March 26, 2025 • 31 mins
null
Intro by the one and only @1armedtrades
”Mediocre people don’t like high achievers and high achievers don’t like mediocre people.” - Nick Saban
Revenue Hides so Many Sins!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Mister Keaton Turner, I've been meaning to sendyou this for, like, a week or so now, but just
wanna say, hey.
I've been listening to Podcast.
Solid work, man.
I love how just down to earth you are.
You're just a solid dude, and half the time, Imean, you're you're in your truck or your
Bronco.
I'm like, man, this guy is committed.
(00:25):
And so that that that discipline is admirable,man.
But I came across a screenshot the other day.
It was a screenshot I took about five yearsago.
It was, like, right before COVID.
I think it was January, February of '20 '20.
And you, Thomas you and Thomas were on TMG liveon Instagram, and you guys invited me.
(00:54):
And I've had I was on my one arm trades foronly a few months at that time, maybe even a
year at that time.
And I'm like, oh, we should add a one arm tradetrades.
Guys, this guy saw it, and you added me out,which is surprising or was surprising to me at
the time.
And and I was, like, 18 at the time.
(01:15):
18.
Yeah.
Barely 18.
I was still in high school.
And I just asked, like, how can I succeed inthis industry?
And I, you know, I just asked for some simpleadvice, and I was nervous because there's,
like, I don't know, a hundred people watchingas well.
And but I just I just I was just reminiscingthat the other day.
(01:38):
I'm like, man, it's crazy how far all of ushave come, including you, Thomas, the company,
myself, etcetera.
And just wanna give you a huge compliment tojust the podcast and just the times you did
give me advice.
I think there's one other time you guys invitedme on to the live and and whatnot.
(02:00):
But my question for you today for the Podcast,Keaton, is how well, I don't know.
It's kind a broad question, but how do Iexplain to people, you know, that are in my
circle or cousins of mine, relatives, friends,you know, whomever.
(02:20):
Like, they don't understand just how driven Iam to to my career.
And they're like and I I'm moving to NorthCarolina here shortly, taking a a sweet job
offer to build a pretty big highway.
And a couple of my friends that I told, they'relike, you're moving again.
(02:43):
Is this permanent or or what?
I'm like, we'll define permanent.
And they're like, well, is this where you'regonna be settling down?
I'm like, no.
We've had this discussion before.
Like, I I will be chasing my career for thenext decade at least.
So I go where the work is, and the size ofprojects I wanna be on, man, are not gonna be
local.
They're not gonna be in mom and pop's backyard.
(03:06):
And I wanna travel.
I'm a single dude.
I got no debt, no girlfriend, no dog to worryabout.
I I'm ready to just just kick ass and takenames and just how how would you respond to
people?
And I I guess, without being a dick, but, like,trying to get your point across to just people
(03:29):
of, like, why you're traveling to for work somuch and why you're so passionate for the
industry.
Like, how would you explain that in, like, afew short sentences?
I know this is a long voice message.
I trust that you're gonna listen to all,hopefully.
But let me know, Keaton.
(03:56):
I'm Keaton Turner.
Welcome back to the Per Diem podcast.
Thank you guys again for joining.
And that is a legend, a legend in his ownright, one arm trades.
If you guys don't know who the heck I'm talkingabout, if you don't know who that was that sent
(04:18):
me that that audio message this morning, Youneed to go look him up.
At one armed trades, the letter one or thenumber one.
One armed trades on Instagram.
If you don't know who this guy is, go look himup.
(04:42):
I'm a huge fan, first and foremost.
He talks about, you know, Thomas and I havinghim on our Instagram live version of the
podcast we did years ago.
That was probably pre COVID or right duringCOVID.
I see I see a brother here.
(05:03):
I'm I'm just cruising his page.
I see him here on LinkedIn or not LinkedIn.
Sorry.
Instagram.
One of his most recent posts is with misterCole Van Huevlin.
I always I I just say Van Halen.
Cole Van Halen.
Huge fan of of you, Dylan.
(05:26):
Huge fan of you.
Let me answer your question though.
And I'll answer it with a very famous NickSaban quote.
Because I think this I think this is a verysimple answer.
Mediocre people don't like high achievers, andhigh achievers don't like mediocre people.
(05:48):
Period.
The end.
Story over.
And I know you said, hey.
I don't I don't wanna be a dick.
I wanna say it in a nice way to my friends whoare mad that I'm leaving town.
My friends would be mad if I left town, movedaway.
But here's the thing.
High achievers, and and obviously, you know,Dylan, you're a high achiever.
(06:11):
I've watched you for years now.
I remember when you came on the scene.
I'm like, who in the world is this dude?
Guy's got one arm and he's killing it.
Imagine, like, it's so funny to me when I seepeople that complain about their situation, and
then I see other people that make the best oftougher situations.
(06:31):
I'm like, dude, that's an amazing world we livein.
But Dylan, to answer your question, peoplearen't going to understand.
People are not going to understand highachievers chasing after their dreams.
I I said this here recently.
(06:54):
If you wanna be a part of the 1%, one % inanything, in sports, 1% in business, 1% of the
operators out there, like, you're gonna have togo make commitments and sacrifices that the
other 99 are not gonna make.
(07:14):
And so many times, and I've seen this timeafter time after time, You see this a lot in
high school.
It's kinda when it starts.
High school, middle school.
When one kid starts to separate himself fromthe pack, right, he wants to do better.
He wants to be better.
I saw this a lot in college for myself.
(07:35):
When one guy wants to go improve his life andget healthier, get more fit, you know, stop
drinking, you know, advance their career,whatever, take big swings, The guys who aren't
willing to do it start to resent them.
It's wild.
(07:57):
Now my college roommates were all very,massive, massive Delberts, and I say that in
the most loving way, but they're all, they'reall very encouraging.
But you see this a lot, like I saw this a lotwith friends I grew up with, at different
stages in life.
And you know, you see this basketball teams.
You see this in sports, right?
When one person puts more time in the gym, theother teammates that take notice are like, oh,
(08:20):
wait a second.
Why is he here early?
Oh, he must be trying to get extra credit.
He must be trying to show me up.
And you see people who are not willing to makethe commitment, make the sacrifice, put put the
effort in.
You see them start to resent the guy who does.
It's it's it's kinda weird.
(08:42):
And so, Dylan, I don't know if this is whatyou're going through.
I'm sure, you know, I'm sure it's not easy tobe friends with a guy who is constantly chasing
the best version of himself.
Because what it does is it makes you, feelcompel.
(09:04):
It kinda compels you to get off your butt andchase the best version of yourself.
And if that doesn't come naturally to somepeople, it's an uncomfortable feeling.
Dylan, I'm guessing you like to be you like toput yourself in uncomfortable situations in
life because you know you're going to getbetter.
You're gonna advance.
You're not shy about chasing after things, likepicking up and moving North Carolina.
(09:28):
That's not every, you know, young 20 year old'sdream, 24.
I don't know how old you are now, brother, but,it's not every 24 year old's dream to just pick
up and move their life across the country.
No wife, no girlfriend, no dog, no debt, livingthe dream.
And so when you do see people that are chaineddown with a girlfriend, chained down with a
(09:54):
life or whatever, they don't like theuncomfortable.
They don't like to be challenged.
They don't like to convince their girlfriend,Hey, let's pick up and move.
Right?
Their girlfriend's parents live in town.
Her family's in town.
Her friends are in town.
And so then you have to choose.
I see this all the time in young guys.
You have to choose.
Am I gonna chase after my dreams and my career?
(10:15):
Or am I gonna keep my girlfriend happy?
My fiancee?
My wife?
It's why I said I've said this multiple timesover and over and over.
I'm gonna go I'm gonna do a podcast with Shelbyagain here soon.
I've got a fun topic.
The most the single most important decision youwill ever make in your life, the single most
important, besides giving your life to Christ,the single most important decision you will
(10:41):
ever make in life is who you choose to spendlife with.
%.
Are they going to build you up, help you chaseyour dreams even harder, or are they gonna hold
you back?
Dylan, sounds like you don't have anybodyholding you back except for, maybe some
(11:04):
friends.
I'm sure your friends mean well.
But again, mediocre people that live normallives are never gonna understand people that
are just that wake up on fire to go kill it.
They're never gonna understand it.
It's the beauty, and I've said this time aftertime, it's the beauty for me in having a
business partner who is as passionate about itas I am, because it's rare to find people that
(11:30):
just are kind of psychotic about buildingsomething, and they're kind of psychotic about
running into hard situations and challengingchallenging themselves.
When, when I say, Hey, I need to spend$40,000,000 on equipment.
I gotta go write a check.
We gotta, we gotta, we gotta buy this fleet.
(11:52):
People look at me like I have literally lost mymind.
My business partner looks at me like, Okay, Ilove it.
How much money are we going to make on that?
What's our return going to be?
How quick can we pay it down?
How long is our contract?
Like, couldn't be more excited about it.
(12:15):
Those are the kind of people you have to findand surround yourself with, and it's hard.
It's super hard.
Why I, when I, you know, I always knew Gant waskind of psychotic because I knew, I've known
him since he was five years old, so, psychoticin the best ways.
When you find those people, you've got to latchon.
If, if they have the same You're gonna findsomebody out there, Dylan.
(12:36):
I, you know, probably somebody maybe on thishighway job, who knows, but you'll find people
that are just as passionate as you are abouttheir career, about building something, about
being the best version of themselves.
You gotta latch onto those people because whathappens is they make you better.
If it's just you chasing something and you'rebeing drugged down by all the friends, right?
(12:59):
They're going to the bars or making poordecisions.
If, if it's just you, there's no one sharpeningyou.
Everyone else kind of dulls you down a littlebit, waters you down.
If you got someone else that's maybe a step ortwo ahead of you, that's a little more crazy
than you are, a little more passionate, ironsharpens iron.
(13:21):
He'll make you better.
You'll get passionate, you'll get filled up,and you'll go make him better.
And I've just seen it.
I've felt it.
I am better because of the eight years of, youknow, it's actually been more like eleven or
twelve years with Gantt of grinding, andsharpening each other.
(13:41):
But you've got to find people.
You've got to surround yourself with peoplethat are going to sharpen you, push you to get
better.
And those people are passionate people.
Those people are chasing excellence.
Those are not mediocre people.
And so I think you just gotta be very aware,like, you should not worry one second about
explaining yourself to mediocre people, becausespoiler, they're never gonna get it.
(14:10):
They're never gonna understand it.
Doesn't matter how you paint the picture,doesn't matter how much convincing you do, it's
not gonna make any sense to them.
You're speaking a different language.
And so that's my, that's my initial thoughts.
I'm walking in.
(14:30):
I'm gonna have, I'm gonna have a little meetingwith Jeff here.
We have our, every two week meeting, so I'mgonna walk in, do this for an hour or so, and
then I'll come back and tie a bow on this one.
But Dylan, thank you for the video or for the,voice message.
I love it, brother.
I love everything you're about, and, it's beenreally fun to watch you.
(14:50):
So I'll check back in with you guys soon.
Alright.
I'm back.
Sorry for my absence.
Great conversations with Jeff.
Jeff is the CFO of Turner Mining Group andTurner Staffing Group.
He is one of the most legit guys.
(15:13):
Love the dude to death.
So I wanna pick up where I left off.
Dylan, first of all, man, I would just tell youthat, again, you said something in your message
about trying to explain to people what you'redoing.
(15:40):
And, and I don't think it needs an explanation,to be honest with you.
I would also say, you you mentioned, and Iquote, I'm gonna grind in my career for the
next ten years.
Maybe you just misspoke.
(16:00):
I hope you just misspoke because you're in yourtwenties, and I'm in my thirties.
And I can tell you right now, I feel like Ihaven't even started.
I was just talking to Jeffrey, and I feel likeI haven't even started.
(16:21):
I feel like I'm 18 years old.
It's it's weird.
Something happens when you get older.
You don't feel older.
Sure, maybe you have some aches and pains inyour body, whatever.
You don't I like, I don't feel any older than Idid when I was 18.
I feel like I'm gonna go capture the world asmuch or more than I did ten years ago.
(16:48):
And so, Dylan, I hope you're I hope you're notthinking it's just a ten year grind, and then
you just coast.
You're too smart for that.
It's a fifty, sixty, seventy year grind, andthen you die.
Who's who's the author that says, it'sThompson, something Thompson.
(17:12):
He says, like, I hope to be skidding into mydeath, like body used up, you know, bashed,
bruised.
Like, I hope to be skidding into the casket,throttle wide open.
It's seventy years worth of grind.
(17:33):
You don't just grind for ten years, buildsomething cool, and then chill.
At least that's not what I'm about.
And so, anyway, huge fan of you, brother.
What you're doing is awesome.
What you've done so far at this early stage inyour career, do not take it for granted because
it can all go away so fast.
(17:54):
Keep using your influence, preaching thepositivity, and and be you.
Go find someone else that's gonna sharpen you.
Find a group of guys that's gonna sharpen you.
I would recommend, Rise, the Rise community.
There's a bunch of legit guys in there.
But find people that are gonna sharpen you, andyou'll be super surprised at the impact.
(18:17):
I'm gonna move on.
I've only got a few minutes.
I am a few minutes away from home, and I got awhole night of nothing with my family, which is
amazing for us.
If we don't have a night of sports, if we canjust chill, have a family movie night,
something like that, it's amazing.
So here's the topic.
(18:38):
Revenue covers For you business owners outthere, you project managers, people managing
crews, leading companies, revenue covers sins.
I don't know how else to explain it than that.
(19:02):
This is gonna be a foreign concept to a lot ofpeople.
If you don't own a business or you're notmanaging teams, this might sound foreign.
I'm telling you right now, there are peoplethat count pennies, and there are people that
count dollars.
And the people that count pennies typically arethe penny wise pound foolish folks.
(19:28):
These are folks that live to a budget, don'tstray from their budget.
They're very rigid in how they think.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
I'm not knocking that way of thinking.
There are the people that also count dollars,And the people that count dollars have the
(19:51):
mentality that I will always outrun my costs.
I associate much more with the people thatcount dollars.
And I'm not always proud of this.
I would love to live to a budget.
I would love to, you know, be more diligentwith every single cent.
(20:13):
I'd love to live in a system.
That's just not who I am.
I am always trying to outrun my costs.
I've done this in my personal life.
I've done this in my business life.
Some of the best contractors I've seen are morefocused on revenue than they are on cost.
(20:35):
A lot for a lot of us, costs are fixed.
Right?
You've got a certain roster.
You've got a certain head count.
You can only work so many hours.
You got a certain number of machines, certainnumber of machine hours.
How much revenue can you produce?
This is gonna throw a lot of engineers kind ofin a I don't know if a tailspin, a loop.
(21:00):
It's a different way of thinking about it.
If you're a contractor, this is this isfoundational.
I believe it.
I was taught this way.
I still believe this is true.
Revenue covers sins.
(21:20):
You can have costs that exceed budget, but ifyour revenue exceeds target, it tends to work
out.
I know I'm I know I'm making people with withplans and budgets hyperventilate a little bit.
Just just hear me out.
(21:42):
There are ways to maximize revenue even if itcomes at increased cost.
Generally speaking, if you have the rightamount of leverage, you have a good standing
with the customer, you are recognized as areputable organization, reputable team,
(22:05):
reputable leader, you can leverage those thingsto maximize revenue at slightly increased cost.
One of the biggest mistakes I've seen so far inmy career, and I learned this the hard way.
(22:26):
I learned this from my uncle.
My uncle is a natural born entrepreneur,natural born sales guy.
He was all about how much revenue can we cramin the system.
And then, and only then, once we crammed asmuch revenue in the system as we can, how do we
(22:47):
then reduce costs?
That is so much easier to do than to reducecosts on the front end and trying to optimize
revenue.
There's games to be played.
I mean and some of you guys, I don't you know,depending on where you're at in business,
revenue, if you have a operating line of credittied to a borrowing base, revenue unlocks
(23:10):
borrowing base dollars for you.
Reducing costs does not does not unlock anyoperating dollars for you with the borrowing
base.
Revenue does not tell or excuse me.
Reducing costs does not always tell a story tothe banking partners.
(23:36):
They're buying into a revenue.
Are we growing?
They're buying into a story.
Are we growing?
Is the company growing?
Are we headed the right direction?
Okay.
Costs were a little up this year, but so wasrevenue.
That's fine.
Like, I can tell you right now, a banker I'mspeaking for bankers, which is a scary thing.
(23:57):
A banker would rather see increasing revenuesat lower margin than decreasing costs and
stagnant revenues because the company's notgrowing.
Hold on one second.
(24:18):
Move that bike out of the way.
I pull those in the grass.
I gotta I gotta pull all the way up there,Delbert.
You got kids out here.
Bankers buy into stories, and they buy intomomentum.
Momentum is revenue.
(24:39):
If if you're not producing more revenue, you'renot growing.
That is a red flag for banking.
It's a hard it's it's it I'm just telling you,it's hard to sell a story that we're growing
our business if revenues aren't increasing.
And, you you know, I mean, obviously, equallyas important as making money, margin, profit,
(25:05):
all of those are important.
Hold on one second.
Look at you, cute thing.
Can you say something?
Hello.
Did you have a good day?
Yes.
What'd you do today?
I got to we were pirates today, and we got aeye patch.
(25:27):
And we got to wear a pirate hat, and we got tofind letters.
We had to find all letter x's, and we went backto our room.
The teachers weren't even there.
The lights were off in a a room where we gotate snack.
(25:50):
The lights were off in a snack.
You're ate up.
And there was a treasure box.
Wow.
That sounds amazing.
What are you doing, you beautiful thing?
Daddy, and
Okay.
That what happened to your oh, your eye got hitby a baseball.
A football.
(26:12):
That's terrible.
I hate that.
On accident.
What okay.
This is Grace.
Now what are you doing?
I'm playing outside with my brother and sister.
You know what you know what I'm I'm gonnademand?
First and foremost, you're eight years old?
Yes.
You need to you need to you need you need toimmediately stop getting so beautiful because
(26:40):
I'm worried that in a couple years, we're gonnahave problems.
At the rate that you're growing more beautiful,I'm concerned about it.
Okay.
So if you could do me a favor, slow down thebeautiful growth, speed up the ugly growth,
(27:04):
that'd be great.
You want me to look ugly?
Well, I mean, uglier than current would beideal because you at eight years old worries me
at you at fifth at 14, 15, 16 years old.
People these days.
Okay.
Love you, girlfriend.
(27:25):
So I don't remember where we were.
I got interrupted by kids.
I'm I'm at the house now.
Just pulled in the driveway.
Andrew, what do you got?
Anything?
Oh oh, he ran away.
He's too cool.
What do you got?
Come here.
Here.
Come here.
Come here. Here.
Here.
Come here.
Is your favorite piece of equipment on a minesite?
(27:49):
Excavator.
Excavator?
Okay.
What size?
Like a mini excavator, you know, medium size, amass x, a mining class excavator?
What's what are you into?
Medium.
Medium size?
Oh, it's like a three forty nine, three seventyfour?
Yes.
Okay.
I love that.
I'm gonna end this because I've got three kids.
(28:11):
Hold on.
Hold on.
I got the young one.
Oh my goodness.
Thank I'm all go Thank you for the mail.
Appreciate it.
They're bringing me mail.
They're all running wild.
So I'm gonna wrap this one up.
I apologize for the abrupt ending, but I I willtell you that revenue cover sins.
(28:33):
I'm gonna dive into this more.
I'll I'll get more detailed in future podcastson this one.
But if you're a contractor, I believe youshould spend 70% of your time focused on
revenue optimization and the other 20% of yourtime on reducing costs, and then 10% of your
(28:57):
time on, you know, top high level, top of thefunnel on the business things three to five
year strategy.
I just believe it.
If if you're a well established contractor,maybe those ratios change a little bit, but
revenue optimization is the name of the gamefor contractors.
(29:22):
Absolutely.
It's not cost reduction.
Cost reduction works if you're on a fixedmarket where you're selling a commodity or
you're selling a product or you're selling agood or service at a fixed price.
Most contractors are working on a unit ratebasis.
And so we have to first optimize revenue.
(29:47):
Second, we can reduce costs.
And then third, we can plan for, you know, thefuture, what does long term look like.
But but so often, you have a three year a threeyear contract, a five year contract, even a one
year contract that never goes the distance.
(30:07):
And so you spend the first year or two yearsreducing costs, trying to get your costs in
line, and you've never captured every singlecent of revenue you could.
You leave revenue on the table.
And to be honest with you, revenue left on thetable is the same thing as added cost.
(30:34):
If you capture every cent of revenue at ahigher cost, to me, that's a better scenario
than not capturing enough revenue at a lowercost.
And I'll get into the details of why we can wecan, know, we can get into more of that later.
But I've got three kids running around, two ofthem on scooters, one of them carrying mail in
(30:57):
a box, and the box is about as big as she is.
So I'm gonna let you guys go.
I pray you're killing it.
I pray you are getting your per diem.
And if you're a contractor, if you're in thatspace, I pray that you are capturing as much
revenue as you can because I know how many sinsyou have.
(31:19):
And it's gonna cover up a lot of those sins.
So thank you guys for listening.
We will do it again tomorrow.
Mister Keaton Turner, I've been meaning to sendyou this for, like, a week or so now, but just
wanna say, hey.
I've been listening to Podcast.
Solid work, man.
I love how just down to earth you are.
You're just a solid dude, and half the time, Imean, you're you're in your truck or your
Bronco.
I'm like, man, this guy is committed.
(00:25):
And so that that that discipline is admirable,man.
But I came across a screenshot the other day.
It was a screenshot I took about five yearsago.
It was, like, right before COVID.
I think it was January, February of '20 '20.
And you, Thomas you and Thomas were on TMG liveon Instagram, and you guys invited me.
(00:54):
And I've had I was on my one arm trades foronly a few months at that time, maybe even a
year at that time.
And I'm like, oh, we should add a one arm tradetrades.
Guys, this guy saw it, and you added me out,which is surprising or was surprising to me at
the time.
And and I was, like, 18 at the time.
(01:15):
18.
Yeah.
Barely 18.
I was still in high school.
And I just asked, like, how can I succeed inthis industry?
And I, you know, I just asked for some simpleadvice, and I was nervous because there's,
like, I don't know, a hundred people watchingas well.
And but I just I just I was just reminiscingthat the other day.
(01:38):
I'm like, man, it's crazy how far all of ushave come, including you, Thomas, the company,
myself, etcetera.
And just wanna give you a huge compliment tojust the podcast and just the times you did
give me advice.
I think there's one other time you guys invitedme on to the live and and whatnot.
(02:00):
But my question for you today for the Podcast,Keaton, is how well, I don't know.
It's kind a broad question, but how do Iexplain to people, you know, that are in my
circle or cousins of mine, relatives, friends,you know, whomever.
(02:20):
Like, they don't understand just how driven Iam to to my career.
And they're like and I I'm moving to NorthCarolina here shortly, taking a a sweet job
offer to build a pretty big highway.
And a couple of my friends that I told, they'relike, you're moving again.
(02:43):
Is this permanent or or what?
I'm like, we'll define permanent.
And they're like, well, is this where you'regonna be settling down?
I'm like, no.
We've had this discussion before.
Like, I I will be chasing my career for thenext decade at least.
So I go where the work is, and the size ofprojects I wanna be on, man, are not gonna be
local.
They're not gonna be in mom and pop's backyard.
(03:06):
And I wanna travel.
I'm a single dude.
I got no debt, no girlfriend, no dog to worryabout.
I I'm ready to just just kick ass and takenames and just how how would you respond to
people?
And I I guess, without being a dick, but, like,trying to get your point across to just people
(03:29):
of, like, why you're traveling to for work somuch and why you're so passionate for the
industry.
Like, how would you explain that in, like, afew short sentences?
I know this is a long voice message.
I trust that you're gonna listen to all,hopefully.
But let me know, Keaton.
(03:56):
I'm Keaton Turner.
Welcome back to the Per Diem podcast.
Thank you guys again for joining.
And that is a legend, a legend in his ownright, one arm trades.
If you guys don't know who the heck I'm talkingabout, if you don't know who that was that sent
(04:18):
me that that audio message this morning, Youneed to go look him up.
At one armed trades, the letter one or thenumber one.
One armed trades on Instagram.
If you don't know who this guy is, go look himup.
(04:42):
I'm a huge fan, first and foremost.
He talks about, you know, Thomas and I havinghim on our Instagram live version of the
podcast we did years ago.
That was probably pre COVID or right duringCOVID.
I see I see a brother here.
(05:03):
I'm I'm just cruising his page.
I see him here on LinkedIn or not LinkedIn.
Sorry.
Instagram.
One of his most recent posts is with misterCole Van Huevlin.
I always I I just say Van Halen.
Cole Van Halen.
Huge fan of of you, Dylan.
(05:26):
Huge fan of you.
Let me answer your question though.
And I'll answer it with a very famous NickSaban quote.
Because I think this I think this is a verysimple answer.
Mediocre people don't like high achievers, andhigh achievers don't like mediocre people.
(05:48):
Period.
The end.
Story over.
And I know you said, hey.
I don't I don't wanna be a dick.
I wanna say it in a nice way to my friends whoare mad that I'm leaving town.
My friends would be mad if I left town, movedaway.
But here's the thing.
High achievers, and and obviously, you know,Dylan, you're a high achiever.
(06:11):
I've watched you for years now.
I remember when you came on the scene.
I'm like, who in the world is this dude?
Guy's got one arm and he's killing it.
Imagine, like, it's so funny to me when I seepeople that complain about their situation, and
then I see other people that make the best oftougher situations.
(06:31):
I'm like, dude, that's an amazing world we livein.
But Dylan, to answer your question, peoplearen't going to understand.
People are not going to understand highachievers chasing after their dreams.
I I said this here recently.
(06:54):
If you wanna be a part of the 1%, one % inanything, in sports, 1% in business, 1% of the
operators out there, like, you're gonna have togo make commitments and sacrifices that the
other 99 are not gonna make.
(07:14):
And so many times, and I've seen this timeafter time after time, You see this a lot in
high school.
It's kinda when it starts.
High school, middle school.
When one kid starts to separate himself fromthe pack, right, he wants to do better.
He wants to be better.
I saw this a lot in college for myself.
(07:35):
When one guy wants to go improve his life andget healthier, get more fit, you know, stop
drinking, you know, advance their career,whatever, take big swings, The guys who aren't
willing to do it start to resent them.
It's wild.
(07:57):
Now my college roommates were all very,massive, massive Delberts, and I say that in
the most loving way, but they're all, they'reall very encouraging.
But you see this a lot, like I saw this a lotwith friends I grew up with, at different
stages in life.
And you know, you see this basketball teams.
You see this in sports, right?
When one person puts more time in the gym, theother teammates that take notice are like, oh,
(08:20):
wait a second.
Why is he here early?
Oh, he must be trying to get extra credit.
He must be trying to show me up.
And you see people who are not willing to makethe commitment, make the sacrifice, put put the
effort in.
You see them start to resent the guy who does.
It's it's it's kinda weird.
(08:42):
And so, Dylan, I don't know if this is whatyou're going through.
I'm sure, you know, I'm sure it's not easy tobe friends with a guy who is constantly chasing
the best version of himself.
Because what it does is it makes you, feelcompel.
(09:04):
It kinda compels you to get off your butt andchase the best version of yourself.
And if that doesn't come naturally to somepeople, it's an uncomfortable feeling.
Dylan, I'm guessing you like to be you like toput yourself in uncomfortable situations in
life because you know you're going to getbetter.
You're gonna advance.
You're not shy about chasing after things, likepicking up and moving North Carolina.
(09:28):
That's not every, you know, young 20 year old'sdream, 24.
I don't know how old you are now, brother, but,it's not every 24 year old's dream to just pick
up and move their life across the country.
No wife, no girlfriend, no dog, no debt, livingthe dream.
And so when you do see people that are chaineddown with a girlfriend, chained down with a
(09:54):
life or whatever, they don't like theuncomfortable.
They don't like to be challenged.
They don't like to convince their girlfriend,Hey, let's pick up and move.
Right?
Their girlfriend's parents live in town.
Her family's in town.
Her friends are in town.
And so then you have to choose.
I see this all the time in young guys.
You have to choose.
Am I gonna chase after my dreams and my career?
(10:15):
Or am I gonna keep my girlfriend happy?
My fiancee?
My wife?
It's why I said I've said this multiple timesover and over and over.
I'm gonna go I'm gonna do a podcast with Shelbyagain here soon.
I've got a fun topic.
The most the single most important decision youwill ever make in your life, the single most
important, besides giving your life to Christ,the single most important decision you will
(10:41):
ever make in life is who you choose to spendlife with.
%.
Are they going to build you up, help you chaseyour dreams even harder, or are they gonna hold
you back?
Dylan, sounds like you don't have anybodyholding you back except for, maybe some
(11:04):
friends.
I'm sure your friends mean well.
But again, mediocre people that live normallives are never gonna understand people that
are just that wake up on fire to go kill it.
They're never gonna understand it.
It's the beauty, and I've said this time aftertime, it's the beauty for me in having a
business partner who is as passionate about itas I am, because it's rare to find people that
(11:30):
just are kind of psychotic about buildingsomething, and they're kind of psychotic about
running into hard situations and challengingchallenging themselves.
When, when I say, Hey, I need to spend$40,000,000 on equipment.
I gotta go write a check.
We gotta, we gotta, we gotta buy this fleet.
(11:52):
People look at me like I have literally lost mymind.
My business partner looks at me like, Okay, Ilove it.
How much money are we going to make on that?
What's our return going to be?
How quick can we pay it down?
How long is our contract?
Like, couldn't be more excited about it.
(12:15):
Those are the kind of people you have to findand surround yourself with, and it's hard.
It's super hard.
Why I, when I, you know, I always knew Gant waskind of psychotic because I knew, I've known
him since he was five years old, so, psychoticin the best ways.
When you find those people, you've got to latchon.
If, if they have the same You're gonna findsomebody out there, Dylan.
(12:36):
I, you know, probably somebody maybe on thishighway job, who knows, but you'll find people
that are just as passionate as you are abouttheir career, about building something, about
being the best version of themselves.
You gotta latch onto those people because whathappens is they make you better.
If it's just you chasing something and you'rebeing drugged down by all the friends, right?
(12:59):
They're going to the bars or making poordecisions.
If, if it's just you, there's no one sharpeningyou.
Everyone else kind of dulls you down a littlebit, waters you down.
If you got someone else that's maybe a step ortwo ahead of you, that's a little more crazy
than you are, a little more passionate, ironsharpens iron.
(13:21):
He'll make you better.
You'll get passionate, you'll get filled up,and you'll go make him better.
And I've just seen it.
I've felt it.
I am better because of the eight years of, youknow, it's actually been more like eleven or
twelve years with Gantt of grinding, andsharpening each other.
(13:41):
But you've got to find people.
You've got to surround yourself with peoplethat are going to sharpen you, push you to get
better.
And those people are passionate people.
Those people are chasing excellence.
Those are not mediocre people.
And so I think you just gotta be very aware,like, you should not worry one second about
explaining yourself to mediocre people, becausespoiler, they're never gonna get it.
(14:10):
They're never gonna understand it.
Doesn't matter how you paint the picture,doesn't matter how much convincing you do, it's
not gonna make any sense to them.
You're speaking a different language.
And so that's my, that's my initial thoughts.
I'm walking in.
(14:30):
I'm gonna have, I'm gonna have a little meetingwith Jeff here.
We have our, every two week meeting, so I'mgonna walk in, do this for an hour or so, and
then I'll come back and tie a bow on this one.
But Dylan, thank you for the video or for the,voice message.
I love it, brother.
I love everything you're about, and, it's beenreally fun to watch you.
(14:50):
So I'll check back in with you guys soon.
Alright.
I'm back.
Sorry for my absence.
Great conversations with Jeff.
Jeff is the CFO of Turner Mining Group andTurner Staffing Group.
He is one of the most legit guys.
(15:13):
Love the dude to death.
So I wanna pick up where I left off.
Dylan, first of all, man, I would just tell youthat, again, you said something in your message
about trying to explain to people what you'redoing.
(15:40):
And, and I don't think it needs an explanation,to be honest with you.
I would also say, you you mentioned, and Iquote, I'm gonna grind in my career for the
next ten years.
Maybe you just misspoke.
(16:00):
I hope you just misspoke because you're in yourtwenties, and I'm in my thirties.
And I can tell you right now, I feel like Ihaven't even started.
I was just talking to Jeffrey, and I feel likeI haven't even started.
(16:21):
I feel like I'm 18 years old.
It's it's weird.
Something happens when you get older.
You don't feel older.
Sure, maybe you have some aches and pains inyour body, whatever.
You don't I like, I don't feel any older than Idid when I was 18.
I feel like I'm gonna go capture the world asmuch or more than I did ten years ago.
(16:48):
And so, Dylan, I hope you're I hope you're notthinking it's just a ten year grind, and then
you just coast.
You're too smart for that.
It's a fifty, sixty, seventy year grind, andthen you die.
Who's who's the author that says, it'sThompson, something Thompson.
(17:12):
He says, like, I hope to be skidding into mydeath, like body used up, you know, bashed,
bruised.
Like, I hope to be skidding into the casket,throttle wide open.
It's seventy years worth of grind.
(17:33):
You don't just grind for ten years, buildsomething cool, and then chill.
At least that's not what I'm about.
And so, anyway, huge fan of you, brother.
What you're doing is awesome.
What you've done so far at this early stage inyour career, do not take it for granted because
it can all go away so fast.
(17:54):
Keep using your influence, preaching thepositivity, and and be you.
Go find someone else that's gonna sharpen you.
Find a group of guys that's gonna sharpen you.
I would recommend, Rise, the Rise community.
There's a bunch of legit guys in there.
But find people that are gonna sharpen you, andyou'll be super surprised at the impact.
(18:17):
I'm gonna move on.
I've only got a few minutes.
I am a few minutes away from home, and I got awhole night of nothing with my family, which is
amazing for us.
If we don't have a night of sports, if we canjust chill, have a family movie night,
something like that, it's amazing.
So here's the topic.
(18:38):
Revenue covers For you business owners outthere, you project managers, people managing
crews, leading companies, revenue covers sins.
I don't know how else to explain it than that.
(19:02):
This is gonna be a foreign concept to a lot ofpeople.
If you don't own a business or you're notmanaging teams, this might sound foreign.
I'm telling you right now, there are peoplethat count pennies, and there are people that
count dollars.
And the people that count pennies typically arethe penny wise pound foolish folks.
(19:28):
These are folks that live to a budget, don'tstray from their budget.
They're very rigid in how they think.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
I'm not knocking that way of thinking.
There are the people that also count dollars,And the people that count dollars have the
(19:51):
mentality that I will always outrun my costs.
I associate much more with the people thatcount dollars.
And I'm not always proud of this.
I would love to live to a budget.
I would love to, you know, be more diligentwith every single cent.
(20:13):
I'd love to live in a system.
That's just not who I am.
I am always trying to outrun my costs.
I've done this in my personal life.
I've done this in my business life.
Some of the best contractors I've seen are morefocused on revenue than they are on cost.
(20:35):
A lot for a lot of us, costs are fixed.
Right?
You've got a certain roster.
You've got a certain head count.
You can only work so many hours.
You got a certain number of machines, certainnumber of machine hours.
How much revenue can you produce?
This is gonna throw a lot of engineers kind ofin a I don't know if a tailspin, a loop.
(21:00):
It's a different way of thinking about it.
If you're a contractor, this is this isfoundational.
I believe it.
I was taught this way.
I still believe this is true.
Revenue covers sins.
(21:20):
You can have costs that exceed budget, but ifyour revenue exceeds target, it tends to work
out.
I know I'm I know I'm making people with withplans and budgets hyperventilate a little bit.
Just just hear me out.
(21:42):
There are ways to maximize revenue even if itcomes at increased cost.
Generally speaking, if you have the rightamount of leverage, you have a good standing
with the customer, you are recognized as areputable organization, reputable team,
(22:05):
reputable leader, you can leverage those thingsto maximize revenue at slightly increased cost.
One of the biggest mistakes I've seen so far inmy career, and I learned this the hard way.
(22:26):
I learned this from my uncle.
My uncle is a natural born entrepreneur,natural born sales guy.
He was all about how much revenue can we cramin the system.
And then, and only then, once we crammed asmuch revenue in the system as we can, how do we
(22:47):
then reduce costs?
That is so much easier to do than to reducecosts on the front end and trying to optimize
revenue.
There's games to be played.
I mean and some of you guys, I don't you know,depending on where you're at in business,
revenue, if you have a operating line of credittied to a borrowing base, revenue unlocks
(23:10):
borrowing base dollars for you.
Reducing costs does not does not unlock anyoperating dollars for you with the borrowing
base.
Revenue does not tell or excuse me.
Reducing costs does not always tell a story tothe banking partners.
(23:36):
They're buying into a revenue.
Are we growing?
They're buying into a story.
Are we growing?
Is the company growing?
Are we headed the right direction?
Okay.
Costs were a little up this year, but so wasrevenue.
That's fine.
Like, I can tell you right now, a banker I'mspeaking for bankers, which is a scary thing.
(23:57):
A banker would rather see increasing revenuesat lower margin than decreasing costs and
stagnant revenues because the company's notgrowing.
Hold on one second.
(24:18):
Move that bike out of the way.
I pull those in the grass.
I gotta I gotta pull all the way up there,Delbert.
You got kids out here.
Bankers buy into stories, and they buy intomomentum.
Momentum is revenue.
(24:39):
If if you're not producing more revenue, you'renot growing.
That is a red flag for banking.
It's a hard it's it's it I'm just telling you,it's hard to sell a story that we're growing
our business if revenues aren't increasing.
And, you you know, I mean, obviously, equallyas important as making money, margin, profit,
(25:05):
all of those are important.
Hold on one second.
Look at you, cute thing.
Can you say something?
Hello.
Did you have a good day?
Yes.
What'd you do today?
I got to we were pirates today, and we got aeye patch.
(25:27):
And we got to wear a pirate hat, and we got tofind letters.
We had to find all letter x's, and we went backto our room.
The teachers weren't even there.
The lights were off in a a room where we gotate snack.
(25:50):
The lights were off in a snack.
You're ate up.
And there was a treasure box.
Wow.
That sounds amazing.
What are you doing, you beautiful thing?
Daddy, and
Okay.
That what happened to your oh, your eye got hitby a baseball.
A football.
(26:12):
That's terrible.
I hate that.
On accident.
What okay.
This is Grace.
Now what are you doing?
I'm playing outside with my brother and sister.
You know what you know what I'm I'm gonnademand?
First and foremost, you're eight years old?
Yes.
You need to you need to you need you need toimmediately stop getting so beautiful because
(26:40):
I'm worried that in a couple years, we're gonnahave problems.
At the rate that you're growing more beautiful,I'm concerned about it.
Okay.
So if you could do me a favor, slow down thebeautiful growth, speed up the ugly growth,
(27:04):
that'd be great.
You want me to look ugly?
Well, I mean, uglier than current would beideal because you at eight years old worries me
at you at fifth at 14, 15, 16 years old.
People these days.
Okay.
Love you, girlfriend.
(27:25):
So I don't remember where we were.
I got interrupted by kids.
I'm I'm at the house now.
Just pulled in the driveway.
Andrew, what do you got?
Anything?
Oh oh, he ran away.
He's too cool.
What do you got?
Come here.
Here.
Come here.
Come here. Here.
Here.
Come here.
Is your favorite piece of equipment on a minesite?
(27:49):
Excavator.
Excavator?
Okay.
What size?
Like a mini excavator, you know, medium size, amass x, a mining class excavator?
What's what are you into?
Medium.
Medium size?
Oh, it's like a three forty nine, three seventyfour?
Yes.
Okay.
I love that.
I'm gonna end this because I've got three kids.
(28:11):
Hold on.
Hold on.
I got the young one.
Oh my goodness.
Thank I'm all go Thank you for the mail.
Appreciate it.
They're bringing me mail.
They're all running wild.
So I'm gonna wrap this one up.
I apologize for the abrupt ending, but I I willtell you that revenue cover sins.
(28:33):
I'm gonna dive into this more.
I'll I'll get more detailed in future podcastson this one.
But if you're a contractor, I believe youshould spend 70% of your time focused on
revenue optimization and the other 20% of yourtime on reducing costs, and then 10% of your
(28:57):
time on, you know, top high level, top of thefunnel on the business things three to five
year strategy.
I just believe it.
If if you're a well established contractor,maybe those ratios change a little bit, but
revenue optimization is the name of the gamefor contractors.
(29:22):
Absolutely.
It's not cost reduction.
Cost reduction works if you're on a fixedmarket where you're selling a commodity or
you're selling a product or you're selling agood or service at a fixed price.
Most contractors are working on a unit ratebasis.
And so we have to first optimize revenue.
(29:47):
Second, we can reduce costs.
And then third, we can plan for, you know, thefuture, what does long term look like.
But but so often, you have a three year a threeyear contract, a five year contract, even a one
year contract that never goes the distance.
(30:07):
And so you spend the first year or two yearsreducing costs, trying to get your costs in
line, and you've never captured every singlecent of revenue you could.
You leave revenue on the table.
And to be honest with you, revenue left on thetable is the same thing as added cost.
(30:34):
If you capture every cent of revenue at ahigher cost, to me, that's a better scenario
than not capturing enough revenue at a lowercost.
And I'll get into the details of why we can wecan, know, we can get into more of that later.
But I've got three kids running around, two ofthem on scooters, one of them carrying mail in
(30:57):
a box, and the box is about as big as she is.
So I'm gonna let you guys go.
I pray you're killing it.
I pray you are getting your per diem.
And if you're a contractor, if you're in thatspace, I pray that you are capturing as much
revenue as you can because I know how many sinsyou have.
(31:19):
And it's gonna cover up a lot of those sins.
So thank you guys for listening.
We will do it again tomorrow.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.