Latest / The Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast / 008 - Victor Bretting

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008 - Victor Bretting · The Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast

• current events episode 008: Welcome in to the Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast. On our way to being the number one concrete podcast in the world. The world, guys. Number one in the world. That is us. We're on the way. And part of the reason why are our wonderful sponsors. And let me tell you, Slump Monkeys is brought to you by XBE. These guys are like a whole of operation platform for the ready mix folks. Connects your dispatch, your batching, your fleet, ticketing, prices, and financials all in one platform. And look, there's software companies out there. They all make decent stuff, but is their software gonna actually make you work faster, smarter, better? This one can, because it's got something called Agent XBE. Not only is it a super cool icon, little agent XBE, his logo's freaking awesome, little laser eyes. But if you've not actually used an actual AI agent, like a real one, I'm not talking about using Chat GBT as your new Google search. I'm talking about like an actual agent that's plugged into all your files and all your systems, and then everything's connected, and you can just ask it a question. In normal language, and it just spits out an answer, spits out a report, spits out data, whatever. It's unbelievable. Now you don't have to call seven people trying to find the right person. Just type it in, agents connected. Everything gives you your answer. XBE has that. last episode, episode seven, we had the president of the Ready Mix Division, Chris Wirtz, was on. Phenomenal. If you haven't listened to that, go back, check it out. I think after you listen to him. You'll actually feel better. You'll be like, wow. Okay, this guy is in charge of this. So, me as a ReadyMix person, this is definitely a company I'm gonna want to work with. That XBE, you can check them out on the web. X-B-E dot com. Go try out Agent XBE for yourself. X dash B dash E dot com. Another housekeeping news. I want to shout out Concrete Works. We're recording this in August, and Concrete Works is in October. It is less than two months away. It is being held in Nashville, the Opry Hotel there. Love the Gaylord properties. You know, shout out to NRMCA for picking good properties to host these things at. We really appreciate it. It is very nice. really looking forward to getting down to Nashville. Five Daughters Donuts, the grand old Opry should be a good time. seeing all of our friends out there in the concrete world. I'm going to be there on behalf of my actual day job. So for those that don't know, my actual day job is putting calcy clay into ready mix concrete to lower the carbon emissions for those mixes. So working with the big hyperscalers we're located in the southeast our plants on the Georgia South Carolina line We have a new website. I would love it if you check out what we're doing. Flminerals.com. The company is fallinerals. FL Minerals. it's not.com. Ooh, I screwed that up. It's dot us. FL minerals.us. Fall Line Minerals. Check out our product, Metasphere. It's freaking awesome. There is a sustainability page on there. You can actually see how much we lower the carbon footprint. I should be doing some slump monkey stuff while I'm at Concrete Works too, but primarily we'll be there for fall line, Metasphere. I'll have a booth. Come find me. we'll talk all things concrete, all things podcast. You may hear some papers in the background. We got a lot to get into for the show. some interesting information. And then we're gonna have a fantastic guest. So Victor Bredding is on today. He is talking legacy. In the concrete world, and what do you leave behind? not only for yourself, but for your family. It is a wonderful conversation. Before we get to that, though, I want dive into an article that caught my attention from our friends over at Construction Dive, arguably the best aggregator of news information in the construction world. Construction Dive is got an article where they're quoting Honor Bon Basu. Honorban is a Fantastic. If you don't know him, get to know him. He gives the most incredible talks on economics. But you know, he can be a little hyperbolic sometimes. Sometimes I think he can be a little negative. And honor bond, I love you. I really do. You were on our previous podcast, and you were I mean, if anything, he should have told us to go away because we screwed up the first recording. We had to do it a second time. And he and he wasn't mad. He was he was totally cool. Came back a second time. We redid it. He really is wonderful. he he comes up to the a lot of the mid-Atlantic states and gives talks at the different concrete associations. If you've ever seen one of his hour-long talks, they are absolutely hilarious. They're packed with information. But his blog articles, his substack, sometimes leans a little negative. I he here's the title: Construction Backlog Plummeted to Lowest Level since 2019. January. my gosh. I mean, if if you're paying attention at all, you know that construction is oftentimes it's oftentimes a leading indicator on the economic health of our country. But so if I told you that the backlog plummeted, then we'd all start freaking out a little bit. no, that is. That is not good. but how much did it how much did it really change? Well, it changed by three weeks over the course of twelve months. Three weeks. I'm not I'm not really sure that causes us to like scream and shout and and complain. Now what was interesting is like It's been pretty steady the last 12 months. So if you wanted to steel man his argument, you would say, Well, we had a 9% drop in backlog in a single month. And she's like, Yeah, but if you expand that view out, you're talking about three weeks over the last 12 months. And I think if anything, we would welcome a little bit of catch-up on the backlog in the construction world. I thought it was super interesting that. The companies that are doing really well seem to be the data center builders. And the guys who are still doing well, but not as well, are the smaller firms. So the big guys are getting these data center jobs because they can handle them. And the smaller guys, so what's a smaller guy? Like a thirty to fifty million revenue. A bigger guy would be a hundred million in revenue and up. the big guys are doing fine. In fact, their backlog didn't change at all. but backlog in the thirty to fifty million annual revenue category, now they they did fall that that nine percent month over month, but a total of three weeks over a twelve month period. It's it's not just data centers though. To be super clear, if you talk if you actually go look at the earnings reports from the public construction companies, they'll tell you. That hey, we're not just doing data centers, we're doing infrastructure projects all over. And this is not a political show, but we sometimes mention policies. In the last administration, they did the bipartisan infrastructure and jobs act. Okay. I don't care what you thought about that administration. That that plan had money in there for like real jobs, like real construction stuff. And that's going out. So they're they're redoing train stage, like train. track crossings. I didn't know this by the way. I learned this about train track crossings. The second most dangerous aspect of trains is where they are they have like on grade or grade level tracks that cross intersections with cars. That's that's actually only the number two most dangerous like factor when it comes like number of accidents, number of deaths, you know, they're hidden passenger cars mostly, right? That that's only number two. The most dangerous aspect of these of of of the railroad is people just like wandering down the tracks for no reason, not paying attention, sleeping on the tracks, and then trains hit So interesting though, don't walk down the tracks or sleep on the tracks. And you know, don't stop your car on the tracks either. Let's let's just cover number one and number two there. So the data center projects are Rocking and rolling for the big guys. The little guys, though, and even the big guys too, they are doing a lot of these infrastructure jobs, pipes, roads, bridges, and railroad tracks. So interesting to see that there is a little bit more variety out there from big construction jobs than what you're maybe hearing top line of the news. Top line of the news is just constantly data center, data center. And yeah, we talked about them on here too. So I'm guilty of it. But at the end of the day. The backlog is still heavy. The big guys are well over 12 months of backlog. The little guys are over eight months of backlog still. And we're seeing them catch up slightly. So if go check out Honor Bon Basu's Substack, it's a lot of fun. Construction Dive has a lot of great articles. when I saw them cross, I couldn't help but bring it live to you on the Slump Monkeys Concrete podcast. I would say the Doomer headline that Honorbond gave it. Things are plummeting. I don't think that's true. I don't you know what that actually gets me into a bigger philosophical point. I don't like Doomerism. It drives me insane. The amount of people that are just doom and gloom. The market's gonna crash, the population's inverted, the blabb get out of here. We are not doomers on here. We are zoomers. We are going. Forward. We're positive thinkers. All right. Thank you for letting me get that off my chest. Construction dive. Check it out. That leads me into our next sponsor of the show, Manny Tejano over at Rocket Start. You've heard me talk about him. He was a guest, episode number five. You could also listen to that podcast if you want. Very good. He brought on some some friends. We had a great talk. Manny is literally one of the best humans I know in the space. I encourage you to go visit him at gorocketstart.com. He is a culture builder, culture warrior, and he's gonna help you get the culture right in your business. If you are an HR person, I'll be honest, I don't think any HR people listen to this except for maybe like one per I think we have one HR person that listens. But hey, if that's you, you should go call Manny Tejano. And he will hook you up. Gorocketstart.com. Reward and recognize the folks in your company. And Manny can help you get that done right. So thankful to Manny for helping us out here on the podcast. Go rocketstart.com. Let's jump in to more what you know, really my number one hobby horse, which is turning the Concrete podcast and a college football podcast, Trojan Horse, all that fun stuff. there is a college football pick'em that is live right now. I mentioned it on the show last week. If you go to ESPN, go to the college football pick'em, go to the groups and search slump monkeys. You may have to create an account. It's free. Adding joining into our pool is also free. There's already 20 people. I looked at it this morning. There are 20 people. as of the day of this recording that are already in, guys, guys, guys, listen. Join, join. It's gonna be fun. It's part of the community, and there will be prizes. Pretty sure we got a sponsor for it. We got a meeting tomorrow about it. We'll see how things shake out. a sponsor with prizes. You're gonna want to be locked in. Please, please, please go have fun with us on the college football pick'em. If we do a trophy along with the prize, what do you guys think the trophy should be? Like I originally thought like maybe we do like a wanna maker style, you know, pass it around, but maybe we I don't know, maybe that because if we do it every year, you know, that'd be a lot of fun to have all the names inscribed every year. don't know if that's the best move though. Maybe we just do like a one time like you want it this year. What and what would that look like? send me some ideas. I'd I I'll take all the ideas. My creative, my creative juices only run so far. Especially on a day like today. You know, I don't want you guys to always to to hear and think like, man, Paul sounds down today because he must not feel well, which is what I am right now. I don't feel 100%. but this is my flu game, the Jordan flu game. Gotta bring it. The show must go on. And we're gonna go out and score 45 points on him. speaking of college football, preseason rankings are out. And There are there's people who love the preseason rankings. There's people that don't like preseason rankings. They think they're worthless. They think in fact it actually makes the college football season worse because you know, if if the guy you were playing against was ranked highly in week one, but it turns out like six weeks later he's not even ranked because their team is terrible, which kind of got credit for those wins early on. And it I I see arguments on both sides, but we're here because it's fun. This com this Podcast is about fun. And I like having fun with the preseason rankings. I went and did a little bit of research. How many teams last year do you think started the year ranked, but then ended the season not ranked? That number would be 12. 12 of the 25 teams that started the season ranked ended up not ranked. And you might say, Well, Paul, is that you know, teams eighteen through twenty-five that were, you know, just sort of thrown in the back, did they just fall out? No. Well, some of yes. But no, it's evenly dispersed throughout. So six of the top thirteen fell out and six of the bottom twelve fell out. Forty eight percent of the teams that started the year ranked last year finished the year not ranked. So, well, is that an outlier? What do the other seasons look like? Take the average of the last four seasons, 2022 to 2025, exactly 48%. 48 out of 100 preseason AP top 25 teams fall out and are not ranked in the final AP poll. So what does that mean? What does that mean? Well, it means we look at the 2026 preseason poll, and there's 12 people on here that ain't gonna make it. And that Is a fun exercise to think about. So last year, Penn State opened up at number two, Clemson number four, LSU number nine, Arizona State eleven, Illinois twelve, and South Carolina thirteen. None of them made it at the end. Florida started out ranked fifteenth. See ya. Gone. And when you look back at Florida season, you kind of laugh and think, wow, they were ranked fifteenth. Like who did that? Who thought that was a good idea? But I mean, DJ Lagway, people thought he was gonna great. And turned out I don't know if it was him or the staff, you know. We'll see. See how he does it, Baylor this year. then you see the people that jumped up. So Indiana started twentieth, finished number one. Ole Miss started twenty-one, finished number three, and Texas Tech started the season number twenty-three in the preseason poll and vaulted to number seven. final poll. So who's who's going to be these teams this year? Who are the teams ranked that are going to fall out? And if I had to just go through here and say the teams I like and don't like, it becomes pretty easy. Number four in the preseason 2026 preseason poll, Notre Dame. Chalk them up is not ranked. I don't get it. I do not get the love For Notre Dame. They lost both of their starting running backs from last year, which were their best players. Their quarterback, sometimes he looks good, sometimes he looks like he doesn't know how to read a defense. And I've seen him make too many plays that I don't want him starting for me. I know that. And when I lay out their offensive line ain't what it used to be, their defensive line ain't what he I just don't see it, man. I just don't see it. I think the Golden Domers, if I had to bet, They're gonna start at number four and they're gonna end up not ranked. Texas AM, number eight. There's not a world that you tell me my starting quarterback is Marcel Reed, and I'm going into the season thinking, yep, this is gonna be a great year. Not a chance. Unranked. Let me keep going down this list. Texas Tech at number twelve is interesting. I'm not sure how good they actually are, but they're playing in a conference that's not that good either. So at the end of the day they're gonna win a lot of games. So let's put a little asterisk by Texas Tech and say we'll see. And they got the benefit of winning a b an easy flipping schedule. number thirteen, Alabama. I it's preseason rankings used to be a lot more fun when we were ranked number one every year and you were wondering like who was gonna put us down at three or four because they were haters. But really we all knew Nick Saban's teams are the best. And we're ranked thirteenth. And I think anybody that's watched Bama over the last three years could see that they have a chance of being a top three team. And they're always in danger of falling out of the top 20 because it just seems discombobulated. Now, we don't know who the starting quarterback is. What's the old saying? If you have two quarterbacks, you have none. I don't know how true that is. I d I think I think the coaching staff's in a weird situation where they asked Austin Mack to follow them from Washington and he waited his turn. He's been in the system for like four years. The guy's a freak of nature and they're saying, like, yeah, it's your season, man. It's your turn. But right behind him is a five star superstar, Keelan Russell. And I think if you watch the two side by side, you say Keelan's the better player. But are you going to be loyal to Mac instead? And what does that do to the team dynamics when the team knows who the better player is? But the better player's not playing 'cause favoritism? Whew. I I don't know. I don't know. That makes me nervous. but when I watch the scrimmages, it looks like our receivers can finally catch the ball again, so that's good. keep going. Teams that are gonna be that are currently ranked but could easily find themselves unranked. Penn State at 18, get them out of here. 19 SMU, get them out of here. 20, Tennessee. I don't think it would be Tennessee's fault. Have you seen Tennessee's schedule? I think Tennessee has the talent. I think their coaches are fine. I think their schedule is insane. And if they went seven and five, I I don't know how mad you are. I think they literally are going through a murderous road this year. So Tennessee, I think football for me is better when they're better because Bama and Tennessee is a fun game. But I mean, if they're if they fall out, so so be it. Houston and Missouri. Houston's at twenty three, Missouri's at twenty five. They could easily get out of here. And Louisville's at 24. Now that's one of the teams. Talk about teams that are moving up. Let's be paused it for a second. Louisville's at 24, but I mean, are they the second best team in the ACC? Probably. Do they have a chance to go through their schedule and push their way up through these rankings? I do think so. number 14 is Southern California. What do you do with Southern Cal? Do we does anybody really know if they're any good or not? Are we just. Looking at that helmet thinking they are, looking at their coach thinking they should be. But will they live up to the hype? They've got a decently difficult schedule. But some of those teams come to them in Los Angeles. So if they can turn around, they could be another mover and shaker. But that's your stat of the day. Forty eight percent of the teams in the preseason ranking will no longer be in the preseason ranking. And so we gotta keep a watch out for that. But you know who is someone that did stick around? It's our next sponsor. Command Alcon, they've been here for 50 years as a software company. Think about that. A software company in 1976, like how many were there? It couldn't have been that many, right? And then to stay in your same vertical in the same service, the same industry for 50 years, how many of those are left? The answer's four, by the way. They're the only one in construction. There's only four companies like them in. All of the United States. We thank them for being here with us. Please visit them at commandoutchon.com to celebrate 50-year anniversary. They've been making batch plants hum for how long? Forever? They've been through it all, man. They went from, hey, we all have to have servers on-prem to hey, we got to move everything to the cloud, to hey, we got to connect everything together. And they want they know how to do it. If you're looking for somebody specific to contact, do me a favor, call Billy Ripple LinkedIn. Billy Ripple. Connect with him there. Tell him you heard about it from Slump Monkeys. You want to see the new stuff they have. I highly encourage you to do that. They are a customer focused company. Ron Carlson was on here, episode three. Love that guy. He's incredible, right? you could call him, call Billy Ripple, the greatest IT guy in concrete. And get squared away. Commandoutchon.com. Thank you so much for them. If you're thinking about being a sponsor on the show, you better get in quick. All right. I don't like to brag, but we have a tremendous amount of support on the advertising side of the show. When I started it, I couldn't have told you that was going to happen. I wanted to always have. Ads on our previous podcast because the community was so tight knit. And I wanted them to participate in some way and show, like, hey, we're connected here. We're a part of this. And we're all in it together. And if you were attached to our brand, then that meant you were someone who takes concrete seriously, but you don't always take yourself too seriously. And we're going to be smart, original, funny, and authentic. And this show is going to be a place to share those ideas and build that community. And we were able to do that with the new show. The ads are almost sold out for the entire year of twenty twenty six. Right now, today, as we're recording, December has some spots open. I don't know that that's gonna hold. talking with someone right now, I think they're gonna grab it, but right now December is open, January is taken, February is open. All right. So if you're thinking about being a part of the movement, a part of the community. Highly encourage you to send me an email. Admin at slumpmonkeys.com. That's M-O-N-K-E-Y-S.com. Admin at slumpmonkeys.com. We can partner together. December is the next opening. That may close. so February could be the next opening. We've got some super interesting partnerships that are likely going to happen. I'm so excited. There's so many fun things in the works. I cannot wait to announce them all. and I mean, I just it's incredible. I when you start these types of shows, you don't even know if anybody's gonna listen, man. And then to go from not just listening to partnering and the support, it really means a lot. It means a lot to me. Just thank you guys so much. There is one more college football topic I wanted to touch. So forgive me. For two college football segments and only one concrete segment. But Victor, it's a concrete guy coming in for the interview. Absolutely fantastic. So we'll get back to the concrete stuff. I was looking at the Heisman contenders list. So the odds are out for the 2026 Heisman, they're all quarterbacks. You know, one, two, three, four, five top six are quarterbacks. Number seven, you have to go number seven on the list to get to the first non QB. and that would be Jeremiah Smith, wide receiver at Ohio State. I think we'd all agree he might be the best player in college football right now. But when it comes to the Heisman, they pretty much always give it to a quarterback. Number one on the list, number one and two, they're tied actually, CJ Carr and Arch Manning. Bro, I don't I don't know who maybe maybe somebody poisoned my CJ Carr Kool Aid, as I mentioned earlier. I don't even know if they'll finish the season ranked. I just don't get it. The Notre Dame stuff, I just doesn't make any sense to me. And I like, you know, I was a Notre Dame fan growing up. I was raised Catholic. And it I I liked Notre Dame. I just don't see it 2026. and then Arch Manning, fine. You know, wasn't great at the beginning of last year. He figured it out. Trinidad Chamblis, Ole Miss gonna be a great college quarterback. Dante Moore, Julian Saiyan, and Darien Minsa from Miami transferred from Duke. So that's kind of the order there, top Heisman contenders. And I started thinking about it. I was like, you know, when we were growing up, so I turned 40 next year to give you just to sort of to peg where my college football fandom, you know, sprouted from. So the early nineties, I don't remember the Miami teams of the late 80s. I only saw highlights. The early nineties, the Florida, Florida State was just crazy. The the Miami, I'm sorry, the Nebraska teams of the mid-90s, crazy. Peyton Manning was the greatest signal caller I ever saw. I hate to, I mean, I hate to admit that, given he played at Tennessee. and then growing up into the 2000s as well. And what I remember is that if you won the Heisman Trophy, like you were terrible in the NFL. and I was so I'm looking at the Heisman Contenders list, and I'm like, if I was gonna put money on one of these guys to win, it's somebody that's gonna be awesome in college and terrible in the pros. so give me Trinidad Chambliss as my front runner there. But you know, so I'm laughing about that. I actually was thinking about that. I was walking the baby, pushing the stroller around the neighborhood at 7 a.m. And he loves being outside. So if he's if he wakes up happy, like I want to keep him happy, then we just go outside. So I'm pushing the stroller around the neighborhood. We're going down the sidewalk, and I'm thinking about this. I'm like, you know what? All the Heisman trophy winners, they stink in the NFL. And I went and looked at like the last 25 Heisman winners, 26, from 2000 to 2025. And you look at the list, and from 2000 to 2014, that statement of if you're you win the Heisman, you're terrible in the pros. That holds true like 90% of the time. So Chris Winky, terrible. Eric Krouch, terrible. Carson Palmer, I mean, he started, but is anybody like looking back saying, man, that was the that he was great. But you know what? He played several years, so we'll put him in the good column. Jason White, Matt Leinert, terrible. Reggie Bush, I mean, was he really he wasn't the guy from college that won the Heisman? And, you know, he got to the pros. He had a couple decent seasons, but he wasn't. The guy. He wasn't the guy we saw at USC, which was arguably the greatest player any of us admire or have ever seen. Troy Smith, do you even know who that is? Does anybody do you know who that is? Troy Smith, Ohio State quarterback, won the Heisman in 06. People don't even know who that is. Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford. I mean, these these guys had like one good season. They didn't even get a second contract. Mark Ingram the second, 2009, Alabama running back. He was in the league a long time. Is anybody gonna say he was a superstar? I mean, how many Pro Bowls did he make? I don't know. All pro, I don't the zero. Cam Newton? Nah. Robert Griffin the third. His his best traits stir in the pot on Twitter. Johnny Manzel? Nope. Jameis Winston? Well, look, we all love Jameis, but nobody's it's great that he's been in the league 10, 15 years, but nobody's looking at him as the franchise. Been a backup the whole time. And in 2014, Marcus Mariota. Again, journeyman backup. These guys were number one in college football, the greatest players in college football from 2000 to 2014. And we had one person as a quarterback who has had many years in the league, Carson Palmer. We have one running back that had many league years in the league as a starter, and that was Mark Ingram. Does it two out of those 15? But something happened in 2015. Switch flipped. Derrick Henry won the Heisman. Dude's been incredible. Lamar still playing. That was 11. This is 11th season. Lamar Jackson in 2016. Incredible. Still playing. Still starting. Derrick Henry starting. Lamar Jackson still starting. Baker Mayfield, 2017. Bit of a slow start, but he figured it out. Down at Tampa Bay. Crushing, still starting. Twenty eighteen, Kyler Murray. Started since day one in Arizona, then got traded. He's now at the Vikings and he was just named the starter in his first year with the Vikings. 2018, still starting. 2019 Joe Burrow. 2019 LSU quarterback. That might be the greatest team of all time, by the way. when they played Bama, that was one of the first games. 2019 is one of first games where like I wasn't sure either defense could stop either offense. It was crazy. And I remember all those years laughing at the Big 12. Because you'd see Baylor versus Texas Tech and the score would be 52 to 49. You're like, ha ha ha, they can't play defense. They stink. They ain't played nobody, Paul. but then we watched Bama and LSU do the same thing. We're like, it wasn't poor defense. The conversation was, wow, these the most amazing offenses of all time. And if you go look, I think every single player on the field went pro. so 2019, so that was 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 2020. Devontae Smith absolutely crushing it. With the Eagles twenty twenty one, Bryce Young starting for the Panthers, Caleb Williams, twenty twenty two, Jaden Daniels, twenty twenty-three, Travis Hunter, twenty twenty-four, and for man Fernando Mendoza, twenty twenty five. We'll see is how his rookie season pans out. But that's crazy. How it it's crazy we went from nobody was gonna be any good if you won the Heisman to you're playing in the league guaranteed ten years as a starter. If you win the Heisman that started in twenty fifteen. Just just fascinating stuff. So, you know, this year's Heisman winner, are they gonna be this tenure pro? Or are they gonna be the guy that you know, fun to watch in college, but when he gets up into the big leagues, he just falls apart. I think it'd go either way. And I just root for fun. I just want I just want everyone to have fun. And above all for the Alabama Crimson tide. To bring home the national championship. And that concludes the current events portion of this episode. I hope you will join me in giving a warm welcome to Victor Bredding for the interview portion of our show. Paul Fendley: And welcome in to the interview portion of the Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast. Today we have the legend himself, all the way from only Texas. Victor Bredding, thank you so much for joining the show. Victor Bretting: And I appreciate you having me on, sir. Paul Fendley: Yeah, no pr no problem. you and I were strangers before a couple of weeks ago. And gosh, that I always have an introduction call just to make sure somebody's not being crazy. but man, we we just hit it off. It's been an absolute pleasure getting to know you. Victor Bretting: I appreciate it. You know, the surprise connection for me, you know, was back in Middle Tennessee State. You know, realizing that, you know, I've been a part of that program, you know, at least far as recruiting like twenty five years ago and to and to realize you were a grad and alumni, man, I was kinda excited. Paul Fendley: Mm that was great. So I I entered the program in two thousand six. So it only been started for a decade. It only been six years since you had your first graduates. got out in twenty ten. It it was the greatest decision, probably the greatest decision I've ever made in my life was not just joining the program, but then taking advantage of everything that it offered while I was there. Victor Bretting: No, it's it is a great program. You know, Heather Brown and just was such a wonderful person, you know, as being director of the, you know, of the program. And, you know, the biggest problem I had back then was just keeping the my recruits here. You know, they'd might stay be in Texas three to four years but then go back home. So I that was where I was all excited when you know, when Texas State, you know, started their own program because then I had local people that, you know, would stay. So it it's been a great legacy. Yeah. Paul Fendley: We had the same issue in Tennessee. So a lot of the kids that went to the Middle Tennessee State program were in or from the area, from Middle Tennessee or West Tennessee. And then they would come and then they didn't want to leave. Like they wanted to graduate and they wanted to go work for a local contractor. Local contractors were full. Your best opportunities were to go somewhere else. I've told this story on the podcast before, so the die hard listeners will just have to forgive me. But I'm kind of thankful that was a lot of people's mentality. Because that got me my first job. I got arguably the most coveted internship in, you know, twenty ten. And you know, the market had crashed. So there weren't a whole lot of good internships floating around. A lot of people working for free that summer. And I got I got a good one, but I was their second choice. the guy who they chose ahead of me just he didn't want to leave middle Victor Bretting: Yeah. Paul Fendley: didn't want to leave his family. And I was like, Kansas City, Missouri sounds fun to me. Victor Bretting: It's a new experience. Let's go, bro. Yeah, yeah, I'm on. Paul Fendley: That's right. It's like you're paying wonderful. That's it. And while I was there, worked my tail off and did my best. And when position came open that summer, they offered it to me as an intern. And you know, Bob's your uncle, here we are. Victor Bretting: No, it's it it's great. You know, I was one of two or three that helped recruit the first eight students into the CIM program there at Texas State and ended up hiring two or three of you know, through time. You know, it's it's a it's a great thing 'cause that you know, having somebody that understands concrete coming out of school is important, right? I used to tell every single graduate, you know, that I hired, I'm gonna have to teach you ninety five percent of what you don't know. Yeah, you got a great background on understanding how to write and all this other stuff, but I have to teach you concrete. So y'all coming out of that program already having 20 to 25% behind you, to me that was just a solid positive. Paul Fendley: Huge leg up. Again, I think you kind of get out of it what you put in it in into it. So for me, I did a lot of mixed design work there in the lab. And so when I came out, I didn't realize coming out how much I I knew from an academic standpoint that other people didn't know. But because when you get immersed in it, you realize like, my gosh, I don't know anything. I thought I knew stuff. Victor Bretting: yeah. Paul Fendley: I don't know anything. But as you as you get comfortable, you're always like, okay. Like, so these people don't actually know why this. mix is behaving the way it's behaving. Like that's what I got hammered into me by Dr. Wang or or you know Fox was you know, whoever it was that was hammering these things into your brain, John Huddleston. And and now you're able to put it to use. I think it also helped folks listening right now to know your background in concrete. It's not just being a patron and helping kick off the CIM program at Middle Tennessee State, kicking off the one at Texas State. but you out there, you were in the trenches for a long time. Maybe tell people your background with Baker and everything after that. Victor Bretting: No, no, I appreciate that. Yeah. I I literally started truly as a water boy on a nuclear power plant, you know, when I was nineteen years old and, you know, worked my way up through and was within six weeks I was like a labor foreman and then within a year and a half I was a Labour General foreman and then I kind of you know, looked around and realized, you know, you're old enough to realize labor's not a craft. You know, you're not gonna go anywhere Paul Fendley: Ha ha ha. Victor Bretting: here, Victor. It's not really a craft, right? And I got lucky, you know, again, I always say God looks out for me in the right way. And you know, there was I we lost our superintendent. Well, superintendent from a basco came in, and he was actually the superintendent over labor and the finishers side of the thing. So I conned my way into letting him become a a foreman over the prep. So I was doing all the sand blasting and water blasting of all the construction joints, and then he moved me up into a vibration foreman, which we were doing all the vibration of the walls and outside shell of the containment, and and then you know conned my way up again into being a finishing foreman. So at least when I left that. That that nuclear power plant I had a trade, you know, I I had a profession. And from then it was just working your way up. Superintendent, project manager, got with Baker, got the opportunity again to to start running operations for them in the Southwest region. And yeah, I I have a I have a lot of people to thank 'cause, you know, my saying always is you have to be at the door when the door opens, but somebody's got to open the door and you know, Baker and Dan and Mike Schneider and Joe Schneider and all the people that are the founding members pretty much of Baker Concrete, you know, helped me in my career. Paul Fendley: When I was at Lafarge, they used to they had like some kind of program where they wanted to lay out a a development roadmap for you and say, All right, right now you're, you know, concrete technologist in a laboratory doing mixed designs, but like where do you want to go? Where where do you see yourself? Bro, I had no idea. I was like, I I don't even know what jobs are out there. So if like for me, you're saying you gotta be ready to walk through the door, but somebody needs open the door. I always just thought, do the absolute very best at whatever it is you're doing. Soak up everything around you and then when an opportunity comes, like you'll be ready to take that opportunity. That's actually served me pretty well in my life. I know you've done a lot of reflecting on your life. Are there any other any other maxims about hard work and opportunity that you've seen come true through the concrete space? Victor Bretting: It it's a it is a pretty simple thing. Anytime you're in the construction industry, we're doers. You don't sit on the couch and you don't tell anybody, right, you know, my leadership style's always been you lead from the front, not from the back, right? So you gotta be in with the troops. Well, if you're gonna lead, the only way you get respect out of your team is not to make them do it twice. In other words, I made a mistake, now let's go redo the forms and put it in. So to me when when I'm when I'm sitting there looking at hiring all the people out of school, I was looking for that work ethic. So what was I looking for? I was honestly looking for kids that had worked their way through school, had to pay their own. I was looking for the vets that came out of school that already had a tradition and understood what it meant to be, you know, part of a team. I'm looking for the farm boy, you know, the guy that has to work, get up at six o'clock in the morning, milk the cows, and go. So I'm looking for the doer in life. And to me, it's really simple. Construction has been good to me for only about three different reasons. You need a little common sense, you need to have a work ethic, and you need to care. And especially in today's time, if you have those three things, somebody will pick you. up and open that door for you because it is a rare breed nowadays to have those people that really want to get off the couch and work instead of you owe me li you hand it to me. So it's not that hard. Construction is a great field and I think I think thank God I've done very well in this industry for a lot of people that help me. Paul Fendley: You know, you called it being builders. I like the phrase I've heard before, which concrete guys are makers, not takers. And I I think that exemplifies the folks that are in in our industry really well. And when you're one of those people, you tend to surround yourself with more of those people. I think it ends up becoming a nice almost like a brotherhood, almost like a fraternity. It's a this industry is a lot smaller than you think it would be. Victor Bretting: you'd be surprised how many people that I have met, I mean, across the seas on a on a river cruise and found out that he worked for Lafarge and he knew my, you know, my father-in-law, and then he knew Joe and he knew Pete. And it it is a lot smaller world than than what you think. Because we are a brotherhood. You know, I've I've always said I was too dumb to get a concrete, so I stayed in it for fifty years, you know. So, hey, here we are. So we are a brotherhood. Paul Fendley: That's hilarious. My the last guest on the show said I accidentally fell into it. I didn't I didn't know what I was getting into, but now I don't know anything else. So I guess I'm here. Victor Bretting: Well, I'll I'll give you a quick story about falling into it, right? So I lost my scholarship and came home with a one point six GPA and and University of Texas decided they really didn't want me at a one point six. So right, I'm sitting on my couch for my mom's couch, right, for a couple of weeks. And my dad had passed away when I was sixteen, got divorced from ten, so I really wasn't raised with a father. So mom comes in and I see her wheeling my you know, my briefcase down the I'm not briefcase, sorry, my luggage down the hall, going, okay. So then she comes back and said, Hey, can I have your car key? keys. Well, mom maybe needs some gas or something, right? Well twenty minutes later she comes back and said, Can I meet you outside? I said, Yes, ma'am. Well she handed me my car keys, handed me twenty bucks and tell me where you land. What what do you mean? I got your little brother and little sister to take care of. I'm not taking care of you. So I got a buddy of mine that needed to work because he had to pay for college next year. We ended up at their Bay City at that that nuclear power plant. I'm there on my seventh day and the hiring manager comes out to me and said, Son, you can't stay here. I said, sir, I have no choice. I said, I'm out of gas. I'm down to bread and water and cheese. And I said, the only way you're gonna get rid of me is to hire me. So come Monday morning, he hired me, looked me in the eye, and he said, Son, if you ever disappoint me, you're not gonna like the outcome. So there is Victor's construction career starting. I broke Paul Fendley: my gosh. Falling into it, you broke down into it. Victor Bretting: yeah, I wasn't going anywhere. I mean, I had to walk to get to where I was gonna go, so you know. Paul Fendley: What a what a tough lesson for mom. I mean, looking back on it now, you can say, like, I'm glad she did that. But how'd that feel in the moment? Victor Bretting: In a moment you're lost. I mean let's face it, you know, but again I told you I kinda I was not raised with a dad. So I watched my mom work sixty, seventy hours a week to take care of our family and she never she never cried, she never whined, you know. So that's where my tenacity came from. That's where my ambition, that's where my drive came from was watching my mom because she never gave up and she never let in there was a problem. You you know, w we're from Texas, right? So cowboy up. You you get bucked off the horse, dust your pants off, boy, and get back up. So that's to me is the tenacity it just takes to be in our business. 'Cause you know what? We're gonna make a mistake. You stay in this business because you didn't make it twice. Nobody ever said you're not going to make a mistake because I've made millions for people that have probably hired me and employed me. Paul Fendley: The only lessons I learn are the ones I learned the hard way. Victor Bretting: my nose should be really sideways as many times as I've hit it against the wall, but hey, that's another story. Paul Fendley: man. you know, I grew up my parents also divorced when I was ten years old. I may have been may have been eleven. It was it was around that age. I was in fifth grade and you know my parents said, Hey, we're we're splitting up. Dad's gonna go live somewhere else. And, you know, I actually had one of the greatest fathers during childhood. Like going from, you know, age zero to To 10 or even 13. I'm not sure anybody had a better father than I did. And I mean that. Seriously. alcoholism got him though. It really really messed his mind up. It's like my parents split. It was I I was thankful. I was like, thank God. All the fighting at five thirty in the morning. Finally Victor Bretting: Yeah. Yeah. Paul Fendley: over. Thank the Lord. You know, and they were like, Really? Victor Bretting: That's tough. Paul Fendley: That's your reaction to this news? I was like, Yeah. Like I got I'm I have things to do in my life and this and and this was me saying this at like eleven years old, so I'm sure I sounded ridiculous. But I was just so I was just so thankful. But yeah, my dad worked in construction and he'd come home. We were in Alabama and he'd come home, it was a hundred and four degrees outside all day, worked his tail off. The minute he walks in the door, drops his tool belt on the ground, he was outside throwing the ball with me. And he wasn't a baseball player. but he knew that was all I cared about. And we'd do it every single day after work, never any excuses, just yep. Love you, son, let's go. You know, a lot a lot of pride and then it was single mom after that. So I'm I feel you, man. I I watched some I watched my mom work really, really hard. She ended up going to sales and Victor Bretting: Mm. Paul Fendley: she was a pretty good salesperson. So she was able to make a living, at least enough to keep a roof over our head. And yeah, we didn't have a lot more than that, but you know, we we got by with a lot of love in the house. Well that's like, you know, I I Victor Bretting: Well, you know, my mom was that way. You know, I were I remember she she managed the Kentucky Fried Chicken for all of her life, Paul Fendley: Yeah, that's humanity can take a bench from the current call. Victor Bretting: you know. So I can tell you right now that whenever I left home, I didn't eat chicken to get until I was thirty two. So there you go. Paul Fendley: Yeah. Yeah. man, that's so funny. So I still can't I still can't eat instant ramen to this day. And Victor Bretting: There you go. Yep. Yep. Paul Fendley: I can't and that it's not my mom's fault. That was my fault. that was that was freshman year of college when I didn't understand the value of a meal plan. And I Victor Bretting: Mm. Paul Fendley: thought, wow, I I have three hundred and fifty dollars. Like this is great. Like I I'm every day I'm just in the cafeteria just getting lunch, not thinking anything about it, not going crazy, I'm not buying other people food, I'm just eating it. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, just eating normal stuff. That lasted four weeks. Three hundred and fifty dollars lasted four weeks. Well, I had another four months to go and no money. So I literally ate instant ramen every meal for months and months. I can't even I can't even look at it now. Victor Bretting: Yeah, you understand that bread, water, and cheese thing. Paul Fendley: Yeah. man. Well, if we're swapping if we're swapping horror stories, I got one more for ya. Victor Bretting: All right. Paul Fendley: when I left Lafarge in twenty twelve and was hired into a company called Active Minerals, where I spent the last fourteen years, they moved me down to Georgia. They said, Yep, come on down here, we'll pay you just you know, so I got like a ten percent raise over what I was making at Lafarge, which wasn't really all that much, but I was happy for the new opportunity, happy to get down south. They paid to move everything, but I didn't know anything about anything. So I got my townhouse in place. I was renting a townhouse in a defunct neighborhood. So like they built a ma majority of the houses, but then the economy crashed. Victor Bretting: Mm. Paul Fendley: So the development never finished. There's no clubhouse. The the parking lot's a absolute mess. But I mean the p townhouses that were finished were nice and they were renting them for dirt cheap, which is what I did. So Victor Bretting: Yeah. Paul Fendley: I got I got into this. into this townhouse and I was like, Great and I called the delivery people and I said, When are my stuff coming? I'm here. They said, Yeah, we'll see you in like four to six weeks. And I said, No, Mayflower, I I'm here. Victor Bretting: Mm. Paul Fendley: I need my things. Like, no, we'll see ya in four to six weeks. And I didn't realize then. I was a young guy, didn't really realize a lot of things. And I had spent every dollar I had. I had to turn on the electricity and the water, get the internet set up, the deposit on the townhouse, the rent, first month's rent on the townhouse. Victor Bretting: Yeah. Paul Fendley: I was down to nothing. I had like 60 bucks in the bank. And I bought a twenty dollar air mattress, a two dollar pillow, and bread and like ketchup and mustard. I was eating ketchup and mustard sandwiches until I got well, no, I had a Victor Bretting: gosh, you're worse than me. Paul Fendley: I had a townhouse. I had a place to sleep. You know, you were I had people who believed in me and my my mom didn't kick me out of the house. So no, I don't think I'm more any worse. But yeah, man, I feel you on like the bread and cheese thing, man. I was Victor Bretting: yeah. Paul Fendley: that was a rough like month while waited on paychecks to roll 'cause your pa first paycheck doesn't roll in for like almost a month. I'm like, man. Victor Bretting: no. Yeah. Mine was a couple of weeks and I remember that the first thing I did is go get a damn steak. it was the best steak I ever had in my entire life. Probably was the worst steak I ever had, but it is the best steak I ever had in my life. It was so good. Paul Fendley: my gosh, I bet that was good. yeah. What did I do? my gosh, that's a good question. What did I don't think I did I don't think I did anything. I was I think I got a better pillow. Victor Bretting: A well yeah, two dollar pillow. You might as well use that little air thing that you go in the pool for or a little noodle underneath your neck. Paul Fendley: Well it was Yeah, probably. Yeah, it was a little Walmart special, man. You just had to get in, get out, get on with life. Victor Bretting: hey, you made it. That's what counts, man. Perseverance, right? Perseverance. There you go. Paul Fendley: Yeah, but I wonder I think a lot of people have those stories. At least I th I think they do. I I don't know. You know, I I assume everyone else has those stories of like when you're getting started. And that's one of things about like the world today when people want to complain like they don't they don't have a lot. And I'm like, yeah, no, I don't think any of us did starting out. And you work for it and you Victor Bretting: No. No. You work for it. Mm? Paul Fendley: work really hard and you do your absolute best. And I mean, I I don't know how many years I went to work, went home, exercised, went to sleep. Victor Bretting: Yeah, absolutely. Paul Fendley: Went work, went home, exercised, went to sleep a long for a long time. There were no vacations. I didn't we we talked about I Victor Bretting: No, no. Paul Fendley: didn't have anything. Victor Bretting: Well, think about concrete pours, right? I'm I'm up at midnight or two o'clock in the morning to to get a pour, right? And then you leave there at two or three o'clock in the afternoon. And at that point in time we were doing our own saw cutting. So then I would stay there till seven or eight o'clock at night doing the saw cutting on the slab and repeat. So yeah, it it it's about again what you have to do to get to where you're at, right? I I have a theory, right? And I I tell this to all the young men about the pyramid and the upside down pyramid, right? You know it's a pyramid, the very bottom, everybody's there. Right at the top there's one person, right? There they're whoever It is, it's at the top, whether it's God or whoever, it's one person at the top. Now turn that pyramid upside down. You know, I want to climb this ladder. I want more money. Okay. Well, guess what? Down on the bottom basically is no responsibility. Up at the top is all the responsibility in the world. So if you don't understand, you're not going to climb the ladder until you take on more responsibility, then you've got something to learn. So those are things like you're talking about in life that people got to understand. You have to earn this, and earn this means you have to learn what you what you did and add more to it. And as long as you keep doing well when you add more to it, then a whole lot of people are gonna take care of you. Paul Fendley: That's really interesting. You know, one of the other things that I'm not sure everyone in society takes note of, which I didn't know until somebody told me, ninety three ninety-three percent of the millionaires in this country are self made. Only Victor Bretting: Absolutely. Paul Fendley: seven percent inherited a million dollars. It's only seven only seven percent. I thought that was Victor Bretting: Mm. Silver spoon fed. That's exactly correct. And and and yeah. Yeah. Paul Fendley: really and that's seven percent of a subset of people Victor Bretting: Mm-hmm. Paul Fendley: that can claim They're millionaires. So there are a lot of people like Victor Breding, who came from a background that maybe wouldn't be everybody's first choice. got shown a little bit of tough love, got out there and hustled and made it work. Now you get to play on your play on your ranch. You gotta Yeah, people who are watching this video clip Victor Bretting: Yeah. Little fun. Paul Fendley: can see that logo. Tell us a little about the ranch. Victor Bretting: So the ranch is really just kind of supposed to be about retirement, right? Spent twenty years in the Houston area, you know, and twenty-five years in the D FW and you know, my wife was a Western pleasure rider, so she wanted to get basically back in, get her horse and all that. So and I wanted to, 'cause we're we're both outdoors, right? We've we've hunted the world and and I wanted to get back, you know, to a little bit of roots. Well it it I I I ran across two gentlemen that changed the life of the ranch, and that was a man named Gordon Belton. He's the the founder of Hunting with Soldiers. And then K JC Allen, which is the state director of Cross Trail Outfitters, which is a faith-based group. Those two change the direction of where we're at. So in the past three and a half years, we've given away 64 donated hunts to them, terminally ill kids, Purple Heart veterans. So the ranch now is about giving back. It's, you know, I've I've earned what I've earned in my my first 50 years of construction. Now it's time for me to give back, right? I've I've always believed you weren't put on this earth just to take, but to give. So the ranch is right now our portion of giving back before I leave this earth. Paul Fendley: A maker, not a taker, and then later and live like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else and you can be a giver. Victor Bretting: Absolutely. And and there's no there's nothing more satisfying than to watch a bunch of people come to your ranch, right? I'm and like the people that come to hunt, right? We don't we're not got we don't have forty thousand dollar bongos and two hundred thousand dollar giraffes. That's not the people that I want. I want that hunter that has spent all of his year earning money to be able to come hunt my ranch. Because my job is to be able to give back to him and to give him something that, you know, he can talk about for his his life and talk to his son about. So it's a whole different series of Victor's later. part in his life than what it ever was in the first part. Paul Fendley: So when you first set out to get the ranch, it was just to be able to ride horses with your wife and then just things changed one day and you said, You know what, this is my way to give back. Can you walk me through that thought process? Victor Bretting: Yeah, so it's I I've always said that, you know, my mom grounded me in faith because I was in a faith based school since I was probably sixth grade. You know, and then she put me in sports. you know, again not having that dad. She wanted to have the team environment and understand that, you know, you're responsible to the guy next to you and when the boss says do something, do it, right? So Paul Fendley: Mm. Victor Bretting: she grounded me in those two principles, right? Well, you know, as you go through life, you go left, you go right, you go you go back first. So I I get to that point in my life where you wake up one day and all of a sudden I did. I I woke up one day and went, Okay, it's took me sixty four years, but I understand the path that God put me on. This was a path I've been going for For 64 years to get to this point in time to be able to understand now my mission in my life before I leave is to be able to help other people. You know, the book I wrote is is part of that as well, right? Everybody talks about the twenty-two to twenty-three veterans that commit suicide. Nobody talks about the fifty construction workers that commit suicide a day. So to me, I've I've I've started to bec started to try to reach out on a bigger calling. You know, if somebody can if I can say something that somebody can hear and maybe help them and deter them from maybe doing something they should never do, or help them maybe in their career, then that's the last half of my journey is to try to be able to help. Paul Fendley: You wouldn't believe the amount of times in the last two months that mental health awareness has popped up on this podcast. Something I never gave two thoughts to in the construction world. Back on episode four of the show, we had Joey Bell come on. And Joey Bell is an avid turkey hunter. that's the number one thing he cares about most in this world. And he told us, and he's a concrete guy, and he told us on the show, he said, Yeah, I I suffer from depression. And I would just I mean, anybody that knows Joey, you're like, there's of any I mean, my gosh, like there's no way. Like really, like this is something you struggle with. The happiest, most outgoing guy. And he said, Yeah, I never had thoughts of self-harm, but you know, I knew something was wrong when turkey season ended and I didn't care. He's like, I knew something was wrong. I hadn't been able to talk to to my wife. about anything that wasn't superficial. If it got more than superficial, I just shut down. He's like, you know, I never took anything out on my kids and I never took anything out on her. He was like, just something wasn't right. He's like, I went and got help. And now he he's, you know, I don't want to say he's on a mission, but it all of his recent posting lately is about mental health awareness and construction. He's about as popular and genuine a human as you'll ever meet. So W it's been a l it's there's been a lot of conversation about that and the statistics are incredibly alarming. construction is the number two industry Victor Bretting: Yep. Paul Fendley: for suicides in the workplace. And number one is mining. Victor Bretting: Yep. Paul Fendley: I I pretty darn close to construction. So that's Victor Bretting: Yeah, right there. Paul Fendley: it's right there with us. And number one for overdoses, Victor Bretting: Yeah. Paul Fendley: by the way. So man, I'm gonna have to get you guys linked up. You and Joey, 'cause I think there's a lot of synergies there with the hunting, the concrete, and being on a mission to help people with mental health. What other things are you doing right now today to address these and and bring awareness or bring assistance or help to to folks? Victor Bretting: Well part of it is just you letting me, you know, on this podcast just have a conversation with it, right? I've I think I'll end up by the time this month is done, probably have about forty podcasts and I always try to mention something about, you know, mental health at that point in time, you know, and you know, and and I and here's the thing, right? It it's a it's a really simple thing that us as men always I don't know, maybe it's the way we're taught. Let's just talk about the way I was brought up, right? Think about yourself, right? So you're riding that bicycle and you fall off and you scrape your knee. What's the first thing somebody normally Remember says to you, you hey, hey, suck it up, buttercup, get back up, don't stop crying, keep going. You're kind of built this into you at a very, very early age as a man, right? You know, you're gonna take care of your family. You know, you know, some of us think we gotta be the biggest and the baddest in a in a bar fight. But but it's this mentality we have. So I've developed the other part of of this when we talked about the triangle and the upside down. I've got tens and ones. God gave you a 10, right? Cherish them, right? My ten was I can take all the stress in the world, I can take the hell, but you better get out of my way. Well, that that means. Made me a one. I don't have any feelings. I don't have any empathy. So I've got failed marriages for the same thing, you know, that I used to be say, at least I used to think I could point at somebody else and go, it's your fault. And then you start having to have this understanding, right? You know, with the gentleman you just talked about, having to sit down and look in the mirror and go, what's up? Well, I had to look in the mirror, right? I had to go, why, why, why do I have failed marriages? Then you realize I had no heart to give. I remember my daughter telling me one time, she goes, Dad, say that again. What but baby, what are you talking about? Dad, you said I feel. You never say I feel. You say I think. So you have to number one admit there's something wrong, right? How do you get help if there's drug or alcohol problems? You have to admit I have a problem. I had to admit I had a problem. Then you try to solve that problem. Then I realize that, shoot, I don't have a heart to give. So then you try to bring your ones up to a two and then maybe up to a three and up to a four. I tried to change my 10 to a five, thinking that's what, you know, that's what I was meant to be on this earth, a balanced individual. The only job I've ever lost money on is when I changed my 10 to a five. Well, this sucks. We ain't ever doing this again. So that's kind of what I would say to men, right? Any man that's listening, to be a well-rounded man, you need to have feelings. How can you tell your family you love them and care for them or have empathy right for them if you don't have the feelings? So I think that's part of our problem in where we're going to, and thinking that there's no end in sight is a well-rounded man does feel. I mean, I'll I'll admit it and and I never would admit it before. You cut my neck off, I wasn't gonna cry. I see a really good movie right now that hits my heart. Victory wants to cry. And and that's hard to admit, but it's the reality of what you've got to be to be well-rounded. Paul Fendley: man, the one that gets me is I see my daughter playing piano and singing. God. Forget about it. I'm done. Victor Bretting: yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love music. I played the piano for sixteen years, so I know exactly what's music hits my heart so deep. It really does. Paul Fendley: That's crazy how that works. But I want to go back to something you said about wanting people that care about the business. And and sometimes in concrete, we ca we might even care too much. I know a lot of guys that are putting in 60 plus hour weeks, not because there's anybody cracking that whip on them, telling them they have to work 60 hours. They care about the job getting done, getting done correctly. You know, what's the old joke about concrete like it's okay if you mess it up, it's just permanent. So, you know. Right. So Victor Bretting: Sh. Ten thousand compared to one dollar. yeah, that's a repair cost. Paul Fendley: so yeah, you're not yeah, you're not 3D printing the repair parts. Victor Bretting: No, no. Paul Fendley: so yeah, so it's like people care. They care a lot. And when you put that much effort and energy into work and caring about your craft, you know, what do you have left over for fan for family? I was I think, you know, we we talked about my dad. And even though the alcohol got got his brain, it scrambled his brain and e eventually killed him, he one of the things that he showed me was like you just leave work at work. I never heard one story about old Willie not showing up that day 'cause he was high on whatever. I never heard one story about Big Al being drunk on the job site and he had to send him home. Never heard one story of complaining or anything. When things were going well, things were not going well. I never knew any of it. I knew that when my dad got home, it was time to play ball. And that's what I do with my daughter. And I just had a son, he's five months old. so when he as he starts to get older, we'll do the same thing with him. Just as soon as work is done, we shut it off. And we focus on focus on you. Did it last night? Last night I was with daughter said, Hey, when you're done with work, can we go play football? She's really into flag football right now. And Victor Bretting: Sure. Paul Fendley: said, Yeah, you know, let's go. Because the season starts in a couple weeks. She wants to get warmed up. I said, Yeah, let's go. You know, I got a fall I got a phone call at five thirty from one of the owners of the company. And he said, What are you doing? I said, Well, take my daughter to play football. You know, so that phone call lasted five minutes when it probably could have lasted an hour. You know, but I I know what my dad showed me was leave it at work, the good, the bad, the ugly, and you know, focus focus on your kid and give that attention 'cause it's gonna go by. You're gonna lose that time's gonna be gone eventually. Victor Bretting: I I have something that I've learned to same thing teach all the people I'm trying to mentor and we talked about the balance, right? Me trying to think take my ten and make it a five. Th there is no balance in this world. I mean there's really not, right? But when when work starts pulling you away from family, then you have to pull the family back up. It's a teeter totter. Right? Because there's Paul Fendley: Mm. Victor Bretting: never gonna be this perfect balance that I'm spending just enough time at work and I'm spending just enough time at my family, 'cause you never will. So one of the things, you know, I I I I tell them all the time, You you as the the husband, you as the father, you as the mentor, will do the sacrificing. In other words, if if if my son has a baseball game at four o'clock that afternoon and I know I got work in front of me, I might be in the office at three. Because at three o'clock, I'm leaving. I'm gonna go see my my daughter's game. And and that's the thing that I just try to touch them. You have to understand when one is getting out of balance. Because when I was so we did we did 300 buildings up at Fort Drum, up in upstate New York, okay, when I was with Baker, that I was running that project. And there was a bunch of of people that were overseas folks. And I listened to all those old superintendents and they t 'cause each one of them had another wife. And it was usually from the city that they were at or the country they're into. And they told me, they said, Victor, work will consume you because we care. Right? We really do care. So it will consume you. Do not let your family get out of balance. And let's face it, what do we do too in construction? Where's the next biggest job? Right? It's not next door. So you're you're going to Seattle and you're gone for, you know, for twenty-two days out of twenty-eight, right? So it is hard to understand that, but we have to understand that the family's all you're ever gonna have. That's what's gonna stand beside you. Yeah, your job supports them, but whenever you retire, you still got family. So trying to find that balance like you're talking about, I'll give you one about my wife real quick. My wife's really quick to understand this. I walk in the door, right? And maybe I've been on the phone the entire hour on my way back home talking about business. So I walk in the door, I'm in a business mindset. She'll look at me, see the look on my face, tell me, walk back out, flick the switch. Don't come back in till you can be, you know, my my husband. So I need that reminder every now and then because you get involved. But I understand and I I I'm gonna tell you that you have found what you need to do and that is don't forget about your family, Paul. Don't forget about them. Paul Fendley: Yeah. I mean no nobody's perfect, right? I mean I need if anybody gets the shaft, it's probably my wife. You know, she golly. Victor Bretting: Mine'll tell me she does. Paul Fendley: And I'm not just saying that 'cause she might be listening. she it's funny, she never Victor Bretting: Yeah. Paul Fendley: even listened to the old show we had, never cared. This one came out, she as she said she said, Victor Bretting: Yeah. Paul Fendley: You have sponsors for this show? I said, Yeah, the community Victor Bretting: She has sponsors. Paul Fendley: loves loves the Yeah, loves each other. We're we're a nice community. Like everybody gets to help out. She's like, No, no, no, like real money. People sent you real money to sp I was like, Yes, like we have a great community here. And she goes, Maybe I oughta listen to it. Like, what are you doing over there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Victor Bretting: Thank honey. I am worth it. I really am. Great idea. Yeah. Thank you, babe. Great idea. Paul Fendley: no, but then she's gonna she goes, Hey, that was actually pretty good. I was like, thanks, appreciate it. Yeah. She well, Victor Bretting: Hey, there's your kudos. Paul Fendley: she doesn't hang out she doesn't hand out compliments very easily. So Victor Bretting: Hmm. Paul Fendley: If she said something was good, then she she really does mean it. And you know, it's tough though, because like I said, I get off work and the child's here, so I can right when I walk Victor Bretting: yeah. Paul Fendley: in the door, boom, we're having a good time. But my wife might not come home till seven thirty, eight o'clock, putting the baby to bed r immediately basically. And then I do all the chores Victor Bretting: Yeah. Paul Fendley: that need to get done. And then by the time we're done with all that, it's nine thirty and You just wanna go to sleep and that's not doesn't really leave a lot of time for conversation Victor Bretting: Time to go to bed. Yeah. Yeah. Paul Fendley: and hanging out. I think I think most of our conversations now are over the sink while we wash bottles. Victor Bretting: Well, hey, don't forget date night a week. I think that's a big one. That'll spend some time, get some quality time with your wife. Paul Fendley: Yeah, we'll have to figure it we'll have to figure that out. Victor Bretting: Yes, sir. Paul Fendley: one of the one so you've done a lot of shows. I'm not sure people realize how plugged into the outdoor world you're at. what are some of the big name programs that you're linked up with these days if people want to check out some of your hunting stuff? Victor Bretting: So we've been on the Sportsman Channel and the Pursuit Channel both. the Pursuit Channel was with Decision Point Outdoors with Chappie. He's he's got a unique story of itself, chaplain from the Army for twenty years. Then over on the Sportsman Channel, we're associated with Trekkin' Outdoors. Chris Queen's the host. He's been doing it for six years. So a little bit of announcement. Chris and I just partnered up where I'm gonna be a co-host and he's a co-host on Trekkin' Outdoors in the B Tex Ranch. We'll have two episodes. we're starting to film. In December, come out hopefully in March, and then our second series will become toward the end of the year. So I'm I'm excited to be able to kind of partner up with him and show a little bit about the ranch and conservation and in hunting, you know, because at the end of the day, you know, the hunters, as far as I'm concerned, are the biggest conservations in the world and people need to understand that. Paul Fendley: There's no doubt. Congratulations. Breaking news here on the Slump Monkeys concrete podcast. Breaking hunting news. Victor Bretting: Yeah, that's really good. How does that associate? I don't know, we just made it happen. Paul Fendley: No, well anybody that listens to this show knows that this is this whole program is just a Trojan horse for me to be able to talk college football because I can't I'm not I'm not well known enough for a college football show. So we have to just sort of sneak it in. I can or yeah, so it's exact that's exactly Victor Bretting: Hey, we're gonna work our way up, okay? Paul Fendley: right. you know, a lot of a lot of your other appearances, and there are a lot on if you ever check out Victor's website, you'll see. just a ton of programs that he's been on. And a lot of those shows talked about your upbringing, talked about your faith. but one of the things that I wanted to make sure we touched on here is the idea of leaving a legacy. we've had a lot of guests on the programs, and I'm not sure we've had anyone who spent some time to go through the word legacy. What does that mean? How do you think about it? And What how important is that for you now at this age? Do you want people to be thinking about it earlier in their life? So I want to really just get all your thoughts. I'm gonna try to be quiet here for a minute. The audience knows that's basically impossible. but I I'd love you just to go on about legacy. Victor Bretting: No, Love to tell you that I thought about it early on, but like you said, it's just providing for a family at that point in time and you know, it's that fork goes in your mouth and you're trying to figure out where that next food comes from. But so going on in the later portion of you know of life again, kinda realizing about the the giving portion and I've always had a saying, right? My saying always was that, you know, my name's not gonna be on a stadium or it's not gonna be on a hospital, right? I'm I'm I'm not gonna make it and that's fine. That's not really my intent of my saying. My saying was that My name's gonna be on a tombstone and that means something to me. So my name meant something, right? So then let's go back to you know things people might not know. You know, I'm an eighth generation Texan. I was part of the original 300 settlers my family was that Stephen F. Austin gave land grants to when we were a public before we ever became a state. So my roots go pretty deep, right? And and when I lost my mom about four years ago, you know, she might have told me who Uncle Charlie was when I was four. It doesn't mean I remember who he is now. And so I started thinking about what does legacy really mean, right? Everybody talks about you know I want to have a son because I want to continue my name. That's not legacy to me. Yeah I'm an eighth generation Texan. That's not legacy to me. To me it's what we're doing at the ranch, right? I want and I tell my boys, I've got a couple of twins that are really involved in the ranch. One of them is in med school at Texas Tech right now, one's in the Air Force. And I tell them both because they help a lot on the ranch. I said if you don't understand what the word legacy means and let me explain this to you. Legacy to me means that we are giving back and trying to help people. That is the legacy that I want to leave that my Name is attached to. And if you don't get this because it's attached to the ranch, I'm just gonna sell the ranch. I'll go, I'll go do the money for me at the end of the day because we're not leaving a legacy. Legacy means it goes from me to you and you to your kids and your kids gone forth. That's what legacy means to me. So that is where I'm trying to develop. I'm trying to leave this legacy that Victor Breding's name and this ranch is associated with trying to help people and trying to understand that I made some mistakes. mistakes, you know, in my first portion of my career and where I'm ended up today. But I'm trying to mend those mistakes today and trying to leave something that somebody can carry on for the rest of their life. Paul Fendley: Where did that drive come from? What what flipped that switch at sixty four to say I need to start thinking about my legacy? Victor Bretting: I think it was faith was the first part. You know, my wife so in the failed marriages, right, I could always tell my kids, This is what you don't want. I never could tell them what do you want in your wife. And my wife has proved to me what I want. And that's somebody that makes me a better person. She has absolutely made me a well-rounded, better patient, and she's grounded me back more in my faith. And then kind of meeting, you know, Gordon and and and Casey, you you look at that thing and go, here's people that have devoted their life, a life. To a mission, not just a piece of it, but a but a life. And you start looking around and that's where you start thinking about that's the legacy that they're gonna leave. So what what legacy am I gonna leave? So it's a bunch of people. I'd love to take the credit for it, but it's not that. you know, God led me on a path and I met some really good folks that helped me understand what it means. Paul Fendley: What I think is interesting to me is you got there not through you got to that mindset, not through tragedy. You got there through optimism. I think, you know, for me personally, anytime I had a a change in mindset, it was usually through hardship. so that's super interesting to me that your legacy thought did not come from like, Hey, my mom died and I wasn't sure what to do next. It wasn't My wife left me and I wasn't sure what to do next. I couldn't work anymore at the jobs that I had, so I didn't know what to do next. I had I had money, but nothing else. You know, it did it wasn't born out of that. And it was born out of seeing other people who were being missionaries and how they lived their life. born out of faith that your wife helped put back into you and ground you into, and from there you decided, you know what? I can be better and I will be better, and that starts with leading a legacy. Victor Bretting: I I turned down a podcast because this guy was extremely adamant on what changed you the where you're today. There is no one devastating factor that changed me. He said, Well, there's got to be no there there's not one. You don't understand. It was it was a journey. The book is not about my success. The book is about the journey it takes to persevere, to get yourself up, get back on the horse, try again, understand there's a silver lining. Don't give up. That's what this is. about. So I I turned down the show. I said, I'm not gonna lie to somebody and tell them, this was this changed my life. Let's go sell a book. No, that's not what this is. This is about understanding that there's a purpose in life and you have to figure out what it is and it might take you like me sixty four years to figure out what that purpose was. So here we are. Paul Fendley: Well, I mean yeah, I mean construction guys we're known for being hard headed, so Victor Bretting: We're hard. huh. I'm not an ap type personality. You're accusing me, Paul. I'm kidding. Paul Fendley: man, golly, I'm this is how you know that we're concrete guys and not like podcast people. I haven't even told anybody you're an author. Victor Bretting: Well well there we hey, I'm gonna give you a quick story. You know why that's a lie? Is because I have all three forms of dyslexia. I cannot pronunciate without somebody pronunciating to me because I have no phonic stills and I have to memorize how to spell something. So there's an oxymoron when you put Victor and an author together. It's really kind of funny. Paul Fendley: Well, thank God for technology. let's tell people what that you are that you are an author. You do have a book if they're interested. could you could you tell them the title of the book and where they can find it? Victor Bretting: Yes, sir. Thank you. No, it's the man that I would become. It's on Amazon or any of the other publish publishing places you can find it. And you can find me at our website on Bretting, which is B R E T T I N G, Texan Ranch dot com. Our media is there, the book is there, what we do, the the hunts if you ever want to come see us, the family orientation, right? My wife's a thirty-six year culinary teacher. The the food is good and my ninety two year old mother in law has to bless the harvest. So We're we're a family group. Paul Fendley: that's fantastic. And make sure you tell him you heard about it on the Slump Monkeys podcast. So he gets a little chuckle at the fact that you hung through forty five minutes of this conversation and then was like, Yes, I would like to visit his website, which by the way is really well done. And there is so much content on that site. You could spend hours on it just going through all the content. Victor Bretting: Well, I appreciate it, Paul. It's I would love to take credit. My son and I started we're on round three of the of the website. So I think we need to let a professional do this 'cause we're not doing too well. S C O what? What's that? Paul Fendley: SEO geez. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Everything everything that we're getting here is at this show is all just word of mouth. Just putting clips Victor Bretting: That's why. Paul Fendley: up on LinkedIn and saying hope hope people come in and and check it out and it's working pretty good. I'm actually Victor Bretting: Hey, I did. I saw ya. You know what? I'll I'll have to give Rich Sage a a little a little plug because I saw Rich's comment on your post, and that's what led me there. Because Rich and I become good friends in the past because you know he comes from the producer, I come from the actual has to work side. So we had a little a little bit of conversation that wasn't really nice on a job site about 20 years ago. Paul Fendley: my god. Victor Bretting: So Rich, thank you, brother. I appreciate everything you have taught me from the production side. Paul Fendley: my gosh, that's so funny. He's he's so good. He'll go on some other shows sometimes, and he's so good at at doing podcasts too, so smart. So yeah. Victor Bretting: Yep, smart man. Paul Fendley: I'm glad glad you found your way your way over here. the the legacy thing. So you you're probably the only guest that we've ever had this discussion with. So I wanna I wanna dive deep into it just a little bit more before I let you go. You didn't think about it until you're sixty-four. Is there anything somebody like me, I turn forty next year? Is there anything that I should be doing differently? And what we've talked about before, and you know, I'll let the audience in here on our conversation is I've never thought about legacy, but I have thought a lot about parenting. I've thought an awful lot about what it takes to instill morals and values in a child. And I but I've never thought and and and I I think that's almost like legacy adjacent because to to me and my wife both actually, we are huge believers in that this life that we're building is not necessarily so that we can be so that we can have all the Comfort and accoutrements and and the luxury, but it's to make life better for the next generation, specifically our family, to make life better for our children because our parents did that and their parents did that. And if we just keep rolling that ball forward and make life better for the next generation, that's how we we think we're gonna have six. That's that to us is the definition of success. So we're doing the things now, the sacrifices now to make sure that we put them in the best position. Going forward. Is that similar to legacy? Is there something else that I should be thinking about at forty years old? Victor Bretting: That is a legacy. Right. You're you're trying to put what your parent and let's face it, some people have lessons where their parents taught them well, some haven't. Right? I've always said yes and no is an answer. Either one could be good, it depends on the question, right? So as a parent I learned I don't know what I'm doing on my first child. I'm just trying to do the best I can and I've learned my lessons either from my parents or I'm not gonna do it again, right? So you are leaving a legacy. You're leaving a legacy because my my rule is, and this is the thing that I had so many in my generation to over overcome is it's okay to teach somebody they're not gonna take your job, right? That was always the big mystique. I I can't teach Paul Fendley: Mm. Victor Bretting: him. He's gonna take my job. No he won't. Nobody's ever taking my job. I might not have worked out, but but that's okay. That's between me and the owner, right? It wasn't because I wasn't doing my job. It's just something didn't work and that's okay. So you're leaving this legacy right for your kids. What about when your kids leave? Then what legacy are you gonna leave you and your wife? yourself, not just what you installed in it, because that is a legacy. But what's that next legacy, right? What what are you gonna do when when you have this empty nest and you and your wife are thinking about what next? You can think about it now. And I know it's hard to do that because you're concentrating on your kids, so's your money, right? It's going to a certain place. Paul Fendley: Concentrating on changing diapers at one o'clock in the morning, Victor. Victor Bretting: I think I remember those days. Let me think fifty yeah, I remember. well do I remember. Paul Fendley: Well, if my wife's listening to this, I should correct that statement. She's changing diapers at one in the morning. We have a d Victor Bretting: You know, I wasn't gonna correct you, Paul, but I was gonna ask you a question. Paul, are you changing the diapers? I was. Paul Fendley: Okay, well Yeah. Am I Well, I was. I was. We have like the greatest deal ever. And when I'm not traveling for work and I'm home, then we have a my gosh, it's the greatest deal. She said, if you'll watch all the baby stuff, the toys, the stuff he's chewing on, the bottles, the stuff that sh you know, for pumping milk, all that she you take care of all that 'cause it's gotta be washed, sanitized, you have to do like three different loads 'cause It's just so much stuff. So if you'll handle that, I'll change all the diapers in the night. And I mean, brother, that's we've been doing that for the last month or so. That's been great for me. Now for her, I think I probably need to jump in there and help. She's probably probably Victor Bretting: So so Paul, what what is your wife's name? Paul Fendley: Her name is Sylviana. Victor Bretting: Sylviana, for Paul, I'm gonna thank you for being so nice to him. Hey, us men gotta stick together. We have to support each other, okay? Paul Fendley: man, that's great. Yeah. Well I actually now I hope she actually does listen to this episode. Victor, we're running up against it, man. Is there any any last words for the audience before we get you out of here? Victor Bretting: There is nothing in your life that is so hard that you can't overcome to leave this world. Because all you do is you leave a bunch of people behind that have sorrow for the rest of their life. There's always somebody to reach out to. And men, let me tell you this. If some man opens up to you, you need to listen. He's only going to do it one time. And if you shut him down, he's probably done. So we can help each other by opening up our ears, right? God gave you two ears and one mouth. Let's try to use it. Let's use it the way we're supposed to. Paul Fendley: Well said. It hit hits close to home. we lost somebody last week. Yeah, a fraternity brother of mine. You know, you'd have thought he had everything in the world. good career, likable guy, wife and two kids. Turned out unbeknownst to everyone. He was having trouble in his marriage and trouble putting the bottle down. And just I guess just couldn't take it anymore and now he's no longer here with us and those kids are gonna grow up without a father. Victor Bretting: Yes care. Paul Fendley: And you know, he worked for a concrete contractor. Just he's he's just another statistic now. And I never th I actually d wasn't sure that would ever happen to anybody I knew. You know, you you read the statistics and they're they're awful. You don't really think about it being like right there next to you, but he was a good dude. I I still can't believe like he got to that point. Like this that's crazy so many people he could have reached reached out to Victor Bretting: It's always Paul, it's always a mask. It's always a mask. You'll never know unless you're close enough to him and encourage people to open up. That's kind of why I'm saying, men, you gotta you gotta be able to listen. And it's little bitty things, right? I mean there might be one word he says, just one word. And pick on that word with him. Whoa, wait, wait, wait, what do you mean? Maybe. You're maybe okay. Look, can we talk about it? You have to be able to be open him up and help him open up. Paul Fendley: If you're listening to this right now and that feeling could be you, please don't become another statistic. Please reach out. There are people that would love to help. Victor clearly is one of those people. through his website, you can find him on LinkedIn, Victor Bredding, B-R-E-T-T-I-N-G. You can find Joey Bell, Jo J O E Y B E L L. You can find him on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. He's open. He will be your non judgmental ear. please, please don't ever let it get to that point where there's no turning back. Victor Bretting: Thank you, Paul. Paul Fendley: Thank you, Victor, for being here. Really appreciate it, man. It was good talks in all aspects of life, whether it was hunting on the ranch, legacy building, or not becoming another statistic in the mental health spiral we currently see in the construction space. thank you to the audience for listening here. If you would like to learn more, please connect with Victor. Let him know you heard about it here on the Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast. And we will check it next time.