Latest / The Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast / 020 - Justin Lazenby
Transcript
- Lazenby: And welcome into the Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast. On our way to being the world's number one concrete podcast. And if you're going to be the number one podcast, In the world you gotta have guests like this. Justin Lazamy of Thomas Concrete. Thank you for joining. Yeah, appreciate the invite. You know, surprise you're still talking to me after after that Alabama game last week. Yep, it was horrible. Hurt my heart. you wore the Georgia Bolo just to rub it in. Yeah, yeah. Well that may have been intentional. We we decided this morning we were going to choose violence. Well, if we could just get the referees to call defensive pass interference. Tyler Simmons was on sides. Well also it was third down. after the PI the non-PI call. Yeah. We still had a chance to like get in the field goal range and kick field goal. Yeah, but you still had to. So we know it was it wasn't it wasn't a game it was a game changer, but it wasn't a guarantee. And we'll see I think we'll see in National SEC Championship game. We we may play a few more times this year. Are they are they getting rid of the SCC championship? I think after twenty six it's going away. So Golly, that's I think I think I think the SEC's like, hey, we're not gonna punish our guys for for playing good competition. Which is the right thing to do. Yeah, exactly. To to lose a championship game and then that have that potentially affect your playoff. Yeah, that's crazy. A lot of times the SEC championship is the national championship. I like the way you think. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. thanks for being here. This is we're at we're live. Concrete works. You probably hear it in the background. this is my favorite trade show actually. Absolutely. I love it. I love it here. Yeah, I World of Concrete's great, Connect's great, but man, there's something about just it being only ready mix and and the vendors and how personal it is and how everyone knows everybody. It feels like home. You got a thousand, two thousand people, but these are the right people. Yep, exactly. Yeah. If you want to find the influencers for the ready mix industry. Well, it's funny. I started walking around and I was looking at like the different vendors that were here. And how many of them have Thomas concrete trucks in their advertising? Yeah, we try to we try to make sure we're we're involved. We want we want our our logo out there where we can, and it it helps. You know, the truck truck kind of stands out, so people want to want to see it. So it's a it's a positive. We don't mind. It is a good looking truck. It is a good looking truck. So you told me just before this started that some Like a fifteen thousand dollar paint job on the drum of that truck. Yeah, it's expensive. It's definitely not it's definitely not a plain white truck. So I mean it's I think the the truck manufacturers love doing it but hate doing it at the same time because it's it's probably a nightmare on their end. That's one of those prices where they're trying to get you to not do it and you're like, Yeah, yeah, sounds great. Yeah, we're going to. We'll take a hundred of But so one of the one of the things I wanna talk to when people come on here live at the Concrete Works Trade Show is finding out like what's the most exciting thing that's going on in your world right now. Man, it's it's kinda crazy right now. Nothing It's like the concrete business. Nothing stays the same for long anymore. But things are changing at a rapid rate now, so It was fun to sit in RES and not be at the front of the room so I was able to to actually say what was on my mind and things at times, which is probably not good for Bobby Dowdy and some of those guys. But but yeah, it was a lot of a lot of a lot of things, positive things happening in the industry, you know, with still fighting the stuff on the cement world. You guys are coming up with some some stuff with the calcium clays and everything. So we're we're we're moving in the right direction on a lot of stuff. Bobby will be on here later, so I'll make sure to bring up how how how painful is it to have past chairs sitting in the audience now. Yeah, yeah. They tried to give me something to do so I wouldn't be able to talk and it didn't work. Well, you were running the Georgia Ready Mix concrete ready their ch state chapter of the Ray Mix Association. Are you still doing that? Yep, yep, so still doing the technical committee for GR MCA, which is a lot of fun. You know, it's all my all my friends there, Lee Thrasher, Rick Tilson, all those guys. We worked together for for a long time. So that's a that's a plus. And you know, the NRM C A was fun, but it's a two year term and It's nice to hand it off and be able to be a little more involved with some other stuff. So but you were at ACI too. Like how many how many dang committees and conferences are you trying to be at, brother? Man, it's so so you know, I work for John Cook forever and John told me a long time ago, hey, if we want things to be the way we want them in this industry, we have to be involved. So so that really stuck with me and if you don't If you don't want academia deciding what we're gonna be held to, you don't want just the engineers to decide, then we have to be involved. So that's that's something I've taken to heart and still, you know, stay involved, stay plugged in and that way we can really you know, if there's gonna be a rule book, let's help write the rule book. No, that's great. I was just talking to the owner of our company about that and he's he said what what benefit is there going to ACI? I was telling him, I was like, you ACI happened right before concrete works. So there's some people that are not here because they've already been away from their families for three, four days and they're they want to do it again. But this you know, they do these in RMCA concrete works in places that are family friendly. Absolutely, absolutely. So it's it's nice for that. You know, it's kind of Losing your weekends challenging at times. Yeah, it can be. A you know, ACI was a little different for me being in Atlanta, so I just commuted back and forth. So I tried to work and and go to it, which was probably not as productive as I needed to be, but it it it worked. I slept in my bed, which is always nice. yeah, that's that's really nice. I last night was one of the few nights I've had a good sleep in a hotel, but I think it's because I got up I think I was awake for like twenty hours straight. And it it's hard you can go sleep anywhere when you've been awake long enough. been up twenty hours, you're gonna you're gonna sleep well regardless. I had that years ago. I actually flew from California to Atlanta, stayed home one night, went to Germany, and I slept for what felt like three days. Supposed to meet guys for breakfast, I met for lunch. Well it's even worse when you change that many time zones. Okay, you you you don't think it, but man, it hit you and it hit you hard all of a sudden. How old were you? Do you remember? it's probably been ten years ago, so I was about thirty five. Yeah, that's about the age where the time zones start to hit you. 'Cause when you're a young man you're twenty five. It doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah. It's like now I go to Vegas now for the stuff out there and it's like, okay, what are we doing? I'm actually I'm up at three in the morning, like, what are we what are we doing? What what do you problem is with Vegas, there's plenty to still get into at three in the morning. Well, for me, you know, got the little baby at home, so I'm up at he's up at five AM every day, just happy, happy. It's not like he's crying us awake. He's just awake and happy. And he's like, all right, let's start our day. And so I'm up at five AM every day and So he's so he's a concrete guy already. He's getting the first cup of coffee. He's ready to go. Yeah, he's a concrete guy. You know who's not gonna be a concrete guy? My daughter. But she did say she wants to grow up to be the secretary of war. Hey mate Hey, that's a different one, but hey, why not? I never heard Probably could do a better job than a lot of the people we've had in those roles at times. It's crazy. Yeah, well this podcast we don't go down that we don't go down that path. But that's good, man. while you're here, so you're doing the RES committee. Yep. are there any other committees that you're that you're sitting in on or helping out with? Yeah, we drop in on everything. So I sat in on promotions yesterday for a little while and then of Course we've got drivers today in the in the drivers competition so that's always fun and then tomorrow bounce around do some of the the learning sessions and and go from there. yeah, we're we're gonna be on the demo stage tomorrow. And then the best thing really maybe the best thing here is the dinner. The driver's banquet is absolutely incredible. Yeah, so the first one of these I ever went to was in Nashville a long, long time ago and they actually did it downtown on Broadway. At the Wild Horse Saloon, which was which was pretty fun and just the way they make the drivers feel. If you ever wanna talk about retention or ready mix drivers, That's a way to do it 'cause that event makes them feel so special and does such a good job of celebrating what those guys do for all the companies, which is huge. The dinner, the entrance walk to the dinners is it's like nothing you could ever if you haven't been there, it's hard to imagine that this is a concrete event. Yeah, you'll get goosebumps. I mean, like, you know, it's it's the music and the lights and the you know, the smokes arena. I mean it's it's it makes them feel like a rock star, which is what they should should feel like at that point.