Skid Steer Nation

Ten years ago, Jesse McGrath had a backpack, a pair of cowboy boots, and nowhere to live. Today, he owns Compass Cleanup & Excavation—but building a bigger company was never the finish line.

Jesse built the business to get something back that money can’t replace: time with his kids, his wife, and his dad. Along the way, that meant learning some expensive lessons, including a cleanup job that cost him roughly $30,000,...

Mitchell Roberts was sitting in a Domino’s parking lot, broke and wondering how he’d make his truck payment. A few years later, his lawn and landscape company did $160,000 in a single month. But the number Mitchell cares about now isn’t revenue. It’s how long the business can run without him.

Mitchell started mowing lawns when he was nine and kept the business alive while working on power lines. When his only...

Jerod Condit didn’t wait until retirement to figure out what came next.

He started seven years early.

Now he’s preparing to leave the military with a land clearing business that already runs jobs without him.

After more than 22 years in the military, Jerod is closing in on retirement. But Ironwood Land Solution wasn’t something he threw together at the last minute. He spent years building it on weekends, leave days, ...

He hired more guys, bought more equipment, and got busier. He was also miserable. So JR Laborie started cutting—and his profit got better.

JR built Laborie Land Works from one skid steer into land clearing, excavation, underground utilities, and hydro excavation. But instead of chasing a bigger company, he eventually stripped away low-profit work, lowered his overhead, and built around the jobs he actually wanted.

Today, JR kee...

Most contractors build a business… then spend years trying to escape it. Matt Study says that's backwards. If your company can't survive while you're gone, you don't own a business—you own a job.

Matt Study of Sapphire Construction Services has grown from running a mini excavator to managing commercial civil projects, but this episode isn't about getting bigger. It's about building a company that supports the life you a...

Working more doesn't always make you more money.Shelby explains why turning down jobs made his excavation business stronger—and why the right technology lets one operator outperform a whole crew.

Shelby Howland doesn't fit the typical excavation story. He went from farming, blacksmithing, and tech to building an excavation business that's obsessed with efficiency—not just working harder.

In this episode of the Skid Steer ...

It's been a while since I sat down behind this microphone.A lot has happened over the last few months.I figured I owed you an honest conversation before we jump back into interviews.

This week's episode is a little different. Instead of sitting down with a guest, it's just me sharing where I've been, what I've been working on, and why the podcast took an unexpected pause.

I'm pulling back the curtain on the last few months—the ...

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Graduated dead last…

Now he’s paid by the same school…

And built a business off word of mouth.

Christian Lefley finished 77th out of 77 in his class—and now does paid work for that same school district. This episode isn’t about motivation—it’s about what actua...

Try TULBOXX Free — AI estimating & invoicing for contractors. First 5 estimates free, no credit card: www.tulboxx.com

Nicholas White grew up around excavation.

His father has been in the dirt business his entire life.

He waited until he was almost 40 to join him — and it took a vaccine mandate to finally make it happen.

Most guys in excavation started young. Nicholas took the long way around — machinist, CDL truck...

He lost $4K over one line of missing wording. Not bad work. Not bad equipment. Just one mistake in a contract.

Daniel jumped into excavation young with “$10K and a dream”… but commercial work hit him hard. One missed detail in a bid cost him thousands—and that was just the start. This episode is about what actually happens when you move into commercial site work: slow pay, tight margins, and contracts that c...

He was mowing customers’ lawns… after finishing their job.

Not charging for extras… because he liked them.

That mindset almost killed his margins—until he flipped to utilities.

Cody Cocas went from small residential jobs to multi-million dollar utility contracts in under 18 months—but not the way most guys think. The turning point wasn’t more leads or better equipment. It was realizing that being ...

Most contractors complain about employees.John Seaman fired his entire crew in one day.What he built after that changed how his excavation company runs forever.

Running excavation crews in the mountains of North Carolina means steep slopes, landslides, and million-dollar homes sitting on unstable ground. John Seaman built his company around solving the jobs nobody else wants to touch.

But the real turning point in his business wasn&r...

He went from renting a skid steer on weekends to landing $4 million in work in 60 days.But the real shift wasn’t equipment — it was systems.And the biggest lesson? Stop racing to the bottom on price.

Jack Eso of RoseBrooke Site Development breaks down how he scaled from a side hustle to a 10-man operation doing site work, utilities, concrete, and full residential packages in North Carolina. This episode isn’t about...

He walked away from a VP position with 208 employees.Bought one excavator. No real plan.Then learned the hard way that “booked out” doesn’t mean profitable.

Jeremy Whitson left a 21-year career in the automotive industry to build Whitson Farms Excavation from scratch. What he didn’t expect? That cash flow—not equipment—would be the real battle. In this episode, Jeremy breaks down commercial work, ...

Running a contracting business in a small town isn’t glamorous—and Sheldon Gould doesn’t pretend it is. With over 25 years in lawn care, snow removal, land leveling, and property maintenance, Sheldon shares what it actually takes to survive when competition is tight, prices keep climbing, and growth feels slow.

This episode is for contractors who are still showing up every day and wondering how to build a business...

Most excavation and heavy civil contractors don’t fail because of bad work—they fail because of poor cash flow, bad equipment decisions, and overcomplicated growth.

In this episode, Nate Morello breaks down how he’s built a lean excavation business by focusing on payment schedules, job rhythm, and technology that replaces labor instead of adding overhead. If you’re running municipal, commercial, or excavatio...

Richard Piendak didn’t just survive five decades in paving—he built, scaled, sold, and then kept working anyway. In this episode, Richard breaks down the hard-earned lessons most contractors only learn the expensive way: when to grow, when to slow down, and why simplicity beats size.

If you’re trying to build a business that actually lasts—and doesn’t burn you out—this episode will hit home.

Takea...

You’ve probably underbid a job, got halfway through, and realized you’re working for free. Caley Stecker from C & C Land Management (Holden, Missouri) lays out exactly how he stopped doing that — and why most contractors stay stuck because they’re scared to price like a real business.

This episode isn’t a “feel-good” story. It’s a straight-up playbook on pricing, scope control, cus...

To kick off 2026, Ryan Deemer shows up in a different way — as the guest on the Blue Collar Business Podcast.

And they jump right into a question a lot of contractors have been asking for years: is GPS machine control finally affordable… or is it still just for the big outfits?

They talk real numbers, simple setup, and why this kind of tech can help you move dirt faster, cut down rework, and keep your best guys from want...