Get A Load Of This
Get A Load Of This
1: The Best Way to Start Marketing Your Construction Company
Aaron Witt, CEO and Founder of BuildWitt, has carved a name for himself telling stories about dirt and the people that move it.
In today's episode, we discuss why it is so important to market your construction business and the best ways to get started. If you are looking to stay ahead of your competition, building a presence online is critical. We'll break down how everything from starting new business relationships to building your brand, and attracting top talent all hinges upon solid marketing and story-telling.
There have always been concerns about the risk involved with marketing in the aggregate and heavy civil construction industry - but the real risk is doing nothing.
Tune in to find out Aaron's expert advice about marketing your construction company.
[inaudible]
Speaker 2:Welcome to get a load of this. This is your host Elizabeth Scholz. And today we are joined by Aaron wit of build wit media group, a company that was founded on his love of dirt and telling stories about the people and companies that move it today. Build wet has over 171,000 followers on Instagram, over 13,000 followers on LinkedIn and loads of five-star reviews for their podcast. Dirt talk. We are so excited to chat with Aaron about his unique perspective on marketing in the construction industry. So let's jump right in. Good morning. Uh, Aaron, thank you for joining us on the podcast today. We're very excited to have you, um, are you able to just give our listeners a little introduction to who you are and what you do?
Speaker 3:Sure. I name's Aaron wit run a company called build wit. Um, our mission is to make the dirt world a better place. I grew up loving bulldozers started as a laborer when I was 18, had no family in the industry. I was just naturally in love with the dirt world. Uh, so plan was to start a construction company, worked for quite a few big contractors, started to notice a need for storytelling in the industry. So I got frustrated one day, quit. My job bought a camera, started running around the United States, visiting job sites, taking pictures, putting them on the internet. And it has grown into our business today, which is we primarily do marketing and consulting work for heavy construction mining, mass excavation type companies across the United States. Uh, so that's, that's what we do. Uh, we have about 50 people now, so it's grown quite a bit beyond just me running around with a camera. I still do that quite a bit. I've just got off a three-week trip, but, um, it's, it's been a lot of fun so far,
Speaker 2:So thank you for that introduction. That's a great, I think, you know, your background is such an interesting one and I love the fact that you really got started in this because you had a passion about telling stories about dirt. Um, is there one of the stories that you've kind of heard over the course of time working with your customers that sort of stands out to you as like the, the craziest or the most compelling story that you've ever heard from the dirt world?
Speaker 3:We, we hear a lot of crazy stories. Um, it's just, um, there's just a, kind of a common theme and that's the dirt world is an awesome place. Uh, so it's not, you know, I could sit here for eight, 10 hours and tell you story after story from, from what we've heard, uh, out in the field. But just the big thing is those stories just need to get out there. Um, there's all these remarkable stories that have never been told before, which is why we started our business. And it's not just telling them for entertainment or fun. It's telling them to shift the perceptions about the industry. Everyone's thinks these, these people out there building our country are complete Neanderthals in that it's this low tier career and that they're miserable and there are so many misconceptions about it. Um, so that's the, that's the need for storytelling is, Hey, this is what actually, this is what it takes to make sure that you have consistent power and running water and roads drive your kids to school and the entire built world around you. That gives you the ability to live the life you want to live. So, um, yeah, there's, there's plenty of crazy stories. That's the fun of it is that everybody in this world, you spend just a little bit of time in it and you'll start to have some ridiculous stories. Uh, but it's, it's, you know, the bigger piece of that is we need to get those stories out into the world to show that, Hey, this is a, this is a really remarkable world and it deserves some credit.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think there's, you know, working in technology like I do in the construction space, there's always this conception that, you know, this is a space that is devoid of technology. Doesn't really like technology is technophobic, and that really hasn't been our experience at all. I think there's a ton of people out there that are really leveraging technology, trying to get smarter, trying to be more efficient, trying to think about how they can do their job and do it in a way that is more productive, better for their team creates a better environment overall. Um, and I think one of the things that's interesting to me is that, you know, while that mentality persists, there's a misconception that, that people are not really interested in, in kind of building that type of future in construction. I know you from the marketing and the branding side of things are working on telling stories about, you know, companies from the ground up and, and all different kind of sizes and ranges across the country. Do you find when you're out there and you're in the field and you're working with them, I've seen some of the photos that you've done, some of the videos that you've done. Um, it's pretty impressive when you're out on a construction site, do you see technology kind of coming into the day-to-day lives of the people that you're working with or is that something that, you know, maybe in, in your side of the marketing side, you don't see it as much, um, when you're out on the job site?
Speaker 3:No, we, we see it, uh, it's on every job site in the United States nowadays, the, the cool thing, the cool thing about this world is I, I like physical things and that's why I've always struggled with technology because I like to, that's why I like dirt. You pick it up, you put down, you can see it and you bust your for 10 hours. And you're like, okay. So that dirt was there when I started. And now it's over there when I'm, when I'm leaving. That's pretty cool. That's very satisfying. Um, I like the, I like the physical world. The cool thing about construction building things is that you can marry the technology, the means to build things more effectively with the physical world. And that's what we've done as far as, you know, tracking quantities out in the field or GPS or telematics or all sorts of modeling. And there's, there's a, there's a million different technologies out there now allowing us to build more effectively. They don't replace building. Um, and that's the, that's one of the exciting things about this industry is it's not going away. It's never going to be outsourced or anything like that. We can't move it to a different country. Now you just, you have to build stuff here. Um, but we can become a lot more effective at how we do it and everybody's better off if we are able to do that. So it's still, I mean, compared to other industries, it's like, you know, you're, you're driving down the road and a car will drive by, uh, that's driving itself. That's a lot more advanced than, oh, wow. We now do our timecards on an iPad. It's like, wow, that's pretty cool guys. We thought iPads for, I don't know, 15 years, but I'm glad we finally figured that out. Um, so it is, it is behind, there's a lot of opportunity, but at the same time, it's starting to become way, way more prevalent.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. One of the things I love that you've said is that, you know, technology doesn't replace the people. And I think that's one of the trends that I'm seeing right now is the labor shortages are, are really hitting the industry pretty hard. Um, from a marketing side of things, are you working with clients now on ways that they can kind of build recruitment branding or recruitment marketing into their overall plan, um, as, as a business to, to retain, but also attract new talent?
Speaker 3:Yeah, pretty much everything we do is surrounding people. Um, that's the so, so technology is great because it can allow us to be more efficient and effective, which means we do, we will require less people to build things. Long-term, that's just a reality. That's how, that's how the world works, but, uh, it'll never make up for the desperate need for people. And, and I think, again, going back to storytelling, that's what these companies need to do. A better job of is tell stories, tell stories, and, and explain what the people at their companies do. Explain how they go make the world better every single day, explain why they do what they do is so important to everybody and why they enjoy it. And, and what the realities of this industry actually are. You know, we've, we've backed ourselves into this corner and we've spent a lot of time with Jocko, echelon front, you know, the extreme ownership mentality of we could sit here and complain that, oh, you know, millennials don't want to work, or colleges are way more attractive than our industry or so on and so forth. Or we can say, Hey, this is actually our responsibility to figure out which it is that's reality. It's not even, it's not my opinion. It's reality. Hey, we need to figure this out for ourselves. And it just comes down to storytelling. We just talked, you know, I, we interviewed Jocko, uh, a few days ago and he said, it's all about storytelling. Just even from an internal standpoint, even if you, you could care less about showing your company externally, it's this next generation, you know, myself included on 26, I want to see what's going on at the company I work for, or when I'm applying at a company, I want to see what it actually is like to work there. And, and so you start from the inside telling those stories to build the culture internally. Now your people are happier. Now you have less turnover. Now, the word's getting out about your business and how great it is to work there. You're naturally going to attract people. Um, you know, there's, there's a lot of traditional methods out there, like career fairs and all sorts of, uh, you know, ads in the paper. And I see companies in this world doing all sorts of things and that's great. They can keep doing it, but at the same time, a lot of that's not working as well as it did before you need to go elsewhere. And where's that world that hasn't really been, um, tapped into yet from the blue collar standpoint is online. So that's what we do. Uh, we, we visit our partners. We go to their job sites. We tell stories about their people and get the word out. Ultimately more people find their way to those businesses.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think that's a great point having that online presence is huge. And a lot of the companies that we work with both with large and small, you know, they may own 200 dump trucks, but not have a website. Um, when you're kind of talking about and thinking about people that are looking to make that shift know it's needed, but are maybe struggling with how to take that first step, what would you encourage them to do as a way to start getting involved in getting more of a presence online
Speaker 3:There? You know, there's a lot of those companies with 200 dump trucks and no website. And they say, well, we don't need a website because we have all the more we w we have all the work we need. And, and it's like, that's great, but do you have the people you need? No, we know the people, okay, well, there you go. You need a website because that's how you get people these days. Uh, and, and, you know, you, you've, you've been able to get away with it for maybe even decades, and maybe you've been wildly successful, but that's, you know, things have changed. And if I want to go work for your company, I'm going to Google your company's name. And if it doesn't come up, I don't want to work there. Maybe it's a great place to work too. But if I don't know about it, shoot I, how, how can I come to work for you? Um, the thing is everybody, really everybody over-complicates storytelling, marketing. Um, and, and that's, it's a, it's a lot of art industry's fault. You know, the traditional marketing industry has taught people that marketing is very complicated. So people hire marketing agencies, and I consistently tell people, they probably don't need to hire us to do this effectively. If they're serious about it, the best place to start is one. Just understand that this is crucial and necessary for long-term growth. So if you, if you have no interest in really growing or anything, you're, you're, you're stoked with where you're at. Okay, that's fine. You can get away with it, but if you want to grow or last, and then the next 10, 20 years, you're going to need to do this. So just viewing it as an essential piece of growing your business, making your business sustainable. Longterm is key, being comfortable, getting a little vulnerable. It's like, Hey, yeah, there are potential risks to putting yourself out there. I get that. My dad's a lawyer. I understand risk that's. That's how he seizes the world is risk, risk, risk. Um, but I view the risks as a greater of not doing it. You know, say you say, you, you, you limit your risk by not sharing anything or telling your story or anything like that. Um, but now people don't know about you and now you're, you're, you're, you know, you can't hire effectively. You can't build a culture effectively. What's what's that going to do for you longterm, your business is going to hurt as a result, and your people are going to hurt as a result. So just understanding that, yeah, it requires a little bit of vulnerability, but the risks are not all that significant at the end of the day. And, you know, we, we work with a lot of companies that do a lot of sharing and the times it's gone south are very, very rare. Uh, so just based on the data we've seen it, it doesn't happen all that often, so. Okay, great. You've you understand it's necessary for your business. Long-term even if you don't want to get new work, you understand you need to be a little bit vulnerable. I would look internally. I would try to find a person or people within your business that are excited about your business that are potentially younger. Understand how to share online and empower them to, to share about your business. And, and you don't need to go spend a bunch of money on it. You have someone internally, everyone has a phone with a pretty good camera attached to it. Social media is, is free. You don't need to pay anything to even create, like you could do it to as simple as just create a page on LinkedIn, where you share three times a week, it does not need to be at all dramatic. Uh, but just start sharing about what you do day to day. What, what your business looks like, what kind of equipment you guys use, who your people are, highlight your people. There's so many stories to be told within your business. Uh, it's not that difficult the end of the day. So that's what I'd recommend is, is find people internally that are excited to be there that, that love this story that want to tell the story, because I can guarantee there's probably someone in your business that would be happy to do this. Um, I was that person at the companies I worked for previously and management would not allow me to do that. And that's what led me to quit is because I was so excited about telling the story. And they said, no, for fear of potential lawsuits or whatever it may be. Um, those people, you have those people at your company. So just give them a little bit of freedom to tell that story, give them guardrails. You don't have to completely open yourself up day one. You know, maybe just give them a little bit of freedom, uh, but you'll be amazed what it can do for your business.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think that's a great point that the barrier to entry, especially for social media is so low. It doesn't cost you anything to get started. It's easy enough to get a LinkedIn page going. It's easy enough to even start an Instagram account and share photos of the work that you're doing. You can start with wherever you feel most comfortable, whether that's telling the stories of the people that work for you, or it's telling stories about the projects that you're working on. There's a lot of really great ways to get started. And I think one of the interesting things is this industry is built on relationships. You know, everybody knows everybody in a market they've built relationships together over decades. And sometimes that kind of pushes them away from bringing that face-to-face in-person relationship online. And I think, you know, over the past year, I think companies have started to pivot a little bit in their thinking about how they can leverage being online or doing things when they're not face to face and starting to think about telling their stories and building those relationships online is it is a great way to expand their current circle, but also, you know, bring in new people into the circle to be able to kind of whether it's employees or it's new businesses that they could potentially work with. Um, you're right. It's, it's a great way to go ahead and get started. And I think your idea about, you know, not being afraid of the risk, the risk is minimal, um, and putting those parameters, upsetting those guidelines is a great way to make sure that you feel like you're still in control. You're still comfortable with, what's going to be put out there, but you, you open the door to the possibilities that are out there as well, which is great.
Speaker 3:Yeah. There's, I mean, you're running trucks on the road. There's a lot of risk there. It's not like these companies are, are, I have never taken a risk in their life. They take risks every single day of the week. Uh, so it's, it's it's, and, and, and the level of risk required here is, is not even, not even remotely similar to the risks that they take on a daily basis to just operate their business. And this isn't, this isn't to replace face-to-face relationships at all. This is just to add on top of what they're already doing. And, and, and, you know, I used to say, and I used to make the mistake of saying like, this is, this is it. This is, this is the future. You just need to do this. And that's, that's not true at all. This is just another tool to utilize. It's like, they can use a software, that's going to make their business better, but it's not going to be the end, all be all for their business. And, and, you know, their business was doing just fine before they got that software and now it can be better, but it's, it's not everything to, and it's not the, it's not the S one solution. It's just a really good, uh, solution. And it'll help quite a bit. Like for example, I just went out to a gold mine the other day in, in, in California. And it's in the middle of nowhere, you know, 20 miles down, a dirt road in the middle of the desert. We get there and the guys there, they already know who we are, and they're excited for us to be there because they follow us online because they followed us online for years. So when I shake their hand and talk to them, we already have a connection. We already have a relationship and I've never talked to them in my life, but that's because they've been seeing what we've been doing, how we've been building our business for years now. So they feel like they're a part of it. And then when I do shake their hand, when I do meet them in person, when I do create that in-person relationship, it's so much stronger than it could have been if it was just cold Turkey. And I had to explain who the hell I was, that's huge. Or when we hire people, they don't come into our business asking us what we do. They already know. And, and so the hiring process is so much more streamlined and, and, and, and we don't have a hiring problem. So there there's, there's, there's a lot of benefits here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I think those are all really great points. And, you know, they've, they've done studies for a long time. And I think, you know, in radio, if you have a radio announcer, people develop a relationship with them and they start to feel like that person is, is their friend. They would view that person as their friend, because they hear a little bit about their life. They, they know what's going on on a day-to-day basis. They're checking in. And social media is a great way to kind of bridge that gap too, in a different way. It's, it's a way to, like, you've said, get your story out there, let people know who you are and build that relationship before you've met face to face. Um, and I think so much of this industry relies on trust. You know, you trust that somebody is going to show up with dirt when they say, they're gonna show up with dirt. You trust that somebody is going to move the material where it needs to go, and that they're going to be following the right safety precautions. They're going to be remaining compliant on the job site. You have to trust your partners too. And building that trust before you even met somebody face to face is, is a huge step forward, um, for people. Um, one of the things that's, that's interesting too, me about brands in the construction industry is that trust component is, is kind of core and central. You know, if you're going to be hiring somebody to do a project, that's hundreds of thousands of dollars, like you've said, has tons of risk involved. You want to know, you can trust them. And building brands that are trustworthy has gotta be a challenge when people come to you and they're either thinking about revamping their brand or, or building their brand for the first time, what are the things that you're looking for to be able to pull out, obviously it's the storytelling component, um, and making sure that it's kind of true to them, but is there, is there anything else that you're looking for to be able to help people build a strong brand kind of convey who they are and what they do to a broader audience in a cohesive way.
Speaker 3:We always try to keep it really authentic. Uh, there's this big temptation to Polish everything and to present a story that, um, isn't all that unique and, and is safe. Uh, but, but that does the opposite and that actually creates mistrust and, and everyone would probably agree. You see a company, that's it. It's just, it looks a little too good. You're like, oh, I'm not, I'm not buying it. Um, and just go into your point, how the industry is built off trust. That's the quickest way to build trust is to create a brand that's not perfect. And that's true to who you guys are. Um, you know, you go on to construction company websites and you'll see the same, you know, four values everywhere, like, you know, respect, integrity, safety, uh, and you're like, okay, you know, that's, that's cool. Those are, I could get behind those, those values. Yeah. I'm all about safety, but that doesn't tell me anything about your business. Like why you value safety. Okay. So does every other company in the entire industry by now it is 2021, like safety is kind of a big deal these days. Like what does that actually, what does that actually mean? What is, what does safety actually mean to you? Um, and so it's, it's just diving a little deeper telling people who you really are, what you really believe in and doing it in a real manner. You know, the construction companies I trust the most are the ones that occasionally publish their screw ups on the internet. And like, they'll have a, they'll have a machine that's, you know, the bed of a truck will be rolled over and they'll put it on the internet and they'll say, Hey, you know, this, this was a bad day. This was, this was, this was a huge mistake. Here's what happened. And here's what we're doing. So this doesn't happen again, that's way, way bigger to me than someone just posting really, really cool, perfect pictures all the time, because everybody knows that things go wrong in this world and a company that can, that can admit that and then say, here's what we've learned from now. And it's not now you can educate, it goes even beyond you and building that trust. Now you can educate others on, Hey, here's a screw up. We made, I, you know, here's what we learned from it. So you guys don't make the same stroke. There's, there's just so much value in that. Now I'm not saying you have to go post all your rolled over truck photos. Like that's completely ridiculous to that's an extreme example, but that level of, of realness authenticity is, is really valuable. So whenever we're, we're, we're quote unquote, building a brand, we're just looking at what already exists. We're looking at who the company already is. We don't make anything up. And then we just present it to the world as is, that's all we do. That's all we do. We don't stage anything. We don't, uh, dramaticized anything. I believe that this world is beautiful as is, and it's supposed to be imperfect. It's supposed to be gritty. That's why it's so cool. That's why I love it. That's why people like me would much rather be out on a job site than this beautiful office, because, because there's something appealing about the dirt and the diesel and, uh, you know, the, the harsh weather and it's just, it's so, so appealing. So from a marketing branding standpoint, it's, it's tempting to Polish. Uh, but it's counterintuitive. I think the best brands are, are imperfect on polished and w how we present build wit is largely like that. Sure. Do we want people to think where we have our act together? Absolutely. But any time I screw up, it's on the internet. Anytime I screw up, it's on the internet, like, yeah. I spilled my blueberries this morning, all over the kitchen floor, and people are like, wow, that's relatable because I've spilled my blueberries on the kitchen floor. It's a stupid example, but that's what human beings like. They, they like things to be relatable. Um, so from a company standpoint, I think that's a really valuable principle and something that is, is rare because it takes a certain level of courage and vulnerability that a lot of companies are just not, not willing to have.
Speaker 2:I think that's a really fair point. You know, checking a box is, is not going to have you stand out, but odds are a hundred other people have checked that same box, but if you can take the idea behind that and show how you're living it and show how your eat, sleep, breathing it every day. And when you go off, when you're real about that, it makes a huge difference. Um, I think that's such a great sentiment to be able to kind of end the show on is that things don't have to be perfect, but you need to put it out there. You need to get people to feel comfortable telling their story and to be able to kind of put themselves out there in a vulnerable way, maybe outside of their comfort zone maybe feels a little bit risky, but the rewards could actually be really huge. Yeah. Um, we, we end our episodes with a couple of more like rapid fire questions. So I'm going to, I'm going to shoot away at these and then, um, we'll go from there, but thanks so much for hopping on the show with us today. So, uh, if you could see one person interviewed on the show, who would, who would you want that person to be on what show on our show on the, the, get a load of this podcast?
Speaker 3:Um, chemo Clark, he's probably the first one that comes to mind. He's a character. He runs truth excavation out in Maui, Hawaii.
Speaker 2:Awesome. I'll be reaching out to him tomorrow.
Speaker 3:He's a worthwhile interview. Awesome.
Speaker 2:Um, is there somebody in the industry that has acted as a mentor to you over the years?
Speaker 3:Most of the company owners we work with have mentored me whether they know it or not. Um, we work with some remarkable human beings that have built some extraordinary businesses. And I, I, you know, w we do business with people that we respect and trust. And so every single one of them is someone I, I wholeheartedly look up.
Speaker 2:Awesome. What, what keeps you in the construction industry?
Speaker 3:Everything about it, the big equipment, the building stuff, the people, the, the humility, the, the grit, the adventurer, the, the change in day to day life, the extreme aspects to it. It's, it's all so, so attractive to me.
Speaker 2:Awesome. If there's one piece of technology that you feel like you just could not do your job without, what would that be?
Speaker 3:Um, smartphone, uh, even just from like a Google map standpoint, if I didn't, if I didn't have GPS on my phone finding sites, I'd be screwed there. There's no, like I said, I was out in the middle of the desert the other day, and my GPS takes me right there, out in the middle of the desert. I'm like, I don't know how you found this place, but here we are. Uh, yeah. So if I didn't have that, it would be, it'd be big trouble. Awesome.
Speaker 2:And then the last one, um, if there was one part of your job that you could automate, what would that be?
Speaker 3:Travel and booking travel is a, it's just a nightmare. And, you know, like the last trip I did, I did eight flights in the, in the one trip. And so there's just so many moving pieces and so many aspects of the logistics that it's hard to figure it all out.
Speaker 2:So what you really need is teleportation.
Speaker 3:That'd be great, or just, uh, or just our own plane, which is I think a little bit more realistic,
Speaker 2:Most likely. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us on the show today. We really appreciate having you and, uh, stay safe out there. Keep telling stories. Thanks for having me. Thanks. Glad Aaron was able to take time to talk with us today. Hopefully he's inspired you to think about marketing your business. The risks of not getting out there are far greater than those of getting started with a website or social media people looking for a job or looking for a business to work with are starting their search online. Make sure you have a presence there. If you're interested in getting in touch with Aaron's team, you can head over to build whit.com. That's build Witt, w I T t.com episode two of get a load of this will be out next week. So please be sure to tune in. And if you like what you heard today, please be sure to give us a review. This is your host Elizabeth signing off until next week.