, right? Yeah. Right. I mean, it needs to be very much like we just talked about at the opener, there needs to be priorities, and there are those priority priorities need to match what's going on in real time. Yeah. And that's not always necessarily true, even at the city government level. So the flip side is the city government side of things. I see it helps me with my roles at Edwards, understanding the way I guess I realize more how important of a role us as a producer working with contractors um on infrastructure type projects, albeit at the state or local level, how critical we are. It's the partnership, all right. Yeah, the way that all has to pull together for it to be successful. So there's just a big crossing of the two roles.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Yeah. That's great. I I totally agree. And I think that that's one of the neatest things about this industry is we're we're literally building the communities that we're in. And we're so in it, it's easy to lose sight of that, I think. So that's that's that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Yeah, and I I mean, like I said, we've we've had a great history in Genocil of people that have been part of the city government and administration and everything. But I think uh the time we are now, we're we're really tackling a lot of infrastructure programs and trying to grow our community, right? I want to be prepared on all four sides of our town uh to win that door. You don't want to wait until somebody comes knocking at the door to bring you 100 jobs or 200 jobs and be like, well, we need water now, we need electric now. Well, it's gonna take me a year and a half, two years to get that. You know, I want to I want us to be in a position for when that door rings, yeah, that doorbell rings, that we're ready to go. So we're we're hitting a lot of infrastructure stuff. And I think with my background with Edwards and the commercial side of things, it just I think that's a benefit to the community as well. Kind of kind of understanding some of these projects on a on a bigger totality than a lot of the folks making the decisions normally would.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

Sure. Yeah. Great. What about from law enforcement? Like, what have you brought, like leadership lessons, you know, other than tasing dubs when he doesn't do things right? Like, what have you brought from law enforcement?

SPEAKER_01 15:46

I don't recommend, I don't ever recommend recreational tasing. We did that on a Sunday one afternoon at the PD and we got in big trouble because we were bored. So um, you know, I think there's a sense some law enforcement, you develop a sense of calm, even under fire. And I think I think that spills over to those around me. And I'm I'm not patting myself on the back by no means, but um, you know, we have stressful situations and we have serious situations in in our line of work in the ReadyMix world. There's no doubt about that. But um it's it's uh it's different than the law enforcement world, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Less life and death most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Rarely life and death. Yeah, yeah. Um, so I think I think I I hope, I guess. I try hard to mentor that. Yeah. And uh I think I have. Um, if nothing else, you know, you still have we all have that emotional response, right? When there's something serious. But I think talking to others and and uh trying to mentor how to deal with that and how to refocus, you know, like when things break down at the plan or something really goes south. It I really try to get into this checklist mindset because that's what we did on the law enforcement job so often. I mean, you rehearsed, you knew, you planned ahead of time, and then when things went, you just started checking boxes, yeah, you know. And um and so yeah, I think that and then communication. Yeah, that's the the biggest thing to be a successful police officer. Good police officers, communication skills are amazing because you do more with communication than you can with with any type of physical force or yeah or or um um means of control of a situation. Good communication.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Yeah, well, you're an excellent communicator, so well thank you.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Sometimes too much. I know.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

I can I can get a little longer. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Your texts that are book length, you mean you should notice they're much shorter now. If I get over three or four lines, I think to myself, well, I'm gonna hear about this a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Yeah. It's funny. We have the like the opposite communication styles. Yeah, you like the whole spectrum, too. Yeah, yeah. That's funny. Um okay, so your daughter Jill is working with us now over the last couple of years, right? So is that how is that for you? Multi-generational in the in the business now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

The other side of the family business, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

It's it's uh amazing.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

You know, I thought when you when when I talk about this and be like, oh no.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

She's uh I guess she's learned a lot from me, and we know how to be very candid with each other because we it's not all roses, so that's but that's okay. Um, you know, but I thought about that question when I read it, and and uh all of us having children, you know, one of the blessings is watching them grow and develop and succeed throughout the steps of life. But and I got to enjoy that, but now I'm getting getting to enjoy it like a second time over, but in a different light. Is she I think she's falling in love with this industry. Okay, and I think watching her grow, develop the knowledge of concrete. I mean, I tell her all the time, you know, way more about concrete in the field and and what we're looking for than I did at that age, you know, at age 21. Right. Um so yeah, it's it's pretty cool, pretty rewarding, not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Great, great. So why don't you break down for anybody that might not know, you know, your your manager over at the Edwards group, but what does that look like on a day-to-day basis? What are your actual responsibilities?

SPEAKER_01 19:09

I would say the number one, because I'm I am blessed with doubler plant manager-wise, and and as far as like the I mean, we still we very much feed off of each other, which is which is pretty cool the way we've got it. We haven't noticed. Yeah, yeah. Um, but I mean, when it comes to truck demand and and materials and and like all the things, the the things that happen daily that need to happen, I can always count on him that that's either done, being done, or will get done between the two of us.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

And inventory, don't forget that.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

And in we just talked about that the other day. Uh so I don't know. I thought I was being helpful. But uh, so I guess number one in my role is the the the relationship between customer service and what we do each day. Because I mean, our customers are what we have, right? They're yeah, they are, you know, you're in in the in the whole sales side, the customer service side. And uh, I would venture to say it's almost harder than it's ever been right now with customer relations. Not maintaining them, but uh there's there's so many others tempting and always trying to lure the way with it, which we're a buck cheaper or whatever it may be. And uh building and keeping those customer relations is is I would say my number one.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Expound on that because uh you I think you do a really nice job with it. And um so what what are your kind of strategies and how how do you build and maintain all those relationships?

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Like well, I I once again kind of go back to my law enforcement career because the quickest way to gain compliance in the law enforcement world, right? If you're if you're interviewing someone per se, because I did 12 years as a detective and I loved my cases. And that was the only thing that made it hard for me to leave to come here full-time because I loved working cases that much.

SPEAKER_03 20:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

And uh, but when you're interviewing someone and you're developing that dialogue and communication, the first thing you learn, you learn you want to learn about them real fast, right? Like if you're interviewing interviewing um uh a banker, you know, all of a sudden you're very smart in finance and uh a gangbanger, you're talking their language, that type of stuff. Um, but the same goes with our customers, right? Because I take, for example, um we recently developed a customer uh that's out in our area, and uh they do a lot of work and have a long history of quality, which you know, we understand those relationships because we have them ourselves, yeah, as frustrating as it may be. But developing a relationship with this customer, it turns out we had a lot in common as far as the outdoors and hunting and those things. And you know, when you visit with people, you just I I don't want to say I pray on because that sounds malicious, but yeah, but you rely heavily on those the things you know you have in common, right? Yeah, yeah. And uh yeah, you just develop those, it becomes more than a professional relationship, right? There's a relationship outside of work, like we're talking about deer hunting and stuff like that. What are you saying? Those types of things, and and I think that spills over into building bonds, yeah. And uh, and we're we're you know, we're picking up more work with this customer. They're when they're in the genocil area, they're using us now all the time and stuff like that. So yeah. So it's I don't want to say it's an extra step, but it's it's just being aware of how competitive the world is and using everything you can to build, maintain, and keep customer relations.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Yeah. You know. And I, you know, we definitely see all the time how dedicated you are to taking care of the of the customers in that market. Right. So trying to do right by them at all times. And and um, you know, it's a discussion we have with you and with Zach down in Muscatine where it's like you know, we're we're always resource prioritization is is really what we do every day, right? And so that's that's sometimes challenging. But um I really appreciate how you go to bat for your customers and and and advocate for them, you know, internally. And then, you know, keep we have a lot of people that do this same thing, but keep us all in line on on making sure we're doing things right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

And and so you know, and that that in-house relationship cuts two ways too, because I think specifically the the the the amount of times I'll communicate with Chris Jurgens along the way. And sure. And I know early on in this there were like times he probably wanted to pull his hair out when I would plug someone in and we were that's why he doesn't have any hair. But uh, you know, I I I think we have the trust of each other, right? I I I've gotten to know him very well, and I I believe he knows me very well when I tell him that you know we might be overbooked, but I can make it work by doing X, or that it's important we do so. You know, we're trying to get more of this guy's business, et cetera. Sure. So we've learned to work well together. And I think, you know, 95% of the time you hit it out of the park and it works. Yeah, occasionally there's some inflicted pain, but yeah, it you're always gonna have that.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Yeah. I don't think anybody would question that the the culture over in Geneseo is pretty special. You know, you think you look at the the age of the trucks there is older than it is anywhere else in our company, you know, on an average age, and the trucks look, you know, uh uh uh in the aggregate cleaner than anywhere else, right? The plant is an old plant in wonderful condition. Yeah, the the property is always spotless, you know, the the care and attention to the customers on the job side is very good. I how do you I know that that is a long tradition, that whole culture that's happened over there at Edwards. How do you maintain that? How do you keep that edge?

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yeah, I was thinking about that. And I think I think part of like the I think part of the reason the way it is, is we, I mean, we're still different in the sense of our drivers do so many other things other than just come in and get in the truck and drive. Um, you know, we have plant responsibilities as far as uh keeping up with the cleaning and uh um we do a lot of the lesser plant repairs and stuff for that nature, the things that we can. So I think when guys are doing other things together that more, I thought, like for instance, our blocks, you know, we might make 25 blocks a day in the summertime. Right. And that's like an hour project of all hands on deck, getting a move set, straight and re reset for the next park. So I think when guys are around each other that much, you start to naturally build connections and from talking and doing, and you learn learn to rely on the other guy. I need to help the other guy because at the end of the day, all this work's gonna get done in some capacity. So I so I think that helps.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

It's a little peer, peer accountability too. Like, you know, hey, we're gonna, this isn't how we do things. We we keep it clean, we keep it nice, we you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Yeah, and same goes for the trucks. And and you know, I know our drivers get a lot of compliments on the on the shape of their trucks, and I know 99% of them that means a lot. So they build off of that too, you know, they get the positive reinforcement from the management of the company when they see the trucks. So and they take great pride in that. And then you give them little pieces of ownership, right? I mean, you know, yeah, we might have a little more chrome and stuff like that. But as far as I can see, that's a small token if a guy's really doing the extra mile, and if that brings him joy and keeps that truck clean, it's a win all the way around for the company.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Yeah. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

For sure. What's um what's a piece of advice you'd give to somebody just kind of starting their career in this industry? Or or what what maybe have you told Jill, you know, recently um that that's something somebody listening to this that's just getting started could learn from?

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Well, you know, I think back to my career, and I tell her all the time, there's and even to this day, there's so many people within this company you can learn so much from, right? Yeah. I mean, I think back, I was blessed to work around three incredible mechanics that not only taught me my understanding of mechanics now that still help to this day, be it with the plant or with trucks, but it made me a better person outside, right? I'm more I'm more mechanical and um those things at home.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Um is that advice specific to Griffin?

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Yeah. You're speaking exactly too like my biggest weakness. But I mean, I I take every opportunity, I I guess I would tell someone, take every opportunity. We all have something to give. I mean, I've learned a lot from you, uh everybody over the years. Um don't get complacent and complacent in like, oh, this is my job, this is what I do. If there's an opportunity to learn, learn.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Because it might not pay you a dividend right now, but it's going to pay you a dividend down the road. Absolutely. And once you learn something, it can't be unlearned. I mean, I guess you could purposely try. I mean, but you know what I'm saying by that. It it's with you forever. Yeah. So um just take advantage of every opportunity. Sponge, yeah. Surround yourself with good people. And we have so many of them in this company. That's that's the neat thing about like as Hauna's grown and you know, us coming to become part of that family, it just gets bigger and bigger in the sense of you only have to do your job because you know there's others there to help you, you know. And even when you need help, yeah, Andrew's not when you need help within your job, that's that's the reassuring thing, right? Yeah. And I tell people all the time, in fact, I think just the other day when Kyle called, and what do you know about lightweight? I'm like, well, I know the guy that knows a lot more than me, and I have the phone too, because we have that diversity with that expertise across so many fields. Yeah. So for new people coming in like Jill or any others, you know, that's a blessing if if you really want to take it. And it's it's kind of up to you, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

What's there's a lot of expertise around here in a lot of different fields. Yeah, absolutely. All right. One last question. We're running long on this episode, but it's been a good conversation. So you've spent your whole life, basically, your whole career serving others, law enforcement, city hall, now with us. What keeps you motivated uh to keep doing that?

SPEAKER_01 28:36

You know, at 52, you realize that uh, and even though I don't feel 52, right? Yeah, um, but you realize a good share of your life is like coming to pass, right? And none of us know what's left. Right. You know, you could be whatever age to whatever age. My dad was 80, I believe, one. Um, and really at the end of the day, what keeps me going, what's keep me motive motivated here uh with the city, my law enforcement um uh connection still to this day with guys working or retired, is at the end of it, all you have left is how you're remembered. And legacy. Yeah, I mean, I I don't and then I didn't want to say the word legacy because I didn't want to sound conceited because that's not what I mean, but truly how you're how my how Jill and my other daughter Tenley and my wife or whoever's left remembers you. And and to me, that means a lot, and that's why I continue to give and I'm involved in these things, and and just leave my mark where I can along the way. And hopefully people remember me as you know, he was one hell of a guy. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

So I think you're well on your way to that.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

So yeah, we appreciate you being here today and every day. Uh you're a huge part of our team, even though we don't see you every day. You do do a great job communicating and did a great job on the podcast today. So thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

All right. Thanks everyone for listening to Loaded. Be sure to share this episode and tune in again next week.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Thanks so much.