August 9, 2025 • 42 mins
Keaton Turner kicks off the episode with a warm welcome and dives into sales and marketing strategies, giving a nod to his dedicated team. He discusses the strategic use of short-term contracts and recognizes standout employees in logistics and coordination. A light-hearted coffee break segues into golf plans and a weekly competition. Keaton addresses a listener's dilemma involving a challenging coworker, weighing the merits of leaving versus learning from tough situations. He reflects on the value of difficult experiences and mindset shifts, offering insights on when to confront challenges and when to step back. The episode concludes with lessons from bad bosses, a call for reviews, and some humor.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
And the big ones just keep coming in.
They keep coming in the door.
Whoo.
Love it.
We got four big proposals outstanding, waitingon feedback.
And we got another one comes in the door thismorning on a Friday morning.
(00:22):
I love new RFPs.
Hold on one second.
I love new RFPs coming in the door.
It's what we live for.
We live to chase the work for another day.
Hold on.
Let me clip this thingy on.
(01:09):
Welcome back to the Purdium Podcast.
I'm Keaton Turner.
I'm your host.
I am in the Ford Bronco Raptor Raptor thismorning.
I am I'm living the dream this morning, as youcan tell, by the tone in my voice, the pep in
(01:29):
my step, the sparkle.
I've said it so many times.
The easiest part of our job in the miningbusiness is winning the work.
It's the easiest part.
To me, it's the most fun.
You get a new opportunity.
You get a new customer that pops up out ofnowhere.
(01:50):
You get a $100,000,000 contract you get to gotry to chase or a 200 or 500.
Shoot.
Even the $5,000,000 contracts.
Take those also.
That's the fun part.
It's the hunt.
It's the sharpening the sticks, sharpening yourarrows, and then flinging arrows at things,
hoping to stick one in something and drag ithome and eat it.
(02:14):
The hard part of our industry is eating thethings that we kill and drag home.
Sales is easy.
Marketing is easy.
Showing pictures on Instagram and sendingproposals, and I I know I'm I don't know if
anybody on my my business development,estimating, sales, marketing team listens to
(02:35):
this, but no offense, your job is easy comparedto actually doing the mining in the dirt,
getting your balls kicked in, trying to win thework, or or trying to do the work, that's the
tough part.
People problems every day.
Equipment problems every day.
(02:57):
Vendor problems every day.
I mean, weather problems every day.
I I love spending my time in sales andmarketing because it's fun.
It's what I'm naturally drawn to.
It's what I think I know the most about whenyou when you compare all the functions of our
(03:19):
business.
I I just for whatever reason, my DNA pairs wellwith with sales and with marketing.
But lest we forget, when we kill something, wedrag it home, when we have a project kickoff
meeting, we get new employees on-site, newequipment on-site for a new customer, man,
(03:42):
that's when the real work begins.
But thank you for all the folks.
If you do listen to this, thank you for all thefolks that spend so much time, effort, energy,
plane rides, hotel nights, all that trying tochase and win work.
It can be grueling.
It can absolutely be grueling.
(04:03):
I know it sounds fancy and fun and easywatching people jump on airplanes and eat their
biscuits and drink their tea, and then go eatnice fancy steak dinners night after night,
taking customers out, staying in hotels, flyingin and flying out, never getting dirty.
(04:23):
I know it seems easy.
It could be grueling.
I started with that because I love seeing newRFPs come in the door.
I I love getting email.
I got a text message from a customer thismorning, which rarely happens to me these days.
(04:44):
I don't especially on the front end of, youknow, an RFP process or a bidding process, it's
rare that I get hit up directly from thecustomer.
This guy, I've got a little bit of arelationship with that dates back a little
while.
So he texted me and said, hey.
RFP's in your inbox.
Multi year.
(05:05):
I love hearing the words multiyear.
Multiyear means multimillions in my world.
And so I love hearing multiyear contract,multiyear RFP.
I had a conversation with a guy a couple daysago internally.
I'm like, what are we doing chasing work that'sless than a year long?
What are we doing?
(05:26):
Some of it's strategic.
Some of it, you know, we got a we got a newcrew.
Shout out Jeff Pescik, by the way.
I have to shout out Jeff Pescik.
We got a new crew led by Jeff, some equipmenton a short term contract that's with a very
strategic customer.
It's obviously less than a year contract, butwe know we wanna be a nationwide service
(05:49):
provider to this customer.
And so, you know, we assigned Jeff and the teama task to go kill it for him, and they're
killing it for him.
So huge huge kudos to Jeff.
Slacked him last night, told him everyone'stalking very highly about him in the Indiana
office.
So huge shout out to Jeff.
Another huge shout out to Joe, mister JoeJenkins.
(06:14):
Joe has been killing it just month after monthproducing results for, like, two years now.
When Joe joined us from another company, weinherited Joe and some of his folks and gladly
brought them on the team.
We were just hoping to retain them because younever know when you you win a new contract and
there are some people that are familiar withthe work.
(06:38):
You never know if you're able to retain thosefolks and, like, convince them to give your
company a shot.
And we brought Joe to Indiana.
I got to meet him a little bit and talk to himfor a few minutes, and and Joe just went right
back to work.
Joe's no nonsense.
He's all about the work, and he has producedresults month after month for, man, going on
(07:01):
two years.
So, Joe, huge shout out to you, brother.
And I don't know if I don't know if these guyslisten.
I have no idea if Jeff listens or Joe listens.
My hope is somebody in the company tells themthat I am I'm speaking highly of them and the
results that those guys are producing.
Course, we got a ton of other people thatproduce results.
A ton of other people.
(07:22):
We have I'm gonna give a shout out to theestimating and bidding folks for a second
because we have multiple large proposalssitting out there waiting on some decisions
from customers.
And the team that puts together the estimateand then puts together the proposal and the
(07:48):
package that we send off to a customer, it'sbeen blowing me away to see how far we've come
in eight years and the product that they'reproducing now.
It's unbelievable.
So huge shout out to Austin Onstoter, HaleyWallin, man, Patton Deysher, obviously.
(08:08):
Paul Moran, chief commercial officer, hugeshout out to him.
Huge shout out to Josh Price, who has beenamazing addition to the team in the last year
or so.
I guess it's coming up on a year probably,Josh.
And then, of course, all the other people thatthat, you know, help on the fringe put put
(08:32):
these numbers together to help us go win, youknow, $102,100, $300,000,000 things.
I mean, Jay Kubble, you guys heard me talkabout him forever.
Can't do it without his knowledge andexperience on the equipment side and the rate
building and negotiating with dealers.
Nathan Morales.
(08:52):
I'm gonna call him bottle boy, and that's astory that's between Nate and I.
But Nate, Nathan, you know, coordinating andlogistics and moving equipment all over the
country.
Man, I know I'm gonna leave people out.
Of course of course, Tucker, Tyson, Dudley.
I'm gonna give a huge shout out to Dudley.
(09:16):
Dudley, I think I'm going to crown as myfavorite employee.
I've only had the pleasure of talking to Dudleyin person a couple times, but I'll never forget
the first night I got to meet him.
Tucker was like, man, you really need to meetthis guy.
He, you know, he's been on a dozer since he waslike five years old.
And I, you know, I was like, okay, cool.
(09:37):
Love these kind of folks.
I get to meet Dudley.
We have a couple beers over dinner, and and Iliterally, after one hour with him, stand I up.
I said, I don't care what it takes.
I want this guy on our team, and I'm gonna godown on record and say he's my number one
favorite employee to talk to, to swap warstories with.
(09:57):
Dudley is you know, I think he came here askind of an operations trainer, someone that can
share his knowledge and experience with otherfolks across all of our operations.
But I can tell you he has been so much morethan that.
I don't even know if we've changed his titlesince then.
I don't I don't know exactly even what he doesday to day, but I know across the organization
(10:23):
I hear people talk all the time.
Like, man, when's Dudley come back?
And so I love him.
I love a guy that can take the ego and theexperience and the pride of operating
equipment, the pride of all the years ofexperience stacked up and set it aside to talk
to a 19 year old kid on how to properlyoperate, how to set up benches, how to maintain
(10:48):
a haul road so that your trucks, you know,aren't struggling.
Just little bitty details.
What to watch for in the face when material'sunstable.
You know, all the little things that I love tonerd out on.
It's hard to find guys that love those littledetails of an operation.
And and Dudley, I can just talk to him fortwenty minutes, and we go straight into the
(11:12):
tactical stuff.
So huge fan of Dudley.
That's not his that's not his real name, butI'm not gonna tell you his real name.
I know it, but I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep itas Dudley because I think Dudley slaps a lot
harder than your real name, Michael.
And then another shout out, because I could dothis all day.
(11:33):
Someday I need to go through our org chart andkind of explain our org chart to you guys.
But another big shout out who is someone thathad a big meeting last week for us.
He was in this meeting and after the meetinggot over, I had a phone call with someone else
that was in the meeting.
And they were like, look, that meeting couldnot have happened the way that it did without
(11:58):
Tyler Vincent there.
Tyler, huge shout out.
Tyler's director of safety, but again, so muchmore than that.
I don't believe in titles, really.
We've screwed titles up so much in the past.
I'm not a huge fan of, like, nailing down atitle and making someone stick within a title.
Tyler does so much more than safety for us.
But but Tyler, huge shout out to you.
(12:21):
I I think I sent him a message last week afterthe meeting.
You know, you got your praises sang because ofyour performance in that meeting.
So thank you, brother, for everything you do tomove us forward, and you've moved us forward
tremendously over the last couple years.
I think Tyler's been here almost two years now,maybe over two years.
So thank you for that.
(12:43):
Topic today.
Let me get to the topics.
I don't have a ton of time.
I'm actually hold on real quick.
Coffee break.
Man, I'm pinging today, not only because of theRFP in the inbox, but because I am drinking my
coffee out of the per diem podcast coffee mugwith a little bit of salt on the rim, like
(13:07):
Doctor.
Hobie suggests, and man, it slaps.
It slaps hard today.
This is some strong coffee and it's gonna getthe job done.
I don't have a ton of time today, so I'm gonnatry to make this one What are we?
Shoot, we're already twelve minutes in.
I'm gonna try to make this one quick.
I'm headed to the office.
I got a few things to get done, and then I'mplaying golf this afternoon, and I am hoping to
(13:32):
win myself a bottle.
I think I've told you guys in my golf group, wegot tired of playing for money because there's
nothing more boring than $20.30, $40.50 dollarsswapping hands every weekend.
And so we tried to make it a little morepersonal and a little more vicious, if you
(13:52):
will, vicious competition.
And so every week when we play golf, if thegroup that I play with, if we're together, we
haven't been together the last few weeks, butif we're together, we will play for a bottle.
A bottle of whiskey, a bottle of wine, a bottleof gin, whatever what you know, you get
(14:13):
surprised.
The winning team gets each of them get a bottlefrom the losing teams.
Gotta be a $50 or more expensive bottle of somesort of spirit or wine.
And so, you know, we'll get a bottle of tequilaor bourbon or whatever.
And so it's a fun little change because I mean,yeah, sure.
(14:37):
I can Venmo a guy $20 if I lose in golf, butit's a lot more humbling to hand because the
rule is if you lose a bottle, you have to handdeliver it the following week on the tee box or
at the golf course.
And so, for me, is, man, it's a humblingexperience to have to walk up to the tee box
(15:02):
and hand someone a nice bottle of tequila.
It's humbling.
I'd rather just Venmo you $40 in silence or $50in silence, we never talk about it.
But handing over a bottle of bourbon, handingover like a nice and again, it's $50.
It's not the end of the world.
(15:23):
But you can buy some nice tequila for $50.
You can buy some nice bourbon for $50.
I buy my Blanton's at Kroger for $55.
Don't ask me how I do it, but I do it.
I bought multiple bottles of Blantens for $55.
That's what it should cost.
It should not cost you a $150 to buy Blantens.
So anyway, that's what I'm doing today.
(15:44):
Pray for me as I go try to win golf and win abottle.
What else is happening?
I'm trying to get pulled over here real quickso that I can read from the per diem hotline
because I got a message that I wanna read andit's today's topic.
(16:05):
This guy did exactly what I suggested.
He sent me a message here a while back.
I obviously am behind on my messages and so Inever responded.
And so he did exactly what I asked and hepinged me this morning.
He bumped his message up to the top.
And so this is the one I'm gonna pick today asthe topic.
(16:26):
And for those of you guys that have not sent meanything on the per diem hotline, it's a safe
space.
It's a circle of trust.
I don't have to share our conversation.
If you just tell me, hey, look, don't sharethis, or hey, share this, but don't share my
(16:47):
name, I'm happy to do that.
I don't have to post your shirtless video ifyou don't want me to.
I don't have to share the juicy details of theproblem you're having in your life.
I got a ton of dudes that I've been messagingwith back and forth that are going through it,
going through their own version of Death Valleyor whatever, and I don't ever share it.
(17:10):
I keep it between me and them because that'swhat they've asked for.
So that's just a quick little plug to say ifyou want to get in contact with me, now don't
expect an answer immediately.
Sometimes it takes me a few days.
For a lot of you guys, I'm just, man, I ambehind and I haven't caught up with you at all.
(17:34):
So some of you guys I will.
But again, if I haven't responded back to yourmessage, ping me again.
Just send me another text and remind me.
One of my absolute red flags or toxic traits isat any given time, I have hundreds and hundreds
of unread text messages at any given time.
(17:58):
Like right now, I'm taking a picture because Imight use this as the background of the episode
art.
I have 706 unread text messages on my personalphone.
That's not the per diem hotline.
706 unread text messages on my personal phone.
I don't wear this as a badge of honor, by theway.
(18:18):
I have 26 voicemails.
And you know what's gonna happen to those 706unread text messages and 26 voicemails?
You know what's gonna happen?
Nothing's gonna happen.
I'll never listen to them.
I'll never open them.
I'll never read them.
(18:39):
So if you don't ping me again, chances areyou're gonna get pushed down the stack of crap
on my phone and I'll never get back to you.
So that's my toxic trait.
I'm just being transparent, being honest.
That's my toxic trait.
On my phone, this is actually something that Ido take a lot of pride in right here.
(19:01):
On my phone, I have 69,021 pictures and videosthat I've taken on my phone.
69,000.
And that's a low number compared to some mymom's got over 300,000 pictures and videos that
(19:21):
she's taken on her phone.
So I do wear that one as a badge of honor.
Hold on real quick.
Okay.
I'm back.
Sorry about that.
Here's today's message.
I'm not gonna read this guy's name.
He I can tell just by kind of the the tone.
This is probably a message that he doesn't wantout for everyone to know.
(19:44):
But he says, hey, Keaton.
Just wondering if you would consider doing apodcast episode on how to get along with
coworkers who act like they know everything andrefuse to change their way of doing something
because they think they're always right.
I work for my dad in a small business, and Ionly have one coworker other than my dad and my
coworker is way older than me.
(20:07):
Let me reread that.
I struggle sometimes reading, guys.
You know this.
I work for my dad in a small business, and Ionly have one coworker other than my dad.
And my coworker is way older than me, and Ifeel like I can't connect with him and that we
have a huge misunderstanding between eachother.
(20:27):
And because the way my coworker operates, I'munder constant pressure that I won't do
something right, and it's very wearing on mymind.
Work to me is an absolute misery because ofthis.
Man, I texted him back this morning and said,I'm recording one for you today, brother.
(20:49):
I I'll be honest.
I only see two paths here.
And I love I love when we can distill down hardmoments or hard decisions into red pill, blue
pill, or path a, path b, or ah, here's a forkin the road.
(21:11):
Which way am I going?
To me, this is one of those moments.
You have you have two paths.
You have two choices to make.
Two you could take the red pill or you couldtake the blue pill.
I don't think either one of them's easy.
I don't think either one of them, like, youknow, is gonna be fun, but the situation you're
(21:36):
currently in is not fun.
I had a very similar situation in my life.
You know, one of the reasons I and I andthere's a lot of reasons that stack up when I
really think back about it now.
But one of the reasons why I left my family'sbusiness was because there were people, just
quite frankly, that I couldn't see eye to eyewith, I couldn't work next to.
(22:02):
We had different personality types.
We had different ways of theories on how totreat people, on how to win customers.
Like we were just two totally different ends ofthe spectrum on how to go get things done.
And one of the ultimate decisions that I madewas like, look, I gotta move on.
(22:26):
I gotta take the red pill.
I gotta leave.
I gotta get out of this situation before itkills me.
And I don't mean physically kills me, I meanmentally kills me.
Where I sustain ultimate burnout and evenworse, my fear was I start to become more like
(22:48):
that person.
That was my fear.
There were so many good people in thatbusiness, and I love my uncle to death, and I
owe him so much.
Someday I'll tell him that.
He was a blast to be around.
He was, I believe still to this day, probablythe best salesperson, the best natural sales
(23:10):
guy I've ever worked with.
But unfortunately there are just people in anorganization, it's never fun.
There are people in an organization you justdon't see eye to eye with and you just don't
get along with and your personalities don'tmesh.
If you stay in those environments long enough,you start to become more like them.
You start to become cynical.
(23:32):
You start to become a know it all.
You start to have a knower's mindset instead ofa learner's mindset.
You start to become hard.
And like, oh, it's so I could do a wholeepisode just on this, but that's To me, that's
the red pill.
You pull the rip cord, you get out.
(23:53):
If your dad's not gonna get rid of this guy andhe believes there's value in this guy, and a
lot of a lot of people I've made this ownmistake too.
A lot of people overlook someone's faultsbecause they produce results for the company.
My guess is this guy's producing results foryour dad.
Because if he was just a jerk, if he was just aknow it all, if he was just someone that, you
(24:13):
know, his son couldn't work next to, he'd getrid of him.
But the reason he's not gotten rid of him iseither they're really good friends and he's
worried about the fallout of the relationship,or more likely, he's producing results for your
dad's business.
So your dad doesn't wanna get rid of it.
He's like, ah, we can deal with the, ah, Timmy,we can deal with the BS and the know it all and
(24:36):
the attitude cynicism.
We can deal with all that.
He produces results.
Path a, red pill, is the ejecto sedo.
It's the it's the button you push when yourtime with that company, with your dad, with
(24:58):
what you guys are doing.
You push the button because your time has cometo an end.
And you know that guy's not gonna leave, soyou're gonna leave.
It's a tough one.
It this is a tough I mean, the red pill is atough pill to swallow.
It was really tough for me.
I had thought about it for, I mean, shoot,years before I ever hit the eject button.
(25:23):
So it's tough.
It's a tough one.
It's a tough one to to swallow.
It's a tough one to move on, especially whenthere's family.
I mean, the hard part is if you weren't workingfor your dad and living through this situation,
you'd have probably already left.
That's the tough part.
But because it's family, you stay longer, yougrind yourself down further, You kill your
(25:47):
mentals because it's family.
I've lived through this.
You hope and pray it will get better.
You hope and pray that, oh, someday, thisperson's not gonna be there.
Well, who's gonna leave first?
You or the other guy that's a nightmare?
(26:08):
Who's gonna leave first?
So that's the red pill.
The red pill is get out, find greener pastures,tell your dad you love him, tell him you hope
he wins, tell him you hope he's successful, butyou can't live your life to the detriment of
(26:28):
your own mental state, to the detriment of yourown happiness.
I mean, you said in your text that you'remiserable.
You hate going to work.
I'm sure you deal with the Sunday scaries everySunday night about 05:00, 06:00.
That's no way to live.
If you're dealing with the Sunday scaries, thatis the problem in life you need to go chase
(26:48):
after and try to fix.
You shouldn't be dealing with the Sundayscaries.
You should be excited on Sunday night to gokill it on Monday morning in your job.
And so if you're working with people thatthat's just not the case, you might consider
the red pill.
Hit the eject button, go somewhere where you'reactually gonna enjoy the people you spend time
with, you're gonna actually enjoy the peopleyou work next to.
(27:12):
Know, ironically, we spend more time in lifewith our coworkers than we do our own family in
most cases, than we do with our own wife or ourown kids.
If you hate the people you're working with, ifyou can't stand them, if they're a know it all,
if they're just flat out annoying, get out.
(27:37):
Or there's an alternative.
Coffee break.
Hold on.
I know I leave you guys on cliffhangerssometimes.
None of this is you know, these aren't, like,major revelations.
This is stuff you already know.
I'm just reminding you of it.
You only have two options.
(27:58):
The alternative option, the alternative path,the blue pill, is the exact opposite end of the
spectrum.
The blue pill is where you gotta roll up yoursleeves.
You gotta get a little bit dirty.
The blue pill is where you have to control yourown mental state, your own mentality, your own
(28:21):
mindset, and you buckle in and you stay.
And you love them where they're at and youcommit to the journey, you commit to the path,
you commit to whatever life's trying to teachyou through this terrible experience with this
horrible coworker, and you soak it all in.
(28:44):
I have learned, and this is true, I said thishere a while back on LinkedIn, I got some
people that argued with me.
I have learned more in my life working withpeople like this, working with bad bosses than
I have, in a lot of cases, working for a goodboss.
I think you can learn more from this guy inthis terrible situation and this this tough
(29:08):
employee to deal with, tough coworker.
I think you can learn more from this experienceyou're living through than probably what you
can learn jumping ship and going to an easy jobwith an easy boss and easy coworkers.
I don't know about you guys, but I am so hardheaded, and I and I wear that kind of with a
(29:30):
badge of as a badge of honor.
I'm so hard headed.
I've never learned anything the easy way.
I've never once learned like a real life lessonor career lesson or, you know, like pivotal
moment in time when it was easy.
Never.
I can't think back to one time in my life whereI was like, man, there was a big lesson there.
(29:53):
I I actually got better as a person, better asa father, better as a husband, better as a
leader or a CEO.
Never one time got there in an easy moment.
Never.
My worst days, my biggest ball kickings, mymost frustrating conversations with coworkers
or employees, the conversations that I dreadgoing in the office to have, those were the
(30:20):
moments in my career that have really trulydefined who I am up to this point, and I'm
fully in tune with knowing.
I actually just texted a guy last night.
I'd love to read you the text.
It's a little personal, but one of our ownguys.
I basically just said, I'll paraphrase for you.
(30:43):
Hard times are what shapes us into the peoplewe're supposed to be.
I know it's not fun.
When you're going through a hard time at work,it's shaping you into being a better coworker,
a better employee, a better boss.
Dealing with this guy, guess what?
(31:04):
Dealing with this terrible coworker is gonnamake you a much better coworker long term.
Dealing with ego, dealing with a know it all isa huge tool you now get to wear in your tool
belt to say, Hey, I know how to manage egos.
I know how to manage know it alls.
(31:24):
I know how to manage old dudes that think theyknow everything that are actually fricking
clueless.
You know how valuable that tool is to have inyour tool belt?
I hired some guys a while back, it's beenseveral years ago now, one guy in particular
was the hardest person I've ever had to dealwith in my entire life.
(31:45):
Of all the thousands and thousands of peopleI've ever talked to, worked with, managed, this
was the hardest individual, and it was the mostchaotic two years of my life, x maybe the first
year of starting a business.
But the lessons I learned in that two yearsmanaging difficult people, working alongside
(32:10):
difficult people, know it alls, egos, pride,different cultures, like different fundamental
beliefs about business and people, I learnedmore in that two years than I've ever learned
in my entire life, maybe even all summed uptogether.
So you have a choice to make really.
It's pretty simple.
(32:32):
Do you want the easy path?
Do you want to look forward to your job onMonday?
Do you wanna go work somewhere that is fun andyou get to smile and laugh?
That's great.
I love it.
Actually, to be honest with you, at the stageof life I'm in, that's what I want.
I've lived through so much chaos.
Like I need a chapter where I enjoy the peopleI'm around, and I'm enjoying the heck out of
(32:53):
the chapter I'm in.
I'm enjoying the heck out of the people I'maround.
I don't have anybody around me right now that Ican't stand or wanna get out of my life.
Nobody.
I can't think of one person.
So I'm enjoying the chapter.
That's a fine path if you wanna pick that path.
But what you're giving up, just to be clear,when you take the red pill and say no to the
(33:16):
blue pill, what you're giving up are thelessons and the experience and the tools that
you can stick in your tool belt someday thatI've just fully believed the blue pill will
make you a more seasoned, a more experienced, amore legit person long term.
(33:39):
It's not fun.
It's not easy.
I don't think any leader ever got where theyare.
I don't think any successful person ever gotwhere they are by picking the easy path.
And a lot of them honestly were just too dumbto know they were picking the hard path.
I was too dumb to know every lesson I'velearned the hard way.
I was too dumb to know there was an easierpath.
(34:01):
So I just kinda by default picked the red or orpicked the blue pill, picked the hard path,
lived through some difficult situations.
But man, it's made me so much better.
So it's tough.
I mean, I know it's tough.
Not many people like to run towards hardlessons.
(34:22):
Not many people like to sign themselves up forthe Sunday scaries and hate their job on
Monday.
But man, there's a lot of value going throughthat for a chapter like now if you've been
through that chapter for years and you're justlike totally at the end of your rope, you've
learned all the lessons you can learn, you'vesqueezed every ounce of value out of this
(34:44):
chapter, then then fine.
Move on.
But my guess is if your dad has not gotten ridof this guy yet and and and maybe you've had
some conversations with your dad, maybe youhaven't, My guess is if he's not gotten rid of
this guy yet, and your dad's probably in tuneenough to know that you guys aren't on the same
page with this employee.
(35:07):
But if he's not gotten rid of him yet, is hegonna ever get rid of him?
I'm a I'm a flip the table real quick.
Is your dad trying to teach you a lesson byputting you next to this guy?
Is your dad trying to, like, get you thatexperience and those battle scars and the the
struggles that young dudes have to go through,I mean, I promise you right now, if I hadn't
(35:35):
lived through the first eight, nine, ten yearsof my family's business and the chaos and the
BS and the nepotism and the I mean, was lot ofgood times.
I'm painting it with a bad picture.
There's a lot of really good times.
But if I hadn't gone through those firstseveral chapters of my career that way, dude,
(35:55):
I'd be the biggest pushover soft, likefriendly, but soft lack of leadership, lack of
accountability person in the industry.
The only reason I'm able to sit here on apodcast and talk about these things and and
(36:16):
build the teams that we've built and thebusiness that we've built.
The only reason is because of the chaos that Iwent through, the hard times, the hard
conversations, the ball kickings of a familybusiness, taking it from nothing to something,
the fires that we fight every day.
The only reason I'm able to do any of this nowis because of all the crap we had to deal with
(36:39):
early.
And I'm still dealing with crap every day.
Ball kickings, Hard hard to deal with people orcustomers or whatever.
Vendors.
Running away from a challenge means you'rerunning away from a lesson that will make you
(37:00):
better.
I believe it.
Now I say all that, sometimes it makes sense torun away from the challenge.
Sometimes, especially depending on your mentalstate and how long you've battled it, sometimes
it just makes more sense to say, know what?
Wave the white flag.
(37:20):
I've bellied up to the buffet of ball kickingsenough over the last two years.
I need a break.
I'm gonna go take a few laps around the parkinglot before I belly back up to the buffet and
get another plate.
That's okay.
Sometimes that is just fine.
But, man, there is something to be said aboutliving through difficult times with difficult
(37:45):
people and learning the lessons.
And I would just ask your dad.
I would just say, hey, man.
Shoot me straight.
Be honest with me for a minute.
Are you trying to teach me a lesson, putting mewith this guy?
Is there like some hidden agenda here?
If so, cool.
No big deal.
I wanna be mature enough to understand that andmaybe I'll have a different perspective on
dealing with this guy.
(38:07):
But I would ask your dad, what you know, what'sman to man?
What do you see in this guy if he's such aterrible employee?
What do you see in this guy that I don't?
Why am I living through this frustration andhaving the Sunday scaries?
Help me understand it.
Because because there might be some wisdomthere that he, you know, isn't sharing with
(38:28):
you.
So, anyway, that's that's how I think about it.
I I gotta run.
I'm gonna go throw some darts at the green andmake some birdie putts.
I hope that was valuable to somebody.
I hope you guys, you know, hope somebody gotsomething because there's a lot of people that
are on Sunday night thinking about quittingtheir job on Monday morning.
(38:52):
And maybe you should.
Maybe you should.
But maybe it's just a mindset shift and youshould be looking forward to the lessons
learned, the difficult person, the terribleboss.
Like maybe you should smile through the painfor a little bit longer.
Get the full value out of the chapter you'reliving in, squeeze as much juice out of the
(39:15):
experience you're getting from a bad boss, andthen pivot to something different later.
Then pivot to the easier path, take a break fora while, go to the easier job with the easier
boss, with the friendly coworkers.
One of the things I wanna do with my 10 yearold, and he's only 10, so I need to give him a
(39:36):
couple years to really kinda come into his own.
I can't wait to stick him with a bad boss.
This is gonna sound crazy to a lot of people.
My wife hopes she doesn't hear this.
She's gonna listen.
I know she is.
I can't wait to stick him in a job that kickshis balls every day.
Coworkers that are just downright unruly,sinful.
(40:00):
Like, I can't wait.
When I was 17, I was I was literally doing jobswith guys that were drinking beer for lunch.
Like, I'm 17.
I'm like, woah.
Wait a second.
What's going on here?
You learn so much from the bad chapters.
You learn so much from the bad bosses, the badcoworkers.
(40:21):
Now, hopefully, you don't pick up too many oftheir own traits, their qualities, bad habits,
their sinful nature, whatever.
But man, living a chapter, you can't live yourwhole career, but living a chapter with a
really bad boss makes you so much more valuablewhen you actually get a good boss.
(40:41):
I believe it.
I've lived through it.
So that's the experience I've got.
That's what I'm dropping today.
Thank you for the message.
You know who you are.
Thank you for the message on the Purdue andHotline.
Hope the rest of you guys got a little bit ofsomething out of that.
We're gonna do it again tomorrow.
I hope you're getting your Purduem today.
Hope you're earning it.
Hope you're killing it.
(41:02):
And if you have a few minutes two things I'dlike to ask.
Well, I'm gonna throw a third in there.
If you have a few minutes free today, it's aweekend, you're listening to this on a Saturday
morning.
If you haven't left me a review on the podcastapp, I am kindly requesting you do that.
If you haven't left me a review or a littlesnippet of what you have recently gotten out of
(41:28):
some of these episodes, if you haven't donethat on LinkedIn, I'd love for you to do that
for me.
Hey, I listened to this episode.
This is what I got out of it.
Or, hey, I listened to this episode.
Keaton Turner's at Delbert.
He has no clue what he's talking about.
I would welcome those messages too.
I'd love to go keyboard battle with you onLinkedIn.
I always enjoy that.
(41:49):
And third, if you haven't sent me anything everone time on the per diem hotline, do that.
Take a few minutes, 980 diem on your dial pad,(980) 737-3436.
Send me a message.
I would welcome some shirtless videos.
(42:09):
Those have kind of come to a screeching haltlately, so I need a few more of those.
And then lastly, I'm gonna add a fourth thingin.
Pray for me.
Pray I go make a few birdies a day and win abottle.
And and if I do, I'll send you guys a pictureof it.
Peace.
And the big ones just keep coming in.
They keep coming in the door.
Whoo.
Love it.
We got four big proposals outstanding, waitingon feedback.
And we got another one comes in the door thismorning on a Friday morning.
(00:22):
I love new RFPs.
Hold on one second.
I love new RFPs coming in the door.
It's what we live for.
We live to chase the work for another day.
Hold on.
Let me clip this thingy on.
(01:09):
Welcome back to the Purdium Podcast.
I'm Keaton Turner.
I'm your host.
I am in the Ford Bronco Raptor Raptor thismorning.
I am I'm living the dream this morning, as youcan tell, by the tone in my voice, the pep in
(01:29):
my step, the sparkle.
I've said it so many times.
The easiest part of our job in the miningbusiness is winning the work.
It's the easiest part.
To me, it's the most fun.
You get a new opportunity.
You get a new customer that pops up out ofnowhere.
(01:50):
You get a $100,000,000 contract you get to gotry to chase or a 200 or 500.
Shoot.
Even the $5,000,000 contracts.
Take those also.
That's the fun part.
It's the hunt.
It's the sharpening the sticks, sharpening yourarrows, and then flinging arrows at things,
hoping to stick one in something and drag ithome and eat it.
(02:14):
The hard part of our industry is eating thethings that we kill and drag home.
Sales is easy.
Marketing is easy.
Showing pictures on Instagram and sendingproposals, and I I know I'm I don't know if
anybody on my my business development,estimating, sales, marketing team listens to
(02:35):
this, but no offense, your job is easy comparedto actually doing the mining in the dirt,
getting your balls kicked in, trying to win thework, or or trying to do the work, that's the
tough part.
People problems every day.
Equipment problems every day.
(02:57):
Vendor problems every day.
I mean, weather problems every day.
I I love spending my time in sales andmarketing because it's fun.
It's what I'm naturally drawn to.
It's what I think I know the most about whenyou when you compare all the functions of our
(03:19):
business.
I I just for whatever reason, my DNA pairs wellwith with sales and with marketing.
But lest we forget, when we kill something, wedrag it home, when we have a project kickoff
meeting, we get new employees on-site, newequipment on-site for a new customer, man,
(03:42):
that's when the real work begins.
But thank you for all the folks.
If you do listen to this, thank you for all thefolks that spend so much time, effort, energy,
plane rides, hotel nights, all that trying tochase and win work.
It can be grueling.
It can absolutely be grueling.
(04:03):
I know it sounds fancy and fun and easywatching people jump on airplanes and eat their
biscuits and drink their tea, and then go eatnice fancy steak dinners night after night,
taking customers out, staying in hotels, flyingin and flying out, never getting dirty.
(04:23):
I know it seems easy.
It could be grueling.
I started with that because I love seeing newRFPs come in the door.
I I love getting email.
I got a text message from a customer thismorning, which rarely happens to me these days.
(04:44):
I don't especially on the front end of, youknow, an RFP process or a bidding process, it's
rare that I get hit up directly from thecustomer.
This guy, I've got a little bit of arelationship with that dates back a little
while.
So he texted me and said, hey.
RFP's in your inbox.
Multi year.
(05:05):
I love hearing the words multiyear.
Multiyear means multimillions in my world.
And so I love hearing multiyear contract,multiyear RFP.
I had a conversation with a guy a couple daysago internally.
I'm like, what are we doing chasing work that'sless than a year long?
What are we doing?
(05:26):
Some of it's strategic.
Some of it, you know, we got a we got a newcrew.
Shout out Jeff Pescik, by the way.
I have to shout out Jeff Pescik.
We got a new crew led by Jeff, some equipmenton a short term contract that's with a very
strategic customer.
It's obviously less than a year contract, butwe know we wanna be a nationwide service
(05:49):
provider to this customer.
And so, you know, we assigned Jeff and the teama task to go kill it for him, and they're
killing it for him.
So huge huge kudos to Jeff.
Slacked him last night, told him everyone'stalking very highly about him in the Indiana
office.
So huge shout out to Jeff.
Another huge shout out to Joe, mister JoeJenkins.
(06:14):
Joe has been killing it just month after monthproducing results for, like, two years now.
When Joe joined us from another company, weinherited Joe and some of his folks and gladly
brought them on the team.
We were just hoping to retain them because younever know when you you win a new contract and
there are some people that are familiar withthe work.
(06:38):
You never know if you're able to retain thosefolks and, like, convince them to give your
company a shot.
And we brought Joe to Indiana.
I got to meet him a little bit and talk to himfor a few minutes, and and Joe just went right
back to work.
Joe's no nonsense.
He's all about the work, and he has producedresults month after month for, man, going on
(07:01):
two years.
So, Joe, huge shout out to you, brother.
And I don't know if I don't know if these guyslisten.
I have no idea if Jeff listens or Joe listens.
My hope is somebody in the company tells themthat I am I'm speaking highly of them and the
results that those guys are producing.
Course, we got a ton of other people thatproduce results.
A ton of other people.
(07:22):
We have I'm gonna give a shout out to theestimating and bidding folks for a second
because we have multiple large proposalssitting out there waiting on some decisions
from customers.
And the team that puts together the estimateand then puts together the proposal and the
(07:48):
package that we send off to a customer, it'sbeen blowing me away to see how far we've come
in eight years and the product that they'reproducing now.
It's unbelievable.
So huge shout out to Austin Onstoter, HaleyWallin, man, Patton Deysher, obviously.
(08:08):
Paul Moran, chief commercial officer, hugeshout out to him.
Huge shout out to Josh Price, who has beenamazing addition to the team in the last year
or so.
I guess it's coming up on a year probably,Josh.
And then, of course, all the other people thatthat, you know, help on the fringe put put
(08:32):
these numbers together to help us go win, youknow, $102,100, $300,000,000 things.
I mean, Jay Kubble, you guys heard me talkabout him forever.
Can't do it without his knowledge andexperience on the equipment side and the rate
building and negotiating with dealers.
Nathan Morales.
(08:52):
I'm gonna call him bottle boy, and that's astory that's between Nate and I.
But Nate, Nathan, you know, coordinating andlogistics and moving equipment all over the
country.
Man, I know I'm gonna leave people out.
Of course of course, Tucker, Tyson, Dudley.
I'm gonna give a huge shout out to Dudley.
(09:16):
Dudley, I think I'm going to crown as myfavorite employee.
I've only had the pleasure of talking to Dudleyin person a couple times, but I'll never forget
the first night I got to meet him.
Tucker was like, man, you really need to meetthis guy.
He, you know, he's been on a dozer since he waslike five years old.
And I, you know, I was like, okay, cool.
(09:37):
Love these kind of folks.
I get to meet Dudley.
We have a couple beers over dinner, and and Iliterally, after one hour with him, stand I up.
I said, I don't care what it takes.
I want this guy on our team, and I'm gonna godown on record and say he's my number one
favorite employee to talk to, to swap warstories with.
(09:57):
Dudley is you know, I think he came here askind of an operations trainer, someone that can
share his knowledge and experience with otherfolks across all of our operations.
But I can tell you he has been so much morethan that.
I don't even know if we've changed his titlesince then.
I don't I don't know exactly even what he doesday to day, but I know across the organization
(10:23):
I hear people talk all the time.
Like, man, when's Dudley come back?
And so I love him.
I love a guy that can take the ego and theexperience and the pride of operating
equipment, the pride of all the years ofexperience stacked up and set it aside to talk
to a 19 year old kid on how to properlyoperate, how to set up benches, how to maintain
(10:48):
a haul road so that your trucks, you know,aren't struggling.
Just little bitty details.
What to watch for in the face when material'sunstable.
You know, all the little things that I love tonerd out on.
It's hard to find guys that love those littledetails of an operation.
And and Dudley, I can just talk to him fortwenty minutes, and we go straight into the
(11:12):
tactical stuff.
So huge fan of Dudley.
That's not his that's not his real name, butI'm not gonna tell you his real name.
I know it, but I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep itas Dudley because I think Dudley slaps a lot
harder than your real name, Michael.
And then another shout out, because I could dothis all day.
(11:33):
Someday I need to go through our org chart andkind of explain our org chart to you guys.
But another big shout out who is someone thathad a big meeting last week for us.
He was in this meeting and after the meetinggot over, I had a phone call with someone else
that was in the meeting.
And they were like, look, that meeting couldnot have happened the way that it did without
(11:58):
Tyler Vincent there.
Tyler, huge shout out.
Tyler's director of safety, but again, so muchmore than that.
I don't believe in titles, really.
We've screwed titles up so much in the past.
I'm not a huge fan of, like, nailing down atitle and making someone stick within a title.
Tyler does so much more than safety for us.
But but Tyler, huge shout out to you.
(12:21):
I I think I sent him a message last week afterthe meeting.
You know, you got your praises sang because ofyour performance in that meeting.
So thank you, brother, for everything you do tomove us forward, and you've moved us forward
tremendously over the last couple years.
I think Tyler's been here almost two years now,maybe over two years.
So thank you for that.
(12:43):
Topic today.
Let me get to the topics.
I don't have a ton of time.
I'm actually hold on real quick.
Coffee break.
Man, I'm pinging today, not only because of theRFP in the inbox, but because I am drinking my
coffee out of the per diem podcast coffee mugwith a little bit of salt on the rim, like
(13:07):
Doctor.
Hobie suggests, and man, it slaps.
It slaps hard today.
This is some strong coffee and it's gonna getthe job done.
I don't have a ton of time today, so I'm gonnatry to make this one What are we?
Shoot, we're already twelve minutes in.
I'm gonna try to make this one quick.
I'm headed to the office.
I got a few things to get done, and then I'mplaying golf this afternoon, and I am hoping to
(13:32):
win myself a bottle.
I think I've told you guys in my golf group, wegot tired of playing for money because there's
nothing more boring than $20.30, $40.50 dollarsswapping hands every weekend.
And so we tried to make it a little morepersonal and a little more vicious, if you
(13:52):
will, vicious competition.
And so every week when we play golf, if thegroup that I play with, if we're together, we
haven't been together the last few weeks, butif we're together, we will play for a bottle.
A bottle of whiskey, a bottle of wine, a bottleof gin, whatever what you know, you get
(14:13):
surprised.
The winning team gets each of them get a bottlefrom the losing teams.
Gotta be a $50 or more expensive bottle of somesort of spirit or wine.
And so, you know, we'll get a bottle of tequilaor bourbon or whatever.
And so it's a fun little change because I mean,yeah, sure.
(14:37):
I can Venmo a guy $20 if I lose in golf, butit's a lot more humbling to hand because the
rule is if you lose a bottle, you have to handdeliver it the following week on the tee box or
at the golf course.
And so, for me, is, man, it's a humblingexperience to have to walk up to the tee box
(15:02):
and hand someone a nice bottle of tequila.
It's humbling.
I'd rather just Venmo you $40 in silence or $50in silence, we never talk about it.
But handing over a bottle of bourbon, handingover like a nice and again, it's $50.
It's not the end of the world.
(15:23):
But you can buy some nice tequila for $50.
You can buy some nice bourbon for $50.
I buy my Blanton's at Kroger for $55.
Don't ask me how I do it, but I do it.
I bought multiple bottles of Blantens for $55.
That's what it should cost.
It should not cost you a $150 to buy Blantens.
So anyway, that's what I'm doing today.
(15:44):
Pray for me as I go try to win golf and win abottle.
What else is happening?
I'm trying to get pulled over here real quickso that I can read from the per diem hotline
because I got a message that I wanna read andit's today's topic.
(16:05):
This guy did exactly what I suggested.
He sent me a message here a while back.
I obviously am behind on my messages and so Inever responded.
And so he did exactly what I asked and hepinged me this morning.
He bumped his message up to the top.
And so this is the one I'm gonna pick today asthe topic.
(16:26):
And for those of you guys that have not sent meanything on the per diem hotline, it's a safe
space.
It's a circle of trust.
I don't have to share our conversation.
If you just tell me, hey, look, don't sharethis, or hey, share this, but don't share my
(16:47):
name, I'm happy to do that.
I don't have to post your shirtless video ifyou don't want me to.
I don't have to share the juicy details of theproblem you're having in your life.
I got a ton of dudes that I've been messagingwith back and forth that are going through it,
going through their own version of Death Valleyor whatever, and I don't ever share it.
(17:10):
I keep it between me and them because that'swhat they've asked for.
So that's just a quick little plug to say ifyou want to get in contact with me, now don't
expect an answer immediately.
Sometimes it takes me a few days.
For a lot of you guys, I'm just, man, I ambehind and I haven't caught up with you at all.
(17:34):
So some of you guys I will.
But again, if I haven't responded back to yourmessage, ping me again.
Just send me another text and remind me.
One of my absolute red flags or toxic traits isat any given time, I have hundreds and hundreds
of unread text messages at any given time.
(17:58):
Like right now, I'm taking a picture because Imight use this as the background of the episode
art.
I have 706 unread text messages on my personalphone.
That's not the per diem hotline.
706 unread text messages on my personal phone.
I don't wear this as a badge of honor, by theway.
(18:18):
I have 26 voicemails.
And you know what's gonna happen to those 706unread text messages and 26 voicemails?
You know what's gonna happen?
Nothing's gonna happen.
I'll never listen to them.
I'll never open them.
I'll never read them.
(18:39):
So if you don't ping me again, chances areyou're gonna get pushed down the stack of crap
on my phone and I'll never get back to you.
So that's my toxic trait.
I'm just being transparent, being honest.
That's my toxic trait.
On my phone, this is actually something that Ido take a lot of pride in right here.
(19:01):
On my phone, I have 69,021 pictures and videosthat I've taken on my phone.
69,000.
And that's a low number compared to some mymom's got over 300,000 pictures and videos that
(19:21):
she's taken on her phone.
So I do wear that one as a badge of honor.
Hold on real quick.
Okay.
I'm back.
Sorry about that.
Here's today's message.
I'm not gonna read this guy's name.
He I can tell just by kind of the the tone.
This is probably a message that he doesn't wantout for everyone to know.
(19:44):
But he says, hey, Keaton.
Just wondering if you would consider doing apodcast episode on how to get along with
coworkers who act like they know everything andrefuse to change their way of doing something
because they think they're always right.
I work for my dad in a small business, and Ionly have one coworker other than my dad and my
coworker is way older than me.
(20:07):
Let me reread that.
I struggle sometimes reading, guys.
You know this.
I work for my dad in a small business, and Ionly have one coworker other than my dad.
And my coworker is way older than me, and Ifeel like I can't connect with him and that we
have a huge misunderstanding between eachother.
(20:27):
And because the way my coworker operates, I'munder constant pressure that I won't do
something right, and it's very wearing on mymind.
Work to me is an absolute misery because ofthis.
Man, I texted him back this morning and said,I'm recording one for you today, brother.
(20:49):
I I'll be honest.
I only see two paths here.
And I love I love when we can distill down hardmoments or hard decisions into red pill, blue
pill, or path a, path b, or ah, here's a forkin the road.
(21:11):
Which way am I going?
To me, this is one of those moments.
You have you have two paths.
You have two choices to make.
Two you could take the red pill or you couldtake the blue pill.
I don't think either one of them's easy.
I don't think either one of them, like, youknow, is gonna be fun, but the situation you're
(21:36):
currently in is not fun.
I had a very similar situation in my life.
You know, one of the reasons I and I andthere's a lot of reasons that stack up when I
really think back about it now.
But one of the reasons why I left my family'sbusiness was because there were people, just
quite frankly, that I couldn't see eye to eyewith, I couldn't work next to.
(22:02):
We had different personality types.
We had different ways of theories on how totreat people, on how to win customers.
Like we were just two totally different ends ofthe spectrum on how to go get things done.
And one of the ultimate decisions that I madewas like, look, I gotta move on.
(22:26):
I gotta take the red pill.
I gotta leave.
I gotta get out of this situation before itkills me.
And I don't mean physically kills me, I meanmentally kills me.
Where I sustain ultimate burnout and evenworse, my fear was I start to become more like
(22:48):
that person.
That was my fear.
There were so many good people in thatbusiness, and I love my uncle to death, and I
owe him so much.
Someday I'll tell him that.
He was a blast to be around.
He was, I believe still to this day, probablythe best salesperson, the best natural sales
(23:10):
guy I've ever worked with.
But unfortunately there are just people in anorganization, it's never fun.
There are people in an organization you justdon't see eye to eye with and you just don't
get along with and your personalities don'tmesh.
If you stay in those environments long enough,you start to become more like them.
You start to become cynical.
(23:32):
You start to become a know it all.
You start to have a knower's mindset instead ofa learner's mindset.
You start to become hard.
And like, oh, it's so I could do a wholeepisode just on this, but that's To me, that's
the red pill.
You pull the rip cord, you get out.
(23:53):
If your dad's not gonna get rid of this guy andhe believes there's value in this guy, and a
lot of a lot of people I've made this ownmistake too.
A lot of people overlook someone's faultsbecause they produce results for the company.
My guess is this guy's producing results foryour dad.
Because if he was just a jerk, if he was just aknow it all, if he was just someone that, you
(24:13):
know, his son couldn't work next to, he'd getrid of him.
But the reason he's not gotten rid of him iseither they're really good friends and he's
worried about the fallout of the relationship,or more likely, he's producing results for your
dad's business.
So your dad doesn't wanna get rid of it.
He's like, ah, we can deal with the, ah, Timmy,we can deal with the BS and the know it all and
(24:36):
the attitude cynicism.
We can deal with all that.
He produces results.
Path a, red pill, is the ejecto sedo.
It's the it's the button you push when yourtime with that company, with your dad, with
(24:58):
what you guys are doing.
You push the button because your time has cometo an end.
And you know that guy's not gonna leave, soyou're gonna leave.
It's a tough one.
It this is a tough I mean, the red pill is atough pill to swallow.
It was really tough for me.
I had thought about it for, I mean, shoot,years before I ever hit the eject button.
(25:23):
So it's tough.
It's a tough one.
It's a tough one to to swallow.
It's a tough one to move on, especially whenthere's family.
I mean, the hard part is if you weren't workingfor your dad and living through this situation,
you'd have probably already left.
That's the tough part.
But because it's family, you stay longer, yougrind yourself down further, You kill your
(25:47):
mentals because it's family.
I've lived through this.
You hope and pray it will get better.
You hope and pray that, oh, someday, thisperson's not gonna be there.
Well, who's gonna leave first?
You or the other guy that's a nightmare?
(26:08):
Who's gonna leave first?
So that's the red pill.
The red pill is get out, find greener pastures,tell your dad you love him, tell him you hope
he wins, tell him you hope he's successful, butyou can't live your life to the detriment of
(26:28):
your own mental state, to the detriment of yourown happiness.
I mean, you said in your text that you'remiserable.
You hate going to work.
I'm sure you deal with the Sunday scaries everySunday night about 05:00, 06:00.
That's no way to live.
If you're dealing with the Sunday scaries, thatis the problem in life you need to go chase
(26:48):
after and try to fix.
You shouldn't be dealing with the Sundayscaries.
You should be excited on Sunday night to gokill it on Monday morning in your job.
And so if you're working with people thatthat's just not the case, you might consider
the red pill.
Hit the eject button, go somewhere where you'reactually gonna enjoy the people you spend time
with, you're gonna actually enjoy the peopleyou work next to.
(27:12):
Know, ironically, we spend more time in lifewith our coworkers than we do our own family in
most cases, than we do with our own wife or ourown kids.
If you hate the people you're working with, ifyou can't stand them, if they're a know it all,
if they're just flat out annoying, get out.
(27:37):
Or there's an alternative.
Coffee break.
Hold on.
I know I leave you guys on cliffhangerssometimes.
None of this is you know, these aren't, like,major revelations.
This is stuff you already know.
I'm just reminding you of it.
You only have two options.
(27:58):
The alternative option, the alternative path,the blue pill, is the exact opposite end of the
spectrum.
The blue pill is where you gotta roll up yoursleeves.
You gotta get a little bit dirty.
The blue pill is where you have to control yourown mental state, your own mentality, your own
(28:21):
mindset, and you buckle in and you stay.
And you love them where they're at and youcommit to the journey, you commit to the path,
you commit to whatever life's trying to teachyou through this terrible experience with this
horrible coworker, and you soak it all in.
(28:44):
I have learned, and this is true, I said thishere a while back on LinkedIn, I got some
people that argued with me.
I have learned more in my life working withpeople like this, working with bad bosses than
I have, in a lot of cases, working for a goodboss.
I think you can learn more from this guy inthis terrible situation and this this tough
(29:08):
employee to deal with, tough coworker.
I think you can learn more from this experienceyou're living through than probably what you
can learn jumping ship and going to an easy jobwith an easy boss and easy coworkers.
I don't know about you guys, but I am so hardheaded, and I and I wear that kind of with a
(29:30):
badge of as a badge of honor.
I'm so hard headed.
I've never learned anything the easy way.
I've never once learned like a real life lessonor career lesson or, you know, like pivotal
moment in time when it was easy.
Never.
I can't think back to one time in my life whereI was like, man, there was a big lesson there.
(29:53):
I I actually got better as a person, better asa father, better as a husband, better as a
leader or a CEO.
Never one time got there in an easy moment.
Never.
My worst days, my biggest ball kickings, mymost frustrating conversations with coworkers
or employees, the conversations that I dreadgoing in the office to have, those were the
(30:20):
moments in my career that have really trulydefined who I am up to this point, and I'm
fully in tune with knowing.
I actually just texted a guy last night.
I'd love to read you the text.
It's a little personal, but one of our ownguys.
I basically just said, I'll paraphrase for you.
(30:43):
Hard times are what shapes us into the peoplewe're supposed to be.
I know it's not fun.
When you're going through a hard time at work,it's shaping you into being a better coworker,
a better employee, a better boss.
Dealing with this guy, guess what?
(31:04):
Dealing with this terrible coworker is gonnamake you a much better coworker long term.
Dealing with ego, dealing with a know it all isa huge tool you now get to wear in your tool
belt to say, Hey, I know how to manage egos.
I know how to manage know it alls.
(31:24):
I know how to manage old dudes that think theyknow everything that are actually fricking
clueless.
You know how valuable that tool is to have inyour tool belt?
I hired some guys a while back, it's beenseveral years ago now, one guy in particular
was the hardest person I've ever had to dealwith in my entire life.
(31:45):
Of all the thousands and thousands of peopleI've ever talked to, worked with, managed, this
was the hardest individual, and it was the mostchaotic two years of my life, x maybe the first
year of starting a business.
But the lessons I learned in that two yearsmanaging difficult people, working alongside
(32:10):
difficult people, know it alls, egos, pride,different cultures, like different fundamental
beliefs about business and people, I learnedmore in that two years than I've ever learned
in my entire life, maybe even all summed uptogether.
So you have a choice to make really.
It's pretty simple.
(32:32):
Do you want the easy path?
Do you want to look forward to your job onMonday?
Do you wanna go work somewhere that is fun andyou get to smile and laugh?
That's great.
I love it.
Actually, to be honest with you, at the stageof life I'm in, that's what I want.
I've lived through so much chaos.
Like I need a chapter where I enjoy the peopleI'm around, and I'm enjoying the heck out of
(32:53):
the chapter I'm in.
I'm enjoying the heck out of the people I'maround.
I don't have anybody around me right now that Ican't stand or wanna get out of my life.
Nobody.
I can't think of one person.
So I'm enjoying the chapter.
That's a fine path if you wanna pick that path.
But what you're giving up, just to be clear,when you take the red pill and say no to the
(33:16):
blue pill, what you're giving up are thelessons and the experience and the tools that
you can stick in your tool belt someday thatI've just fully believed the blue pill will
make you a more seasoned, a more experienced, amore legit person long term.
(33:39):
It's not fun.
It's not easy.
I don't think any leader ever got where theyare.
I don't think any successful person ever gotwhere they are by picking the easy path.
And a lot of them honestly were just too dumbto know they were picking the hard path.
I was too dumb to know every lesson I'velearned the hard way.
I was too dumb to know there was an easierpath.
(34:01):
So I just kinda by default picked the red or orpicked the blue pill, picked the hard path,
lived through some difficult situations.
But man, it's made me so much better.
So it's tough.
I mean, I know it's tough.
Not many people like to run towards hardlessons.
(34:22):
Not many people like to sign themselves up forthe Sunday scaries and hate their job on
Monday.
But man, there's a lot of value going throughthat for a chapter like now if you've been
through that chapter for years and you're justlike totally at the end of your rope, you've
learned all the lessons you can learn, you'vesqueezed every ounce of value out of this
(34:44):
chapter, then then fine.
Move on.
But my guess is if your dad has not gotten ridof this guy yet and and and maybe you've had
some conversations with your dad, maybe youhaven't, My guess is if he's not gotten rid of
this guy yet, and your dad's probably in tuneenough to know that you guys aren't on the same
page with this employee.
(35:07):
But if he's not gotten rid of him yet, is hegonna ever get rid of him?
I'm a I'm a flip the table real quick.
Is your dad trying to teach you a lesson byputting you next to this guy?
Is your dad trying to, like, get you thatexperience and those battle scars and the the
struggles that young dudes have to go through,I mean, I promise you right now, if I hadn't
(35:35):
lived through the first eight, nine, ten yearsof my family's business and the chaos and the
BS and the nepotism and the I mean, was lot ofgood times.
I'm painting it with a bad picture.
There's a lot of really good times.
But if I hadn't gone through those firstseveral chapters of my career that way, dude,
(35:55):
I'd be the biggest pushover soft, likefriendly, but soft lack of leadership, lack of
accountability person in the industry.
The only reason I'm able to sit here on apodcast and talk about these things and and
(36:16):
build the teams that we've built and thebusiness that we've built.
The only reason is because of the chaos that Iwent through, the hard times, the hard
conversations, the ball kickings of a familybusiness, taking it from nothing to something,
the fires that we fight every day.
The only reason I'm able to do any of this nowis because of all the crap we had to deal with
(36:39):
early.
And I'm still dealing with crap every day.
Ball kickings, Hard hard to deal with people orcustomers or whatever.
Vendors.
Running away from a challenge means you'rerunning away from a lesson that will make you
(37:00):
better.
I believe it.
Now I say all that, sometimes it makes sense torun away from the challenge.
Sometimes, especially depending on your mentalstate and how long you've battled it, sometimes
it just makes more sense to say, know what?
Wave the white flag.
(37:20):
I've bellied up to the buffet of ball kickingsenough over the last two years.
I need a break.
I'm gonna go take a few laps around the parkinglot before I belly back up to the buffet and
get another plate.
That's okay.
Sometimes that is just fine.
But, man, there is something to be said aboutliving through difficult times with difficult
(37:45):
people and learning the lessons.
And I would just ask your dad.
I would just say, hey, man.
Shoot me straight.
Be honest with me for a minute.
Are you trying to teach me a lesson, putting mewith this guy?
Is there like some hidden agenda here?
If so, cool.
No big deal.
I wanna be mature enough to understand that andmaybe I'll have a different perspective on
dealing with this guy.
(38:07):
But I would ask your dad, what you know, what'sman to man?
What do you see in this guy if he's such aterrible employee?
What do you see in this guy that I don't?
Why am I living through this frustration andhaving the Sunday scaries?
Help me understand it.
Because because there might be some wisdomthere that he, you know, isn't sharing with
(38:28):
you.
So, anyway, that's that's how I think about it.
I I gotta run.
I'm gonna go throw some darts at the green andmake some birdie putts.
I hope that was valuable to somebody.
I hope you guys, you know, hope somebody gotsomething because there's a lot of people that
are on Sunday night thinking about quittingtheir job on Monday morning.
(38:52):
And maybe you should.
Maybe you should.
But maybe it's just a mindset shift and youshould be looking forward to the lessons
learned, the difficult person, the terribleboss.
Like maybe you should smile through the painfor a little bit longer.
Get the full value out of the chapter you'reliving in, squeeze as much juice out of the
(39:15):
experience you're getting from a bad boss, andthen pivot to something different later.
Then pivot to the easier path, take a break fora while, go to the easier job with the easier
boss, with the friendly coworkers.
One of the things I wanna do with my 10 yearold, and he's only 10, so I need to give him a
(39:36):
couple years to really kinda come into his own.
I can't wait to stick him with a bad boss.
This is gonna sound crazy to a lot of people.
My wife hopes she doesn't hear this.
She's gonna listen.
I know she is.
I can't wait to stick him in a job that kickshis balls every day.
Coworkers that are just downright unruly,sinful.
(40:00):
Like, I can't wait.
When I was 17, I was I was literally doing jobswith guys that were drinking beer for lunch.
Like, I'm 17.
I'm like, woah.
Wait a second.
What's going on here?
You learn so much from the bad chapters.
You learn so much from the bad bosses, the badcoworkers.
(40:21):
Now, hopefully, you don't pick up too many oftheir own traits, their qualities, bad habits,
their sinful nature, whatever.
But man, living a chapter, you can't live yourwhole career, but living a chapter with a
really bad boss makes you so much more valuablewhen you actually get a good boss.
(40:41):
I believe it.
I've lived through it.
So that's the experience I've got.
That's what I'm dropping today.
Thank you for the message.
You know who you are.
Thank you for the message on the Purdue andHotline.
Hope the rest of you guys got a little bit ofsomething out of that.
We're gonna do it again tomorrow.
I hope you're getting your Purduem today.
Hope you're earning it.
Hope you're killing it.
(41:02):
And if you have a few minutes two things I'dlike to ask.
Well, I'm gonna throw a third in there.
If you have a few minutes free today, it's aweekend, you're listening to this on a Saturday
morning.
If you haven't left me a review on the podcastapp, I am kindly requesting you do that.
If you haven't left me a review or a littlesnippet of what you have recently gotten out of
(41:28):
some of these episodes, if you haven't donethat on LinkedIn, I'd love for you to do that
for me.
Hey, I listened to this episode.
This is what I got out of it.
Or, hey, I listened to this episode.
Keaton Turner's at Delbert.
He has no clue what he's talking about.
I would welcome those messages too.
I'd love to go keyboard battle with you onLinkedIn.
I always enjoy that.
(41:49):
And third, if you haven't sent me anything everone time on the per diem hotline, do that.
Take a few minutes, 980 diem on your dial pad,(980) 737-3436.
Send me a message.
I would welcome some shirtless videos.
(42:09):
Those have kind of come to a screeching haltlately, so I need a few more of those.
And then lastly, I'm gonna add a fourth thingin.
Pray for me.
Pray I go make a few birdies a day and win abottle.
And and if I do, I'll send you guys a pictureof it.
Peace.
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