April 2, 2025 • 45 mins
The remarkable journey of Bear Iron Works exemplifies how practical innovation solves real-world construction challenges. Father-son team Mike and Roggen Frick transformed what began as a side hustle into a thriving American manufacturing enterprise by identifying crucial equipment gaps in the construction industry.
Mike's extensive background in construction and mining provided the technical expertise, while Roggen's business and marketing acumen created the foundation for their unique partnership. What started with rock screens—devices that separate materials by size—has evolved into a comprehensive product line serving contractors nationwide. Their equipment now ranges from screening devices that process materials from 4-inch rocks down to fine 1/8-inch particles, specialized bedding boxes for mini excavators in tight spaces, to innovative material handlers that revolutionize job site efficiency.
The success of Bear Iron Works stems from addressing problems most contractors face daily. Their products serve remarkably diverse applications: from major mining operations and construction giants like CEMEX, to National Park Service restoration projects, and even homeowners tackling garden projects. One of their rock screens was even helicoptered into the Grand Canyon for a water treatment facility project, highlighting the versatility of their American-made equipment.
What truly distinguishes Bear Iron Works is their commitment to quality, service, and transparency. While many competitors outsource manufacturing overseas, the Fricks maintain entirely domestic production using American steel. Their e-commerce platform provides clear information about inventory and manufacturing schedules, and they pride themselves on having real humans answer customer calls—an increasingly rare service in today's automated business environment.
Discover how this father-son team balances family dynamics with business growth, and how their lean manufacturing approach delivers solutions contractors can depend on. Use code "bluecollar" at bearironworks.net for 5% off your entire order and experience American-made quality that's revolutionizing construction equipment.
Click the link above for a free marketing audit with insights to boost your blue collar business!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast
, where we discuss the realest,rawest, most relevant stories
and strategies behind buildingevery corner of a blue collar
business.
I'm your host, cy Kirby, and Iwant to help you in what it took
me trial and error and a wholelot of money to learn the
information that no one in thisindustry is willing to share.
Whether you're under that shadetree or have your hard hat on,
(00:30):
let's expand your toolbox.
Welcome back, guys, to anotherepisode of the Blue Collar
Business Podcast, sponsoredtoday by podcastvideoscom.
I'm sitting in one of theirbeautiful solo pod rooms here in
their Rogers Arkansas locationhere in northwest Arkansas.
I'm absolutely thrilled tobring you guys a very unique
(00:55):
story and the good guys do winsometimes and the experience on
one end, the education onanother, and it's met in the
middle and these guys have got avery uh number one unique
product and they found the nichein the market that we talk
about on this show all the timeriches in the niches and these
guys didn't just, oh, there's aproblem here, fix it, they did
(01:18):
it themselves.
So very unique story.
Hang in there for that.
Basically, bear Ironworks, mikeand Rog and Frick, correct, yes
.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I nailed it, all right Good.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
These guys have been reached out to the show through
podcast videos I just wanted toshine some light there for the
PV team and they reached outthrough
bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom.
You can get all of our episodeson there, totally, free audio
or video, or you can befollowing along on any of your
(01:58):
platforms podcast platformstotal if you already have a
subscription on there.
Furthermore, thank you guys somuch for joining me today for an
episode.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Seriously, yeah, thanks for having us on today.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Exciting.
All right, so I don't know whowants to take the floor first,
but we've got give us the introof Bear Ironworks.
These guys have builtbearironworksnet.
These guys have gotconstruction entrance solution.
I was blown away when I sawthat.
(02:32):
I'm like I don't know whynobody's thought of that.
And uh, concrete washout hubs.
I saw you guys do bedding boxes.
So from there, take it away,guys.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Sounds good, yeah, I'll let uh.
Mike, you think you shouldstart, because you're the one
that kind of came up with theidea so, yeah, I've been in the
construction business my prettymuch my whole life, um.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And then I worked underground a coal mine right
off the bat, out of high schoolbasically, in a large
construction company, grew up ona cattle ranch my dad had.
He also had a constructionbusiness at the same time.
He had the ranch to supplementthe ranch basically.
So we did oil oil field work atthe time and of course, my I
think I told you my dad had abig background in construction
(03:20):
back in the day, back startingin 1950s.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
So you got to share the note you shared with me.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, so he's got a claim to fame to being the first
guy to scratch ground onEisenhower Tunnel.
I think it was 1952.
I don't remember the name ofthe company he worked for, but
back then he was in the laborunion or the operators union.
So he worked for companies likeKiewit and Hd laudermilk and,
uh, big companies like that backin the day.
(03:48):
And so as time went on in my inmy career, um working in mining
and I started my own businessand, um, I needed the.
I needed to screen rock.
So I made a rock screen and hadone laying around and all the
time working on it and doingdifferent things to it.
(04:09):
So one day I was usually rockscreens kind of an odd thing.
How we came up with our ideawas the.
They're called Grizzlies.
Okay, so back in the day theguys way back in the 50s and
prior to that, guys were justscreening off the big rock to
(04:30):
get the smaller rock with whatthey called a grizzly.
They weren't necessarilyscreening down to like small,
finer material like I don'tthink they ever screen anything
under four inches, so they'rejust called grizzlies back in
the day.
And that's kind of how theywent along through the ages.
And one day I was playing golfuh, at a golf tournament to a
(04:52):
construction organization, and Iseen the golf course had a
small one for a skid steer and Ithought, man, that's a, that's
a super good idea.
Because I mean, really backwhen I got started, skid steers
weren't really up and I meanthey were just barely up and
coming at the time and everybodyhad backhoes and bigger stuff.
And I thought, well, one ofthese days I'm going to make one
(05:13):
.
Because I had a weldingbackground, I went to welding
school and high school and atrade college.
So I eventually made the skidsteer size rock screen and so I
sold some at Ritchie BrothersAuctions.
I put them on Craigslist.
Rogan went to school at ColoradoState University for
(05:36):
construction management.
He needed a job and hedeveloped a website.
He started building the rockscreens in Fort Collins,
colorado, and he found out thatthere was a demand for it and so
, and then we developed.
I guess what we developed waswe put the removable screen on
(05:58):
top so we can screen down toeighth inch or less, if you want
.
Oh wow, down to eighth inch orless, if you want.
Oh, so we yeah, we've done onejust recently, eighth inch minus
and it went to casa grandenational ruins in casa grande,
arizona.
Uh, so they can make pottery.
The, the native, the tribethere, wants to make pottery, so
(06:19):
it's screening down.
Fine enough to make pottery.
And then we also sold anotherone to, so they're
reconstructing some of the adoberuins that are at the Casa
Grande National Ruins site.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Oh my gosh, yeah, and y'all offered a solution from a
gentleman from a mine site.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, you can go ahead, roger, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
When I started it, you know, I was just looking.
I ride motocross, it's my hobby, it I was just looking.
I ride motocross, it's my hobbyand so I was just looking to
have a shop to have my dirt bikein.
And so I rebuilt a buddy ofmine.
He blew up the engine in his.
I bought it from him from acouple hundred bucks.
I rebuilt the motor and sold iton Craigslist and that was
enough to pay for the firstmonth's rent.
(07:02):
And then some of my savings gotme a welder and so I just I
just needed to sell enough justto pay the month's rent is the
whole goal, right?
And so I made the website andall of a sudden, you know I'm so
.
I'm getting a lot of calls.
I'm not doing any Google ads oranything like that.
People are just finding me andI'm selling enough of these rock
screens that pretty soon I'm inanother facility.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I have a forklift.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I've hired two part-time welders from the
college that I've taught how toweld and how to cut and I'm like
running the whole business onmy own and it was just a lot to
juggle.
You know, trying to go toschool run a business and when
it was supposed to just be kindof this little side job, you
know I was staying up.
Sometimes we'd be welding untillike two, three in the morning
to get the ordering done andthen I'd have to go to class the
(07:44):
next day and so, um, it kind ofcame down to a point where I
had to, like, make a decision DoI want to go with the business
or do I want to continue withschool?
And then I had a dirt bikeinjury and that kind of made the
decision for me.
So I went to school, finishedup school, um, and it wasn't.
I went to work for a generalcontractor for a while and did
(08:07):
school remodels on publicschools.
And Mike was working for Kiewitand he was like what if we went
all in on the rock screenbusiness?
Because the demand seemed likeit was there.
And so we joined our forces andwe've grown it.
Now We've expanded our productlines.
We've got the rock screens,we've got the bedding boxes,
washout tubs, tracking pads, andwe're looking to expand our
(08:29):
product lines a little bit more.
We set up a good operationalteam and then I've put in a lot
of focus on making sure that thethe buying process is clear,
transparent, honest to ourcustomers, as well as a smooth
process.
You know, you can go onto ourwebsite and you can purchase a
rock screen and it's going to.
It shows you what's ininventory.
It'll automatically put stuffonto our manufacturing schedule
(08:52):
if it's not in inventory and youcan always call us and we're
going to pick up the phone.
A real human's going to pick upthe phone and and talk to our
customers.
And we just kind of keptimproving as we went along.
And you know we we really didfind a niche in the market that
needed to be filled and it'sbeen working really well for us,
you know.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I heard you.
You said yeah, I want to know.
Mike, this may be a questionfor you before we go too much
further.
What is there a part of theprocess in mining material?
Obviously that needs to getrock screened, but for the folks
that ain't got any idea whatthe application would be, let's
maybe start there before we gotoo far in depth.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
On it, yeah, I mean.
So what we did is, um, we took,we've, we've kind of invented
the small rock screen, althoughwe make a large one for mining
companies.
We've got, um, we've got largeconstruction companies that buy
them all the way down to, uh,people that have their own
little garden.
(09:56):
So we have one small enough.
You can use a small garden, uh,tractor on so they can screen,
like if they're maybe makingcompost or screening their own
topsoil or mixing it howeverthey want, or screening out rock
to make their their topsoil.
So you got that kind ofcustomer.
Then we kind of move up to alandowner that maybe he's like
(10:19):
hey, I got to improve my roadand you know, I got to screen
out the big rock or the dirt youknow to have rock for my road
or whatever that may be.
You know landowners down inTexas, we sell a lot down there
to get rock out of their pondswhen they're building ponds so
they, you know, won't leak.
So then we move on up to likethe, the big contractors that
(10:45):
are maybe they're screening outthe bigger rock before they
throw it in their crusher.
Um, we've got a company, cmex Idon't know if you've heard of
them.
They supply one of the largestsuppliers of cement in the
united States and, of course,mexico.
Um, they they screen off their,their big stuff before they
(11:06):
they run it through a crusher.
Um, so they can get it down tosize.
Um, another company that wesold to or was um, all your
shingles that come into theUnited States probably Canada
too is they use coal cinders.
(11:31):
So after the coal's alreadyburnt.
They take these cinders thatare from the coal.
It's like the ash, but it'shard.
They crush them up, so theyscreen off to a certain size,
then they run it through thecrusher and then they make the
shingles and they run it throughthe crusher and then they make
the shingles.
So, um yeah, we have a widevariety of customers.
That screen it's just a staticscreen.
Since I was in the business of,you know, construction, I was
(11:52):
able to make something that wasusable for everybody, and we
even have a small one that we'reabout to bring online.
We can shovel it by hand, andI've been testing it out here in
Arizona.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
This is just what a wide range of markets you just
listed off there.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, it's very interesting.
I mean, it's like there's a lotof different industries that
need it.
You know we thought that, okay,agriculture, construction and
mining would be the ones thatwouldn't have a use for this.
But then you know, you getcalled all the time for
different kinds of things.
You know glass recyclers, metalrecyclers a lot of words.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
They need to get.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, they need to get the dirt out of their
firewood, because they can'tsell the firewood if it's dirty.
They're like the stores won'ttake it, so they just need to
clean the dirt off the firewood.
And there's a lot of differentuses and then you know, the most
obvious use for them are likeis when you're you have to do
construction and you can'timport soil or it's expensive to
import soil right, if you canmake it on site, it saves a lot
(12:53):
of money.
We even have one.
It got helicoptered into thebottom of the Grand Canyon so
that they could do.
I think there's a watertreatment facility down there
that's for the national park andit serves the national park and
(13:14):
they helicoptered it down thereand then they were making their
own soil and site, their ownbedding material and everything.
Helicoptered it back out.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, it's crazy the amount of uses there are for
these.
No, I think it's cool that itjust came from Mike, I guess,
assuming it was just one day.
It just clicked and you werejust like, yeah, I get it, this
is getting the four-inchmaterial off.
But then to start condensingand compacting to smaller and
mid-sized contractors to fit allthese, not?
(13:41):
Yeah, you're right, theagricultural uses firewood.
That's crazy.
Of course.
Why wouldn't it anything tooefficiently?
You can use a machine orwhatever and speed up labor.
Of course you're going to, butand this, and so I also want to
shine some light here rogan didDid you build all the website
yourself?
Is that what?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I heard.
So yeah, initially I built thewebsite myself and then I
launched the e-commerce sitethat you see today, but since
then I've hired out some helpwith a marketing agency to help
us improve upon it, make it lookbetter, make it work better.
Right, Because you know, I wentto school for construction.
I'm by no means a web developer, so I can only do so much I did
(14:23):
.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I did the exact same thing, but I just think it's so
cool how you guys both used yourstrengths and meshed them
together and you tested themarket, proved the concept here
are let's run with this.
What year did you guys bothkind of decide to go all in on
(14:44):
this?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
2020.
So right at the beginning ofCOVID is when we started.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Super challenge.
I would assume it took offright away.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, surprisingly, you know construction's a lag
industry, so you know whenrecession hits, well, there's
still open contracts for mostpeople, so it might be a year or
two before those companiesstart to feel it.
And you know, I think COVID,you know, definitely took a dip
but then it came back prettyquick.
I think that construction wasable to weather that decently,
at least certain sectors of it.
(15:16):
You know residential probablygot hit hard, but I agree with
that.
But you know residentialprobably got hit hard.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
But I agree with that .
Just I think it's that interestrate drove things crazy more
than anything.
Yes, of course, materialrejection never came and
material was all over the place,up down, and you couldn't get a
consistent delivery day, youcouldn't get an efficient price.
It was always fluctuating.
So COVID hits and you, you guysnow.
(15:41):
So you guys are five years in,and now when did did you guys
start moving into variousproduct lines?
Because obviously the screenswere working and so you're just
looking for I'm assuming, rogan,you're kind of that product
specialist, trying to find whatworks, what doesn't work, kind
of thing.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
So Mike always comes up with the ideas for the
products because he has so muchexperience in the construction
industry.
He knows, you know what what'sneeded.
I just help refine them and,you know, just try to help make
them efficiently, because webelieve in lean management in
our company and trying to cutaway waste.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah, I got to tell you a little bit about Rogan's
background, though too he yeah Ithink you mentioned early
before the podcast started aboutuh, daddy's giving them their
stuff to rogan never gotanything from me.
I'm gonna tell you that rightoff the bat.
I mean I helped him buy apickup in the beginning, but you
bet it was probably had 200 000miles on it too.
Yeah, he became a very goodmechanic because uh, yeah but no
(16:45):
, he, when he was young, I lethim.
I had my construction companyand I had big excavators, big
ones, and I would let him run.
I strapped him in the seat,like three years old, and let
him run.
Right, you know, just idle itdown, let him run it, uh, but he
also.
My dad also did the same thingwith him.
My dad always had a backhoearound and he'd let him run the
backhoe and and uh.
(17:06):
At the same time he learned howto work too.
I mean, he could shovel and helearned how to weld right away
when we, when I was closing theabandoned mines, we had a lot of
welding to do.
And rogan, I mean he would comeout in the middle of nowhere.
I mean we was out middle ofnowhere color do.
And Rogan, I mean he would comeout in the middle of nowhere.
I mean we was out middle ofnowhere, colorado, and like, hey
man, can you go cut this pieceof iron and bring it back to us,
(17:26):
cause sometimes we had, wecouldn't set up everything right
at the entry.
So he learned how to weld there.
Um, he did a lot, he learned alot.
I was teaching him and then I, Iwas glad that he went to
college, did learn, you know,construction management, and he
has put all that together andit's helped so much because,
(17:48):
like I said, like you said, Ikind of, I kind of come up with
the ideas.
But then he kind of like looksat him and goes, what about this
or whatever?
And and you know, like, on ourbedding boxes, we, we started
making bedding boxes for manyexcavators.
No one had ever done thatbefore.
And and then you know, like, onour bedding boxes, we started
making bedding boxes for manyexcavators.
No one had ever done thatbefore.
And then you know we got copied.
Our competitors copied us andthen we decided we're going to
put a skid steer plate on themand so you can carry them around
(18:12):
with a skid steer and take themto the excavator and you can
actually dump into a dump truckso you're not wasting any
material whatsoever and thentake it with a skid stirrer,
drop it off to the excavator and, you know, use it.
So it's been a lot of help.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Rogan's been a lot of help because he knows how to
video everything and look at,how to look at everything,
because he's worked at it, youknow, and, um, it's helped
tremendously I think that'sagain playing to your strengths,
you know yeah, I think all ofus guys in the field that are
out here, whether we'reoperating'm like, oh, this would
be such a good idea, let's trythis and I don't hold myself
(19:05):
accountable or anybody elseaccountable and just dies and so
to have that teamwork isunbelievable and kudos to you
guys.
Because I'm sitting here I'mkind of my mouth is open because
I'm like you guys got a beddingbox that a mini X can work on
and I'm like I can't tell youhow many water distribution
rehab like you guys probablyknow better than I have You're
(19:28):
selling them.
But I'm just thinking of allthe smaller situations.
That a 308 or a 60 size machinethat is tight in the backyards.
We did a small rehab and wewent from a two inch to an eight
inch in an easement thebackyards.
We did a small rehab.
We went from a two-inch to aneight-inch in an easement
between backyards, like thatthing right there could have
saved us and I got to say I'm soglad I'm learning about you
(19:51):
guys and then throwing it on askid steer plate.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, we have a lot ofproducts.
You know that a lot of theconstruction industry doesn't
even necessarily know about.
You know that I've met a lot ofguys that you know they know a
little bit.
Maybe a rock screen exists, butthey don't know exactly.
They haven't used one before.
There's still a lot ofcontractors out there that are
installing utilities and don'tknow about bedding boxes, which
it saves you so much materialand you can move it along in a
(20:17):
box instead of scooping it alongthe way.
You know, and you can move italong in a box instead of
scooping it along the way youknow.
And yeah, that's why we want tomake sure that everybody can
learn about our products andknow about them because they're
useful.
That's why they exist.
That's why the whole companyexists is because they're a
useful product.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Gravel spillage is one of my worst nightmares being
a utility contractor.
Underground contractor likethat'll eat you away so quick in
a job and those, those tinylittle you know footprints now
don't get me wrong.
Um, you'd be as conservative asyou can, but we try not to use
a betting box, you know, ifwe're in an open area.
(20:54):
But betting boxes are essentialsometimes to.
It's like the only way to movethe rock in in those condensed
situations.
So, no, I, I, I'm intrigued tosee them.
Maybe I need to just, uh, comeon out there and tour the
facility and and do a video,yeah, and yeah, we'd love to
have you come check it out.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
We can show you all the products we got and how our
manufacturing process works.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I definitely me and Will probably need to come out
there and make a video for it,for you know, obviously it would
lend more to the YouTube sideof things than the podcast side
of things.
But, man, I think you knowleveraging your construction
background not just once butthen to continually keep pushing
(21:41):
the market and keep, because Iunderstand, pushing things to
market.
It's not all the time they workout.
Has there been a product andthis may be, you know, getting a
little raw here but has therebeen a product that you know you
were like, well, we thoughtthis was going to, you know, do
great, we were testing theconcept and it and it just kind
(22:01):
of didn't materialize you knowthe um.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
This year we because we get slower in the winter,
because construction gets slowerin the winter, so it slows us
down too right.
So we're trying to figure out,okay, how can we supplement it?
Well, a lot of contractors pushsnow in the winter, so we tried
to fast track and launch a umsnow pusher attachment for skid
steers.
We got I feel like we got apretty pusher attachment for
skid steers.
I feel like we got a prettygood design.
I feel like it works prettygood.
(22:27):
We hurried up and tried to getit to market and got it online
marketing.
I don't know if it's like we'renot established enough or if
there's too many establishedbrands out there, or if we just
missed the ball because we hitit in November and it didn't
take off, you know, like we hadhoped.
So maybe next year it'll go alittle bit better.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Well, no for sure.
And honestly though, you know,just sitting here, 30,000 foot
view, being a contractor talkingwith you first time, I'm like
oh, bedding boxes, these guys,anything with metal, these are
the guys.
They can put it together.
I could probably call them upand make a.
Would you entertain?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
if you know, I called you up and said hey, I'm
looking for a certain size forthis.
Do you guys do some custom fabin the manufacturing place?
Yep, and we even have differentpartners that we work with if
we need to get somethingengineered or, you know, get
something a little bit moretechnical.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
So impressive, gentlemen, absolutely impressive
.
And so, um how?
So you guys are moreconcentrated on the mid to
smaller contractor rather thandealing with the trommel size or
the big shaker or any any typeof uh screens in that regard,
correct?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
yeah, we, we've done.
I mean we, you don't see thatmany of them out there.
I mean we've built them, we've.
We just built two large onesfor the Air Force.
Was it the Air Force?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I think it was the Air Force.
Yeah, I think it was the AirForce.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
I mean, they were 10-foot tall, 17-foot wide, they
were huge.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
We had to rent equipment to move them.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah, we have one.
We went to basically Area 51.
Supposedly Area 51.
We have one at Supermax Prisonin Colorado and they're separate
products.
I had to deliver it.
It was funny because Rogan'sthe one that sold it when he was
in college.
He wasn't old enough to deliverit.
(24:23):
We kind of provided deliveryback in the the day, so he had
to be 21 to deliver there.
It was quite the trip.
I actually went in the facilitywith the gates locked behind me
.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
It's crazy uh, so what are you?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
guys using this for, oh, we're gonna have the
prisoners stack rock.
We're gonna separate the rockfrom the small ones to the big
ones.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Like really cool that is a little savage, but hey
it's.
It just goes to show howencouraging it should be for
somebody out there sitting therelistening with an idea and you
may not.
And it goes to show that whentwo people get like-minded and
(25:06):
have a goal about them, anythingcan be accomplished.
And he may be sitting therewith a great idea but he may not
be the refined execution, bringit to market guy.
And those connections need tobe made and luckily you guys get
to do it as a father-son do.
I mean.
That's incredible, guys, and Ihope to do it one day with my
(25:28):
eight year old boy.
He grew up in my lap like theyall have.
You know track've just got aquestion on the manufacturing
side Welding wise, are you stillhand welding?
(25:50):
Everything I know technology inthe manufacturing welding world
is tends to lean to like therobotic side.
Is that on the radar for youguys?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Yeah, we just went to a show called Fab Tech this
past year and that's all aboutmanufacturing automation and
checked out everything there andto get some ideas.
You know, right now we're notusing any robotic welding.
We have a CNC plasma table,which is now pretty much
standard for most welding shops,and we thought about getting
(26:22):
into it, especially when itcomes to, like the washout tubs
or the batting boxes, becausethey got very long seams and
have to be welded up watertight.
But it's something that youknow we need a new facility for.
We need a little bit moreelectricity, a little bit nicer
spot to have it.
But there there's, there'saffordable ones out there and
(26:43):
you know you can get.
You know, now you can have onewelder manage four of these
machines instead of one welderwelding.
You know all he has to do istack it up and let the machine
go.
It takes a little bit ofprogramming and stuff like that,
which is something to learnright.
That's a learning curve andwe've looked at it but haven't
done it yet.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
We've looked at it but haven't done it yet.
I was just wondering.
Of course, technology seems tobe a reoccurring subject on the
show because, no matter whatindustry I'm sitting here
speaking with, technology isjust running rampant and it
seems like we can't catch up.
I know, in the dirt and pipeworld it's just running us over,
but it's cool to hear that thisis american handmade project
(27:25):
100, american with americansteel and yep that is so cool
domestically made, domesticallysupplied and uh, that's a big
deal with, I know everythinggoing on in the world right now,
um, and wasn't going down thatroad, but I just wanted to
highlight American made,american supplied guys.
I know there's probably otherways you could have went about
(27:51):
that, but to hang your hat onthat, I hope we can show some
support some way somehow throughthe show back to you guys, for
just for that it's just so coolto hear what has been.
We've been talking about a lotof y'all's strengths and the
product, but I want to know kindof the biggest challenges,
(28:12):
maybe challenges and advantagesof working together.
Family, because I've workedwith family myself and I know it
carries its challenges.
But you guys seem so poised inyour roles and how defined they
are.
Share maybe uh, maybe both ofyou a little a few challenges,
maybe some advantages, you guys?
maybe encourage another familyto do it.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
So, yeah, I'll tell you, one that I kind of knew
about was, uh, henry ford andhis son, etzel, I believe his
name was.
He he wanted to change theModel T, the Model A, model T,
whatever.
And he says, hey, the Dodgebrothers over there they're
doing this and they're puttingheadlights on and windshield
(28:53):
wipers on, and O Henry was likeno man, why would we want to do
that?
I mean, you know.
So he kind of stifled his sonand I got it in my head there's
no way that I'm going to do thatto Rogan.
I don't do that.
And I also told Rogan in thevery beginning don't worry that
(29:15):
if you have to tell me you knowsomething you don't like or
whatever, don't worry, Iunderstand.
We went into it with a businessmind, as if we're working for.
You know, we're working for acompany.
This is what we're really doing.
We have employees and theycount on us and I think that we
you know, when we get togetheras father and son, we have a
(29:36):
good time, but when we'rebusiness, we're business and
that's just the way it is.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yep, yeah, I think being able to draw that line is
important and, you know, notevery relationship that you have
is gonna can stand up to have a, you know, a business
relationship and a familyrelationship, you know.
But, um, you know, if you'recomfortable that your family
relationship can survivebusiness, and I think it's okay,
but you definitely don't wantto sacrifice what you got for
(30:03):
family over business.
And, yeah, like, like, um, mydad said there, you know it's
when we go to work, we'reworking and we have to be
comfortable talking to eachother as if we were coworkers
and calling each other out orwhatever it might be, um, to
make sure that we're gettingeverything done and that we're
held accountable.
And I think, coming into itwith a business mindset as well
(30:27):
and structuring it, you know,and defining a role, you know,
like if you're going to hiresomebody to do something, you
define a role, and if you makethe expectations clear in the
beginning, then it's a littlebit easier to hold each other
accountable and it's a littlebit easier to say, you know, not
point fingers and things likethat, and to take accountability
as well as on yourself.
And I think that's where we'vedone a good job is just being
(30:48):
organized and well-defined andbeing able to listen to each
other.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Man, I know exactly what you're talking about on the
family prioritization overbusiness relationship, and you
know I had a few of thoserelationships myself that
couldn't handle the strain ofboth and we chose family over
business and I'm so glad we didand my wife and myself have been
(31:16):
in it the entire time.
I don't suggest that to manyeither, and she wouldn't either,
to be honest, with you sittinghere, and she has anyways with
weathered and been my, I guessmy checks and balances like it
sounds like you guys have such agood defined check balance.
(31:37):
Hey, I'm feeling this what areyou guys thinking about?
You know this product design,because you guys aren't just
like going and running a set ofuh running a project and
constructing something you know.
You guys are like bringingideation from nothing, from a
side hustle Number one, I thinkthat's just needs highlighted
(32:00):
but then into what it is today.
You just keep refining theprocess.
I think I think the snow removalthing, I think is a hundred
percent um a good avenue foryourself.
Or maybe a new box play design.
I'd love to see you guys haveyour own own uh snow design from
(32:20):
what you guys have already donewith the other products, like
construction entrance.
I know that sounds maybe.
Where did that come from, is it?
Obviously we're just alwaysreplacing construction entrances
, but um, where did that ideacome from?
Speaker 3 (32:36):
well, I was in louise and you're talking about the
rocks.
Uh, the um chalk out pads,right?
Yes, sir, yeah I worked for.
I worked for kiwi down inlouisiana at the time, just
before this, and we was on a uhliquid natural gas, which is
under the uh jurisdiction ofFERC, which is the federal
(32:58):
energy regulatory commission, Ithink.
So it's the federal government.
They're inspecting you becausewe're on the gulf of what is now
america gulf, america and thecalcasieu river, um.
So we couldn't let anything getaway from us 300 and some acres
size six billion dollars andand we had some track out pads
that were they're plastic,believe me, people, a lot of
(33:20):
people use them um, and theywere getting beat up with the
heavy equipment.
And I mean, one day I wasthinking, man, I could make that
better.
And so we, we have one thatjust like nobody's ever made
before, it's a like a street padwith ribs on it and it.
So that's how we came up withthat.
I, you know I I gotta hit onehere.
(33:42):
We just launched a really coolproduct and it's a carrier for a
mini excavator.
So you just crawl right upthere with your mini excavator
and it's like a bucket for yourblade on your mini excavator and
you can lift it up.
You can load it up with yourbucket, your regular bucket and
then carry your material around,whatever it may be, and then
(34:03):
you can lift it.
It'll detach and you can youruh whole bucket and lift it up
in the air and dump it if youwant.
So yeah, we just launched thatclip on shovel dustpan right.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yeah, it's like a material handler like you can
put.
You know fence posts, like onit we got little flip up tabs
and then you can stack yourfence posts on there or pipe or
whatever you might need, andthen you can carry it around
with you and, you know, maybe ithelps you stage out, say, fence
posts, as you're doing afencing project or something
like that, a bunch of differentuses for it oh, early on in the
(34:38):
resi days, what I would havegiven to have that clipped onto
a blade where I could have wentaround.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
There's rough grade houses, final grade houses Be
able to set it aside, run ablade real quick, throw it back
on, get the roots picked up.
I would have handed you themoney.
That is ingenious, guys.
Yeah, I would be super pumped.
But they continue.
(35:07):
Where's the future holding foryou guys?
I know this has all just comeabout so fast because it came
from a side hustle, but you guysaren't reinventing the wheels.
You're making simple,american-made designs and
executing them very well,obviously.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Yeah, I mean, I think , our principles of just trying
to be a lean manufacturer andjust try to.
You know, nobody wasmanufacturing these simple
products, and so, you know, ifAmerica wants to be back on its
feet as the leading manufacturerof the world, well, we
definitely got to start simplyand we got to be able to
understand the basic processesfirst, and so you know we're
(35:51):
doing that in our field.
You know, I don't know exactlywhere the future will take us.
You know we might be launchinga lot more products.
We might just be refining theprocess further.
It just kind of depends on, youknow, kind of, what the market
demand is and what's out there.
But you know, I think that we'vegot a good thing going.
I think that we can help out alot of contractors and get good
products in their hands.
And you know we stand behindour products too, and that's
(36:13):
something that's unfortunateabout a lot of the products that
come in from China.
You know, you get it, it getshere, it breaks.
Good luck with customer support, you know, and so that's.
We just want to make sure thatwe're selling good products to
American contractors.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Or getting parts here in a timely manner that I'm
yeah, lead times.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
there's a thoughtful when stuff's coming overseas, if
it's not stock in the warehousehere and oh no, I, I completely
agree with you.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
um, real quick, guys, I gotta I, I gotta shine some
light.
I've no.
Well, I'd love to come out withSycon's YouTube channel and
really shine some light on allthe products that you guys got
going on.
Would love to come out.
And I want to shine some lighton Blue Collar Performance
(37:06):
Marketing.
He is another sponsor of theshow today.
They have been not only helpingwith the show here, they help
with our YouTube and the valuethat guy and that team has been
providing myself and my teambehind the scenes.
(37:26):
Guys, check them out BlueCollar Performance Marketing or,
I'm sorry,bcperformancemarketingcom, and
if you let that team know thatyou heard it here on the Blue
Collar Business Podcast, you canget an absolute free, comped
(37:47):
analytic review of your mediaand marketing in your company.
Shout out to Ike and his team.
I'm thoroughly impressed withthe results I've had, but not
only that.
He's a partner, so shininglight there.
But I've got one last question,for I think Mike slipped out
(38:10):
there, maybe a little connection.
I think Mike's might've droppedno big deal.
But one last question that Iask pretty much everybody on the
show my guy, those blue-collarmen and women that are sitting
out there and nobody better toget the answer from than you
that you know, say, like Mikehimself that's's been in this
(38:32):
industry 30 years, or maybesomebody that's been in it five
years, okay, but they're sittingout there and they just feel
stuck and they're just going tothe same old job.
And it may be mentally, maybephysically, emotionally, but how
just speak to them, to thosemen and women that are sitting
out there listening to the showand they're just stuck and
they're looking for the word ofencouragement and maybe bring a
(38:56):
product to market or start abusiness to get some of the
success.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
where you're at, my guy you know, I would say that
if you're out there and you wantto kind of go out on your own
and be your own entrepreneur,and whether you're going to
start your own service companyor your own product company, the
thing that I can say is thatyou need to identify where your
strengths are and where yourweaknesses are and then really
(39:20):
truly like put some good thoughtinto where your weaknesses are,
because you're going to needhelp in those areas to be able
to make it happen.
Because, you know, noteverybody's a manager, not
everybody can well, noteverybody can do everything
right, but to make a businesshappen, you have to do
everything.
That I mean everything has tohappen in business, whether it's
accounting, marketing, buildingthe actual products, you know,
(39:44):
um, and so you're going to needhelp in those areas and you need
to find people that you cantrust, uh, that can help you out
.
And so I would say, you know,find people like that that can
help you build relationships,because it's all a relationship
game out there.
Honesty goes a long ways,because if people enjoy working
with you and they, they'll comeback for more, and it doesn't
(40:04):
matter if it's a product or aservice.
But you know, honesty is, Ithink, a big value.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Dude, and not only like you said earlier on in the
show.
It's if we want to call youguys, we can look up your
website, dial the number andwe're going to get.
Uh, may not be mike rogan, butbut you can ask for us.
Yep, uh, we've got.
Mike had a few connectionissues.
He he had a day out of theoffice so he jumped on here, um,
(40:32):
probably on the top of amountain somewhere out in
Colorado trying to get somesignal.
But Mr Roggin is going to shareMike's answer and, after being
30 years in the, keywid is aginormous company.
Number one I should haveprobably asked a little bit more
(40:53):
about that, because mygrandfather as well was, um, he
was in the union in Canada, theconstruction union.
Um, anyways, I had anopportunity to get grandfathered
there, but obviously I movedSouth and we're a non-union
company.
Now, don't get me wrong.
Uh, going into the benefits ornon-benefits of that, because
that's an argument worth on bothsides.
(41:15):
But at the same time, um, Iliterally recommended a guy not
too long ago, um, on a highlighthere, but guys wanting to go
out on the road, but like keywit, they do massive projects
and they have, you know, asuccessful way.
So to hear all the projectsthat he'd been on, that's too
cool man yeah, that one that hewas talking about in louisiana.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
That one was a six billion dollar liquid natural
gas project and it was huge.
It ran 24 hours a day, sevendays a week.
It did not stop for anythingand you know, somebody wants to
work for kiwi.
Definitely it's best if you're,if you can travel, because
they're going to send you, sendwith a.
Definitely it's best if you're,if you can travel, cause
they're going to send you, sendyou around.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Yeah, it's not.
This guy was a single guy justout of high school.
He looked at me he's like man.
He actually called me.
He's looking for a job and Iwas like he's like man, I'm
looking for travel, for DM sentme on the road.
I'm like man.
That's not really kind of ourdesign here at PsyCon and I'm
more of family first you want tomake sure everybody's covered
(42:18):
and their needs are met andhopefully some of their wants.
But at the same time I reallydon't want to be running
projects all across the nation,not saying one day that it won't
happen, right, but we like ourlocal tri-state area that we
take care of and I like keepingthem guys at home.
(42:39):
They're happier at home.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, yeah, and it's good to work within your
bandwidth too.
You don't want to get toooutside and try to juggle too
much in too many places.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yep, keep the main thing.
The main thing Ain't that right, brother?
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Yep, I did get his answer here.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
All right, let's hear it.
So his answer is to stayfocused, make sure that you are
staying on task, because theminute that you deviate away,
you know you're going to have ahard time coming back to it and
making sure that you'reaccomplishing the goal that you
set out to do.
And then he also says that youshould learn every day.
(43:16):
Um, because there's alwayslessons to learn and you know,
everybody has a piece of advice,um, and something to learn from
each person.
So uh, he says that he reallyenjoyed the podcast and he's
very sorry that the the cellservice dropped.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
But no, I hey, I hope he's uh getting to enjoy the uh
the day after a well-earnedlifetime of working.
Doesn't sound like he's slowingdown at all, but, um, if he's
getting the time out of theoffice, I'm so glad he took the
time to jump on here and Iappreciate you too, brother,
seriously for carving out of thetime, out of the success.
(43:54):
The amount of time you guysprobably have is not much, so I
really really appreciate youguys.
Number one we got to highlightan American made product.
What a story to just, oh, youknow, we thought about making
some rock screens in the shopout back and boom, here you guys
are and taking over the entiremarket.
(44:17):
So I'm really looking forwardto continued friendship and a
relationship and you guys belooking forward for that video
about it's Bear Bear Ironworksand that covers.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
They can go to bearironworkscom yep, you can go
to bear iron.
Bearironcom is the new one,it's the short one, but if you
hit bearironworkscom,bearironnet or, sorry,
bearironcom, bearironworksnet,you'll hit all.
And we want to give out adiscount to your, to your
viewers or your listeners ofthis podcast.
If you use code blue collar,you can get five percent off
(44:53):
your entire order, no matter howmuch stuff you add to your cart
can I use that because I need abed box, yeah, go with that.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Oh, man, guys, I really appreciate your time and,
uh, sounds like we might.
We might have to do a follow-uplittle episode when we get out
there at some point in the year.
Yeah, we'd be happy to have youout there.
You guys be looking forward tothat.
Until next time, you guys, besafe, be kind, be humble.
If you've enjoyed this episode,be sure to give it a like,
(45:27):
share it with the fellers.
Check out our website to sendus any questions and comments
about your experience in theblue collar business.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you may have.
Till next time, guys.
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast
, where we discuss the realest,rawest, most relevant stories
and strategies behind buildingevery corner of a blue collar
business.
I'm your host, cy Kirby, and Iwant to help you in what it took
me trial and error and a wholelot of money to learn the
information that no one in thisindustry is willing to share.
Whether you're under that shadetree or have your hard hat on,
(00:30):
let's expand your toolbox.
Welcome back, guys, to anotherepisode of the Blue Collar
Business Podcast, sponsoredtoday by podcastvideoscom.
I'm sitting in one of theirbeautiful solo pod rooms here in
their Rogers Arkansas locationhere in northwest Arkansas.
I'm absolutely thrilled tobring you guys a very unique
(00:55):
story and the good guys do winsometimes and the experience on
one end, the education onanother, and it's met in the
middle and these guys have got avery uh number one unique
product and they found the nichein the market that we talk
about on this show all the timeriches in the niches and these
guys didn't just, oh, there's aproblem here, fix it, they did
(01:18):
it themselves.
So very unique story.
Hang in there for that.
Basically, bear Ironworks, mikeand Rog and Frick, correct, yes
.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I nailed it, all right Good.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
These guys have been reached out to the show through
podcast videos I just wanted toshine some light there for the
PV team and they reached outthrough
bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom.
You can get all of our episodeson there, totally, free audio
or video, or you can befollowing along on any of your
(01:58):
platforms podcast platformstotal if you already have a
subscription on there.
Furthermore, thank you guys somuch for joining me today for an
episode.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Seriously, yeah, thanks for having us on today.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Exciting.
All right, so I don't know whowants to take the floor first,
but we've got give us the introof Bear Ironworks.
These guys have builtbearironworksnet.
These guys have gotconstruction entrance solution.
I was blown away when I sawthat.
(02:32):
I'm like I don't know whynobody's thought of that.
And uh, concrete washout hubs.
I saw you guys do bedding boxes.
So from there, take it away,guys.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Sounds good, yeah, I'll let uh.
Mike, you think you shouldstart, because you're the one
that kind of came up with theidea so, yeah, I've been in the
construction business my prettymuch my whole life, um.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And then I worked underground a coal mine right
off the bat, out of high schoolbasically, in a large
construction company, grew up ona cattle ranch my dad had.
He also had a constructionbusiness at the same time.
He had the ranch to supplementthe ranch basically.
So we did oil oil field work atthe time and of course, my I
think I told you my dad had abig background in construction
(03:20):
back in the day, back startingin 1950s.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
So you got to share the note you shared with me.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, so he's got a claim to fame to being the first
guy to scratch ground onEisenhower Tunnel.
I think it was 1952.
I don't remember the name ofthe company he worked for, but
back then he was in the laborunion or the operators union.
So he worked for companies likeKiewit and Hd laudermilk and,
uh, big companies like that backin the day.
(03:48):
And so as time went on in my inmy career, um working in mining
and I started my own businessand, um, I needed the.
I needed to screen rock.
So I made a rock screen and hadone laying around and all the
time working on it and doingdifferent things to it.
(04:09):
So one day I was usually rockscreens kind of an odd thing.
How we came up with our ideawas the.
They're called Grizzlies.
Okay, so back in the day theguys way back in the 50s and
prior to that, guys were justscreening off the big rock to
(04:30):
get the smaller rock with whatthey called a grizzly.
They weren't necessarilyscreening down to like small,
finer material like I don'tthink they ever screen anything
under four inches, so they'rejust called grizzlies back in
the day.
And that's kind of how theywent along through the ages.
And one day I was playing golfuh, at a golf tournament to a
(04:52):
construction organization, and Iseen the golf course had a
small one for a skid steer and Ithought, man, that's a, that's
a super good idea.
Because I mean, really backwhen I got started, skid steers
weren't really up and I meanthey were just barely up and
coming at the time and everybodyhad backhoes and bigger stuff.
And I thought, well, one ofthese days I'm going to make one
(05:13):
.
Because I had a weldingbackground, I went to welding
school and high school and atrade college.
So I eventually made the skidsteer size rock screen and so I
sold some at Ritchie BrothersAuctions.
I put them on Craigslist.
Rogan went to school at ColoradoState University for
(05:36):
construction management.
He needed a job and hedeveloped a website.
He started building the rockscreens in Fort Collins,
colorado, and he found out thatthere was a demand for it and so
, and then we developed.
I guess what we developed waswe put the removable screen on
(05:58):
top so we can screen down toeighth inch or less, if you want
.
Oh wow, down to eighth inch orless, if you want.
Oh, so we yeah, we've done onejust recently, eighth inch minus
and it went to casa grandenational ruins in casa grande,
arizona.
Uh, so they can make pottery.
The, the native, the tribethere, wants to make pottery, so
(06:19):
it's screening down.
Fine enough to make pottery.
And then we also sold anotherone to, so they're
reconstructing some of the adoberuins that are at the Casa
Grande National Ruins site.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Oh my gosh, yeah, and y'all offered a solution from a
gentleman from a mine site.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, you can go ahead, roger, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
When I started it, you know, I was just looking.
I ride motocross, it's my hobby, it I was just looking.
I ride motocross, it's my hobbyand so I was just looking to
have a shop to have my dirt bikein.
And so I rebuilt a buddy ofmine.
He blew up the engine in his.
I bought it from him from acouple hundred bucks.
I rebuilt the motor and sold iton Craigslist and that was
enough to pay for the firstmonth's rent.
(07:02):
And then some of my savings gotme a welder and so I just I
just needed to sell enough justto pay the month's rent is the
whole goal, right?
And so I made the website andall of a sudden, you know I'm so
.
I'm getting a lot of calls.
I'm not doing any Google ads oranything like that.
People are just finding me andI'm selling enough of these rock
screens that pretty soon I'm inanother facility.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I have a forklift.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I've hired two part-time welders from the
college that I've taught how toweld and how to cut and I'm like
running the whole business onmy own and it was just a lot to
juggle.
You know, trying to go toschool run a business and when
it was supposed to just be kindof this little side job, you
know I was staying up.
Sometimes we'd be welding untillike two, three in the morning
to get the ordering done andthen I'd have to go to class the
(07:44):
next day and so, um, it kind ofcame down to a point where I
had to, like, make a decision DoI want to go with the business
or do I want to continue withschool?
And then I had a dirt bikeinjury and that kind of made the
decision for me.
So I went to school, finishedup school, um, and it wasn't.
I went to work for a generalcontractor for a while and did
(08:07):
school remodels on publicschools.
And Mike was working for Kiewitand he was like what if we went
all in on the rock screenbusiness?
Because the demand seemed likeit was there.
And so we joined our forces andwe've grown it.
Now We've expanded our productlines.
We've got the rock screens,we've got the bedding boxes,
washout tubs, tracking pads, andwe're looking to expand our
(08:29):
product lines a little bit more.
We set up a good operationalteam and then I've put in a lot
of focus on making sure that thethe buying process is clear,
transparent, honest to ourcustomers, as well as a smooth
process.
You know, you can go onto ourwebsite and you can purchase a
rock screen and it's going to.
It shows you what's ininventory.
It'll automatically put stuffonto our manufacturing schedule
(08:52):
if it's not in inventory and youcan always call us and we're
going to pick up the phone.
A real human's going to pick upthe phone and and talk to our
customers.
And we just kind of keptimproving as we went along.
And you know we we really didfind a niche in the market that
needed to be filled and it'sbeen working really well for us,
you know.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I heard you.
You said yeah, I want to know.
Mike, this may be a questionfor you before we go too much
further.
What is there a part of theprocess in mining material?
Obviously that needs to getrock screened, but for the folks
that ain't got any idea whatthe application would be, let's
maybe start there before we gotoo far in depth.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
On it, yeah, I mean.
So what we did is, um, we took,we've, we've kind of invented
the small rock screen, althoughwe make a large one for mining
companies.
We've got, um, we've got largeconstruction companies that buy
them all the way down to, uh,people that have their own
little garden.
(09:56):
So we have one small enough.
You can use a small garden, uh,tractor on so they can screen,
like if they're maybe makingcompost or screening their own
topsoil or mixing it howeverthey want, or screening out rock
to make their their topsoil.
So you got that kind ofcustomer.
Then we kind of move up to alandowner that maybe he's like
(10:19):
hey, I got to improve my roadand you know, I got to screen
out the big rock or the dirt youknow to have rock for my road
or whatever that may be.
You know landowners down inTexas, we sell a lot down there
to get rock out of their pondswhen they're building ponds so
they, you know, won't leak.
So then we move on up to likethe, the big contractors that
(10:45):
are maybe they're screening outthe bigger rock before they
throw it in their crusher.
Um, we've got a company, cmex Idon't know if you've heard of
them.
They supply one of the largestsuppliers of cement in the
united States and, of course,mexico.
Um, they they screen off their,their big stuff before they
(11:06):
they run it through a crusher.
Um, so they can get it down tosize.
Um, another company that wesold to or was um, all your
shingles that come into theUnited States probably Canada
too is they use coal cinders.
(11:31):
So after the coal's alreadyburnt.
They take these cinders thatare from the coal.
It's like the ash, but it'shard.
They crush them up, so theyscreen off to a certain size,
then they run it through thecrusher and then they make the
shingles and they run it throughthe crusher and then they make
the shingles.
So, um yeah, we have a widevariety of customers.
That screen it's just a staticscreen.
Since I was in the business of,you know, construction, I was
(11:52):
able to make something that wasusable for everybody, and we
even have a small one that we'reabout to bring online.
We can shovel it by hand, andI've been testing it out here in
Arizona.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
This is just what a wide range of markets you just
listed off there.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, it's very interesting.
I mean, it's like there's a lotof different industries that
need it.
You know we thought that, okay,agriculture, construction and
mining would be the ones thatwouldn't have a use for this.
But then you know, you getcalled all the time for
different kinds of things.
You know glass recyclers, metalrecyclers a lot of words.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
They need to get.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, they need to get the dirt out of their
firewood, because they can'tsell the firewood if it's dirty.
They're like the stores won'ttake it, so they just need to
clean the dirt off the firewood.
And there's a lot of differentuses and then you know, the most
obvious use for them are likeis when you're you have to do
construction and you can'timport soil or it's expensive to
import soil right, if you canmake it on site, it saves a lot
(12:53):
of money.
We even have one.
It got helicoptered into thebottom of the Grand Canyon so
that they could do.
I think there's a watertreatment facility down there
that's for the national park andit serves the national park and
(13:14):
they helicoptered it down thereand then they were making their
own soil and site, their ownbedding material and everything.
Helicoptered it back out.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, it's crazy the amount of uses there are for
these.
No, I think it's cool that itjust came from Mike, I guess,
assuming it was just one day.
It just clicked and you werejust like, yeah, I get it, this
is getting the four-inchmaterial off.
But then to start condensingand compacting to smaller and
mid-sized contractors to fit allthese, not?
(13:41):
Yeah, you're right, theagricultural uses firewood.
That's crazy.
Of course.
Why wouldn't it anything tooefficiently?
You can use a machine orwhatever and speed up labor.
Of course you're going to, butand this, and so I also want to
shine some light here rogan didDid you build all the website
yourself?
Is that what?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I heard.
So yeah, initially I built thewebsite myself and then I
launched the e-commerce sitethat you see today, but since
then I've hired out some helpwith a marketing agency to help
us improve upon it, make it lookbetter, make it work better.
Right, Because you know, I wentto school for construction.
I'm by no means a web developer, so I can only do so much I did
(14:23):
.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I did the exact same thing, but I just think it's so
cool how you guys both used yourstrengths and meshed them
together and you tested themarket, proved the concept here
are let's run with this.
What year did you guys bothkind of decide to go all in on
(14:44):
this?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
2020.
So right at the beginning ofCOVID is when we started.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Super challenge.
I would assume it took offright away.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, surprisingly, you know construction's a lag
industry, so you know whenrecession hits, well, there's
still open contracts for mostpeople, so it might be a year or
two before those companiesstart to feel it.
And you know, I think COVID,you know, definitely took a dip
but then it came back prettyquick.
I think that construction wasable to weather that decently,
at least certain sectors of it.
(15:16):
You know residential probablygot hit hard, but I agree with
that.
But you know residentialprobably got hit hard.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
But I agree with that .
Just I think it's that interestrate drove things crazy more
than anything.
Yes, of course, materialrejection never came and
material was all over the place,up down, and you couldn't get a
consistent delivery day, youcouldn't get an efficient price.
It was always fluctuating.
So COVID hits and you, you guysnow.
(15:41):
So you guys are five years in,and now when did did you guys
start moving into variousproduct lines?
Because obviously the screenswere working and so you're just
looking for I'm assuming, rogan,you're kind of that product
specialist, trying to find whatworks, what doesn't work, kind
of thing.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
So Mike always comes up with the ideas for the
products because he has so muchexperience in the construction
industry.
He knows, you know what what'sneeded.
I just help refine them and,you know, just try to help make
them efficiently, because webelieve in lean management in
our company and trying to cutaway waste.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah, I got to tell you a little bit about Rogan's
background, though too he yeah Ithink you mentioned early
before the podcast started aboutuh, daddy's giving them their
stuff to rogan never gotanything from me.
I'm gonna tell you that rightoff the bat.
I mean I helped him buy apickup in the beginning, but you
bet it was probably had 200 000miles on it too.
Yeah, he became a very goodmechanic because uh, yeah but no
(16:45):
, he, when he was young, I lethim.
I had my construction companyand I had big excavators, big
ones, and I would let him run.
I strapped him in the seat,like three years old, and let
him run.
Right, you know, just idle itdown, let him run it, uh, but he
also.
My dad also did the same thingwith him.
My dad always had a backhoearound and he'd let him run the
backhoe and and uh.
(17:06):
At the same time he learned howto work too.
I mean, he could shovel and helearned how to weld right away
when we, when I was closing theabandoned mines, we had a lot of
welding to do.
And rogan, I mean he would comeout in the middle of nowhere.
I mean we was out middle ofnowhere color do.
And Rogan, I mean he would comeout in the middle of nowhere.
I mean we was out middle ofnowhere, colorado, and like, hey
man, can you go cut this pieceof iron and bring it back to us,
(17:26):
cause sometimes we had, wecouldn't set up everything right
at the entry.
So he learned how to weld there.
Um, he did a lot, he learned alot.
I was teaching him and then I, Iwas glad that he went to
college, did learn, you know,construction management, and he
has put all that together andit's helped so much because,
(17:48):
like I said, like you said, Ikind of, I kind of come up with
the ideas.
But then he kind of like looksat him and goes, what about this
or whatever?
And and you know, like, on ourbedding boxes, we, we started
making bedding boxes for manyexcavators.
No one had ever done thatbefore.
And and then you know, like, onour bedding boxes, we started
making bedding boxes for manyexcavators.
No one had ever done thatbefore.
And then you know we got copied.
Our competitors copied us andthen we decided we're going to
put a skid steer plate on themand so you can carry them around
(18:12):
with a skid steer and take themto the excavator and you can
actually dump into a dump truckso you're not wasting any
material whatsoever and thentake it with a skid stirrer,
drop it off to the excavator and, you know, use it.
So it's been a lot of help.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Rogan's been a lot of help because he knows how to
video everything and look at,how to look at everything,
because he's worked at it, youknow, and, um, it's helped
tremendously I think that'sagain playing to your strengths,
you know yeah, I think all ofus guys in the field that are
out here, whether we'reoperating'm like, oh, this would
be such a good idea, let's trythis and I don't hold myself
(19:05):
accountable or anybody elseaccountable and just dies and so
to have that teamwork isunbelievable and kudos to you
guys.
Because I'm sitting here I'mkind of my mouth is open because
I'm like you guys got a beddingbox that a mini X can work on
and I'm like I can't tell youhow many water distribution
rehab like you guys probablyknow better than I have You're
(19:28):
selling them.
But I'm just thinking of allthe smaller situations.
That a 308 or a 60 size machinethat is tight in the backyards.
We did a small rehab and wewent from a two inch to an eight
inch in an easement thebackyards.
We did a small rehab.
We went from a two-inch to aneight-inch in an easement
between backyards, like thatthing right there could have
saved us and I got to say I'm soglad I'm learning about you
(19:51):
guys and then throwing it on askid steer plate.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, we have a lot ofproducts.
You know that a lot of theconstruction industry doesn't
even necessarily know about.
You know that I've met a lot ofguys that you know they know a
little bit.
Maybe a rock screen exists, butthey don't know exactly.
They haven't used one before.
There's still a lot ofcontractors out there that are
installing utilities and don'tknow about bedding boxes, which
it saves you so much materialand you can move it along in a
(20:17):
box instead of scooping it alongthe way.
You know, and you can move italong in a box instead of
scooping it along the way youknow.
And yeah, that's why we want tomake sure that everybody can
learn about our products andknow about them because they're
useful.
That's why they exist.
That's why the whole companyexists is because they're a
useful product.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Gravel spillage is one of my worst nightmares being
a utility contractor.
Underground contractor likethat'll eat you away so quick in
a job and those, those tinylittle you know footprints now
don't get me wrong.
Um, you'd be as conservative asyou can, but we try not to use
a betting box, you know, ifwe're in an open area.
(20:54):
But betting boxes are essentialsometimes to.
It's like the only way to movethe rock in in those condensed
situations.
So, no, I, I, I'm intrigued tosee them.
Maybe I need to just, uh, comeon out there and tour the
facility and and do a video,yeah, and yeah, we'd love to
have you come check it out.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
We can show you all the products we got and how our
manufacturing process works.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I definitely me and Will probably need to come out
there and make a video for it,for you know, obviously it would
lend more to the YouTube sideof things than the podcast side
of things.
But, man, I think you knowleveraging your construction
background not just once butthen to continually keep pushing
(21:41):
the market and keep, because Iunderstand, pushing things to
market.
It's not all the time they workout.
Has there been a product andthis may be, you know, getting a
little raw here but has therebeen a product that you know you
were like, well, we thoughtthis was going to, you know, do
great, we were testing theconcept and it and it just kind
(22:01):
of didn't materialize you knowthe um.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
This year we because we get slower in the winter,
because construction gets slowerin the winter, so it slows us
down too right.
So we're trying to figure out,okay, how can we supplement it?
Well, a lot of contractors pushsnow in the winter, so we tried
to fast track and launch a umsnow pusher attachment for skid
steers.
We got I feel like we got apretty pusher attachment for
skid steers.
I feel like we got a prettygood design.
I feel like it works prettygood.
(22:27):
We hurried up and tried to getit to market and got it online
marketing.
I don't know if it's like we'renot established enough or if
there's too many establishedbrands out there, or if we just
missed the ball because we hitit in November and it didn't
take off, you know, like we hadhoped.
So maybe next year it'll go alittle bit better.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Well, no for sure.
And honestly though, you know,just sitting here, 30,000 foot
view, being a contractor talkingwith you first time, I'm like
oh, bedding boxes, these guys,anything with metal, these are
the guys.
They can put it together.
I could probably call them upand make a.
Would you entertain?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
if you know, I called you up and said hey, I'm
looking for a certain size forthis.
Do you guys do some custom fabin the manufacturing place?
Yep, and we even have differentpartners that we work with if
we need to get somethingengineered or, you know, get
something a little bit moretechnical.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
So impressive, gentlemen, absolutely impressive
.
And so, um how?
So you guys are moreconcentrated on the mid to
smaller contractor rather thandealing with the trommel size or
the big shaker or any any typeof uh screens in that regard,
correct?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
yeah, we, we've done.
I mean we, you don't see thatmany of them out there.
I mean we've built them, we've.
We just built two large onesfor the Air Force.
Was it the Air Force?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I think it was the Air Force.
Yeah, I think it was the AirForce.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
I mean, they were 10-foot tall, 17-foot wide, they
were huge.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
We had to rent equipment to move them.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah, we have one.
We went to basically Area 51.
Supposedly Area 51.
We have one at Supermax Prisonin Colorado and they're separate
products.
I had to deliver it.
It was funny because Rogan'sthe one that sold it when he was
in college.
He wasn't old enough to deliverit.
(24:23):
We kind of provided deliveryback in the the day, so he had
to be 21 to deliver there.
It was quite the trip.
I actually went in the facilitywith the gates locked behind me
.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
It's crazy uh, so what are you?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
guys using this for, oh, we're gonna have the
prisoners stack rock.
We're gonna separate the rockfrom the small ones to the big
ones.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Like really cool that is a little savage, but hey
it's.
It just goes to show howencouraging it should be for
somebody out there sitting therelistening with an idea and you
may not.
And it goes to show that whentwo people get like-minded and
(25:06):
have a goal about them, anythingcan be accomplished.
And he may be sitting therewith a great idea but he may not
be the refined execution, bringit to market guy.
And those connections need tobe made and luckily you guys get
to do it as a father-son do.
I mean.
That's incredible, guys, and Ihope to do it one day with my
(25:28):
eight year old boy.
He grew up in my lap like theyall have.
You know track've just got aquestion on the manufacturing
side Welding wise, are you stillhand welding?
(25:50):
Everything I know technology inthe manufacturing welding world
is tends to lean to like therobotic side.
Is that on the radar for youguys?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Yeah, we just went to a show called Fab Tech this
past year and that's all aboutmanufacturing automation and
checked out everything there andto get some ideas.
You know, right now we're notusing any robotic welding.
We have a CNC plasma table,which is now pretty much
standard for most welding shops,and we thought about getting
(26:22):
into it, especially when itcomes to, like the washout tubs
or the batting boxes, becausethey got very long seams and
have to be welded up watertight.
But it's something that youknow we need a new facility for.
We need a little bit moreelectricity, a little bit nicer
spot to have it.
But there there's, there'saffordable ones out there and
(26:43):
you know you can get.
You know, now you can have onewelder manage four of these
machines instead of one welderwelding.
You know all he has to do istack it up and let the machine
go.
It takes a little bit ofprogramming and stuff like that,
which is something to learnright.
That's a learning curve andwe've looked at it but haven't
done it yet.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
We've looked at it but haven't done it yet.
I was just wondering.
Of course, technology seems tobe a reoccurring subject on the
show because, no matter whatindustry I'm sitting here
speaking with, technology isjust running rampant and it
seems like we can't catch up.
I know, in the dirt and pipeworld it's just running us over,
but it's cool to hear that thisis american handmade project
(27:25):
100, american with americansteel and yep that is so cool
domestically made, domesticallysupplied and uh, that's a big
deal with, I know everythinggoing on in the world right now,
um, and wasn't going down thatroad, but I just wanted to
highlight American made,american supplied guys.
I know there's probably otherways you could have went about
(27:51):
that, but to hang your hat onthat, I hope we can show some
support some way somehow throughthe show back to you guys, for
just for that it's just so coolto hear what has been.
We've been talking about a lotof y'all's strengths and the
product, but I want to know kindof the biggest challenges,
(28:12):
maybe challenges and advantagesof working together.
Family, because I've workedwith family myself and I know it
carries its challenges.
But you guys seem so poised inyour roles and how defined they
are.
Share maybe uh, maybe both ofyou a little a few challenges,
maybe some advantages, you guys?
maybe encourage another familyto do it.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
So, yeah, I'll tell you, one that I kind of knew
about was, uh, henry ford andhis son, etzel, I believe his
name was.
He he wanted to change theModel T, the Model A, model T,
whatever.
And he says, hey, the Dodgebrothers over there they're
doing this and they're puttingheadlights on and windshield
(28:53):
wipers on, and O Henry was likeno man, why would we want to do
that?
I mean, you know.
So he kind of stifled his sonand I got it in my head there's
no way that I'm going to do thatto Rogan.
I don't do that.
And I also told Rogan in thevery beginning don't worry that
(29:15):
if you have to tell me you knowsomething you don't like or
whatever, don't worry, Iunderstand.
We went into it with a businessmind, as if we're working for.
You know, we're working for acompany.
This is what we're really doing.
We have employees and theycount on us and I think that we
you know, when we get togetheras father and son, we have a
(29:36):
good time, but when we'rebusiness, we're business and
that's just the way it is.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yep, yeah, I think being able to draw that line is
important and, you know, notevery relationship that you have
is gonna can stand up to have a, you know, a business
relationship and a familyrelationship, you know.
But, um, you know, if you'recomfortable that your family
relationship can survivebusiness, and I think it's okay,
but you definitely don't wantto sacrifice what you got for
(30:03):
family over business.
And, yeah, like, like, um, mydad said there, you know it's
when we go to work, we'reworking and we have to be
comfortable talking to eachother as if we were coworkers
and calling each other out orwhatever it might be, um, to
make sure that we're gettingeverything done and that we're
held accountable.
And I think, coming into itwith a business mindset as well
(30:27):
and structuring it, you know,and defining a role, you know,
like if you're going to hiresomebody to do something, you
define a role, and if you makethe expectations clear in the
beginning, then it's a littlebit easier to hold each other
accountable and it's a littlebit easier to say, you know, not
point fingers and things likethat, and to take accountability
as well as on yourself.
And I think that's where we'vedone a good job is just being
(30:48):
organized and well-defined andbeing able to listen to each
other.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Man, I know exactly what you're talking about on the
family prioritization overbusiness relationship, and you
know I had a few of thoserelationships myself that
couldn't handle the strain ofboth and we chose family over
business and I'm so glad we didand my wife and myself have been
(31:16):
in it the entire time.
I don't suggest that to manyeither, and she wouldn't either,
to be honest, with you sittinghere, and she has anyways with
weathered and been my, I guessmy checks and balances like it
sounds like you guys have such agood defined check balance.
(31:37):
Hey, I'm feeling this what areyou guys thinking about?
You know this product design,because you guys aren't just
like going and running a set ofuh running a project and
constructing something you know.
You guys are like bringingideation from nothing, from a
side hustle Number one, I thinkthat's just needs highlighted
(32:00):
but then into what it is today.
You just keep refining theprocess.
I think I think the snow removalthing, I think is a hundred
percent um a good avenue foryourself.
Or maybe a new box play design.
I'd love to see you guys haveyour own own uh snow design from
(32:20):
what you guys have already donewith the other products, like
construction entrance.
I know that sounds maybe.
Where did that come from, is it?
Obviously we're just alwaysreplacing construction entrances
, but um, where did that ideacome from?
Speaker 3 (32:36):
well, I was in louise and you're talking about the
rocks.
Uh, the um chalk out pads,right?
Yes, sir, yeah I worked for.
I worked for kiwi down inlouisiana at the time, just
before this, and we was on a uhliquid natural gas, which is
under the uh jurisdiction ofFERC, which is the federal
(32:58):
energy regulatory commission, Ithink.
So it's the federal government.
They're inspecting you becausewe're on the gulf of what is now
america gulf, america and thecalcasieu river, um.
So we couldn't let anything getaway from us 300 and some acres
size six billion dollars andand we had some track out pads
that were they're plastic,believe me, people, a lot of
(33:20):
people use them um, and theywere getting beat up with the
heavy equipment.
And I mean, one day I wasthinking, man, I could make that
better.
And so we, we have one thatjust like nobody's ever made
before, it's a like a street padwith ribs on it and it.
So that's how we came up withthat.
I, you know I I gotta hit onehere.
(33:42):
We just launched a really coolproduct and it's a carrier for a
mini excavator.
So you just crawl right upthere with your mini excavator
and it's like a bucket for yourblade on your mini excavator and
you can lift it up.
You can load it up with yourbucket, your regular bucket and
then carry your material around,whatever it may be, and then
(34:03):
you can lift it.
It'll detach and you can youruh whole bucket and lift it up
in the air and dump it if youwant.
So yeah, we just launched thatclip on shovel dustpan right.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yeah, it's like a material handler like you can
put.
You know fence posts, like onit we got little flip up tabs
and then you can stack yourfence posts on there or pipe or
whatever you might need, andthen you can carry it around
with you and, you know, maybe ithelps you stage out, say, fence
posts, as you're doing afencing project or something
like that, a bunch of differentuses for it oh, early on in the
(34:38):
resi days, what I would havegiven to have that clipped onto
a blade where I could have wentaround.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
There's rough grade houses, final grade houses Be
able to set it aside, run ablade real quick, throw it back
on, get the roots picked up.
I would have handed you themoney.
That is ingenious, guys.
Yeah, I would be super pumped.
But they continue.
(35:07):
Where's the future holding foryou guys?
I know this has all just comeabout so fast because it came
from a side hustle, but you guysaren't reinventing the wheels.
You're making simple,american-made designs and
executing them very well,obviously.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Yeah, I mean, I think , our principles of just trying
to be a lean manufacturer andjust try to.
You know, nobody wasmanufacturing these simple
products, and so, you know, ifAmerica wants to be back on its
feet as the leading manufacturerof the world, well, we
definitely got to start simplyand we got to be able to
understand the basic processesfirst, and so you know we're
(35:51):
doing that in our field.
You know, I don't know exactlywhere the future will take us.
You know we might be launchinga lot more products.
We might just be refining theprocess further.
It just kind of depends on, youknow, kind of, what the market
demand is and what's out there.
But you know, I think that we'vegot a good thing going.
I think that we can help out alot of contractors and get good
products in their hands.
And you know we stand behindour products too, and that's
(36:13):
something that's unfortunateabout a lot of the products that
come in from China.
You know, you get it, it getshere, it breaks.
Good luck with customer support, you know, and so that's.
We just want to make sure thatwe're selling good products to
American contractors.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Or getting parts here in a timely manner that I'm
yeah, lead times.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
there's a thoughtful when stuff's coming overseas, if
it's not stock in the warehousehere and oh no, I, I completely
agree with you.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
um, real quick, guys, I gotta I, I gotta shine some
light.
I've no.
Well, I'd love to come out withSycon's YouTube channel and
really shine some light on allthe products that you guys got
going on.
Would love to come out.
And I want to shine some lighton Blue Collar Performance
(37:06):
Marketing.
He is another sponsor of theshow today.
They have been not only helpingwith the show here, they help
with our YouTube and the valuethat guy and that team has been
providing myself and my teambehind the scenes.
(37:26):
Guys, check them out BlueCollar Performance Marketing or,
I'm sorry,bcperformancemarketingcom, and
if you let that team know thatyou heard it here on the Blue
Collar Business Podcast, you canget an absolute free, comped
(37:47):
analytic review of your mediaand marketing in your company.
Shout out to Ike and his team.
I'm thoroughly impressed withthe results I've had, but not
only that.
He's a partner, so shininglight there.
But I've got one last question,for I think Mike slipped out
(38:10):
there, maybe a little connection.
I think Mike's might've droppedno big deal.
But one last question that Iask pretty much everybody on the
show my guy, those blue-collarmen and women that are sitting
out there and nobody better toget the answer from than you
that you know, say, like Mikehimself that's's been in this
(38:32):
industry 30 years, or maybesomebody that's been in it five
years, okay, but they're sittingout there and they just feel
stuck and they're just going tothe same old job.
And it may be mentally, maybephysically, emotionally, but how
just speak to them, to thosemen and women that are sitting
out there listening to the showand they're just stuck and
they're looking for the word ofencouragement and maybe bring a
(38:56):
product to market or start abusiness to get some of the
success.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
where you're at, my guy you know, I would say that
if you're out there and you wantto kind of go out on your own
and be your own entrepreneur,and whether you're going to
start your own service companyor your own product company, the
thing that I can say is thatyou need to identify where your
strengths are and where yourweaknesses are and then really
(39:20):
truly like put some good thoughtinto where your weaknesses are,
because you're going to needhelp in those areas to be able
to make it happen.
Because, you know, noteverybody's a manager, not
everybody can well, noteverybody can do everything
right, but to make a businesshappen, you have to do
everything.
That I mean everything has tohappen in business, whether it's
accounting, marketing, buildingthe actual products, you know,
(39:44):
um, and so you're going to needhelp in those areas and you need
to find people that you cantrust, uh, that can help you out
.
And so I would say, you know,find people like that that can
help you build relationships,because it's all a relationship
game out there.
Honesty goes a long ways,because if people enjoy working
with you and they, they'll comeback for more, and it doesn't
(40:04):
matter if it's a product or aservice.
But you know, honesty is, Ithink, a big value.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Dude, and not only like you said earlier on in the
show.
It's if we want to call youguys, we can look up your
website, dial the number andwe're going to get.
Uh, may not be mike rogan, butbut you can ask for us.
Yep, uh, we've got.
Mike had a few connectionissues.
He he had a day out of theoffice so he jumped on here, um,
(40:32):
probably on the top of amountain somewhere out in
Colorado trying to get somesignal.
But Mr Roggin is going to shareMike's answer and, after being
30 years in the, keywid is aginormous company.
Number one I should haveprobably asked a little bit more
(40:53):
about that, because mygrandfather as well was, um, he
was in the union in Canada, theconstruction union.
Um, anyways, I had anopportunity to get grandfathered
there, but obviously I movedSouth and we're a non-union
company.
Now, don't get me wrong.
Uh, going into the benefits ornon-benefits of that, because
that's an argument worth on bothsides.
(41:15):
But at the same time, um, Iliterally recommended a guy not
too long ago, um, on a highlighthere, but guys wanting to go
out on the road, but like keywit, they do massive projects
and they have, you know, asuccessful way.
So to hear all the projectsthat he'd been on, that's too
cool man yeah, that one that hewas talking about in louisiana.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
That one was a six billion dollar liquid natural
gas project and it was huge.
It ran 24 hours a day, sevendays a week.
It did not stop for anythingand you know, somebody wants to
work for kiwi.
Definitely it's best if you're,if you can travel, because
they're going to send you, sendwith a.
Definitely it's best if you're,if you can travel, cause
they're going to send you, sendyou around.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Yeah, it's not.
This guy was a single guy justout of high school.
He looked at me he's like man.
He actually called me.
He's looking for a job and Iwas like he's like man, I'm
looking for travel, for DM sentme on the road.
I'm like man.
That's not really kind of ourdesign here at PsyCon and I'm
more of family first you want tomake sure everybody's covered
(42:18):
and their needs are met andhopefully some of their wants.
But at the same time I reallydon't want to be running
projects all across the nation,not saying one day that it won't
happen, right, but we like ourlocal tri-state area that we
take care of and I like keepingthem guys at home.
(42:39):
They're happier at home.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, yeah, and it's good to work within your
bandwidth too.
You don't want to get toooutside and try to juggle too
much in too many places.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yep, keep the main thing.
The main thing Ain't that right, brother?
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Yep, I did get his answer here.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
All right, let's hear it.
So his answer is to stayfocused, make sure that you are
staying on task, because theminute that you deviate away,
you know you're going to have ahard time coming back to it and
making sure that you'reaccomplishing the goal that you
set out to do.
And then he also says that youshould learn every day.
(43:16):
Um, because there's alwayslessons to learn and you know,
everybody has a piece of advice,um, and something to learn from
each person.
So uh, he says that he reallyenjoyed the podcast and he's
very sorry that the the cellservice dropped.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
But no, I hey, I hope he's uh getting to enjoy the uh
the day after a well-earnedlifetime of working.
Doesn't sound like he's slowingdown at all, but, um, if he's
getting the time out of theoffice, I'm so glad he took the
time to jump on here and Iappreciate you too, brother,
seriously for carving out of thetime, out of the success.
(43:54):
The amount of time you guysprobably have is not much, so I
really really appreciate youguys.
Number one we got to highlightan American made product.
What a story to just, oh, youknow, we thought about making
some rock screens in the shopout back and boom, here you guys
are and taking over the entiremarket.
(44:17):
So I'm really looking forwardto continued friendship and a
relationship and you guys belooking forward for that video
about it's Bear Bear Ironworksand that covers.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
They can go to bearironworkscom yep, you can go
to bear iron.
Bearironcom is the new one,it's the short one, but if you
hit bearironworkscom,bearironnet or, sorry,
bearironcom, bearironworksnet,you'll hit all.
And we want to give out adiscount to your, to your
viewers or your listeners ofthis podcast.
If you use code blue collar,you can get five percent off
(44:53):
your entire order, no matter howmuch stuff you add to your cart
can I use that because I need abed box, yeah, go with that.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Oh, man, guys, I really appreciate your time and,
uh, sounds like we might.
We might have to do a follow-uplittle episode when we get out
there at some point in the year.
Yeah, we'd be happy to have youout there.
You guys be looking forward tothat.
Until next time, you guys, besafe, be kind, be humble.
If you've enjoyed this episode,be sure to give it a like,
(45:27):
share it with the fellers.
Check out our website to sendus any questions and comments
about your experience in theblue collar business.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you may have.
Till next time, guys.
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