August 11, 2025 • 33 mins
Keaton Turner opens up about the struggle with daily recordings and the commitment to consistency. He shares reflections from a dinner with Michael Botts and Daniel Kelly, touching on the camaraderie and future of their industry. Overcoming the "Sunday scaries" with advice from Shelby, he values sharing both good and bad days with listeners. Keaton includes feedback and prayers for Tyler, emphasizing the importance of community support. He delves into professional challenges and the industry's grind, stressing the need for taking responsibility for change. The episode highlights team contributions, mindset balance, and concludes with motivational thoughts.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Man, guys.
Man.
These, I feel like, should get easier.
These episodes should get easier.
Record click and record every day.
My goodness.
Two homo approaching episodes.
They should get easier to do this.
I do not wanna do this one today, but I am I'mrunning out of backup episodes to drop.
(00:25):
I pulled one out of the vault yesterday, And,my mindset is not right to do one today, but
we're gonna do one anyway.
We're gonna do one.
Here we go.
(01:10):
Welcome back to the Purdue Podcast.
I'm Keaton Turner.
I as the audio intro audio said, I don't Idon't always love click and record and and
doing these things.
And a lot of people are like, well, why whydoes he do it then?
Why are you doing it?
If you don't wanna do it, why are you doing it?
Well, it's a great question.
(01:33):
I want to stay committed to the things I saidI'm going to do.
And I, you know, said I was going do thispodcast on good days, bad days, ugly days, big
wins, big losses.
And so, you know, I try to stay committed andconsistent.
And and I feel like I'd be letting a lot ofpeople down to just not record an episode
(01:59):
without warning or without notice.
As as funny as that sounds, I feel like thereare people that are, you know, counting on me.
I am I'm currently heading to dinner with acouple of those dudes.
Mister Michael Botts and mister Daniel Kellyhave come into town to visit to to just catch
(02:23):
up.
It's Sunday night, by the way.
These dudes are taking time out of their ownlife, their families, their businesses to come
into town to hang out.
And so I'm gonna join them and Thomas Hahn.
Thomas is keeping them cozy while I'm runninglate to dinner as usual.
I I've been over at my mom's.
(02:45):
And, today, you know, you guys know this aboutme now.
If you've listened enough of these episodes,man, I just have days.
I just have days where it's it's not there.
I it's not, for whatever reason, a deadcylinder, a couple dead cylinders, I don't
know, bad spark plug.
I I was just not there today.
(03:07):
You know, even sitting through church thismorning, usually church kind of, you know, if I
start my day not great, church will, you know,help the gospel and and singing and praise and
worship and all that.
It usually helps seeing friends.
Just not not my day.
Not a great mindset day.
No real reason.
Can't really put my finger on it.
(03:29):
Shelby asked me earlier.
She's like, what?
You know, just put your finger on what it is.
I'm like, I I just I don't know.
I don't know.
I wish I could.
You know?
And and usually, like, days like today, it'sit's it's kinda one little thing after another
that stack up that normally on a normal daywhen my mindset's right, normally, it wouldn't
(03:54):
matter.
You know, when bad things happen orinconvenient things happen or frustrating
things happen, I just let them go.
It's like, ah, it's no big deal.
It's part of life.
But when I have these bad mindset days or oror, you know, days where I'm kinda stuck in a
rut, the little things, the little annoyingthings stack up, and, you know, I get to the
(04:16):
end of the day, and I'm just I'm just flat outover it.
And that's kinda where I'm at.
I was standing in the kitchen talking to mymom, just her and I.
She's man, she's starting her fifth week ofchemo and radiation up at Northwestern, and she
would just stand in the kitchen.
My my wife made her, some mashed potatoesbecause my mom basically can't eat anything,
(04:43):
without getting nauseous.
And so she's sitting there eating some mashedpotatoes and, you know, dreading dreading
dreading dreading packing herself back up tomake the trip back up to Chicago early tomorrow
morning.
My dad's outside.
I think he's mowed the yard probably seventimes this weekend just to get out of the house
(05:05):
and get some freedom.
He bush hogged all day yesterday.
We went fishing, but he's bush hogging.
I think he's just out burning gas.
And it's just kind of, don't know.
It takes the wind out of your sails.
Mean, if you guys have ever had the Sundayscaries where you hate your job or you hate
your boss or you hate your coworkers or maybeyou just hate your life and you've you know,
(05:28):
you come to a weekend.
You look forward to the weekend.
When the weekend's over, that feeling you geton a Sunday evening, it's the worst.
I've been there.
And and I can only imagine multiplying that byabout a thousand, and that's probably what my
mom feels.
And so I don't know.
(05:49):
I don't know if some of my mindset's that, justin the back of my mind.
You know?
I don't don't have a great answer.
But as I was as I was with my, you know, as Iwas with my wife and my kids, we were eating
dinner, and and I knew, Bots and, DK and Thomaswere were, you know, gonna be waiting on me.
(06:16):
I knew I was gonna be running a little bitlate.
I looked over at Shelby, and I was like, I'mjust not in the right I'm not in the right
headspace to go do that.
I'm not gonna go sit down and have a beer withthese guys and and bring the mood down.
And she's like, no.
You know what?
You're gonna go because it probably will fillyour cup up.
(06:36):
Forget whatever it does to them.
Maybe you bring their mood down, maybe not.
She's like, those guys will probably fill yourcup up.
And I was like, what are you talking about?
Fill my cup up.
I'm the guy that fills other people's cups up.
It's kinda that's kinda my shtick.
And she's like, no.
You need to go.
They're here.
(06:57):
They're in town.
They're positive.
They are good dudes from what from what shesees on Instagram anyway.
She's like, you need to go.
It's probably exactly what you need.
I'm like, alright.
Well, we'll we'll try.
So here I go.
I am I'm gonna go sit down with these guys.
And, I mean, who knows?
(07:21):
Who knows what'll happen?
They'll never be honest with me and and telleveryone if I brought their mood down or or
not.
Thomas I can't bring Thomas' mood down.
I've already tried that over the years.
It's hard to do that.
I failed in every way possible.
So I know I won't bring his mood down, but but,yeah, I don't know.
(07:41):
I I pushed record with no topic in mind, no noreal direction on this one.
It's kind of a seems like a little bit of ahollow, empty Sunday night, and and this is
just kind of this is just kinda how it goes.
I let me let me open up the per diem hotlinehere because there are oh, wait a second.
(08:09):
I've got a I've got a text message here, andthis might be relevant.
It was from a few days ago when I dropped oneof my other oh, no.
It's from yesterday.
It says, good morning, sir.
Just finished up with the podcast today.
Excellent topic, and I'm not sure why you heldout on that one for so long.
We need more upper level management and leadersto see things this way.
(08:32):
I know I don't own a business, but I see thesame struggles where leaders are not being
patient enough.
So thank you, sir, for another great topic.
I look forward to the next one.
Let me know if you need anything.
That was mister Wade Gaines.
Appreciate that, Wade.
Getting messages like that, man, that's thatthat little bit of wind in my sails helps.
(08:55):
We all need a little bit of wind in the sailsevery once in a while.
I also got a message from mister Mike Pelone,Let the chips rain 18 I think it's let the
chips rain 18 on Instagram.
Mike and I have swapped messages for years.
It seems like I love following Mike's stuff.
MJ Cutting, and he he fills timber for aliving.
(09:18):
He runs a saw for a living.
And and so I've always loved watching hisstuff, him and him and Carissa.
It's it's been awesome to watch them.
But they had a friend involved in an accident,a cutting accident, and so huge prayers up for
Tyler and his family.
(09:39):
I hope, you know, it I told Mike.
Mike texted me, and I and I texted him back.
I'm like, man, he's definitely on my prayerlist, but it's just crazy how quickly life can
change in the blink of an eye.
So huge prayers up for Tyler and the familyand, you know, all the people involved or
(10:03):
around that young guy.
It's stuff like that's tough.
Stuff like that's tough to it's tough to hearabout.
It's tough to, you know, it's tough to messageback and forth with people that are going
through stuff like that.
It's just it's it's just a real bummer.
But hopefully, he makes a full recovery and,you know, gets back to doing what he loves.
(10:29):
Let's see.
What else?
I don't really have anything else.
I think what's gonna happen my hope is whathappens is I pull in to the office.
It's Sunday night, 07:45PM on a Sunday night.
I pull into the office, park my truck, and getout.
I walk into the restaurant.
(10:50):
I sit down with bots, with DK Pond Builder,with Tommy Guns.
Thomas Hahn on the golf course is called TommyGuns.
And my hope is I walk in, I sit down with them,and I have a blast.
And we we swap war stories.
(11:11):
We talk about our ball kickings.
We talk about our bad hopefully, all three ofthem are having a bad day.
You know what?
That would really make this better for me ifsomebody else is having a bad day.
I think us dudes don't do that enough.
We don't tell each other about our bad days.
Bad mental day, bad business day, bad marriageday.
(11:33):
We don't talk about our bad days.
And I'm guilty as charged until really, untilthis podcast where I started doing this crazy
thing and pushing record every day, I neverreally talked that much about my bad days, even
to Shelby, ironically.
So maybe we maybe I sit down with those threeguys and we talk about our bad days.
(11:58):
That would make maybe mine sting a little less.
But for those of you guys that are followingalong my journey, following along with my
family's journey, I I really appreciate all themessages.
I appreciate the prayers for my mom.
I appreciate, you know, all the all the kindwords that you send.
(12:18):
Take two minutes out of your day and send me atext message, whatever.
I really do appreciate it.
Even if I haven't responded, I see them all.
I do.
I promise I see them all.
So so thank you for that.
And and I'm gonna here's what I'm gonna dobecause because we're only, like, twelve
minutes in.
I'm gonna push pause.
(12:39):
I'm gonna go in here and sit down with theseguys, and I'll resume the second half of the
episode after they fill my cup up.
That's what I'm gonna do.
So give me a few minutes.
Let me go have some fun.
Let me go swap some more stories, some battlescars with some with some dudes, and and I'll
be right back.
(13:02):
Well, I'm back.
And, man, does God have a funny way of working?
I was right.
Of course, you guys know that.
I'm right.
(13:24):
That was a fun dinner.
Bots and Daniel Kelly have got some storiesthat make me feel like maybe my days aren't
that bad.
Man, I I wish you guys could have been a fly onthe wall of that dinner.
Almost three hours later, here we are.
(13:47):
It's it's late.
And we we we had a great time.
Cannot tell you how wild it is that thispodcast makes things like that possible where
one normal dude from Shelby, North Carolinacomes all the way to Indiana.
(14:14):
Another dude, Daniel Kelly.
This is his second trip, by the way.
Shout out at d k the pond builder.
They come down to just talk shop and eat dinnerand talk about problems and how we solve them
(14:34):
and where we're going in life.
And, man, my wife, I think, is still undefeatedand was absolutely right.
That filled my cup up.
It absolutely filled my cup up.
Talking to those guys I mean, first of all,Daniel Kelly's storytelling ability is probably
(14:59):
second to none.
Well, may maybe second to one, my own.
But other than me, I think Daniel Kelly mighthave some of the best storytelling ability
because he turned a two minute story about aflooded excavator into a twenty five minute
saga that had me, Bots, and Tommy Han on theedge of our seats.
(15:24):
And then he showed us pictures, and it was justit was it was it was unbelievable.
Great story.
And then we dive into bots and and all thethings that he's going through and winning work
and chasing work and talking about people.
At one point, I looked over to him.
I said, dude, we wouldn't have any problems ifit weren't for people problems.
Right?
(15:44):
So it was a it was a blast.
Shout out Malibu Grill.
Of course, Malibu Grill never misses,especially now that JB is back in town running
the place.
But, man, a lot of fun.
A lot of fun.
I I never expected this part of the effect.
(16:05):
I never expected this part of the podcast to besomething where it actually came it actually,
you know, came into reality where there'speople sitting across from me that that listen.
I I mean, bots even at one point had his son onFaceTime at, like, 09:30 at night.
And I was like, dude, get him in bed.
(16:26):
He's five years old.
I don't know how old he is.
I think he's five or six years old.
I was like, he's gotta be in bed 09:30.
My kids have been asleep for an hour now.
So that was fun.
Just enjoyed the heck out of it.
Thomas Hahn, as always, had the drinks on thetable and had several appetizers sitting there
(16:47):
ready waiting for us.
It was a great time.
So so thank you.
Thank you, DK, and thank you, boss, for makingthe trip.
We're gonna do breakfast in the morning atUptown.
Again, if you're if you're in and aroundBloomington or if you know Bloomington, it
doesn't get more staple than drinks at Malibuand then breakfast at Uptown, Uptown Cafe.
(17:12):
So we're gonna do breakfast at Uptown in themorning.
But, man, those guys gotta stick together inthis industry.
I I asked the question at one point.
I said, man, are you guys are you guys, like,advocating for your kids to enter into the
industry and, like, take over your businesses?
(17:33):
Because DK was talking about his kids, youknow, I think his 15 year old's starting to
work for him now in his business.
And, of course, bots has got kids.
And I'm like, are you guys thinking they'regonna, like, jump into the industry?
Because to be honest with you and and I'm notproud of this statement, by the way, that I'm
(17:54):
about to say, but I don't really know if I wantmy kids jumping into this industry.
And I'm saying this industry, mining,construction, you know, the heavy civil dirt
moving industry.
I don't know that I want my kids in theindustry.
(18:17):
It is an absolute I mean, just listening tobots tell stories, listening to DK tell stories
about, you know, where he comes from and andhow he was brought into the business, and then
and then and then, obviously, Michael, how he'sgrown into the business and the people
problems.
And and it it brings me immediately back to theearly days of Turner Mining Group and even even
(18:38):
prior to that when I was with my family.
My family's business, I don't think the ballkickings ever end.
Like, don't I don't I don't know that there'sever any, like, peaceful, just even keel normal
days.
You know, a lot of businesses was talking aboutmy brother.
(19:00):
Shout out Spencer Turner.
He was just on the Forbes list.
He's my little brother, by the way.
He is the younger, less good looking, lesstalented, less naturally gifted of the two
Turner boys, but he's not bad.
(19:24):
He made the Forbes list.
I was in Forbes years ago, Spencer, but that'sokay.
He made the Forbes list for one of the top, Idon't know, top 10, top 20, top 30 young, new
financial advisers.
I think his team's got $3,000,000,000 underassets, something like that.
(19:47):
But I was kinda comparing my situationprofession to his, and I'm like, man, I know we
all have problems.
I'm sure he's got problems every day.
When the market's up, things are great.
When the market's down, you know, things aren'tso great.
But it's almost it's almost like in ourbusiness, and some of you guys will relate to
(20:08):
this.
If you're in construction, if you're in mining,if you're in heavy civil, is there ever a day
where there's not a massive ball kicking, amassive problem, a massive employee issue, a
customer issue, an injury, a safety incident, alate payment, whether you're getting paid late
(20:31):
or you're paying someone late.
At one point, DK was like, man, I I you know,I'm not gonna say all of his details, but he he
made the comment.
He's like, dude, I'm I sleep peacefully atnight.
And he went on to say all the reasons why hesleeps peacefully at night.
No debt.
Pays cash.
He's got it, you know, he's got his he's gothis thing figured out.
(20:54):
He's got his craft figured out.
And I'm like, man, I don't know.
And I told him this.
This was a true statement.
I looked over at Bots, who was sitting to myleft, and I said, I don't know if we've ever
paid a vendor on time.
I'm I'm being dead serious.
(21:15):
Daniel Kelly was like, I've never paid someonelate.
I don't pay anyone late.
I pay them early.
I'm like, man, I don't know if we've ever paidsomeone on time.
And I say that because I don't know if we'veever been paid on time.
I know, obviously, we have customers that payon time, and I'm taking a shot at customers
right now.
But in our industry, especially when you reachscale, it's a game of it's a game of cash flow.
(21:41):
It's a game of margin, and everyone is tryingto hold their cash.
We get paid slow.
We have to pay others slow.
We get short squeezed all the time in so manydifferent ways.
Like, there is a problem everywhere you turn.
(22:02):
Everywhere you turn.
Everyone's trying to shift risk.
Yeah.
I I mean, literally, the customers try to pushrisk downhill.
So what do we do?
Well, we take the risk, and we try to shove itdownhill.
It's a never ending game where incentives arerarely aligned.
It rarely feels like a win win.
(22:22):
I know I'm sounding cynical.
I know I'm sounding like I did not rebound frommy mood earlier, But, man, I don't I just I
don't know.
I don't know if I can recommend my kids jumpinginto this industry where it's a battle every
single day.
You you you walk home.
(22:42):
You get to the end of your day.
You sit on the couch.
And like, man, that was that was brutal.
And and I've asked myself multiple times, whendo we get to the stage where we can kind of
like I hate to use the word coast, but we cankinda like click the button that says cruise
(23:05):
control.
When do we get to that stage?
We're definitely not there now, and we're, youknow, we're not a small business.
Maybe you never get to that stage.
Maybe maybe, you know, companies in ourindustry never get to click cruise control.
They never get to click, you know, the buttonthat says, I'm just gonna kinda run this same
(23:27):
speed, this same size for a long period oftime.
I'm gonna make this margin every year, yearover year.
Maybe every single day, every single year isjust a meat grinder, and and you have to grind
others harder than you're getting ground downor you're falling further behind?
I don't know.
(23:47):
These are questions I don't have answers to.
But the longer I do this business and again,this is I mean, I've been telling people this,
young guys, I've been telling guys this foryears.
Do not start a business.
Do not start a heavy civil, a construction, ora mining business.
(24:10):
Don't start it.
Don't do it.
Don't do it.
It might sound fun.
It might look cool on Instagram.
Don't do it.
Because you're gonna ask yourselves these samequestions.
When does the grind end?
When does the suck end?
How in the world can a good dad recommend tohis kids to jump into this industry?
(24:34):
I don't know.
I don't know if he can.
And maybe that's why we have such a laborproblem or a talent gap or whatever these
headlines wanna read.
I I tend to think we don't have, you know, atalent shortage, but there are a lot fewer
people.
I think someone just told me recently on the onthe the All In podcast, someone just said that
(24:58):
there's like, we're graduating 200 kids a yearwith mining degrees?
What's that about?
You know?
So it's hard to say that we should, you know,recommend kids to mining.
It's hard to say that we should recommend kidsto this industry when we have some of the worst
(25:27):
practices in the industry.
I mean, pay terms are bad.
Work hours are bad.
Upward mobility is bad.
On the job training typically is done bysomeone named Delbert or Colbert who smokes
three packs a day, who, you know, is jaded ascan be maybe a soft alcohol, you know,
(25:54):
alcoholism.
Like, we wonder why we're dealing with all ofthe stuff that we're dealing with.
Well, I mean, have we looked at what we've gotto work with?
So I know this sounds cynical.
I I hate to be that way.
I my cup was filled up.
It was fun swapping war stories.
(26:15):
It was fun talking to guys that are also inbattle every single day fighting to build the
thing they wanna build.
This is the beautiful part of being in America.
We get the choice.
We get the choice to do what we wanna do.
We get the choice to build the company we wannabuild.
(26:39):
But, man, some of us made a choice to jump intothis industry.
And and, you know, the Keaton Turner that's ina good mood would say, woah.
It's our duty and obligation.
Well well, it's our duty and obligation to,like, make life better for the industry.
(27:00):
I have said this.
Okay?
I'm making fun of myself right now.
The Keaton Turner that's in a good mood wouldsay, yeah.
But we should run we should run head firsttowards these challenges that the industry is
presenting.
We should get young people excited.
We should.
We should.
We should.
We should do all these things.
But my goodness, does it get tiresome.
(27:23):
I'm just this is just me being transparent.
It gets old.
It every once in while, the cross gets heavywhen when you talk about the same problems, the
same employers, the same customer fights, thesame payment terms, the same capital
(27:45):
investment, the same cash flows.
Like, every once in while, you do get tired.
So it begs the question, I'm gonna wrap allthis up and tie a bow on it.
I'm almost home.
If we don't do it, who else is gonna do it?
(28:09):
This is what I think about.
This is the stuff that when I have my bad days,when I think about thrown in the towel, when I
think about all the people in the industry andshould I recommend it to my kids and, you know,
there yeah.
There are good people out there like bots andDK, and there's countless others.
(28:30):
All you guys that listen to this, if we don'tdo it, if we don't embrace the grind and live
through the suck and change the narrative andbe good people, be good humans, be good
employers, build the dreams.
(28:54):
Like, if we don't change the industry to besomething that we would recommend to our kids,
who's gonna do it?
I mean, yeah, Keaton Turner can have a bad day.
I can be down.
You know, I can tell my kids, ah, you don'tever wanna be in mining.
It sucks.
It's tough.
It'll bust your balls every day for a lifetime,and you'll wake up someday when you're 80
(29:18):
wondering what in the world did you just investyour life towards.
But if I don't do my part to change thatnarrative, is it ever gonna change?
I know this sounds kind of wild.
Maybe it's just my bad day talking or my badmindset talking.
(29:39):
I hope I bounce back tomorrow again.
But we're due for some change.
Like, our industries are due for an overhaul.
We need young, legit, awesome dudes runningcompanies.
We need people that are forward thinking thatwill embrace the ball kickings, that do ask for
(30:02):
second, third, fourth plates when they bellyback up to the bar of ball kickings.
We need those people.
If we don't do it, who's doing it?
The dudes with the greased up hair runningprivate equity firms?
You want them to change it?
I think it's up to us.
(30:24):
I think we're the ones that were called intothis industry, into these businesses, into
these roles, the project managers, theoperators, the technicians, the truck drivers.
We're called to do this not not just because wedon't have any other options.
(30:45):
I think we're called to do this because if wedon't do it, are there any other options?
Who else do they call to do it?
How much worse does the industry get if we haveto pick the bottom feeders up?
I mean, when you compare us to third worldcountries, you look at the people that are
running those companies and those operators andthose truck drivers, they're they're operating
(31:09):
in sandals, flip flops, cut off t shirts.
I think it's up to us to change the narrative.
I think it's up to us to build the thing thatwe're proud to someday tell our kids, hey.
You should join this industry.
(31:29):
We've changed it.
It's better.
There's opportunity.
There's money, or there's synergies withcustomers.
There's cash flow.
It's up to us.
So that's what I got.
I hope you I hope you guys got some value outof this.
I am I mean, it was it was too fun.
(31:52):
I I appreciate the heck out of mister MichaelBotts and mister Daniel Kelly.
Of course, always mister Thomas Hahn, TommyGuns.
What a Sunday night, and and I appreciate youguys for tuning in to listen to my soft rant to
(32:13):
my bad mood, my bad mindset.
But here's the thing.
Can you really listen to a guy?
And I'm I'm I'm I'm honestly, this is this iskinda wild.
Can you actually take advice from someone ortake the perspective of someone who only talks
about the positive mindsets when they neveractually reflect on their days with negative
(32:36):
mindset?
Isn't that kind of a weird catch 22?
How are you gonna how you gonna listen tosomeone talk about how to be positive and the
positive mindsets if they're not actuallytalking about the days when they have a
negative mindset.
I don't know.
Something to think about.
Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
(32:56):
Pray you're killing it.
Pray you're getting your per diem.
We got a new week ahead of us.
Let's kill it together.
Let's do our part to change the industry,change the company, change the coworkers, the
people right next to us.
That's I think that's our duty and obligation.
So thanks for tuning in.
We're gonna do it one more day.
Man, guys.
Man.
These, I feel like, should get easier.
These episodes should get easier.
Record click and record every day.
My goodness.
Two homo approaching episodes.
They should get easier to do this.
I do not wanna do this one today, but I am I'mrunning out of backup episodes to drop.
(00:25):
I pulled one out of the vault yesterday, And,my mindset is not right to do one today, but
we're gonna do one anyway.
We're gonna do one.
Here we go.
(01:10):
Welcome back to the Purdue Podcast.
I'm Keaton Turner.
I as the audio intro audio said, I don't Idon't always love click and record and and
doing these things.
And a lot of people are like, well, why whydoes he do it then?
Why are you doing it?
If you don't wanna do it, why are you doing it?
Well, it's a great question.
(01:33):
I want to stay committed to the things I saidI'm going to do.
And I, you know, said I was going do thispodcast on good days, bad days, ugly days, big
wins, big losses.
And so, you know, I try to stay committed andconsistent.
And and I feel like I'd be letting a lot ofpeople down to just not record an episode
(01:59):
without warning or without notice.
As as funny as that sounds, I feel like thereare people that are, you know, counting on me.
I am I'm currently heading to dinner with acouple of those dudes.
Mister Michael Botts and mister Daniel Kellyhave come into town to visit to to just catch
(02:23):
up.
It's Sunday night, by the way.
These dudes are taking time out of their ownlife, their families, their businesses to come
into town to hang out.
And so I'm gonna join them and Thomas Hahn.
Thomas is keeping them cozy while I'm runninglate to dinner as usual.
I I've been over at my mom's.
(02:45):
And, today, you know, you guys know this aboutme now.
If you've listened enough of these episodes,man, I just have days.
I just have days where it's it's not there.
I it's not, for whatever reason, a deadcylinder, a couple dead cylinders, I don't
know, bad spark plug.
I I was just not there today.
(03:07):
You know, even sitting through church thismorning, usually church kind of, you know, if I
start my day not great, church will, you know,help the gospel and and singing and praise and
worship and all that.
It usually helps seeing friends.
Just not not my day.
Not a great mindset day.
No real reason.
Can't really put my finger on it.
(03:29):
Shelby asked me earlier.
She's like, what?
You know, just put your finger on what it is.
I'm like, I I just I don't know.
I don't know.
I wish I could.
You know?
And and usually, like, days like today, it'sit's it's kinda one little thing after another
that stack up that normally on a normal daywhen my mindset's right, normally, it wouldn't
(03:54):
matter.
You know, when bad things happen orinconvenient things happen or frustrating
things happen, I just let them go.
It's like, ah, it's no big deal.
It's part of life.
But when I have these bad mindset days or oror, you know, days where I'm kinda stuck in a
rut, the little things, the little annoyingthings stack up, and, you know, I get to the
(04:16):
end of the day, and I'm just I'm just flat outover it.
And that's kinda where I'm at.
I was standing in the kitchen talking to mymom, just her and I.
She's man, she's starting her fifth week ofchemo and radiation up at Northwestern, and she
would just stand in the kitchen.
My my wife made her, some mashed potatoesbecause my mom basically can't eat anything,
(04:43):
without getting nauseous.
And so she's sitting there eating some mashedpotatoes and, you know, dreading dreading
dreading dreading packing herself back up tomake the trip back up to Chicago early tomorrow
morning.
My dad's outside.
I think he's mowed the yard probably seventimes this weekend just to get out of the house
(05:05):
and get some freedom.
He bush hogged all day yesterday.
We went fishing, but he's bush hogging.
I think he's just out burning gas.
And it's just kind of, don't know.
It takes the wind out of your sails.
Mean, if you guys have ever had the Sundayscaries where you hate your job or you hate
your boss or you hate your coworkers or maybeyou just hate your life and you've you know,
(05:28):
you come to a weekend.
You look forward to the weekend.
When the weekend's over, that feeling you geton a Sunday evening, it's the worst.
I've been there.
And and I can only imagine multiplying that byabout a thousand, and that's probably what my
mom feels.
And so I don't know.
(05:49):
I don't know if some of my mindset's that, justin the back of my mind.
You know?
I don't don't have a great answer.
But as I was as I was with my, you know, as Iwas with my wife and my kids, we were eating
dinner, and and I knew, Bots and, DK and Thomaswere were, you know, gonna be waiting on me.
(06:16):
I knew I was gonna be running a little bitlate.
I looked over at Shelby, and I was like, I'mjust not in the right I'm not in the right
headspace to go do that.
I'm not gonna go sit down and have a beer withthese guys and and bring the mood down.
And she's like, no.
You know what?
You're gonna go because it probably will fillyour cup up.
(06:36):
Forget whatever it does to them.
Maybe you bring their mood down, maybe not.
She's like, those guys will probably fill yourcup up.
And I was like, what are you talking about?
Fill my cup up.
I'm the guy that fills other people's cups up.
It's kinda that's kinda my shtick.
And she's like, no.
You need to go.
They're here.
(06:57):
They're in town.
They're positive.
They are good dudes from what from what shesees on Instagram anyway.
She's like, you need to go.
It's probably exactly what you need.
I'm like, alright.
Well, we'll we'll try.
So here I go.
I am I'm gonna go sit down with these guys.
And, I mean, who knows?
(07:21):
Who knows what'll happen?
They'll never be honest with me and and telleveryone if I brought their mood down or or
not.
Thomas I can't bring Thomas' mood down.
I've already tried that over the years.
It's hard to do that.
I failed in every way possible.
So I know I won't bring his mood down, but but,yeah, I don't know.
(07:41):
I I pushed record with no topic in mind, no noreal direction on this one.
It's kind of a seems like a little bit of ahollow, empty Sunday night, and and this is
just kind of this is just kinda how it goes.
I let me let me open up the per diem hotlinehere because there are oh, wait a second.
(08:09):
I've got a I've got a text message here, andthis might be relevant.
It was from a few days ago when I dropped oneof my other oh, no.
It's from yesterday.
It says, good morning, sir.
Just finished up with the podcast today.
Excellent topic, and I'm not sure why you heldout on that one for so long.
We need more upper level management and leadersto see things this way.
(08:32):
I know I don't own a business, but I see thesame struggles where leaders are not being
patient enough.
So thank you, sir, for another great topic.
I look forward to the next one.
Let me know if you need anything.
That was mister Wade Gaines.
Appreciate that, Wade.
Getting messages like that, man, that's thatthat little bit of wind in my sails helps.
(08:55):
We all need a little bit of wind in the sailsevery once in a while.
I also got a message from mister Mike Pelone,Let the chips rain 18 I think it's let the
chips rain 18 on Instagram.
Mike and I have swapped messages for years.
It seems like I love following Mike's stuff.
MJ Cutting, and he he fills timber for aliving.
(09:18):
He runs a saw for a living.
And and so I've always loved watching hisstuff, him and him and Carissa.
It's it's been awesome to watch them.
But they had a friend involved in an accident,a cutting accident, and so huge prayers up for
Tyler and his family.
(09:39):
I hope, you know, it I told Mike.
Mike texted me, and I and I texted him back.
I'm like, man, he's definitely on my prayerlist, but it's just crazy how quickly life can
change in the blink of an eye.
So huge prayers up for Tyler and the familyand, you know, all the people involved or
(10:03):
around that young guy.
It's stuff like that's tough.
Stuff like that's tough to it's tough to hearabout.
It's tough to, you know, it's tough to messageback and forth with people that are going
through stuff like that.
It's just it's it's just a real bummer.
But hopefully, he makes a full recovery and,you know, gets back to doing what he loves.
(10:29):
Let's see.
What else?
I don't really have anything else.
I think what's gonna happen my hope is whathappens is I pull in to the office.
It's Sunday night, 07:45PM on a Sunday night.
I pull into the office, park my truck, and getout.
I walk into the restaurant.
(10:50):
I sit down with bots, with DK Pond Builder,with Tommy Guns.
Thomas Hahn on the golf course is called TommyGuns.
And my hope is I walk in, I sit down with them,and I have a blast.
And we we swap war stories.
(11:11):
We talk about our ball kickings.
We talk about our bad hopefully, all three ofthem are having a bad day.
You know what?
That would really make this better for me ifsomebody else is having a bad day.
I think us dudes don't do that enough.
We don't tell each other about our bad days.
Bad mental day, bad business day, bad marriageday.
(11:33):
We don't talk about our bad days.
And I'm guilty as charged until really, untilthis podcast where I started doing this crazy
thing and pushing record every day, I neverreally talked that much about my bad days, even
to Shelby, ironically.
So maybe we maybe I sit down with those threeguys and we talk about our bad days.
(11:58):
That would make maybe mine sting a little less.
But for those of you guys that are followingalong my journey, following along with my
family's journey, I I really appreciate all themessages.
I appreciate the prayers for my mom.
I appreciate, you know, all the all the kindwords that you send.
(12:18):
Take two minutes out of your day and send me atext message, whatever.
I really do appreciate it.
Even if I haven't responded, I see them all.
I do.
I promise I see them all.
So so thank you for that.
And and I'm gonna here's what I'm gonna dobecause because we're only, like, twelve
minutes in.
I'm gonna push pause.
(12:39):
I'm gonna go in here and sit down with theseguys, and I'll resume the second half of the
episode after they fill my cup up.
That's what I'm gonna do.
So give me a few minutes.
Let me go have some fun.
Let me go swap some more stories, some battlescars with some with some dudes, and and I'll
be right back.
(13:02):
Well, I'm back.
And, man, does God have a funny way of working?
I was right.
Of course, you guys know that.
I'm right.
(13:24):
That was a fun dinner.
Bots and Daniel Kelly have got some storiesthat make me feel like maybe my days aren't
that bad.
Man, I I wish you guys could have been a fly onthe wall of that dinner.
Almost three hours later, here we are.
(13:47):
It's it's late.
And we we we had a great time.
Cannot tell you how wild it is that thispodcast makes things like that possible where
one normal dude from Shelby, North Carolinacomes all the way to Indiana.
(14:14):
Another dude, Daniel Kelly.
This is his second trip, by the way.
Shout out at d k the pond builder.
They come down to just talk shop and eat dinnerand talk about problems and how we solve them
(14:34):
and where we're going in life.
And, man, my wife, I think, is still undefeatedand was absolutely right.
That filled my cup up.
It absolutely filled my cup up.
Talking to those guys I mean, first of all,Daniel Kelly's storytelling ability is probably
(14:59):
second to none.
Well, may maybe second to one, my own.
But other than me, I think Daniel Kelly mighthave some of the best storytelling ability
because he turned a two minute story about aflooded excavator into a twenty five minute
saga that had me, Bots, and Tommy Han on theedge of our seats.
(15:24):
And then he showed us pictures, and it was justit was it was it was unbelievable.
Great story.
And then we dive into bots and and all thethings that he's going through and winning work
and chasing work and talking about people.
At one point, I looked over to him.
I said, dude, we wouldn't have any problems ifit weren't for people problems.
Right?
(15:44):
So it was a it was a blast.
Shout out Malibu Grill.
Of course, Malibu Grill never misses,especially now that JB is back in town running
the place.
But, man, a lot of fun.
A lot of fun.
I I never expected this part of the effect.
(16:05):
I never expected this part of the podcast to besomething where it actually came it actually,
you know, came into reality where there'speople sitting across from me that that listen.
I I mean, bots even at one point had his son onFaceTime at, like, 09:30 at night.
And I was like, dude, get him in bed.
(16:26):
He's five years old.
I don't know how old he is.
I think he's five or six years old.
I was like, he's gotta be in bed 09:30.
My kids have been asleep for an hour now.
So that was fun.
Just enjoyed the heck out of it.
Thomas Hahn, as always, had the drinks on thetable and had several appetizers sitting there
(16:47):
ready waiting for us.
It was a great time.
So so thank you.
Thank you, DK, and thank you, boss, for makingthe trip.
We're gonna do breakfast in the morning atUptown.
Again, if you're if you're in and aroundBloomington or if you know Bloomington, it
doesn't get more staple than drinks at Malibuand then breakfast at Uptown, Uptown Cafe.
(17:12):
So we're gonna do breakfast at Uptown in themorning.
But, man, those guys gotta stick together inthis industry.
I I asked the question at one point.
I said, man, are you guys are you guys, like,advocating for your kids to enter into the
industry and, like, take over your businesses?
(17:33):
Because DK was talking about his kids, youknow, I think his 15 year old's starting to
work for him now in his business.
And, of course, bots has got kids.
And I'm like, are you guys thinking they'regonna, like, jump into the industry?
Because to be honest with you and and I'm notproud of this statement, by the way, that I'm
(17:54):
about to say, but I don't really know if I wantmy kids jumping into this industry.
And I'm saying this industry, mining,construction, you know, the heavy civil dirt
moving industry.
I don't know that I want my kids in theindustry.
(18:17):
It is an absolute I mean, just listening tobots tell stories, listening to DK tell stories
about, you know, where he comes from and andhow he was brought into the business, and then
and then and then, obviously, Michael, how he'sgrown into the business and the people
problems.
And and it it brings me immediately back to theearly days of Turner Mining Group and even even
(18:38):
prior to that when I was with my family.
My family's business, I don't think the ballkickings ever end.
Like, don't I don't I don't know that there'sever any, like, peaceful, just even keel normal
days.
You know, a lot of businesses was talking aboutmy brother.
(19:00):
Shout out Spencer Turner.
He was just on the Forbes list.
He's my little brother, by the way.
He is the younger, less good looking, lesstalented, less naturally gifted of the two
Turner boys, but he's not bad.
(19:24):
He made the Forbes list.
I was in Forbes years ago, Spencer, but that'sokay.
He made the Forbes list for one of the top, Idon't know, top 10, top 20, top 30 young, new
financial advisers.
I think his team's got $3,000,000,000 underassets, something like that.
(19:47):
But I was kinda comparing my situationprofession to his, and I'm like, man, I know we
all have problems.
I'm sure he's got problems every day.
When the market's up, things are great.
When the market's down, you know, things aren'tso great.
But it's almost it's almost like in ourbusiness, and some of you guys will relate to
(20:08):
this.
If you're in construction, if you're in mining,if you're in heavy civil, is there ever a day
where there's not a massive ball kicking, amassive problem, a massive employee issue, a
customer issue, an injury, a safety incident, alate payment, whether you're getting paid late
(20:31):
or you're paying someone late.
At one point, DK was like, man, I I you know,I'm not gonna say all of his details, but he he
made the comment.
He's like, dude, I'm I sleep peacefully atnight.
And he went on to say all the reasons why hesleeps peacefully at night.
No debt.
Pays cash.
He's got it, you know, he's got his he's gothis thing figured out.
(20:54):
He's got his craft figured out.
And I'm like, man, I don't know.
And I told him this.
This was a true statement.
I looked over at Bots, who was sitting to myleft, and I said, I don't know if we've ever
paid a vendor on time.
I'm I'm being dead serious.
(21:15):
Daniel Kelly was like, I've never paid someonelate.
I don't pay anyone late.
I pay them early.
I'm like, man, I don't know if we've ever paidsomeone on time.
And I say that because I don't know if we'veever been paid on time.
I know, obviously, we have customers that payon time, and I'm taking a shot at customers
right now.
But in our industry, especially when you reachscale, it's a game of it's a game of cash flow.
(21:41):
It's a game of margin, and everyone is tryingto hold their cash.
We get paid slow.
We have to pay others slow.
We get short squeezed all the time in so manydifferent ways.
Like, there is a problem everywhere you turn.
(22:02):
Everywhere you turn.
Everyone's trying to shift risk.
Yeah.
I I mean, literally, the customers try to pushrisk downhill.
So what do we do?
Well, we take the risk, and we try to shove itdownhill.
It's a never ending game where incentives arerarely aligned.
It rarely feels like a win win.
(22:22):
I know I'm sounding cynical.
I know I'm sounding like I did not rebound frommy mood earlier, But, man, I don't I just I
don't know.
I don't know if I can recommend my kids jumpinginto this industry where it's a battle every
single day.
You you you walk home.
(22:42):
You get to the end of your day.
You sit on the couch.
And like, man, that was that was brutal.
And and I've asked myself multiple times, whendo we get to the stage where we can kind of
like I hate to use the word coast, but we cankinda like click the button that says cruise
(23:05):
control.
When do we get to that stage?
We're definitely not there now, and we're, youknow, we're not a small business.
Maybe you never get to that stage.
Maybe maybe, you know, companies in ourindustry never get to click cruise control.
They never get to click, you know, the buttonthat says, I'm just gonna kinda run this same
(23:27):
speed, this same size for a long period oftime.
I'm gonna make this margin every year, yearover year.
Maybe every single day, every single year isjust a meat grinder, and and you have to grind
others harder than you're getting ground downor you're falling further behind?
I don't know.
(23:47):
These are questions I don't have answers to.
But the longer I do this business and again,this is I mean, I've been telling people this,
young guys, I've been telling guys this foryears.
Do not start a business.
Do not start a heavy civil, a construction, ora mining business.
(24:10):
Don't start it.
Don't do it.
Don't do it.
It might sound fun.
It might look cool on Instagram.
Don't do it.
Because you're gonna ask yourselves these samequestions.
When does the grind end?
When does the suck end?
How in the world can a good dad recommend tohis kids to jump into this industry?
(24:34):
I don't know.
I don't know if he can.
And maybe that's why we have such a laborproblem or a talent gap or whatever these
headlines wanna read.
I I tend to think we don't have, you know, atalent shortage, but there are a lot fewer
people.
I think someone just told me recently on the onthe the All In podcast, someone just said that
(24:58):
there's like, we're graduating 200 kids a yearwith mining degrees?
What's that about?
You know?
So it's hard to say that we should, you know,recommend kids to mining.
It's hard to say that we should recommend kidsto this industry when we have some of the worst
(25:27):
practices in the industry.
I mean, pay terms are bad.
Work hours are bad.
Upward mobility is bad.
On the job training typically is done bysomeone named Delbert or Colbert who smokes
three packs a day, who, you know, is jaded ascan be maybe a soft alcohol, you know,
(25:54):
alcoholism.
Like, we wonder why we're dealing with all ofthe stuff that we're dealing with.
Well, I mean, have we looked at what we've gotto work with?
So I know this sounds cynical.
I I hate to be that way.
I my cup was filled up.
It was fun swapping war stories.
(26:15):
It was fun talking to guys that are also inbattle every single day fighting to build the
thing they wanna build.
This is the beautiful part of being in America.
We get the choice.
We get the choice to do what we wanna do.
We get the choice to build the company we wannabuild.
(26:39):
But, man, some of us made a choice to jump intothis industry.
And and, you know, the Keaton Turner that's ina good mood would say, woah.
It's our duty and obligation.
Well well, it's our duty and obligation to,like, make life better for the industry.
(27:00):
I have said this.
Okay?
I'm making fun of myself right now.
The Keaton Turner that's in a good mood wouldsay, yeah.
But we should run we should run head firsttowards these challenges that the industry is
presenting.
We should get young people excited.
We should.
We should.
We should.
We should do all these things.
But my goodness, does it get tiresome.
(27:23):
I'm just this is just me being transparent.
It gets old.
It every once in while, the cross gets heavywhen when you talk about the same problems, the
same employers, the same customer fights, thesame payment terms, the same capital
(27:45):
investment, the same cash flows.
Like, every once in while, you do get tired.
So it begs the question, I'm gonna wrap allthis up and tie a bow on it.
I'm almost home.
If we don't do it, who else is gonna do it?
(28:09):
This is what I think about.
This is the stuff that when I have my bad days,when I think about thrown in the towel, when I
think about all the people in the industry andshould I recommend it to my kids and, you know,
there yeah.
There are good people out there like bots andDK, and there's countless others.
(28:30):
All you guys that listen to this, if we don'tdo it, if we don't embrace the grind and live
through the suck and change the narrative andbe good people, be good humans, be good
employers, build the dreams.
(28:54):
Like, if we don't change the industry to besomething that we would recommend to our kids,
who's gonna do it?
I mean, yeah, Keaton Turner can have a bad day.
I can be down.
You know, I can tell my kids, ah, you don'tever wanna be in mining.
It sucks.
It's tough.
It'll bust your balls every day for a lifetime,and you'll wake up someday when you're 80
(29:18):
wondering what in the world did you just investyour life towards.
But if I don't do my part to change thatnarrative, is it ever gonna change?
I know this sounds kind of wild.
Maybe it's just my bad day talking or my badmindset talking.
(29:39):
I hope I bounce back tomorrow again.
But we're due for some change.
Like, our industries are due for an overhaul.
We need young, legit, awesome dudes runningcompanies.
We need people that are forward thinking thatwill embrace the ball kickings, that do ask for
(30:02):
second, third, fourth plates when they bellyback up to the bar of ball kickings.
We need those people.
If we don't do it, who's doing it?
The dudes with the greased up hair runningprivate equity firms?
You want them to change it?
I think it's up to us.
(30:24):
I think we're the ones that were called intothis industry, into these businesses, into
these roles, the project managers, theoperators, the technicians, the truck drivers.
We're called to do this not not just because wedon't have any other options.
(30:45):
I think we're called to do this because if wedon't do it, are there any other options?
Who else do they call to do it?
How much worse does the industry get if we haveto pick the bottom feeders up?
I mean, when you compare us to third worldcountries, you look at the people that are
running those companies and those operators andthose truck drivers, they're they're operating
(31:09):
in sandals, flip flops, cut off t shirts.
I think it's up to us to change the narrative.
I think it's up to us to build the thing thatwe're proud to someday tell our kids, hey.
You should join this industry.
(31:29):
We've changed it.
It's better.
There's opportunity.
There's money, or there's synergies withcustomers.
There's cash flow.
It's up to us.
So that's what I got.
I hope you I hope you guys got some value outof this.
I am I mean, it was it was too fun.
(31:52):
I I appreciate the heck out of mister MichaelBotts and mister Daniel Kelly.
Of course, always mister Thomas Hahn, TommyGuns.
What a Sunday night, and and I appreciate youguys for tuning in to listen to my soft rant to
(32:13):
my bad mood, my bad mindset.
But here's the thing.
Can you really listen to a guy?
And I'm I'm I'm I'm honestly, this is this iskinda wild.
Can you actually take advice from someone ortake the perspective of someone who only talks
about the positive mindsets when they neveractually reflect on their days with negative
(32:36):
mindset?
Isn't that kind of a weird catch 22?
How are you gonna how you gonna listen tosomeone talk about how to be positive and the
positive mindsets if they're not actuallytalking about the days when they have a
negative mindset.
I don't know.
Something to think about.
Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
(32:56):
Pray you're killing it.
Pray you're getting your per diem.
We got a new week ahead of us.
Let's kill it together.
Let's do our part to change the industry,change the company, change the coworkers, the
people right next to us.
That's I think that's our duty and obligation.
So thanks for tuning in.
We're gonna do it one more day.
Popular Podcasts
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2
Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.