55. Why you should listen to the podcast...

In a shameless self-advertisement, we share the top ten reasons to listen to the podcast if you are a Hahn Ready Mix employee. We share clips from older episodes to illustrate each of these reasons. One could say it is kind of a greatest hits track. Anyway, if you haven't been a regular listener, this perfect place to start.

Also, March Madness is here! Fill out your bracket and get it to Lex or Sam!

Transcript

SPEAKER_08 0:09

Welcome to Load It, the Hahn Ready Mix podcast with Andrea Meyer, Griffin Hahn, and Producer Lex.

SPEAKER_04 0:15

Producer Lex here on his day off in the shortest, like tiger skin shorts and a giant hoodie. So he's on brand.

SPEAKER_08 0:25

There's so many times where I think we need video in here, and this is definitely one of them. This is gonna be really hard for people to picture this, but it's true. I swear what he said is true.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

I'll visit every plant before I leave. Okay, the visual. Great.

SPEAKER_08 0:39

There's not enough people around. It's they're missing out.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 0:44

What's new? Where are you been? Lex, you haven't even been around for a bunch of podcasts.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

Well, last week I was in New Orleans. So I did not make.

SPEAKER_08 0:55

How was New Orleans? What'd you what'd you do? What'd you learn? What did you see?

SPEAKER_03 0:58

That's a lot. Uh what I do, I met with some people, some other technical managers from around the country, and we kind of discussed some of our issues. And I think we came up with some good ones to bring back. But we will see.

SPEAKER_08 1:15

You're gonna edit this out of the podcast, aren't you?

SPEAKER_03 1:19

50-50 channels.

SPEAKER_08 1:20

50-50.

SPEAKER_04 1:21

50-50.

SPEAKER_08 1:23

Great. What's new with you?

SPEAKER_04 1:25

I'm very excited. So this episode will drop on Monday, and the day before this episode comes out is selection Sunday for March Madness, which means it is time for the annual Han Ready Mix March Madness pool.

SPEAKER_08 1:41

What's funny is like 20 minutes ago, you told me you were gonna talk about this on podcast, and I already forgot before I asked you.

SPEAKER_04 1:47

Yeah, yeah. Uh I'm very excited. It's always a lot of fun. Uh uh this, you know, last the last two years actually. So last year we had 68 uh entries into the pool, and Steve Carton won. And he also won the year before that, and he got third place the year before that. It's a dynasty. Insane. It's like John Wooden levels going on. So we need there's a target on him. Yeah, we need a lot of people to participate because we I we can't have him win three years in a row. That would be ridiculous. So if you are interested, it's a five-dollar buy-in. I'm actually normally I take all the brackets, but uh I'm headed out of town on Wednesday and they'll be due Thursday before the first game starts.

SPEAKER_08 2:30

So you have from Sunday until Thursday.

SPEAKER_04 2:33

Correct. Yes, to get them in and get them to either Lex or Sam. They are going to be taking over the collection of all the brackets. So yeah, looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_08 2:44

It's open to all Han Ready Mix employees, spouses, household members.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

We've had some customers put some in before, and you can do more than one bracket. Like I personally have like moral objections to that, so I will not, but if you want to, um it's been done. People sometimes put in four brackets, right? So I, you know, I don't like that because then I don't know who I'm supposed to be rooting for if I picked team A in one game and team B. It's also important to know that this is a really big deal because the Florida Gators are defending national champions. Okay.

SPEAKER_08 3:20

Uh, how long does this take? Like how many weeks of updates am I gonna have to hear about?

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Three.

SPEAKER_08 3:26

Okay. Three weeks.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

Yeah. Just three weekends is the games. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 3:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

What do you what do you have to talk about?

SPEAKER_08 3:33

To go further on March Madness, my birthday is on Tuesday, and March Madness has been ruining my birthday.

SPEAKER_04 3:39

Not this year.

SPEAKER_08 3:40

Yeah, but it just is overshadowed. Um it's St. Patrick's Day, it's March Madness, it's Lent.

SPEAKER_04 3:47

Like there's so many things happening that it's birthday, but it is spring break week, so that's well, happy birthday is if you're fishing, then there you go. You caught a fish. Please celebrate.

SPEAKER_08 3:58

But what did you where's my gift? I don't see any cake or balloons or anything.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

You need to announce it earlier and not just yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 4:06

Okay. Other than that, we have started having some driver meetings here. It's it's welcome back time. Also overshadowing my birthday is back to work time, I guess. We met with the drivers in Muscatine last week. Zach did a nice job, kind of kicking them off for the year. You know, they had a really busy end of the year in Muscatine. So sort of a a chance to appreciate everything that we did at the end of the season and set up for success to begin this season because it sounds like they're probably going to be the first place to get busy again this year. So got everybody reset on not just doing uh the quantity of work that we need to do, but really doing it in a in a quality way and making sure that we're taking care of our trucks, uh, doing our DVIRs every day, keeping the trucks clean. So I thought we had a really good discussion and I'm excited to carry those on. I think depending on weather next week when this podcast comes out, we're probably gonna be doing the same thing in Davenport, getting started with that.

SPEAKER_04 5:03

So great.

SPEAKER_08 5:04

That's good.

SPEAKER_04 5:05

Great. Well, I think that kind of ties into our topic for today, right? So it's um it's our kind of our annual reset for the season. We're getting ready to get busy again, and and gosh, we're all ready for that for sure. But it's also a good time to kind of reset the podcast, I think. And this was your idea. When you first said it, I have to say I was a little bit like, oh, that's kind of corny or or dumb. But the more I thought about it, the more I think it makes sense. Is so I think we're gonna talk about today the top 10 reasons why an employee of Hon ReadyMix should listen to the podcast on the podcast.

unknown 5:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 5:41

And uh I do think it's a good time to reintroduce the podcast to people. We put a lot of work into this, we have a lot of great information, and I think people don't really know some of the people that aren't listening to this don't really know what they're missing out on. We've had almost 3,800 downloads of the podcast, and we don't know how many more just streams that weren't downloads. But we definitely know there's employees that haven't taken a listen or or have listened to one and and just kind of let it be. And for one, I think we've gotten a little bit better at podcasting since the beginning.

SPEAKER_08 6:14

Yeah, I think that's uh I think that's a really good point. We've learned a lot over the the time that we've been doing it, and it was hard to promote it right when we first got started because we didn't know where it was going and we weren't that good. So telling people, oh, you have to listen, and then they listen, and it was like, what are these people doing? So now I feel like we're a little bit more confident in what we're doing, our content is getting better, and it's definitely worth listening to.

SPEAKER_04 6:39

Absolutely. There's so much. So I think we'll go through the top 10 reasons why you should listen. So if someone is wants to dip their toe and listen to a first episode, this would be a good one to to point them to. That's the idea.

SPEAKER_08 6:51

Yes, and a great one to share. If you are a listener of the podcast, obviously you're hearing this. Share it with somebody who might not be.

SPEAKER_04 6:58

Yeah, perfect.

SPEAKER_08 7:00

Get them on board.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

And to make this even more fun, we didn't warn producer Lex.

SPEAKER_08 7:05

Oh, surprise.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

But what we're gonna do. What we're gonna do is I'm going to provide him with clips of examples for each of these reasons, and he gets to insert them.

SPEAKER_08 7:18

Tears tears are streaming his face right now.

SPEAKER_04 7:23

Monday's a shout. I think we'll we'll make it easy, hopefully. Hopefully. We're gonna we're as we're upping the podcast game, we're upping the producing game too.

SPEAKER_08 7:33

So expectations. Yeah. Level up.

SPEAKER_04 7:35

Yeah. Cool. All right, let's jump in. Okay, so we came up with these completely arbitrary reasons or or uh uh They're in no particular order.

SPEAKER_08 7:44

Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_04 7:45

Well, maybe kind of.

SPEAKER_08 7:46

All right.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

We'll see. All right. So reason number 10 to listen to the podcast, it is real. You know, I listened to a couple other podcasts that are either from our industry or or outside the industry in particular, and it's just super corporate and oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 8:03

There's a couple that I listen to.

SPEAKER_04 8:05

Politically correct and and dry, right.

SPEAKER_08 8:07

So whoever the CEO or whoever's doing the podcast, could it be further off the mark from the people that I talk to at those companies?

SPEAKER_04 8:16

Yes, yes. I feel like we are pretty genuine here and pretty irreverent and pretty real, and we've had a lot of fun. You know, some of the the real moments we've had with you almost dying, like on the on the podcast of the coughing fit a couple weeks ago. Very recently, yeah. Uh disaster of a Christmas episode where I kept asking you two questions and you both just said, we don't like Christmas. And great, great. Thanks for a good episode. So, and we have a couple clips from uh our Thanksgiving food draft and one when my son Isaac joined us. So we'll uh we'll have those in here. But anything else about being real and genuine?

SPEAKER_08 8:55

Oh yeah, if if by real you mean sometimes totally unprepared. Yes. That's that's it. Uh very transparent.

SPEAKER_04 9:03

You're probably the most well don't say that yet, because that is number that's that's a later one, right? So pull off on transparency. You see, you didn't even read. Yeah, Paul's.

SPEAKER_08 9:14

I did, I forgot. I don't I guess maybe not. I guess I'll I'll save my transparency and oversharing for that category.

SPEAKER_04 9:22

Great.

SPEAKER_08 9:22

Yes, very real, too real sometimes.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

Here's the clips. My next pick is a highly controversial one, I think, around, but I love stuffing. I love it. Oh I love it. I was gonna do a gag sound. Lexus doing gagging, but uh stuffing is gross. No, it's great.

SPEAKER_08 9:43

Dev has to leave the room. He hates stuffing so much he's leaving the room.

SPEAKER_04 9:47

That's okay. Then mission accomplished. Uh no, stuffing's wonderful if it's seasoned right and get the right texture. It's best when you get multiple textures. You get some bread that's a little dry, some that's a little mushy, and you get those mixed together.

SPEAKER_08 10:02

Do you make it?

SPEAKER_04 10:03

Uh, I've never made stuffing, but I would.

SPEAKER_08 10:05

Number nine is the podcast reinforces the company values. And the company values are are sort of new for us over the past couple of years. We spend a lot of time putting them together, thinking through and sharing them as much as we could, you know, through posters and signage and whatever. But in meetings in the office, we get to talk about the values all the time and we do, but it's hard to have those conversations, you know, one-off with every single person that works here. So I really appreciate that on this podcast, we can talk about different things that come up and what we would or wouldn't do differently and why and relate it back to the values. And I in conversations that I've had with people who do listen to the podcast, I think that's one of the things that they really appreciate.

SPEAKER_04 10:46

Absolutely. We've never thought about this podcast being like required listening for anybody. But I do have it in my head that like maybe when we hire someone new, those 12 value episodes should be like, you gotta listen to this because this is who we are, what we stand for, how we operate, how we behave, how we engage with each other. They're they're fundamental building blocks for our whole organization. Everything we don't get where we get want to go without following our values, and we don't get there the way we want to get there without following our values. So it's it's so critical.

SPEAKER_08 11:21

Yeah, for sure. That's a great place to start for people. It's even better, you know, when I used to hire people and do the onboarding and orientation. One of the first days I did like the 101 ways to get fired from Hon Ready Mix. But this is like the 12 values of Han Ready Mix is probably a better place to start than that. I've evolved over time.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

All right. So here's a clip from our don't be a dick episode.

SPEAKER_08 11:42

Yeah. People were feeling tense with life. Yes. And then add work on top of it and all of the additional complications that COVID brought us.

SPEAKER_04 11:50

Yeah. I remember I called Wayne up, Wayne Lawson, but most of you remember him. But in case you didn't know, or in case you're newer, he was our executive vice president. And I called Wayne and I said, God, we have like five different manager pairings that are in feud with each other right now. And just everybody's snapping at each other all the time. It's just I thought, we got to do something about it. It's not, we can't get anything done because we're at each other's throats. And it was all, I think, a symptom of that stressful period, right? Wayne said, okay, do something about it. All right. So we we called a Zoom meeting, kind of the first time we've ever done it. All hands manager Zoom meetings.

SPEAKER_08 12:37

It's stressful in itself because none of us were frequent Zoom users at the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:42

And nobody had any idea what we were going to talk about, right? So this Zoom meeting we had, I think the meeting was about two and a half minutes long. And the gist of it was the way that we were treating each other was unacceptable. And we weren't going to tolerate it anymore. And we needed to find ways to come together to solve problems. And frankly, it was time to stop being a dick to one another. So I ended the meeting with don't be a dick or don't work here. And then I hit end meeting, which was one of my more fun mic drop moments of my life, I think.

SPEAKER_08 13:18

It was a mic drop moment. And especially having a succinct message from you is unusual. It caught us all off guard.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Well, you did text me afterwards. Best meeting ever. So yeah. But it we needed it at that moment. And but it's a good thing to always remember. And I think in for the most part, we do great at this and people really get along well. But it's always good to remember that it's easy to slide back into that moment where we were back in 2020, where we were at each other's throats and not being cooperative.

SPEAKER_08 13:54

Yeah. And it really it caught on. It stuck with us.

SPEAKER_04 13:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 13:57

When I was thinking back to when we created these values, I remember that we tried to turn this around. Like it isn't common that when you state your values, you state them in the negative. Like don't do something.

SPEAKER_05 14:09

Right.

SPEAKER_08 14:10

But no matter how many times we tried to rearrange this, it didn't fit us the way that don't be a dick does.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

The next one is we are going to spend even more time on this, I think, going forward, but talking about process improvements, safety improvements, specific things, practical tips to make your job easier or safer.

SPEAKER_08 14:32

I didn't get enough votes on the order of these because this is probably my number one reason to listen to the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

Well, it is a great reason.

SPEAKER_08 14:38

I love when we have very tactical information to share with people. I guess it's just one of the shortages that we had before we had the podcast, where we would have, you know, something that changed or something that we wanted to share with people, and it was so hard to get it out there. So having this podcast now where we can go into details on something and get it out to everybody within a week, I think is so cool. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 15:01

Yeah. So here's a clip from Ryan from Meyer Labs. So there's three products in the wash bay. Yep. Why don't you give us a quick rundown what each of those products do, where they should be used, and and you know, anything else you think is pertinent to that?

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Absolutely. So uh right now the Han Meyer Chemical Program is set around three products. You have Mudslinger, Hammer Clean, and Triumph Wash. I'll kind of go from Mudslinger up to Triumph Wash and just kind of talk about the purposes of each one.

SPEAKER_05 15:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Uh the first one is Mudslinger. That's kind of the fan favorite. It's a glycolic-based acid. It does a really good job of breaking down heavy buildup. Um, it's safe for the truck, it's safe for those wire harnesses we talked about. It's safe for Steve's guys, it's safe for your drivers. And really how that one works is once it's foamed on there, we want to let it sit. We want to let it sit for at least 10 minutes and it's gonna break down that heavy buildup. Um, it's a really good product for kind of the bouldering back into the chute. And um, you're gonna see a lot of good uses on stuff like that. Uh, the second product is called hammer clean or hammer shine. Um, what that product is designed for is basically your dust or light buildup on your drums and your fenders. Um, it does a really good job of bringing the color back to your drums and to those big billboards that we talk about. And it's really good for your kind of exhaust that comes out of uh the back end there. And then the third product is kind of just your day-to-day wash for those brand new trucks you got or for those guys that are keeping it really clean, but are like my wife and like to clean every day and that's what they got to do. So that that product is kind of your car wash and it can be used especially on the cab. Okay, a lot of the glass and a lot of that kind of cab area is where that's going to be the most. And that's the triumph, right? That's the triumph wash, yes, sir. Yeah. So I believe all your plants are set up that way. Those are the three products. And like we talk about, there's usually not a one size fits all, but with those three products, you will get the results that you want, your drivers want, and we can definitely get those trucks where they need to be.

SPEAKER_04 16:58

Sure. So I think you were saying before the um the mudslinger, that one we want to put on dry, right? On the on dry back end so we don't let it down.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Yep, absolutely. Muds, all products should be applied mostly to a dry surface. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. But for the most part, it's going to be hard to keep the drum completely dry when you put hammer clean. But for the most part, what we like to see is you have foaming systems out there and they are set up for all your products. But for the most part, we want to see the mudslinger foamed on because with the foam, we get a nice stick and a nice contact time that's going to help break down your thicker concrete. Yeah. Let it sit there, let it sit there for about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on how much time you have. And while it's sitting there, we can bucket and brush the other products where they need to go. And then we can give those a good rinse and then come back to our mudslinger and get a really good rinse from there. Um, what you should see is kind of basically its name. The concrete should turn back into that mud product, should be nice and soft, and it should just start peeling away as we're spraying it and/or scraping it, depending on what tools you have available.

SPEAKER_08 18:02

All right. Number seven, the podcast is a great way to get to know your teammates. You might even get to hear producer Lex's voice on this podcast, which you may or may not ever get a chance to do if you don't listen to the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

That is a good point. It's kind of like um the company water cooler chat, but it's you can hear it while you're out solo, you know. And um, is we've had a lot of great interviews with team members, and we're gonna keep doing that. And also if you want to be on the podcast, let us know. We'd love to have you. Yes. So you know, I'd love to have most people here eventually come come through and and so we all get to know each other. And you know, that there's a lot of people that you may not work with hand in hand, right? If you're a mechanic, you might not spend much time with Brian Jackson. So getting to hear his his background and getting to know him a little bit better is is pretty neat.

SPEAKER_08 18:57

Yep. I loved the episodes with the drivers. Everybody comes from a different place, has a different perspective, and them just sharing what works for them in the job, I think is really cool.

SPEAKER_04 19:05

Yeah. So here's a clip from Brian Woods talking a little bit about why he likes working here in this industry. What's kept you here at Han over that that a lot of that amount of time? Because it's not very common for people to spend that much time in this role.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

For me, it's been uh it always has to do with the company, right? And it has to do well, how do you feel about your job? The company's been great, right? I haven't had no, you know, when you uh go through changes in your life and your company is there for you, that that means something, right? It's it's easier for me to uh a lot of people talk about money, right? We love money, we always want more money. But I've learned even when I was a manager, when you treat people good and you and you care about them, and they'll forget about how much money they make, and that won't be the issue, right? When you when you show your appreciation. Yeah. And that's what uh has been done here. Good. Uh I remember uh Brian Hung walked up to me and actually shook my hand and uh and commented on on some things I've been doing. That that's a rarity for the the owner himself to come and do that. And that made a difference because he said we want this to be a family here.

SPEAKER_05 20:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

So that that kind of stick and stays. Uh then me too, man. I just don't like jumping around. When I get somewhere, I like to stick and stay, right? Yeah. But it's been a venture for me, and it's been uh some things that keep me here, the company in itself.

SPEAKER_08 20:34

All right. Number six to go along with that is getting to learn about other departments. So we have had interviews with uh people from every different department, and I think it really helps kind of tie the pieces together. Like, how does what dispatch does affect my day every day? How does understanding what the mechanics are facing, how does that affect my day? So I think it's a really great way to kind of broaden your perspective on what goes on around here.

SPEAKER_04 20:58

We're all like interlocking gears that have to work together. And the gear you're working on maybe a few gears away from another one, but they all have to work in sync. And so understanding the big picture of what other departments do or the challenges they face, I think is really important. That's been a really good, I think, hopefully, benefit from this is that people have a bigger understanding of the big picture of the whole company because they're hearing about each department. So yeah, so here's a clip from Jeff Passel talking a little bit about accounting. For for those of us that might not know, uh, Andrea, pay attention. What is a what does a CFO actually do in a ready-mixed company? Like what's the day-to-day look like for you?

SPEAKER_06 21:40

Well, I mean, I try to in between tea times, I try to uh be here as much as I can. No. Uh obviously a big part of the CFO is running the accounting function. And I think most people think of the CFO when you don't really know what we do, you think of accounting. And we we definitely have that responsibility. So the accounting function of Han Redimix reports up. Through me. I don't generally do much day-to-day accounting. So we have staff that does that, Angela Clark, Leah Bloker, and Sandy and Marla. They kind of run the ship as it relates to day-to-day accounting. What I try to bring is uh help with strategy, help with the overall picture of where Han Red Emix wants to be. Um, and day-to-day, you know, kind of help steer the ship with the with U2 on the things that we need to really improve on and things we need to do. So um I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how we can most efficiently use all of our assets. Uh one thing I've learned about the Red Emix business is there's a ton of equipment and a ton of uh capital assets. And so you want to make sure you're using those efficiently because you don't want to have too many and you're paying and they break down. And so that's what those are one of the some of the stuff that I really try to focus on.

SPEAKER_04 22:54

Number five is stay informed about what's happening in the company. We do announcements weekly. And I'll never forget, but right when we started this podcast, uh Brian Schultz, I'm gonna give him a call out, came to me and we were talking about something. He goes, Well, nobody ever tells me what's going on around here. Well, do you listen to the podcast? Because that's one of the main reasons we do this, to get announcements out, to make sure everybody's in the know. And so we have announcements every week where we talk about things that we think it's important for people to know and uh upcoming work or benefits information, uh, you know, all sorts of stuff, right? So that's I think r really important, you know, on a on a definitely on a timely basis to listen to that beginning of the podcast because it could be could change how you do something that week, right? So most of the impactful announcements come from you. So appreciate that. And uh I think they're really good.

SPEAKER_08 23:48

Yeah, I agree. I think even if you if you don't have time or interested in listening to the entire podcast, if you just tune in for those announcements every week, I think you'll it'll be worth your time.

SPEAKER_04 23:57

Yeah, for sure. So here is one from just a couple weeks ago where you're talking about benefit deductions starting.

SPEAKER_08 24:03

Still relevant. Check those out. Yeah. Pushed up our wellness screenings this week here. So that um is good to have that behind us. And that being said, our health insurance deductions, the benefits deductions start coming out of paychecks again this week. So this podcast is coming out the first week of March. That first paycheck of March is when the deductions start coming out again. So I'll probably say this a few times on the next few podcasts, but please take a look at your paycheck and make sure that those deductions look like what you selected. The whole system is automated, which is great because there's such a low chance of error on the on the system side. But if you accidentally signed up for something that you didn't want, yeah, this is the time to check that and find it and get it corrected. It's much easier to deal with it now than it is later, like when you have a claim or like at the end of the year when the deduct deductions have been happening over time. So please check that out. All right, number four, tools to handle tough situations. I think these are some of our best episodes. Uh, we're constantly going to conferences, reading books, listening to other podcasts, talking to different, you know, resources and leveling up our own ability to handle situations. And we love to turn those into topics for the podcast. Absolutely. If it's on our mind, we're sharing it on the podcast. So I think we've had several episodes where there were some really great tools that we shared for people.

SPEAKER_04 25:26

Yeah. No, those are been really impactful ones, I think, and had some really interesting guests like Steve Ott come on and talk about on some of those tools that we've put a lot of time and energy and money into training our management staff for. So yeah, I I think that the the tools we face hard situations with our customers. Obviously, there's sometimes conflict with coworkers, the community at large can be challenging, right? So so having the ability to navigate those situations is really important. And we hope to give those tools and that ability through the podcast. So here's a clip from our conversation with Steve Ott about assuming positive intent.

SPEAKER_07 26:07

Sure. Well, here's the thing with like assuming positive intent, it's actually not even really a leadership thing. We talked about it in the scope of leadership development. But if you're listening to this and you're not maybe a leader formally or you're your frontline employee here, this is actually for you too. And the idea here is that assuming positive intent is a mental exercise for yourself to break through essentially the monologue that we start telling ourselves, right? When you're frustrated with somebody or you're you're annoyed with what's happening, or someone makes a decision, we start like that internal dialogue or that internal track plays in our mind that says, Oh, they're doing this on purpose. I've I've seen Lex sit there. Lex was sitting in the corner of the room, like squatting down. He was doing it was amazing. And I'm assuming he's it looks like he was pooping a little bit, but um for those who are listening, it's it was exactly what you thought it looked like. Anyways, um the assuming pause intent is is it's interrupting that thought that we have that somebody is out to get me. And what I'm experiencing right now is it's real. It's it's this this person is on purpose trying to ruin my life. And you think about it, since Jeff Hassel, we haven't hired any comic book villains. Like it's it. Like this is kidding. Our last one. Jeff Jeff was the last one. Yeah. Yeah. But we we we we typically don't hire evildoers in that in that capacity. So the people we work with are trying to do a good job. And assuming positive intent is a mental exercise that says, if that is true, what else could this situation mean? Right. And it allows you to have some flexibility emotionally and mentally to go, maybe this what I'm thinking isn't how it should be. So actually, what you can say is normally this should go really well. And the fact that it isn't means that something has gone wrong. Not that this person doesn't like me or doesn't or hates me or is out to get me. It just means that this isn't normal. So it allows us to be curious, not judgmental and say, this is exactly what's happening. They're out to get me. So I've judged during execution, but rather I can be curious and say, why is it happening this way? And I'm gonna pursue, like, I'm gonna ask questions and invite this person, hey, this is what I noticed is going on. Um, help me understand. And it's not me face to face, like combative, it's me shoulder to shoulder saying, we're on the same team and this doesn't make sense to me, and I want to understand. And it opens up dialogue and it allows people to start solving problems quickly. So when we talk about assuming positive intent, uh it's something that allows you to diffuse situations and diffuse what you feel inside quickly and actually allow you to get to the result we want to see, which is solving the problem. That's the end result that we want to get to, not being right or winning. Just hang with me, competitive folks. It's not about winning. Uh, I saw lots of eyes roll immediately. Um we have lots of competitive folks in this room, not gonna name names, but it's not to just simply win, but it's to solve the problem together. And if you are able to go shoulder to shoulder and be curious and stay curious, it allows you to actually get to that resolution faster.

SPEAKER_04 29:20

All right. So the next one, the third reason to listen to the podcast, number three, is when you were you had comments on before. We almost talked about it. Transparency. The three of us in here and whoever our guests are, we talk about real world issues, we talk about objectives, we talk about decisions. You can, it's almost like we we reason through some of the ways the company operates through the podcast. So I think that that is pretty rare. And, you know, I know my dad sometimes cringes at the things we talk about on the podcast for sure. But you know, I think it's important that people feel like they are in the loop and understand what we're doing.

SPEAKER_08 30:02

Yeah, I think it's a a fine line for you sometimes between transparency and oversharing uh that might make us all cringe, but it's genuinely who you are. So I guess that's uh coming through in the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 30:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 30:13

For better or for worse.

SPEAKER_04 30:14

For better or for worse. Yes. You know, on that topic, here is me talking about goal setting a little bit.

SPEAKER_08 30:21

Um Yes, I think this is where we can win Lex back over on the idea of goals. That I think the turn off of goals sometimes is one of their two results focused, right? Like you're whatever the end goal is is all you're focused on. Where if you walk it back and really make the goal about the process or the system or the intention that you're putting there, yeah. We can get people like Lex on board.

SPEAKER_04 30:45

Yeah. I had an example of that. So like we could say as a goal, you could say we want to drive safer, you know, as a as a company, we have less accidents or whatever. Yep. Um, and that's that's great. But just telling everybody our goal is to drive safer this year isn't going to mean we will drive safer. So our systems that we set is the goal is hey, we're going to set up the Sam Sara footage. We are going to follow through on coaching every time we see uh unsafe driving behavior so that we can improve. Right. So that is a that is a systematic goal that we say, okay, our goal is not actually just drive safer. Our goal is let's coach every time we see something unsafe. And that is what will drive results.

SPEAKER_08 31:32

Yep. And that that takes consistent effort from a few different people too, right? Like it takes, you know, Chris and dispatches reviewing that and sending it to us, getting our attention. We're looking at it. People like Sean and Zach and Sheldon are and Jim are doing the actual coaching with the drivers. Um, we're also, you know, sending out and celebrating the people who have the top scores. Like it's taking a consistent effort in a lot of different directions, all driving that same result that we're going for. All right. The number two reason to listen to the podcast is uh customer service is our our number one thing around here and something that we talk about all the time. And I think uh reiterating that and and repeating our our thoughts on that and prioritizing it is a big topic on the podcast, and I think helps reinforce with everyone where we stand on it.

SPEAKER_04 32:19

Yeah, customer service is everything. Customer service is how our business competes, how we differentiate. It is the relationships we build are critical. And so we all need to be on the same page and we all need to understand the parts we play on providing great customer service because that's what determines informs our customers' decision on who they buy from. They're picking us because we know that they know that we're gonna take care of them. So those episodes where we talk about customer service are so important and I think probably the most important thing that we talk about on here, in my opinion. So here is a great clip from John Allen talking about the importance of customer relationships and customer service. If if let's say a new driver is listening to this or someone that's moving into a new role, batching or doing quality control, any of that. What what would you tell them is the most important thing that you would want them to know about um just about the job or or or giving good customer service, anything like that?

SPEAKER_02 33:19

Well, I I I think any any of us need to understand that that's why we're here is is customer service, you know, and and and yeah, the the quality of product product is important, but our delivery of that product is just as. Yeah. You know, from taking the order to batching it and delivering it. So anybody that's part of any of that really needs to understand that the best we can do to get from that first phone call to the tr to an empty truck on a job site is all of those parts play a big role. All of those parts are important from and as smoothly as we can get that to happen for our customers, the better it is for us.

SPEAKER_04 34:00

Yeah. When when when our customers think about us, what do you think they value most?

SPEAKER_02 34:07

I think I would have to answer that with it's a relationship between our customers and ourselves. And yeah, there's some monetary transactions there, but I think what's more important is the the the actual relationship with us and our customers, you know, whether it's knowing their name or or understanding what they need or us doing what we can to help them out. Yeah. And yes, the quality of product is important and the pricing is important, but you know, having that relationship, you know, with our customers to be able to help them in turn helps us.

SPEAKER_04 34:45

All right. The last one, the final reason to listen to the podcast is it's made for you on Radiomix Employees listening. I know that we have a lot of vendors, we have uh other Radiomix companies, uh, some customers that listen to the podcast, and that's great. Hi guys, thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_08 35:06

We like you too.

SPEAKER_04 35:07

We like you too, but that you're not why we do this. Sorry. We we're doing this to speak directly to our employees. And I think that this tool is really important in a time where technology is getting more complicated, the world is more fractured, having a way to speak to people directly without taking the time to get everybody together and pour all this information through a fire hose that you wouldn't retain is really important. I think what we're doing here is important and it's for our employees. We're not doing this for any other reason, certainly not for yours or I's vanity, right? There's a lot of work that goes into this. We would not do it if we didn't see a real benefit for our employees.

SPEAKER_08 35:51

So yeah, I think that the podcast was really born out of your desire or interest in getting in front of employees more often, right? Like we wanted it ideally, you could be at every plant every morning, you know, saying good morning to people, having a coffee with them, and talking to them about their day, but it's just not feasible. It's just physically not possible for us to do that. So this is kind of the the next best way to accomplish that same thing.

SPEAKER_04 36:14

So here's a clip from episode one as we stumble over the reasons why we do a podcast.

SPEAKER_08 36:20

Oh, we're going in the way back, way back machines.

SPEAKER_04 36:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_08 36:23

Yikes.

SPEAKER_04 36:24

Um what we're hoping from this is uh a better way to connect with the employees on ReadyMix or um anybody else that's curious on what we're up to. You know, we're we we feel like we've come a long way in the last, I don't know, what do you think, five years or so? Yes with with our our kind of the culture around here in in the office and and amongst kind of the management group. But it just the virtue of you know of our business is that most of our people are out in trucks or working underneath trucks in the shop or um in a loader or whatever, and and we just don't have that many touch points. We don't have that many times that we can um we can talk to you about what we're thinking about doing and and you know the strategic goals of the company or what's important to us. And and and we're afraid that leaves people kind of out on an island, right? So um yeah, so this is this is our our attempt at a a way to mitigate some of that, to to communicate what's going on here. So we we think we're gonna have a lot of fun with this. Um we're obviously not gonna be super professional because as you can tell by our intro, we're not good at this.

SPEAKER_08 37:38

We are not professional podcasters.

SPEAKER_04 37:40

No.

SPEAKER_08 37:40

I think another uh point on that is we frequently think about having meetings and bringing all of the employees in, and it's logistically difficult, the timing is really hard, and then we try to cram so much in that the meetings end up losing value. So I think something that's going to be really cool about doing the podcast is that we can have just shorter pieces of information to get to people in a really timely manner without being too intrusive or disruptive in our daily work.

SPEAKER_04 38:06

All right. So hopefully all of that was fun listening to some old uh I don't know if that's greatest hits or worst hits or something in between. But uh, you know, maybe it gives a taste for for any kind of new listeners to the podcast on the kinds of things that we talk about. And hopefully we can we can hook you and and keep you listening to this more. If anybody has questions, we we still would love to do more of the loaded questions segment, which is where anybody asks us a question and we will answer it on the podcast. So love to get those. And uh yeah, we wanna we wanna have more guests. So if you're interested in being on the podcast, let us know.

SPEAKER_08 38:46

Yeah, thanks for listening, everyone. Remember, uh, it is time to get drivers back to work. So if you know anyone that's interested in joining us, I think we have a few trucks to fill still. Sheldon's interviewing right now, and uh Zach and Sean would be interested in talking to people at those locations also.

SPEAKER_04 39:03

Awesome.

SPEAKER_08 39:04

Thanks for listening.