Latest / The Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast / 018 - Michael Hoagland
Transcript
- CW - Day 2 - 101826: Welcome in to the Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast. On our way to being the world's number one concrete podcast. The only way you can be number one is if you have pi people like Michael Holgwin on the show. Thank you so much for being here. man, it's my pleasure. I've been, you know, I follow you like probably my most frequently listen to podcasts on my on my iPhone. my gosh, really? When I work out, when I'm driving. you're right behind Taylor Swift. That's hilarious. I really appreciate that. That's very nice, very nice of you to say. we met through the podcast. So the one that we had before this, you you came up and we just said really nice things. I really it was always it was always nice to meet people in the wild that were listening because you see the downloads, you see the views, but you don't really know the people. Yeah and so it means a lot to me when someone comes up and says, Hey, I I listen, I appreciate it. Doing a good job. I listened to you before Slump Monkeys when you were the ad tech. it was a great show. Great show. It was a great show. A lot of fun. A lot of funny stuff. That's the whole goal, right? Be smart, original, funny, and authentic. And you know, somehow I'm trying to make my way when you when when you think of Michael Hoagland, I want you to think of Michael Hoagland like you talk about Billy Ripple. Is he just the best? The best IT man in the industry, right? Yeah, he really is, because it was hard. it was hard to talk to IT guys. Right. They they weren't like really good talkers. Absolutely. And then when you meet a guy like Billy who came in a little bit by accident into the industry and then took ownership and decided I'm gonna make this better. And I'm not just gonna do it from an IT standpoint, I'm gonna do it from concrete standpoint. So he learned their business so that he could serve his internal customers better. 100%. And that to me is like the epitome of the type of people that I want. work with and the attitudes I want them to have. You know, when I was at Command Alcon, and you know, the majority of my career, Command was international. Okay. But when I came back to North America and we brought this guy named Billy Ripple in, I'm like, well, who's this Billy Ripple everybody's talking about? And met Billy, and then from that day on, any product presentation that I was involved with, Billy Ripple was involved with it. Incredible absolutely I love that. I didn't realize you guys weren't that crazy. So that that's wonderful to hear. I wish I could take him on product demonstrations for my products. Here, Billy, study this material brochure. I gotta we gotta present this too. So you spent a lot of long time, decades with Command Alcon. Yes, sir. And we just had Teddy Keller on the program. By the way, we're live at Concrete Works, everybody, in the Vince Hagen booth. And we just had Teddy Keller from Vince Hagen on. And I did not know y'all worked together at I knew he was at Command. Yes, sir. I didn't realize he worked right underneath you, and you guys were. That was really cool to hear. And I said the same thing to Teddy that I'm gonna ask you. When you decided to make a change from command, you could have gone anywhere. What made you choose Schumacher? I'm asked often. I was at command for 38 years. And and some people would say, well, you know, one, I've been at command or I was at command longer than you've been on the earth. Almost. Yeah. So which is you know, it was was it a tough decision? Absolutely. But when I met Brett Shoemaker, I actually met him at Concrete Works. Like I've known of Shoemaker, but I didn't know Shoemaker. But I met him at Concrete Works at a prayer breakfast. And he shared his story that just resonated with me. I'm like, I want to meet this guy, right? He's just, we we we just have a similar story. And we got to, you know, I met him, we said hello. I bumped into him at Paca. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where we met. That's where we met, yes sir. And we we got to talking, and then he came up to me one day and he's like, hey, I this is gonna be A silly question. I know you've been there forever, but would you be interested in working together? And you know, long story short, here I am. And what's what's interesting about that prayer breakfast, he wasn't even supposed to speak. No, he was not. I thought I know exactly what you're talking about, and he wasn't even supposed to speak, didn't and they at the last minute they're like, hey, will you get stand up and give a testimonial? Yeah. And holy cow, and here it ends up being a relationship with you at the end of it. Yep, yep. Man, that's incredible. Yeah, and speaking of Of Teddy Keller, it was actually Teddy that was that actually got me to go to the prayer breakfast to begin with. my gosh. I was even I'm like, Teddy, I'm good. He's like, come on. We're coming full circle with it. Yeah. I I'm also curious because I've I'm in sales also, with a technical concrete background, but I I do sales. And I've spent the majority of my career, so the last 15 years optimizing mixed design. So it's been one one category but you've you've made a heck of a switch here you've gone from software to hardware and you've gone from a megalith corporation structure to mom and pop business I mean your head's gotta be spinning. It it is it is is and it's an adjustment right but the the products, you know, the the way Shoemaker treats the customers. I mean, it is, well, you know, our industry is such a a relationship driven industry. And the the emphasis that we place on customer service and customer s satisfaction, customer support, and and just the ability to have references and people talking about you. You you want people to talk up talk about you behind your back like they were in front of you. Yeah. And I I've just not heard any bad stories, you know, about the the the shoemaker name, it's got a great name, great products. Always innovating and it's just been it's been refreshing, right? It's just been a breath of fresh air to work with with the shoemaker team. Yeah, and everybody that knows Brett personally has incredible things to say about him. So and that's hard to find. It's hard to find leaders of companies that you can't nobody has anything negative to say. I'm gonna I'm gonna find somebody one day. We gotta figure this out, Brett. We're running the greatest media campaign of all time. We're on to you. Yep, that's on to you. So where so where are you based out of? What do you call home? Birmingham. Alabama. are you really? Yes. Where at? I live out down 280 in Greystone. you're in Greystone? geez. Nice area, but are you a member of the Country Club? I am not a member of the Country Club. I wish, hey Brett, I wish I was a member of Country Club. Yeah. I I'm born and raised in Trustville, Alabama. I knew that. I knew that. And I do have a question for you. Please? Because I you know I typically listen to the podcast, but every now and then I'll see YouTube and behind you there's a there's a photograph a frame photograph is that the the kick six it's not it is a daniel more print okay but it's a collage of Alabama's first undefeated season under under Nick Saban. Under Saban, so an Alabama fan. It my gosh, huge huge Bama fan. Yeah and so it's a collage so you've got you know Julio Jones catching a touchdown and Mark Ingram breaking tackles and what you can't see Which you can't see on the camera of the podcast is up on the up on the wall above my monitors and cameras and stuff is a Mark Ingram practice jersey that was autographed by Nick Saban. It says roll tide Nick Saban. It's framed up on my wall. Yeah, big Bama fan. Yeah, good, good. Well I went to Auburn, but still it's I And that was a great episode. What'd you make what'd you major in at Auburn? business, business business. Business, yeah. Well. Well, I had friends that went there for engineering. Yes. And people who went there for like agriculture and stuff. And it's like, well, if you're gonna do those things and you're in the state of Alabama, that's probably the right place. In architecture school. Yep. And I was like, well, if you're gonna do those things, Auburn's the Auburn's place to go. Fair enough. Veterinary sciences, I mean those things. But so trustville, but now you're living in Philadelphia. Philadelphia. I know. We well the company that I spent the 14 years at a company called Active Minerals. Okay. We were a mining company. Of mine clay out of the Southeast United States, shipped it all over the world. And we had a specialty division, and I was the head of that division, and it focused on concrete. It was really it was a lot of fun. And when you start moving up, they want you at the corporate office. Well the corporate office was in Baltimore, which I never s like truly understood because all of our operations were in Georgia, South Carolina, Florida. then I learned the CEO's house was in Baltimore. So So the corporate office was in Baltimore. That's right. So we're in there. We weren't down in the city. We're north of Baltimore. But i but regardless, when COVID happened, they ever they said everybody could just start working from home. Which I was thankful for because I travel a lot. Right. So I was like, why am I even coming down here? I should be able to live wherever I want. I met my now wife and she had a house in Philadelphia. So with that with the office essentially closed, I moved to Philadelphia. There you go. Yeah, so it's been great. So are you Eagles fan? no, but I like when They win. So I'm not a real NFL guy. You're you're you're a SEC. I'm an SEC football guy. Yeah. I want Alabama to win every game. I was h I was semi-happy that Auburn beat Georgia. Can you believe it? I cannot believe it. I was, and to and I'm sorry, but I I couldn't believe that, and I couldn't believe Tennessee beat Alabama. I was shocked. I am distraught. I was trying to record this podcast yesterday, and in between up in between, I'm like, my god, we're losing. I'm ha I'm sitting here trying to have a conversation and freaking heart is hurting, you know. It was terrible. But congratulations on the victory. Look, you know, you know, well, no, you don't know because you're an Alabama fan. No, what do you mean I don't know? What does that mean? You don't know what it's like to be an Albert. What do you mean I don't know? No, it's tough my rear end. I I lived through high school with people telling me to fear the thumb and then fear the other hand because you beat us so many times in a row. I went through the my De Bo's era. Don't tell me I don't understand. All right, fair enough. You got me. This this is supposed to be a concrete podcast, but let's be honest, it's a Trojan horse for me to talk about college. That's right, because Auburn will will they'll break your heart. my gosh, nobody's heart gets broken. I can't believe it. But I tell you what, like the and I mean this in all sincerity, the greatest person of my lifetime, if you go back to Bo Jackson, who's probably the greatest athlete ever, came from Auburn. but the greatest football player I've ever seen play was Cam Newton in college football. Well funny Bo's Heisman year was my freshman year at Auburn. my gosh, what a time in the world is listening to Bo Jackson's stories because you just they never you just like there's no way that's physically humanly possible. Yeah and when when Cam won the Heisman I was on a flight because I you know I live in Birmingham and I I was like I said at that time I was covering international sales. So and by the way, when I die, I'm gonna fly I'm gonna fly through Atlanta when I when I am on my way to heaven. Yes, sir. And so I was the flight from Birmingham to Atlanta, I was on the flight with Pat Dye, Feinbaum. And I can't remember who else was on that flight. But were they headed to New York? They were headed for the for the Heisman ceremony with Cam. And they were sharing stories. They're like, if you think Cam's good, you should have seen Bo, what Bo could do. It's just amazing. The stories of Bo Jackson, so my my algorithm on the internet sometimes will fall into a Bo Jackson story. And I watch them all. It was just you know, the guy was incredible, but Cam, yeah, there was something special about that guy in college that's right. It just really was the greatest player I've ever Ever seen. And I don't really follow pro I mean I I watch a lot of pro football, but if I had to pick a team, it was probably the the Panthers because of Cam. Because of Cam, sure. Well, my brother did that. So even though we were Bama fans, like you knew you were watching something special with Cam Newton. And so when he went to the Panthers, he was like, I might just like the Panthers. Now I realized he was an Auburn guy, but that was the greatest player ever seen. Yeah. You know, he fizzled out in the pros or whatever, But the like the Bo Jackson soaked. I went going to high school in Trustwell. We played Macadory high school where Bo went to high school. And when you go to Macadory's baseball field, it's behind the school, at least at that time. I don't know if it's still there, but it was behind the school. And you're going like into the woods. They essentially like carved out a baseball field into the woods. It was a little bit a little bit strange. You couldn't see it from the road. You had to drive down a separate path and then you you pop out and you're like, there's a baseball field here. Like this is okay. That's interesting. And right behind the fence, you know, dead center, 400 feet or whatever it is, you know, there's incredibly tall pine trees. We're out there warming up before the game, and we're doing long toss. And that day, I was not the guy on the foul line. I was extending out towards center field as we're warming up before the game and doing long toss. There was one kid on Magadori's team that I actually knew. He went to elementary school and middle school with us, but for whatever reason, I don't know if his mom moved or what happened, but he was going to high school at Macadors. I was catching, I was out in center field, like catching up, and like, my gosh, like look, I didn't realize you were here. This is crazy. Like, okay, wow. And I looked up and just just happened to look up as I was talking to him, and something glistened off the pine tree in the top of the pine tree. I was like, my gosh, it was a reflection of the sun, hit me in the eye, and I I said, what on earth is that? And he said, you don't know about the plaque in the tree? I mean, we're talking like 40 feet in the air. my goodness. And I like, why is there a plaque in in the in the top of the tree? And they're like, Well, that is where Bo Jackson hit a five hundred and twenty-foot home run in high school baseball, and the ball hit the top of the pine tree. So they put a giant plaque up there to commemorate the longest ball anybody'd ever seen. You know, I have never heard that story. And that is a fantastic I mean, that is fantastic. Five hundred feet in height. Unbelievable. In high school. And it drilled that br it knocked a branch off the top of that tree. So they put a plaque up there. I don't even I I don't even know how they got up there. It was way up there. Yeah, but I absolutely love Bo Jackson stories and I love that you took the time to come on here and introduce yourself to the guests. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. Thank you, man. I I'm gonna put you on the spot. I hope you come on one day for a full episode. I think we should get the whole Michael Hogan's story in it. Not everybody does international business. Yeah, well, man, I'd love to. I'd love to share more and check you let me know. Okay. Perfect. That's what we're gonna do. Everybody, this has been another wonderful episode of the Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast. Look forward to bringing Michael Hoagland back another time. We're gonna get all the wild stories from the international sales find out, because not everybody does that, but I've done that, you've done that. We should swap stories on it. We're gonna do it right here on the show in the future. We appreciate you listening, and we'll catch you on the next one.