Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: That I wake up every single day realizing that we got to take care of 400 families. And it starts with, with us in pre con. If we're not bringing in the bids, it doesn't matter how good anybody else is down the chain. None of it matters, you know, if we're not bringing in the work and that, that can be a burden, but it's a beautiful burden to get to carry. I've been told that I got fired because I wasn't pretty enough, which I respectfully disagree with that.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Foreign.
Thanks for coming on board today. You know, want to get to know a little bit more about the John that hits the gym and, you know.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I appreciate it, man. I'm really excited. I haven't been pushing the gym as much as I should, but yeah, man, I'm excited to dive into it and.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Talk about where it started, man, where it all started. What high school did you go to?
[00:00:59] Speaker A: So I actually grew up in, in WY and then eventually moved to Farmersville for high school. So we had moved back and forth between WY and Farmersville a couple times, but that's where I graduated out east of McKin 2011, and then eventually went to school at Texas Tech and was out there for about six years.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Six years. Did you have any aspirations before then to like go to college or was it just kind of like.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: I always wanted to go to college. I had an uncle that was a professional professor that I always looked up to, and he was like an art professor at Virginia Commonwealth University for a long time. And so, yeah, I always wanted to go to college. I wasn't quite sure what for for the longest time, but I. I knew that I did want to go. I just didn't know where, you know, it really wasn't even until my. Probably my last semester in high school that I was like, man, I. I need to pick somewhere to go. You know, I was originally looking at going to just maybe calling college, staying close to home. And then I had some friends that were going to go to Texas Tech. And at that point, to be honest, I'd never even heard of Tech. You know, I wasn't college sports at the time. Family were Big Longhorns fans, but that's about it.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: I have to ask, did you ever play football?
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, I played in my. I guess it would have been seventh and eighth grade and then I skipped my freshman year. We actually went to state and won the state championship that year, which was awesome. I played my sophomore year in high school, played a little bit of JV but that was about it. I didn't really. I didn't really like it as much at the time. You know, I didn't really care much for lifting weights and stuff back then. I was. It just felt like everybody else wanted me to do this thing and it wasn't really what I was that interested in. You know, when it's somebody else's idea, sometimes it's a little bit harder to buy in. Right. At that point. It really wasn't something that.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: And that's why I ask about, you know, your, your path going into college because sometimes it's like, you know, you, you have to go to college. It's a must, right? And nowadays there's just so many trades and other things, other paths that you can take to get to where you want or need to be. Right. So you went to college, you know, said six years, you know, what did you end up getting your degree in?
[00:03:01] Speaker A: So eventually I graduated with a degree in university studies, which you pretty much combine three minors for your major. So mine were organizational leadership, communication studies, and then political science was the last one. So political science was probably my favorite at the time because I loved history and I loved kind of understanding government a little bit more, things like. Like that, and took some really interesting classes.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: So there's definitely no numbers involved.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Well, so when I first started in school, school, being in college, I actually went for computer science and then I met some of the people that were in the program and I was like, this is just not for me, man. Like, I was, nobody here is having any fun. There'd be days before anybody would smile again. I just didn't want anything to do with it. So after my first semester, I was like, I can't do this. I went into general business and that was kind of too much of a swing the other way, where those people were just too care and not that, to me, not that interested in learning and, and stuff. And we're just in college to be in college. And so I tried going back to engineering and kind of bounced around until eventually, actually it was probably 2015 or 2016. I actually got academically suspended because I just wasn't going to class. I was dealing with some personal issues and really just struggling, man. I was five hours away from home, bouts of, of depression and stuff like that. And so I was kind of in a little bit of a rut. But it wasn't until I actually moved back here that eventually I went back and finished my degree online.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Yeah, but you finished, right?
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: That's what's what matters. What was one of your first jobs at? Straight out of college?
[00:04:32] Speaker A: So, technically, this was my very first job while I was still in college. Like, my very. I would say my very first career position was working here. So before that, I had worked at, you know, I had worked for Market street in the meat market, and then I worked at Chick Fil A breading chicken and stuff in the kitchen and running the breading station and things like that, which was honestly very humbling because before I started working there, to be honest, you know, I had this idea in my head, like, I'm going to go out and do big things, and that means that I should have this big job already. And you kind of fall victim to society's expectations that people have of, like, you should be a multimillionaire and you should be conquering the world by the time you're 22. You know, all these super unrealistic things cause you to kind of take a step back, you know? Like, I. When I started working at Chick Fil A, I was working alongside people that were much older than me, and they just worked hard every day. They didn't get paid much money, and they just showed up, you know, and it was just kind of like, wow, like, if they take this that serious, I need to take something serious. You know, it was this realization that I just hadn't really tried, you know? You know, like, even with college to that point, I was just very complacent, maybe. Yeah, man. I struggled to pay attention. I just was uninterested, you know, Again, it was like I had this feeling like I should be doing more. And. And the truth was, is I had the capability of doing more. I just wasn't doing more.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: You needed that drive. That drive. Yeah. Well, that's life, right? That's life where you have to really, like, get that reality check. Reality is you got to pay bills. Reality is, you know, we got to make a living. We got to make a career. And started at Moz. What was your first job here at Moss?
[00:06:16] Speaker A: So I was pretty much one of our very first receptionists. I. If not the very first receptionist, what.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: They call the lady receptionist?
[00:06:23] Speaker A: Yeah, the front desk lady.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Front desk lady. You're a front desk lady?
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So I've been told that I got fired because I wasn't pretty enough, which I respectfully disagree with that. But, no, I just wasn't ever up front. You know, I was supposed to, you know, take care of the mail and make sure that I was up there when people got to the Building and all that kind of stuff. And I was just so interested in what we were doing. You know, I. I had mentioned, you know, working at Chick Fil A being very humbling. It was kind of one of those things where whenever I moved here from Lubbock, I had made a commitment to myself, like, hey, I'm no more steps backwards. Like, it's only forward from here, and nobody. It's this realization, nobody's coming to save you. Which was. Was very helpful for me. You know, it's like, okay, well, I got to work hard here. You know, I got to figure out what we do. I got to make myself valuable. I mean, from the very beginning, man, I was just asking questions like, what are wet utilities? You know, I remember our.
Our old chief estimator, he came to me and he was like, hey, I need you to run a takeoff on this deal. And I was like, 10, four. He walked away. I'm like, what's a takeoff? He handed a set of plans, and I didn't run a takeoff. I didn't know what that meant, you know? So I start talking to my dad, and my dad starts showing me stuff. You know, that's kind of how it all started, was just asking questions, being present, you know, And I. Eventually, I got to become our first estimating coordinator. That was the fall of 2017. Not long after that, I think it was August of 2018, I got promoted estimator, and then eventually lead estimator. And then in October this last year, I became chief estimator.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Nice, nice, nice. Did you realize what you were going into, though, at that time, or you just kind of like, I'm filling a role?
[00:07:55] Speaker A: Yeah. At that point, I had an idea. I mean, I was already kind of fulfilling those duties before I got promoted and put in that position and given that title.
My title before that was Assistant Project manager, which I didn't really do anything project management related.
But when I came in, you know, the company was in its infancy. It was in the first nine, ten months of business. And so there was no procedure yet for everything.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Wasn't any right or wrong at the time.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Yeah. It was just, here's a person we want to have on board. We're going to give them a title, and eventually the rest of it will work itself out, you know, and that's. That's exactly what happened. So there was a need for somebody to be in that role, and it just kind of made sense. I was already kind of helping out with the precon team, and at the time, my dad was on precon team, he was an estimator. And so it just, just made sense for, for me to step in there. But I knew even back then, again, I was like, okay, well, nobody's gonna come do it for you. You know, you gotta go ask questions. You got to get this stuff figured out. You got to be. Go put yourself in a spot to, to learn. What helped with my growth a ton, man, was just if somebody was working on something, especially if I wasn't doing anything, I was going to say, hey, can I sit in here while you work up this estimate? And, and sometimes it's not even, I'm not going to bother you. I just want to sit in and just kind of observe. That makes a big difference, just taking the time to, to watch people do what they do.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: But it also takes someone that wants. Wants it, right? You got to want it. You got to have that drive. You got to ask the questions, right? As a coordinator, I don't know entirely, you know, what, what the scope is when it comes to a coordinator. Where you think the coordinator starts becoming the estimator and building relationships, or where do you think that falls into play?
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think that that's absolutely where it starts. I mean, from the beginning, one thing I struggled with earlier on was definitely kind of more of the small talk with other people and kind of getting comfortable engaging with, with our customers and our clients, you know, like really making sure that I'm being a good partner. And that starts with picking up the phone saying, hey, unfortunately we can't get to this bid right now. You know, whenever you're the estimating coordinator, you're handling all these bid invites. So you're getting a ton of solicitations in from people you've never heard of before, never met before, all this kind of stuff. And a lot of times you're the one that's having to make the phone call saying, hey, we're not going to be able to get to this opportunity, or we are going to get to this opportunity and hey, we may need a little bit more time. And, and so that was a big difference. It's just, you start having all these people that you're reaching out from there. You know, I think anybody that's coming up the ranks, it's important to meet people and, and talk with our customers and just make sure that they know that you're there and that you want to help. And I was telling one of the guys earlier today, you know, he was one of our estimators was looking into a bid, and I was like, man, you got to just pick up the phone and call them and talk to him and say, hey, especially if we're early.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Reach out and build that relationship, right?
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Because, I mean, it's important. Like, the best clients we have are the ones that were true partnerships. Like, I've got a relationship at a certain level of the company, and, you know, Garrett's got a relationship, Parker's got a relationship. Everybody should have relationship. On the project management side, on the estimating side, on the operations side, we should all have somebody that we're talking to and trying to get to know. And it's so much more than just the work. I mean, at the end of the day, we're all human beings trying to take care of our families. And when you look at it like that, it makes it a lot easier to show up and to be intentional and to reach out and make that connection when you're being genuine about it.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Are there any client, you know, we know that we have that relationship with them. You know, maybe one day they'll take us out hunting. Right, so still waiting for that?
[00:11:37] Speaker A: Yeah, Right.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Still waiting for that day.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: No. I think, honestly, some of the big ones come to mind is Pogue. You know, Pogue's a huge one. Panado as well.
Evans. There's some that are. Have come and gone. And that's another thing, too. You just got to get comfortable with that. It's like, you know, I could have a good relationship with somebody. If their operations team isn't taking care of our operations team or their PM team isn't taking care of our PM team, or vice versa. If they're not being good partners, then you kind of have to accept that. That that's just the reality of the.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Business, because y' all are just a piece of the pie, right? It's just. It's a chain effect, right? You have to initiate that relationship, and then you have to rely on your other team members to execute. Let's knock this park out that, you know, John worked on, you know, and it just keeps going back, right? Let's, you know, it goes from here to here. Finish projects. Right. Finished project.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: Another big customer that comes to mind is Arco Murray. They're. They're another one, too, where it's across the board. You know, we've been very fortunate that we've been awarded their vendor of the year twice, you know, two years in a row. And that hasn't come without its difficulties and challenges on projects. But that's you know, they know that they can give us a call and pre con team that we're going to take care of them, we're going to get the bid turned around, we're going to give them a complete scope of work.
And then when it comes to operations team, that's what I think is so unique about our company is like that we've made this transition and it hasn't always been perfect, but I feel like we do such a better job right now than we probably even did a year ago at like, I know that I can rely on the project management team and, and the operations team to see this thing through all the way to the end and we can communicate and that there's no hard feelings anymore. No. Sort of like you coming to me talking about some of the safety stuff on these data centers, like that stuff matters, you know, and it's. The relationships are so important internally and externally. You know, if you're not getting that feedback from our customer, how do we. How can you relay that to me to make sure that we're taking care of the bids appropriately?
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you got to have the info for the job. Right. And the more information you have, the better that we can execute. Execute, you know, all the complexities of the project. Right. What are the requirements here and here? Right.
You know, something as simple as depths. We want to give you guys what you need to. To execute. Taking that and pushing it into the other projects as well. Right. That y' all bid. Awesome process that, that Moss has built. We want to be competitive. You know, we want to be top dogs. Right? We want to be the top dogs.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Everything starts in our department. You know, we get to see these jobs well before they ever wind up in the hands of a project manager or, or that the stuff's actually going in the ground, you know, which is pretty unique that we're looking at a ton of projects a year. Let's say that if in order to hit a certain revenue goal, we have to bid 10 times that amount, typically on average, you know, that's about construction average, about 10% hit ratio, which means that if we're, you know, if we're chasing 180 million, you know, 200 million in revenue, that means you got to bid, you know, $1.8 to $2 billion worth of stuff, which means that's a lot of bids. And. But it starts. Starts with us and starts those relationships and having good customers, good clients, you know, you want somebody you can rely on to give you good feedback and that doesn't come without. You know, I had a customer last week that just called and said, hey, we really want chasing this job.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: What.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: How can you help me? And it's like, okay, no problem. We can. Here's the amount we've got to play with here. I want to help you out. I want to give you a discount, you know, and she wouldn't have made that phone call had we not had a good relationship. And her been comfortable knowing that, even if it's not in writing right now, that I'm going to keep my word and make sure that we take care of that relationship, you know, and that when they're chasing a job, that's where we can. Can help them. You know, those relationships matter.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Help me help you. Yep. Right. Help me help you. Do you think that the guys down in the field, right, because, like, our guys are big, right? They're big portion of why we're here today. Right. Do you think they realize the impact the estimating team has on them?
[00:15:36] Speaker A: I don't know. To be honest with you.
I would assume not, but I'm really not sure. I mean, I don't think a lot of people realize it. I think, you know, we. We have very.
We're very close in our department, so when people walk around the office and they see us, they tend to see, you know, we might be throwing some dice or whatever it is, you know, like.
And we're kind of laughing together as a group, cutting up. But, you know, a lot of people don't see the midnight, you know, bids going out and all the times where you're up late. I mean, you know, if there's rain tomorrow, the Internet still works, which means that we got to get that bid out, you know, and there's. There's a lot of things like that that's like, there's no. There's not a lot of hurdles that can get in the way. If there's a deadline, you got to hit the deadline. You know, it takes a lot. It takes a lot of.
Of sitting down, closing the door sometimes, you know, let's get this bid knocked out. On top of that, you can be going up against 9, 10 customers. If your number's high, your number's high, you know, you may not get looked at twice. And a lot of times that's where that relationship comes in, that you may get that feedback. But I'd love to educate the rest of the company more on that kind of stuff too.
[00:16:45] Speaker B: You know, if you could send a message out to, like, let's say a foreman or Even a pipelayer. Right. What would you tell them if I.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Want them to know anything? It said, I wake up every single day realizing that we got to take care of 400 families. And it starts with. With us in pre con.
I'm kind of getting goosebumps right now just thinking about it because it just. It means so much to me. I mean, I care about every single person here and. And I really think about it all the time, and I think the rest of our team does, too. You know, it's a lot of. Of weight to carry because if we're not bringing in the bids, it doesn't matter how good anybody else is down the chain. None of it matters. You know, if we're not bringing in the work and that, that can be a burden, but it's a beautiful burden to get to carry. You know, it's. It's a. It's something I'm really proud of and. And the rest of our team is, too. So, yeah, if there's anything, it's that we're doing our best for you guys every single day. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You know, I. It's. It's an honor to be able to do this and to play a part. And sometimes, you know, people look at it a different way when it's behind a desk, but it can be very taxing and.
But again, we're just very humbled and honored to be in that position, to be able to provide in that way.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: So, yeah, yeah, I think that's a good message to send out to the guys, and I think they would really appreciate that. Right? Because a lot of times these guys, it's not that they are naive about it, it's just they get that perception of, like, you're behind a desk, your job is easy, right? And that's not the truth, right? An entire estimated team's job. Fortunately, it's behind the desk, depending on how you want to look at it, right? Some guys have to be up and walking around, you know, doing. Doing the labor work, right? Putting in the pipe in the ground, you know, installing the utilities, right? Because that's what they're good at. They're skilled in it. They. They're. They're professionals. That's their profession, right?
It takes. Takes a guy to be out there 10 hours a day in the sun, right? Or, you know, like midnight, right? You talk about, you know, submitting a bid midnight. You know, sometimes you got to do network, right? Because that's just where what our traffic control plan, you know, is playing out is that, you know, we have to close the road at night because of the traffic. Right. But that's a good message. And I. I worked out in the field, too, and. And it was, you know, I didn't spend years and years doing it, but I think I spent enough time to where I knew that I wanted to make an impact. Right. And, you know, the goosebumps that you get, I get to put on. On. On a safety aspect. There's 400 guys rely on me to make sure that they go home safe, in a sense. Right. You know, I gotta make sure that we gotta keep building that culture that, you know, you build with your guys so that they can keep pushing out, you know, bids. Right. So it's a chain effect. I mean, it's. It's. We got big blue machines now, right? Yeah. And I think that's really unique. I think that's really cool. I think the guys are proud of seeing those machines. They get to operate a machine that's logoed and has these unique colors, because you see that blue machine out there, and there's not that many blue machines out there right now. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Well, you know, I just want to take some time, say thank you. Appreciate you coming on board, you know, sending out message, talking about a little bit about your. Your history here at Moss and, you know, your overall impact to the company, you know, because it's a lot of hard work goes unseen sometimes. Right. And. And I think people do UCA here. I think everybody's work here at Mosque is seen. Right. And I think Garrett does a good job about recognizing that.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: I appreciate that a lot, man. It's a honor to be here. It's an honor to get to work here every day and get to show up for everybody. And, yeah, again, man, I wouldn't trade it for the world, so I'm just very thankful, man.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: I don't think I'll trade it either. Yeah, I'm good. I'll pass.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: I'll pass.
Sam.
