Exploring Construction Tech, Resilience, and Mental Health with David Hernandez, Managing Director at Elecosoft

Send us a text

Join us for an insightful conversation with David Hernandez, Head of US for Elecosoft, LLC, a provider of innovative planning and scheduling solutions for the construction industry. Together, we explore how Elocosoft's strategic US expansion has enhanced their footprint across seven global regions.

We discuss how project managers can sift through a sea of options by focusing on meaningful, personalized interactions. As we chat about the evolution of construction software, you'll gain practical strategies for integrating people, processes, and technology into your workflow.

We also dive into the deeper themes of resilience, leadership, and mental health within the construction industry. From the importance of safety and motivation to the societal challenges of diversity, this episode sheds light on fostering empathy and understanding in today's workforce. Learn how the merit-based culture of construction can be both a strength and a challenge, as we emphasize the need for open communication and mental health support. Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to the world of construction, this episode offers valuable insights to help you navigate the industry's unique challenges.

PODCAST INFO:
the Site Visit Website: https://www.sitemaxsystems.com/podcast
the Site Visit on Buzzsprout: https://thesitevisit.buzzsprout.com/269424
the Site Visit on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-site-visit/id1456494446
the Site Visit on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5cp4qJE5ExZmO3EwldN1HH

FOLLOW ALONG:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thesitevisit
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesitevisit

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are calling in from where today?

Speaker 2 (00:02):
From.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Philadelphia Philadelphia in a Hilton.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yeah, nice and cold.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Nice and cold.
How cold is it there?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
It's 12 degrees here 12 degrees.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
So what is that in converted?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
12,.
That's cold.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Wow, that's really cold, All right.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Below freezing none of that.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, yeah, way below .

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Freezing is 32, right 32, right below freezing.
I know that yeah, yeah, waybelow.
Guess what?
Freezing is 32, right 32 right,yeah so you guys, you're down,
way down there, holy smokes.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Houston we actually have snow, which is where I live
, and we don't get snow I thinkwe've had.
It's the biggest snowstormwe've had in a century in about
a century so so what are youdoing there in Philly right?
Now we have a conference, forit's a CPM conference, with our
core.
Our core product is scheduling,planning and scheduling.
So CPM is Critical Path Method,so it's a scheduling conference

(00:51):
that we're here, we're one ofthe sponsors.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Nice, that's cool.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, all right.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
So we're going to talk about you and your journey
and also, you know, aboutAlicoSoft.
That's how I pronounce thatright, alicosoft, yeah,
alicosoft.
Do you remember CalicoVision?
Do you remember that?
The old video game.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yes, yes, yes Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Calico, yeah, nice.
Kind of reminds me of an ode toCalicoVision, alicosoft,
calicovision.
All right, all right, let's getdown to it.
Welcome to the Site, visitPodcast, leadership and
perspective from constructionWith your host, james Falkner.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Business as usual as it has been for so long now that
it goes back to what we weretalking about before and hitting
the reset button.
You know you read all the books.
You read the emails, you readScaling Up, you read Good to
Great.
You know I could go on.
We've got to a place where wefound the secret serum.
We found the secret potion.
We can get the workers in.
We know where to get them.
Once I was on a job site for awhile and actually we had a

(02:02):
semester concrete and I recorded, like a Korean-Finnish patio
out front of the site show I wasdown at.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Dallas and a guy just hit me up on LinkedIn out of
the blue and said he was drivingfrom Oklahoma to Dallas to meet
with me because he heard theFavour Connect platform on your
guys' podcast.
I own it, crush it and love it,and we celebrate these values
every single day.
Let's get down to it.
David Hernandez, how are youtoday?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Great James.
How about you?

Speaker 1 (02:35):
I am doing pretty good.
I have to say it's cold inVancouver because it's like 33.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
It's one degree, but we're on the ocean, the Pacific
Ocean, so it makes it feelcolder because it's one degree,
but we're on the ocean, thepacific ocean, so it makes it
feel colder, makes it becauseit's right, it's moist cold, not
dry cold.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
So yeah, you're um nice breeze off the water yeah,
nice breeze.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Exactly all the floors are cold, everyone.
A lot of heated floors aroundhere, so in philly right now.
So that's really.
And yeah, so you're there for aconvention.
You were saying for um yeah,yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
So this Texas boy is in Philly at 12 degrees here, so
it's a little bit outside of mycomfort zone.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
All right, so let's just chat a little bit about um,
about you and Alico soft, andhow you got involved and you've
been with the company, or you're, and how you got involved and
you've been with the company, soyou're head of US.
So just maybe take us throughthe sort of hierarchy or
structure of the company head ofUS.
So did this start somewhereelse?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
So head of US is.
So it's managing directorpresident, so I run the US
entity.
So we're owned by a companycalled Alico out of the UK.
And then there's seven regionsacross the globe that we have

(03:56):
leadership roles in, and I'mhead of the US and North America
.
We've got some Canadapresidents that we're trying to
expand, so I was hired two and ahalf years ago to grow the
region.
We set up the LLC business unitin 2021.
So we've about three years.
We've been in the market for alittle bit longer, but primarily

(04:17):
with resellers and was beingmanaged by the UK, but we wanted
this to be a US-based businesswith US-based people.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Cool.
So let's just chat a little bitabout the product that you're
responsible for growing.
So a critical path, projectmanagement, schedule, figuring
out.
So what is the key competencythere of the platform?
And then, what kind ofcustomers do you guys serve,

(04:46):
like?
How big are they?
So?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
the core product we serve in the US is called Ask
the Power Project and it'splanning and scheduling so it is
very much involved in theproject delivery all the way
from design to the end of theproject.
We serve all sizes ofcontractors.
I think probably our USP wouldbe that we have the ability to

(05:10):
be super complex onmulti-billion dollar projects
but we're easy to use even on asmall custom home type project
and everything in between.
We have a pretty goodcontingency of the ENR 400 here
in the US.
We have quite a bit of ENR 400across the globe that utilize
Asta.
We compete with a couple otherproducts like P6, and Microsoft

(05:33):
Project are probably our biggestcompetitors.
So I feel like we sit in themiddle.
We have the complexity that P6has, but the ease of use of
Microsoft Project, so they getthe best of both worlds.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Right.
So do you guys have a desktopcomponent to your software?
Then we do.
Oh, I see.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
We have a desktop and a SaaS component as well, so
it's a hybrid that you can doeither or Cool yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
So what did you do before this company?

Speaker 2 (06:00):
So prior to this, I worked for a startup company
selling safety software.
So I was the head of sales fora company called Emod.
They've got a really coolsafety software that they sell.
Prior to that, I worked forViewpoint.
So I fell into constructiontech.
A rainbow construction companyout of Houston sold my

(06:22):
partnership in 2018, 2019.
Yeah, 2018, 2019.
I figured I would get to justkind of go fishing.
My wife said go back to work.
So I was lucky enough to fallinto construction tech and I
enjoyed construction techbecause we grew our company
pretty quickly without the righttechnology.

(06:43):
So we had a lot of pain points,a lot of pain and mistakes that
we made with zeros because wejust weren't tracking things
properly.
So construction tech made sense.
I still get to embrace theindustry that I love, but from a
different perspective.
Now.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
That's cool, that's really cool.
Do you find that theconstruction software business
has changed over the years, like, do you find it's become very
hyper-competitive now?

Speaker 2 (07:14):
It's changed dramatically and I think you
know I painted a kind of a.
It was a good picture for myboss.
We were in London at the DCW,which is a very large tech,
construction tech show, and Itold him to look around, you
know, and you know hundreds ofvendors and thousands of people
at this event and it's just alot of chaos and noise.
So this is what our customersare fighting.

(07:35):
They have all these options anda lot of noise, and I said our
job is to help filter this downand make it quiet for them and
help them make decisions.
And you know whether that'swhether that's us, which we'd
love it for, vs, or if we atleast help them with bettering
their processes.
So it was a.
It was kind of a good, a goodpicture for him to kind of

(07:55):
understand.
Like, yeah, they're the con,it's that construction tech
fatigue right there's.
So they're getting hammered allthe time by by this software,
by that software, and how do youknow which one's the right one?
So it's very much a challenge.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, yeah, I can feel for the project manager
that's getting a number of phonecalls over and over and over
again.
So to defend the constructionsoftware business to some degree
, it used to be where you wouldsee maybe a banner ad somewhere,

(08:35):
or you would see an email thatmaybe caught your eye, or
there'd be something on apre-roll video that you would
like.
There'd be something on apre-roll video that you would

(09:02):
like.
Those are the easy days ofadvertising, a solution for
something that can help theirbusiness.
But now it's not theconstruction software's problem,
it's the digital advertisingproblem in general, because
they're tuned out and so whathappens is is that, um, business
development and sales peoplerealize.
Well, I just gotta talk to thesepeople on the phone because the
only way I can actually have aconversation, because if they,
if they search, if the customerwere to search, they're going to

(09:23):
get whoever pays the most forthe top five spots in Google or
Bing or wherever they'researching, and that's what
they're going to get, and so theones who are going to pay the
top amount per click and this isjust as information for any
contractor, because this is whythey keep seeing the same thing

(09:44):
so there's a bit of a myth outthere that the ones that are
going to pay the most for theclicks are the best ones.
Well, that's not always thecase.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Absolutely yeah.
So, yeah, and that's why we'rehere.
I mean, that's why I'm inPhiladelphia.
At this event we found that ifwe can do conferences that are a
little smaller, a little moreintimate, that you get an
opportunity to sit down and talk, and our approach yes, again,
we want people to buy oursoftware, but we, you know not
to be cliche, but we really talkpeople process technology First

(10:13):
, let's make sure you have theright people in place, or the
right people that you could moveinto place.
Let's talk about what processyou currently have, because if
you have a bad process, justbecause you bring in a
technology, it's not going tosolve that bad process.
Just because you bring in atechnology, that's not going to
solve that bad process.
So we try to look at it from akind of a holistic approach and
then our software will help withthe process.
But again, there's more to itthan just buying a technology

(10:36):
and solving a problem.
So that's why I'm with youPhone calls, face-to-face
conversations, it goes a lotfurther.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah, it can be a little bit uh frustrating when
uh keep getting phone calls overand over and over when they're
trying to work too.
But the interesting thing aboutconstruction is it, unless
you're an owner, it does shutoff.
At 4, 30 or 5, like like thatit's off.

(11:03):
So you know, in podcasts likethis this is considered a niche
podcast because maybe peoplewill listen to it on the way to
work.
Maybe, Maybe on the way homefrom work, but they're not going
to sit all weekend and listento a construction podcast, like
they want to go fishing, as yousaid, or they want to take, you
know, go do something with theirfamily.

(11:23):
Or they want to go, as you said, or they want to take, you know
, go do something with theirfamily, or they want to go they
got a bunch of other hobbies andthen they.
That's the one thing aboutconstruction.
It's very concentrated work andwhen you're working you're
working.
You're not really thinkingabout much else, because it's so
, especially in the field, itcan be very taxing as well.
So, all right, so let's just um, something I thought would be

(11:46):
kind of interesting and you andI kind of we are for people that
can't see us.
You and I are probably the samegeneration Gen Xers.
I always hear this stuff aboutGen X and how we're very hard.
How we're very hard.
I think I've been told that I'man absolutist.

(12:06):
That's my favorite one.
I'm like, what's an absolutist?
Does that mean I kind of drawjudgments on things and just say
that's the way it is?
I guess, yeah, often I do, butI do think about it first.
I don't just, like you know,have some strange thoughts, and
then you know, decide well,that's just the way it is.
It's not how I do it.
Actually, I think about things,and I would think that you're

(12:31):
probably the same, and there's aterm that you and I have
discussed and that is the wordresilience.
And let's talk about that for abit, because resilience is a
very interesting concept that alot of people are struggling in

(12:54):
different ways that they wouldconsider what do I have to be
resilient against?
What do I have to put a Tefloncloth on?
What do I have to put a Tefloncloth on?
I got to put it somewhere.
So what you might find that youdon't is natural to you and me
that we go well, you don't needto be resilient for that because
of X, y, z, whereas youngergeneration might have be more

(13:19):
vulnerable to in that case.
So maybe let's just chat aboutthat.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Yeah, so I think you're right.
You're right.
So definitely, gen Xer.
My resilience comes from thefact that if we didn't figure it
out, we had to do thingsourselves.
So for me, when I think ofresilience, it's the ability to
navigate when things areuncertain or things are tough.
But ultimately, to do that, Ithink you have to make sure that

(13:49):
you have kind of what thatlong-term goal or whatever it is
you're driving to.
You have a focus on that first,because if you're just trying
to just push against stuff andyou have no destination, it
really kind of becomes achallenge.
So for me, I think it's theability to navigate uncertainty.
When things kind of hit you,you don't lose focus and I use
the word fail forward.
So that way when, like I sharedthe analogy if you're going on

(14:12):
a trip and you come across aroadblock, you don't turn around
and go home because of theroads closed.
You find a different way to getto your final destination and
that, to me, is kind of, I guess, an analogy for resilience.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
You just you're going to find a way to get there.
There's some things you saidthere that I think are pertinent
to this and how I canunderstand how the younger
generation in general has beenbrought up and in a way that
they see things a little bitdifferently and keep in mind
this is our fault, we did thisto these kids, right?
So you can't say, look've done,you know you're a certain way,

(14:49):
just because of the universe.
It's not we did this.
Or or baby boomers did this,depending on their age.
But uh, I think when you saypushing through to find to your
destination, these days thetimeline is so compressed that
they don't have the patience tothink about that long.

(15:12):
So they go.
Why am I pushing through forthis little chunk?
They don't necessarily see.
I mean, we were brought up withFreedom 55.
You do this and you retire, andthat's how things go.
You watched your parents do itand you know that was.
You have two to three jobs inyour life major ones and then

(15:34):
you know you get the pen or thetie or the watch at the end and
and that's it, whereas today, um, you know we're in a we're in
an economy where girl sleepswith 1057 guys in a day and
makes 3 million bucks this year.
Yeah, like it's weird.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
So, we're.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
We're in a very weird we and we can't expect
predictable, great forwardthinking, efficient behavior
from such a bizarre world rightnow.
Yeah, you know, so I canunderstand where you know.
I was listening to anotherpodcast the other day about this

(16:19):
guy.
They started the NELC.
You ever heard of NELC before?

Speaker 2 (16:23):
I've never heard of NELC.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
You ever heard of NELC before there were these any
of these young guys?
And they were.
They were.
They were YouTubers, but theywere doing pranks and Okay, yes,
yes, yes, I'm familiar.
So, but but they were doing,they were the outcasts, anyway.
So this this guy's like.
They did a.

(16:47):
They were demonetized fromYouTube because of the content
of their videos.
So they didn't make any moneyfrom any of the traffic and any
of the ads, any of the pre-rolls, none of that.
So they said, well, if there'sno way that we can make any
money by that, then they'regoing to do product drops.
Anyway, their most successfulproduct drop in three hours they
made $30 million.
Wow uh, drop, in three hoursthey made 30 million dollars.

(17:09):
Well, so I say this because,first of all, there is a sense
of resiliency there from thatgeneration.
I think the young, young, younggeneration is different, like
my daughter's, 16.
She's very resilient, like,pushes through, and I think,
maybe because there's been thisbit of a sea change.
But you know, and, and that,and you know that guy, you know
he wasn't crying to YouTube.

(17:29):
Oh, you know why am I gettingdemonetized?
He's like, okay, fine, we cando this, I'm going to do
something else.
So that's cool, resourcefulness, push through.
So, in terms of where does thistheme of resiliency come
through?
How has this manifested itselffor you to be like, yeah, maybe
we should talk about this.
Has there been some examples inthe past?

Speaker 2 (17:53):
You're like why this is important.
Yeah, and I think, just lookingat I think I shared with you,
you know, for the call.
You know my journey has beenone that's kind of been all over
the place.
I grew up in a construction,blue collar family.
Parents said go to school, getyour degree.
It's the only way you're goingto make any money when you grow
up.
I wasn't.
School wasn't really my forte.

(18:13):
I couldn't sit there and do thewhole, sit down and behave
myself.
So I tried school, did school,but what I found was the more
that I could, the more that Icould, I more that I could love
consuming knowledge.
So for me it was like tryingdifferent things.
So, but with that, sometimesthere's there's some challenges
and failures that you that yougo through.

(18:34):
So I could have easily just saidwell, it's, you know I'm not
going to make anything myself,I'm not going to do anything
because you know I don't want togo to school, but I don't want
to do this.
No, I figured I learned quickly.
Ok, I don't want to go toschool, but I don't want to do
this.
No, I figured I learned quickly.
Okay, if I work hard, if Iovercome obstacles, I'm
proactive, whether that'slearning, whether that's problem

(18:54):
solving, whatever that,whatever that looks like.
I always was proactive.
Hate being reactive.
Things started happening anddoors started opening, and so
then, obviously, the educationcame along with that journey,
but it was a different.
It wasn't the school settingtype of education I was able to
do certifications and do thosethings but it was that
real-world experience.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Sometimes, school.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Hard knocks, I guess, is what it is.
So for me, I watched my parentsprobably similar to you watch
my parents work really hard.
There's times when my parentswere working two jobs.
So I'm like, okay, if they cando it, make sure they raise, you
know, four kids.
You know I can do this, and soI never, I never did the whole
poor me thing.
Um, there are times obviouslywhen you, when you, you have

(19:35):
struggles and doubts but I'mlike, nope, we gotta, we've
gotta push through.
Um, but I was a young fathertoo, so I'm like I have to make
sure I take care of my, my who.
Now I have multiple sons, but sothat was that was a big driver
as well, was that?
It wasn't just when I stoppedand thought about, it wasn't
just about me.
Now I've got others that relyon me and then that obviously

(19:55):
manifested from being a parent,manifests into as a leader, like
there are others that rely onyou and if you just sit back and
give up, you're letting themdown as well.
So, like my mentality hasalways been like, okay, I need
to make sure that I control whatI can control, which is my
attitude, my behaviors, myactivities, things that I do,
but also making sure that I'mhelping others, and whether
that's elevating them or beingthere.

(20:17):
So those two things really,really helped me kind of get
that mindset.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Nice that is.
I think Jordan Peterson saidthat you know you don't actually
mature of a man until you'vehad a child.
Very true, yeah, that'sinteresting.
You know that kind of yeah.
Having to be responsible forsomething else you brought into
the world is definitely a thing,that's for sure.
There you go, that's for sure,there you go.

(20:53):
All right, let's chat a littlebit about like pressures that
face construction teams thesedays, like you know, delays and
bottlenecks, like the stressthat people go through.
You know I did this reallysuccessful trade show thing in
Canada where we were on stageand we were talking about mental
health and construction andthis thing's kind of gone pretty
viral on Instagram.
And you know we were talkingabout mental health and you know
you hear a lot about this stufffrom the field.

(21:15):
But in the office there's a lotof pressure.
I mean the minute thecontract's signed.
I've said this thousands oftimes on this podcast.
But the minute the contract'ssigned is when it changes,
because it just does, becausethis is a terrain that is
susceptible to weather and it'sa constantly changing terrain

(21:39):
and you've got businessesshowing up at a business to do
business, up at a business to dobusiness.
Everyone's got differentincentives and different
motivations and yeah, andeveryone has to mesh at the same
time for things to be onschedule and on budget and it's
typically never that hopefullyit's not crazy over.

(22:01):
You know, if it's under itmight be longer.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
I don't think it's been on time and exactly on
budget, it's at the day, yeahyeah, it's always funny to hear
that phrase right, well, youknow, guarantee on time, on
budget.
Well, you know you, obviouslyit must be your first project,
but I think you, just you, Ithink you hit the nail.
Probably the one of the,obviously mental health.
But there's this, this factorof you, multiple businesses

(22:29):
working with multiple businesses, and you have business owners
who are working with otherbusiness owners, so it's becomes
very it's not like it's.
I think, early, early in theconstruction world, I think it
was just like I'm thesuperintendent, you're going to
do what I say and like it or not.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
I'm the superintendent.
You're going to do what I sayand, like it or not, I still
think there's obviously there'sa hierarchy when the prime is in
charge of the project.
But there needs to be thisrespect factor and I think that
we're seeing that more and morewith some of the different ways
that some of these contracts arebeing written up and you know
they're giving a lot moreinvestment and opportunities for
the trade partners to kind ofbe more of a financial partner

(23:05):
versus just you're just going toshow up and be my subcontractor
.
So I think when you're dealingwith multiple personalities,
multiple companies, that's hugeright.
So you've got to learn how toyou can't be a manager.
You do have to manage, but youneed to be a leader and I think
that that's a hard definition.
Sometimes People think as aleader, I'm a boss.

(23:26):
A leader is somebody who'sleading people on how to do
things.
So sometimes you have to showthem and you have to have the
patience, because you know ifthey're messing up or whatever,
it's easy to quickly just getfrustrated and then you have
emotions escalating and thenpeople not being respected.
So that creates a lot ofproblems.
You do have safety concerns.

(23:51):
Right, there's companies outthere that obviously do safety a
lot better than others, but Ido think that safety you know
somebody gets hurt on the jobthat's their.
You know, some people are oneinjury away from bankruptcy,
right, I mean, that's just theirlivelihood and they can't work.
So what do they do now?
Yeah, so I do think thatthere's just a ton of pressure
and, like I said, if a project,most of the time projects are
behind or there's somethingthat's delayed it or something
that's causing issues, likethere's a pressure to kind of

(24:12):
get it back on, back on track,and the field is being managed,
like I said, from the office.
So there are differentstruggles and I sometimes I
don't think that theynecessarily they're not going to
share that right.
Um, you know they, you knowit's, it's just all.
We don't tell people about ouremotions, so, um, so I think
that there's a, there's aresponsibility in the field for

(24:33):
a lot of people.
I think you know, obviously,whoever's driving that project.
Most of the time it's yoursuperintendents, project
managers, to be to be mindful of, like, okay, I need to kind of
be this 360 degree leadersometimes.
Sometimes, sometimes I do needto be pushing from behind,
sometimes I need to be steeringthem from the left to the right,
sometimes I need to be in themiddle of doing work and
sometimes I need to be out frontprotecting them from the stuff

(24:54):
that's coming and you know andthat's.
I think we're seeing more andmore of that in the industry,
but it's still not near, I think, where it needs to be.
So that does create a lot of, alot of pressure when you're,
when you, when you have that,when you don't have that
mentality on a, on a job sitefor sure.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
I think also like the , you know, what makes
construction like a highpressure industry is is also the
, the fact that often adeveloper has their dream of
what this building is supposedto be and they have a huge
passion about that becausethey're going to make good money
on it or they love the designor whatever reason is they're

(25:35):
doing this, and typically it'sif they're lucky it's both of
them.
The construction is a transferof passion.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, that's really I love that phrase.
I'm still that phrase, actually.
That's great.
So, and the transfer of passionyeah, that's really I love that
phrase.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
I'm still that phrase , actually that's great and the
transfer of passion is sometimesgets so diluted at the end.
So the developer doesn't haveto do that project, whereas the
field worker sometimes has to dothat job to pay for his family
or whatever, sometimes has to dothat job to pay for his family

(26:08):
or whatever.
So if you expect that person tobe just as passionate as the
developer, it'd be great, it'dbe awesome.
But you have to level, set theopportunity for construction in
general as a whole and make itsafe enough, uh, make it uh.

(26:29):
Those people feel that they'revalued because they are.
They're the ones making itright, you know.
So I think that there's a,there's a very interesting, you
know waterfall of you know whatlittle estuaries and creeks.
And does this main bigwaterfall of passion from the
developer, does it turn on, justturn into these little

(26:50):
dribbling creeks of passion hereand there once in a while
further down the hierarchy?
And secondly, I think thatthere is an element of when
human beings need to be keptsafe.
There's an inherent hierarchythat needs to be in place.
Typical to an army mission.

(27:11):
Yeah, and not all generals aregood generals.
Some of them are just beinggeneral-like and not necessarily
inspiring their corporals to goout and take a bullet for them,
or take a bullet for theproject essentially what is what

(27:33):
it is, or risk a bullet for theproject, and I think that
that's kind of where we're atright now, where things are very
complex, is I'm not sure whatit's like.
Uh, you know in Texas whereyou're from, but you know in the
it might be like it in Austin,but where the expensive real
estate markets are, the peoplewho are building the even modest

(27:57):
condo or multifamily buildingscan't afford to buy them.
So that's going to kind of feelterrible, right, like you think
.
Oh, oh well, you know this, I'mdoing this for the, the better
off, and I'm just gonna rentforever because I don't know if
I can ever get enough money tofor a down down payment at a
thousand dollars a square footor eight hundred dollars a

(28:18):
square foot.
How am I gonna do that?
So there's that can provide asense of it's a betrayal, almost
.
It's a feeling of you know whydo I?
It's not a good start.
You know what I mean.
It's not going to feel thatgood.
So I think we're in aninteresting time where once I

(28:42):
think that the government of theUnited States and the governors
of the states, and here inCanada, the prime minister and
the premiers understand thatthese are the people who are
building our countries.
There needs to be betterprograms around.

(29:03):
They're just inherentlydifferent than other industries.
I'm sorry we can't have peoplewho are going through mental
health struggles, who are goingthrough all these things, and
the reality is that thecompanies, like your customers,
sightmax's customers they can'tkeep paying more.

(29:23):
As customers, they can't keeppaying more.
It's not this endless, you knowsupply of money, because the
reality is it just ends up inthe bottom line of how much per
square foot every time, like thecost just gets passed on.
So if you want flushing toiletson site, okay, well, that's an
extra 50 cents a square foot.
Now, okay, well, if you wantyou, you want a mental health

(29:46):
person on site in the sitetrailer all the time to be
chatting about everyone'sproblems, okay.
Well, that's another dollar asquare foot.
So the government needs to haveprograms, because we pay the
taxes anyway and if we actuallylook holistically, those
programs will create moreefficiency, we'll have more
output per minute from ourworkers and everyone will be

(30:08):
happier and everything will bebetter.
Yeah, we'll see if that works.
That's my master plan.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
That's a great plan, and I think, too, there's some
things that I've talked with Idon't know even my last role,
but even at this role, now thatI have some control over it
we've talked about, you know,what are some other ways that we
could help in that space, andthere are some opportunities for
these construction tech techcompanies to hire injured
workers from construction thatmaybe they can't do.

(30:38):
They can't do the work on thesite anymore, but they
understand the industry so wellthat they would be such a value
to a to a construction techcompany like ours or others that
are out there, because theythey've lived it, they've worked
the field.
So I do think that there's someresponsibility that we can take
, take on that as well to kindof help people when they're.
You know, like I said, they'renot able to do that anymore.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
That's really awesome , david.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
You know that's a, so it's almost like the
construction veterans, like that, correct, almost like the
construction veterans like that,yeah, and I mean because
they're, like I said, their,their, their values and
measurable.
You know what they would whenyou can, when you can have a
conversation with the prospector customer on the phone that
you've sat in their seat, it's.
It's just a differentconversation than I'm.
I'm selling you a technology orsoftware.

(31:19):
So, and there are some peoplewho have left the industry and
kind of become kind of thechampions for the industry that
are out there talking, you knowwhether it's around lean
planning or better safety.
So they're out there and wejust need to kind of help.
You know whether it would helpchampion their message or
partnering with them as well.
So, yeah, but I like your planas well.

(31:41):
You can solve the world if wecan get some of these things
passed.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
You can solve the world if we can get some of
these things passed.
So I was watching your newpresident yesterday and the

(32:05):
speech and it was prettyinteresting.
From Canada here, which hasn'tbeen conservative, to be our,
you know the republican versionof in canada here.
Um, you know, without you, youknow putting your ass on the
line here, you know gettingpolitical here, because I know
that's probably something yourcompany doesn't want you to do.
But do you think that there?
Let me put some words in your,in your mouth in a way, just so
you don't have to say ityourself I think that there has

(32:29):
been somewhat of an attack onthe multi-generational white
male.
Frankly and I don't think it'snecessarily we have to say the
word white male, just becausethat is how it's been labeled.

(32:49):
No one feels that way.
I don't know about you, I don'tfeel any different than any
other color.
That's not what I'm getting at,but it's been labeled that way.
Oh, you're a 45, 50-year-old,old-school white guy.
You don't count, right?
45, 50-year-old, you know, oldschool white guy, you don't
count.
And there I think what'sinteresting about that is those

(33:11):
people are not don't look anynegatively the other way.
They just have been attacked forno reason and they're sort of
this scapegoat of progressivismthat everyone's blamed and I
don't necessarily think that'sfair when we're at now and I
think that this speech is, Ithink some people in America

(33:32):
might be like whew, okay, well,maybe things will be back to the
way of common sense, where wecan actually breathe a breath of
fresh air, and that there won'tbe this feeling that when I go
to work, that people think Isuck and I should be replaced,

(33:53):
because I think that thatcreates a lot of animosity, that
you know there's some otherprogram that's going to replace
me, or you know I can't get ajob because I didn't tick a
bunch of boxes you know, Becausewhat I find is quite
interesting about especiallypeople who have been in the

(34:16):
construction industry, for youknow, 20, 25 years, their output
per minute and their knowledgeis so high, it's very high, you
know, and you're like, yeah,well, we don't want that person
because they don't check a box.
It's like, uh, okay, well, 1500bucks a square foot then for no
efficiency, because you gottatake you know what I mean like

(34:39):
why don't we use?
It's almost like if, if youhave a power drill, the one goes
a certain amounts of uh, youknow rpms, and then you got one
that's a lower rpm, you're like,no, let's use this lower one,
just because, what do you mean?
just because?
So I think that you know we're.

(34:59):
We're in a time now where youknow we talk about resilience
and conquering adversity andpushing through and all of this,
but if you don't feel value,you don't feel like doing that
right.
What are your thoughts aboutthat?
You don't.
You don't have to talkpolitical, no it's actually
really good.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
So I think so I think ultimately it comes down to.
There's one thing that myparents instilled in me.
You know like we grew up andyou know we weren't rich and
grew up in a pretty, prettyrough neighborhood, and one
thing my parents taught me fromvery early age is you respect
people, because it doesn'tmatter who they are, where
they're from.
You respect people, yeah, anduntil they give you.

(35:36):
Well, my mom's thing was untilthey don't give you a reason to,
but that was for other reasons.
But she's like you don't knowwhat their journey is, you don't
know what their backgrounds are.
You know you judge somebodyimmediately by where they look
or something they've said, andyou have no context.
And so I share this with myboys.
It's kind of a life lesson.

(35:58):
People will quote the Biblequite often.
I'm not getting religious, Ipromise.
People will quote the Biblequite often.
They'll take a quote, but Ialways tell my kids read.
Promise, people quote the Biblequite often.
They'll take a quote, but Ialways tell my kids read the
paragraph before and theparagraph after.
That provides the context ofwhat that quote was really
trying to say.
I said that's life If you lookat things from just a very small
snippet, that perspective getsskewed.

(36:18):
What's the paragraph before?
What's the paragraph after?
What's the context of thisperson, their personality?
We've gotten away from, youknow, civil discourse to be able
to agree, to disagree.
I think some of that's comingback, because I do think that
people did get kind of tired of,you know, things being divided
however you believed.
But ultimately, I think it justcomes down to just respecting

(36:38):
people and loving people.
And you know, even if theydon't give you a reason to love
them sometimes, that part of theresilience is, you know, even
if they don't give you a reasonto love them sometimes, that
part of the resilience is, youknow, you got to work with these
people, so we got to figure outa way to coexist, and so I
would say that I thousandpercent agree that things are.
Things have gotten kind of likeoff track.
I'm hoping that things get ontrack, but it's not going to be

(37:00):
solved by, it's not going to besolved by a president, it's not
going to be solved by thegovernment.
It's going to be solved by apresident.
It's going to be solved by thegovernment.
It's going to be solved by usas individuals.
Getting back to loving people,listening to people, and it's
just like don't get upsetbecause of the way somebody
thinks versus you.
I mean, we used to have theseconversations as kids and you
know, I like this player and youlike that player, and they

(37:21):
don't like each other.
So we're still friends.
So I think that that's wherewe've got to get back to.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
When you say that a president is not going to fix
this.
The political leaders we haveare emblematic of who we are as
a culture.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Oh, absolutely.
I'm not saying they're notgoing to have an impact.
I'm not saying they're notgoing to have an impact.
I guess my point is you know,you can have somebody like
Donald Trump up there sayingwhat he wants to, whether it's
the next president.
If people aren't open-mindedenough to say I'm a Democrat, so
I'm not going to listen toDonald Trump, or I'm a
Republican so I'm not going tolisten to the Democratic
president, whatever, that isnothing.

(38:00):
We'll just kind of stay in thiscycle of this constant turmoil.
So I think that it's yes, thecivil leaders need to have the
responsibility and help kind ofsolve some of this discourse,
but people also need to takeresponsibility to just say you
know what I'm going to lovepeople, you know and respect
people.
So yeah, so I didn't try to meanto say that he wouldn't have

(38:22):
any impact.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
I mean he wouldn't have any impact.
Would you say that things havechanged over the years in terms
of you know the typical, thetypical construction.
You know you could say bluecollar, I don't know why, but
why is blue collar?
Blue collar?

(38:43):
It'll sound like factoryworkers to me, like blue collar
was means that you, you have ablue shirt.
You have a uniform, right, it'sa uniform, yeah, which has
never been a uniform onconstruction, so I don't know
where blue collar comes from,but yeah, maybe brown collar.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
You know, one of the things I, one of the things I
think I've always appreciatedabout construction is every site
that I've ever been on, anytimethat I've been a part of, it's
been very colorblind.
I think that when you've got agroup of very eclectic, racist
backgrounds people and on thejob site, it's kind of like.
You know, I kind of equate itto playing sports.

(39:20):
My sports team was very diverseas well, it didn't matter, you
had a job to do.
Go out there and do your job.
As long as you do your job well, we got you back.
If not, you're out of the gameand somebody else is in.
I think construction is similarto that.
As long as you're doing yourjob and you're doing it well and
you're not causing problems,you're not a problem.
They don't care what you looklike, who you are man, woman,

(39:44):
whatever you have a job to do.
We have something to build, wehave something to do.
I think it's when people startto bring in just personal biases
, that's when things just kindof get off the rail.
But I think construction hasbeen pretty resilient in that
fact.
But again, you're goingproblems, you know, on some,
some, some companies, and notothers.

(40:04):
But yeah, I would sayconstruction's colorblind
typically when it comes to theproject.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah for the most part well, I thought I found, um
, you know, in in what I've seenover the past number of years,
is often where the money comesfrom can change a lot of things,
especially larger projects.
You can have politicalinitiatives knitted in with the

(40:36):
construction process.
Yeah, construction process,yeah, it could be well.
We're going to hire x amount ofdiversity for this project
because it fits the funds, esg,uh quotas yeah so it's we, and
the weird thing is is that Ithink construction is the
culture of construction on thefield level, is 100% merit-based

(41:00):
.
It is because they have to livein an inherent situation of
merit, because you either turnaround after your day's work and
you either built or erected orchanged, switched.

(41:22):
There was a physicaltransformation that happened or
it didn't happen.
It's either there or not.
It's like the proof is rightbehind you when you walk away
from your day's work.
It's not subjective whether ornot it's done.
The definition of how well itwas done, yes, but done as in
terms of you know, this is whatwe need to achieve today.
Based on the schedule, then,yes, so I think that the field

(41:47):
um kind of, has gotten into thiscultural.
They've always been ameritocracy um based kind of
society or culture on the jobsite, and what's happened is on
some of the larger projects.
You see some of this.
Well, we, you know it's notjust about merit all the time.

(42:08):
We need.
We've got some other checkboxes to deal with here, and
this is where you see this.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
This uh conflict it's ?
It's basically a conceptualconflict.
It's it's basically a conceptualconflict.
It's like when people I'vealways found this is that when
people work in an organizationand working on the job site is
the same thing is when you seesomebody who kind of sucks at
their job.
It is like a mirror.

(42:38):
Yes, because you go.
Well, why am I here then?
Why am I at this place whenthey just hire crappy people?
If they hire crappy people,then am I crappy?
Do they even care that I'm goodat what I do?
Because if they value someonecrappy, then they obviously
don't value someone good.

(42:58):
So that mirror thing makespeople think, well, maybe I
should just go somewhere else.
So there's this on the fencefeeling all the time of maybe I
should jump ship, and thatcreates a whole nother thing.
You get recruiters in now whenyou've got a tight job market.
I mean you look at la, forinstance, these la fires, this
whole rebuilding stuff.

(43:18):
You think that they're going tojust have thousands of
construction workers that arejust ready to go there, when
they've been told that they canhave shortages.
And they've also been told thatthey can't charge over what
traditional costs were.
Well, who's the arbiter oftraditional costs?
Is what I would like to say,and who also is here's.

(43:41):
I'll give you an example ofsomething that is crazy, that I
don't know if anyone's eventhought of.
You go, okay.
Well, there is the, let's say,aluminum, for instance.
Okay, the amount of aluminumthat Quebec in Canada exports to
the US.
Now the US wants a 25% tradetariff Okay, great.

(44:02):
And now LA needs to build abunch of stuff Okay.
And now that builder who?
Their aluminum cost just wentup 25% because they were dealing
with these preferred vendorsfrom whatever, and now they
can't actually charge thatbecause it looks like price
gouging.
So price gouging does not workin a dynamic uh thing where

(44:23):
you're getting materials fromall over the world and you have
the difference of um thecurrencies to deal with,
whatever shipping costs changelike, come on.
So I think that we're going tobe dealing with another whole
thing there.
Uh, in terms of you can'tcontrol the market.
Let the market do its thing, itwill work it out.

(44:46):
There's going to be bad actors,but then the good actors will
come out and the bad actors willfall by the wayside.
That's just how it goes.
But if you try and keep themout, nothing gets done.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yeah and it's been done successfully in the past.
You're right, the bad actorsare going to be few and far
between.
I do think people want to makemoney, but they're not trying to
rip people off, especially in ascenario where they're
rebuilding people's livelihoodswhen the entire community is
gone.
So, yeah, it's interesting.
You're right.

(45:18):
I wonder how many people aresitting back and thinking about
that.
I'm sure companies that aredoing work out there are already
checking material costs orthinking what are they going to
do.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
I mean maybe the labor costs can't change per
hour or whatever it is.
I mean, that's obviously thefirst thing, but the materials
is what it is right.
But it can't be like wellbefore the wildfires and
materials were this Like yeah,well, also.
Time moves forward.
Everything gets more expensiveJust in time in general, forget
about other political changes.
But so how do people you knowwith resiliency, how do people

(45:53):
bounce back from it Like, as acommunity, how do you help other
people?

Speaker 2 (46:07):
so for me I guess it goes back to you know, looking
at back to you know, respectingand loving people right.
So when you have when, so whenyou're, when you're dealing with
things, my way I've always kindof I've always dealt with it is
, you know, more than I kind ofbeen, I only keep reading
control what I can control,right.
So that and that's my attitudesometimes is a problem.
And then being intentionallycurious and helping other people
, what I have found is the morethat I am involved in helping

(46:30):
other people, they tend to wantto kind of reciprocate that and
kind of help you.
So when they see that you'regoing through something, they're
there to help you out.
And so I look at that from ateam dynamic with my team.
As they know that, you know I'vegot to carry quite a bit of the
load when it comes to thestress and stuff.
But my job is to protect them.
But they also know when I'mgetting hammered, sometimes they

(46:52):
want to step up and make surethat they protect me, and
sometimes that's just simplydoing a little more at their job
to kind of take some pressureoff, or you know.
But I also want to make surethat I'm not, you know, pushing
my, pushing my, my problems onthem as well.
So that's kind of thatself-reflection, but I do think
that you can't, you can't do,you can't do life alone.
We're not built to do thingsalone, I think.

(47:13):
Naturally, I think people wantto solve problems by themselves
and they want to work through it, but it is.
It is a lot easier to have aconversation, just a little
conversation like this, that youlearn a little nugget or
something that you know.
Maybe I didn't think about that.
James said you know what that'sgoing to trigger a different
thought process.
So for me it's I have somebodythat you can have, that you can

(47:35):
lean on, whether it's a team orjust an individual.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Um, do not try to don't try to fight through
things.
You know yourself all the time.
The uh I there was a tech CEOthe other day that that uh, that
said I don't want your realself at the office, and I was

(47:59):
like, okay, well, that's kind ofof an interesting.
I kind of see what he wassaying, but I think what it
means is don't bring your homeproblems to work.
Keep those at home, because wecan't, the home problems I.
I think this is kind ofinteresting in a number of ways,
because if you I think it's allrelative to your support group

(48:24):
that you have of friends If youhave no friends and your only
friends are the people you'vemet at work, well, maybe you're
going to, you know, ask for acoffee after work to chat with
someone, or hey, can I go to agame with you?
Or or whatever it is, and youknow the they might ask you
about.
Hey, ask you about.
Hey, did you get that stuffresolved on the weekend?
And that happens at 8, 8.15 orhappens at the coffee break or

(48:48):
whatever it is.
So sometimes there needs to beexceptions to that rule, because
it is a community of people.
So I'm wondering if some otherindustries are a little more
trite than construction.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
I would think, yeah, I think nobody wants to deal
with other people's personalproblems.
But again back to the commontheme of if we want to love each
other and respect each other,sometimes it's okay to say,
james, you doing okay today,like that's back to being
curious, like is everything okay, is there something like you

(49:23):
said?
You know, hey, want to go tolunch and just have a chat or,
after work, catch up.
I do think you need to bemindful that people go through
stuff, you know, and yeah, youdon't want to hear them
screaming at their wife on thephone at work and all that.
I understand all that, butpeople are people, right, and
we're emotional creatures.
So sometimes that is going tocreep into the work environment.

(49:44):
I think it's it's it's kind ofhaving an opportunity, having a
kind of an environment ofcommunication that, hey, it's
okay to.
You know, I need a mentalhealth day.
I just need a lot of stuffgoing on.
I just need, I just need a day,you know.
And but I think, especially froma leader perspective, you know,
and I get it as yourorganization gets big, it's hard
to.
If you have 300, 400 people youcan't be in tune to all of them

(50:06):
.
But if you train your otherleaders to make sure that, hey,
you're intentional with yourpeople, make sure everything's
going good.
If there's something that weneed to assist with or have
conversations, have an open doorpolicy that they can talk to
you about some things.
Have an open-door policy thatthey can talk to you about some
things, because if theirperformance at work suffers,
your business suffers.
If their performance issuffering because of something
personal, how can we?

(50:30):
We're not counselors, but isthere something we can do to
maybe make them feel not as muchpressure?
Because a lot of times ifthey're failing at home, they're
failing at work.
Then it just starts to kind ofsnowball.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
Yeah that's.
I can think of a few differentscenarios where you have
somebody who's typically verygood at their job and, you know,
it seems like they'restruggling.
It's sort of it'suncharacteristic of their past
behavior, and then someone says,hey, hey are okay, and they say

(51:01):
, well, I just need a day.
So I've been saying this for awhile that the mental health
that term might work in otherindustries, but in construction
it's such a heavy word forpeople to admit because it makes

(51:29):
tough people admit that they'reweaker or vulnerable or
whatever it is.
So I think, in my opinion, thatwhole thing needs a rebrand,
for construction needs adifferent word.
In my opinion, that whole thingneeds a rebrand, for
construction needs a differentword.
But let's say, you have somebodywho's very good at what they do
and, as I said, they come andthey're like I need a day.

(51:54):
I think most people will bewell, if that person gets that
day, then they're going to beable to get back to that great
kind of performance, performancethey were.
But what about another scenariowhere you've got somebody kind
of good at what they do and theygo, I need a day.
And then, okay, well, I needanother day.
And then I need another day andthe work quality is still not
great.
Yeah, what do we deal with that?

Speaker 2 (52:16):
because I think there's a lot of that there is,
and so for me also one of thethings and I I always don't like
to be big brother, but therethere's there's metrics in place
for a reason so that we canmeasure some stuff.
And so, you know, things startto dip.
There's cultural moments.
So for me I hope that, like Isaid, I'm not perfect, but I
hope that I try to identify somedrops and drop some

(52:38):
productivity pretty early sothat we can just have a
conversation it's usually acoach like is there anything I
can help you with, assist youwith?
And I would like to be pro andget back to being proactive.
I would like to think I want tobe proactive.
Before we get to that, I need aday, I need another day, I need
another day.
But the only way to do that isto have some type of measurables

(52:59):
or communication or somethingin place as an organization that
can quickly identify if there'sa drop in productivity.
Construction, it's all measuredby productivity, so you can see
the metrics, but there's so manydifferent moving parts.
Your bricklayer might be theone that's causing problems.
How do you identify that onesmall part?
So that's a little morechallenging than an office

(53:20):
environment, but for me, I thinkit's about being a proactive
leader.
You have to communicate, youhave to have some things in
place and also have to knowcapacity and capabilities of
your team, right?
And so, like you said, if theirnormal performance dips, what
is their normal performance?
So if you don't know that, howwould you know if it dips?
So it's easy to just hiresomebody and say here's your job

(53:43):
, go, and then you're off doingyour own thing.
I think you just need to beintentional with your team at
all times.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Yeah, yeah, I think definitely there's different
stratas of individuals on thejob site.
You have some highly skilledworkers that know some things
that are just unbelievably cool,like they just can go in there
and slay it.
Um, they have, they have theircore competency.
That's just they're bringing it.

(54:09):
They're basically snipers.
They come in and like, yeah, Ican nail this, and there's lots
of those people.
But you do have the others whoare.
They got their job because theyknocked on a site trailer and
they're like I need a job, I'llsweep the site, I'll do whatever
.
And sometimes those can staythere, ish, and just move around

(54:34):
companies and there's hundredsof thousands of people who are
doing those kind of jobs.
And I think what's interestingis that, unless we take care of
those people, let's just saythat they're that scenario where
they're okay at what they doand then they have a day I need
a day, I need a day, I need aday, and there's lots of that.

(54:56):
They don't have anywhere elseto fall.
And that's where I think thatconstruction is and this is
where the government can getinvolved in a positive way is it
needs to be able to empower theconstruction industry to be
able to do the right thing forsociety in that way.
Get booted out of that.

(55:18):
Where are they going to go?

Speaker 2 (55:22):
It's going to be a crappier and crappier job and
then a whole bunch of a host ofother things can be on set at
that point.
Yeah, this is where and I'm notgetting salesy on you, but I
think this is where one of myvisions for technology actually

(55:42):
comes into play, because Iequate construction technology
to very similar.
I think they've used a bunch ofanalogies.
I'll use another one.
So, like autopilot for anairplane, right, the pilots are
still doing the critical work,they're doing the takeoffs, the
landings, anything that happensin an emergency.
Technology for constructionshould be the same way.
It should do kind of thesenormalized, mundane tasks like
administrative things, and takea load off, whether it's the

(56:05):
superintendent, the projectmanager, whoever it is, so they
can do more critical things.
And if they had more time to dothose critical things, they
would be able to pay attentionto a worker that's maybe not
performing as well, being ableto identify problems on the site
when it comes to personnel.
But right now they getinundated with just paperwork
and admin stuff and reports andall this other stuff.
That's where their technologycould kind of maybe take some of

(56:26):
that off of their plate andallow them to be more
people-focused, and that's kindof one of the things that I see
technology can help in theindustry.
I'm not trying to self-plugthere, but I do think if it's
the right process, that's how itshould be.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
Yeah, that right process.
That's what that's how itshould be.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Well, that's cool, all right,so, um, yeah, what?
So?
What other?
Have you learned any resiliencelessons?
Um, by observing differentindustries?
Like what do you?
You got any like sage advice?
Did I say, yeah, I did so forme.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
So I guess for me it's.
You know, failure has alwaysbeen this word that scares
everybody, you know, and inlooking back at some of the most
successful people in history,they got there because of
failures.
So it's a.
It's a that phrase I use failforward.
I say fail quickly, and thenone of my colleagues says I like
fail forward better.
It's that phrase I use failforward.
I used to say fail quickly, andthen one of my colleagues says

(57:22):
I like fail forward better.
It's kind of the same thing.
Like you know, it's okay to trynew things and if you fail,
like, don't stop and gobackwards.
You know, fail forward andlearn from it and move forward.
So for me, you're going to havefailures.
Life is tough.
I mean, you're always going toface things.
It's how you handle them,moving forward.
I think that allows you tocontinue to grow.

(57:44):
And so to me, like I said, mynumber one motto is control what
I control, and I know that'sgoing to keep saying I should
get a tattoo, but it's so easyto say and so hard to do because
we just want to get involved inthings that we have no control
over and then we allow it tofrustrate us.
We allow it to.
You know, bring us down.
We're like wait a minute, Ican't control that part of it,

(58:06):
let me just let that go, andit's kind of freeing, and then
you have the ability to continueto move.
So those are probably two ofthe most important lessons that
I've learned.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
That's pretty cool man.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
Well, we've covered a lot of stuff and I think that
was good.
I enjoyed that.
You got a lot of great thingsto say on a lot of these
subjects, so that's pretty cool.
So what's next for you inAlicoSoft You're at in Austin
next week.
It's a one day event and thenwe've got a couple other events,
but for us it's just we'retrying to get out there and, you
know, let the, let the marketknow we're here.
I think that's probably themost important thing that
there's another solution outthere that does a lot of what
they're looking for.
And then, yeah, just keeppushing growth in the US.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
All right.
Well, that's awesome.
Best of luck to you.
Appreciate it and this has beenpretty good, so thank you very
much.
So how do people find you then?
Alicosoftcom.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
Alicosoftcom, linkedin as well.
We're on LinkedIn, yeah, sothose are probably the two best
places to reach us.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Perfect, yeah All right.
Thanks for having me.
You're welcome.
Well, that does it for anotherepisode of the Site Visit.
Thank you for listening.
Be sure to stay connected withus by following our social
accounts on Instagram andYouTube.
You can also sign up for ourmonthly newsletter at
sitemaxsystemscom slash the sitevisit, where you'll get

(59:39):
industry insights, pro tips andeverything you need to know
about the site visit podcast andsitemax, the job site and
construction management tool ofchoice for thousands of
contractors in North America andbeyond.
Sitemax is also the engine thatpowers this podcast.
All right, let's get back tobuilding.