Latest / The Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast / 022 - Chris Davenport
Transcript
- Clip: And welcome into another episode of the Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast. The world's number one concrete podcast. And how you get to number one is you bring on everyone's favorite guest, our number one polarizing figure, Chris Davenport. Yeah. Yeah. Appreciate the invite, man. Glad to be here. You're welcome, man. This is the one I've been looking forward to the most. That's scary. I did you know the re the reason I thought we were gonna celebrate an Alabama victory. We're not. We're I may break out in tears here in a minute. I I'm shaking. I am furious. I didn't even get to watch the game. I was getting texts from my brother. Yeah. Who's like, we look terrible. What's going on with Alabama football? Both of these teams are horrible and neither one wants to win the game. We didn't have a hundred and fifty yards of offense. How's that even possible? I mean it it it was b it's bamboozling. I don't I I don't get it. I don't understand. You told me yesterday our center was out, but I I wouldn't think that that the whole team falls apart. It well it The center of everything fell out of today. It was downward spiral, man. This is the one I was looking forward to the most. You are the premier sponsor here in the month of October. Yep. It's it's sponsors like you that are even make this show happen. Okay. Right? And I'm so thankful. And I I wanted to say that here, you know, to your face. I really, really appreciate what you've done for us. And then we have other sponsors that are coming in, and we're here in in Vince Hagen's booth, and you guys are I've never seen frenemies like you. You and Vince Hagen, and now here we are. We're taking over their booth together. I know I'm probably gonna be in some contractual issues when this was put out here and Aztec concrete, baby. Aztec concrete. This is this is so great. Chris Chris Hagen, I can't wait for him to watch this episode. It's gonna be so much fun. I can't wait either. And I'm gonna be polite, Chris. You know, they They do a good job at what we do, but we do it better. That's all that I'm that's all I'm gonna say. This trade show is actually my favorite trade show. I've said it to a few people here, but what it what is it about concrete works that keeps you coming? I've seen you at every one. What keeps you coming back to concrete works specifically? I mean it it is truly ready-mix focused, okay, versus the some of the other shows say Con Ag, it's That's construction, aggregate, mining, everything. There's a lot there, but this is really focused on the ready mix concrete business. And then even for the world of concrete, in my opinion, that's more of a contractor show and more of a finisher show. So this is this is a show of of pure ready mixed producers. So the the bang for the buck is significant and tailored to our customer base. I said the same thing. That's what it is, exactly right. You get somewhere between a thousand, two thousand people, but you the people that you would want to talk to the the decision makers, the guys who really care about the industry that are coming through with the with opinions of how to make it better, move it forward, the the deals and relationships you can make at in RMCA concrete works, I it I think it blows the doors off of everything else. It's like I say it's tailor focused to Ready mixed concrete producers. And it and in turn to double down, I didn't get to speak about this, but I'm I'm happy and proud of how successful y'all are in this format. It's obviously, you know, CIM program, we're you know, brethren in that regard, but you do a y'all do a really good job promoting the industry, all facets of it, and I want to commend y'all for that. We're happy to sponsor and look forward to continuing that relationship. I appreciate that, man. CIM, how'd that event go? They had a event last night. I wasn't able to make it because we We had an event last night at the exact same time. I didn't realize they were the same time, so I was devastated. did were you able to go to the CIM thing? I I went for a few minutes. I was a little bit late. I mean obviously the timing of it was was was challenging with all the other events that we needed to be out there. There were events and dinners and everything. We're all we're all busy. I'm so glad they did it. I just absolutely I just hope so I w I hadn't met anybody that went to it yet. So I'm hoping I think from seven to nine I showed up maybe s eight fifteen or so. But when I walked in, I would say that there was eighty five to a hundred people there. my gosh. That's fantastic. It was fantastic. I mean from from all the universities, you know, so it was representative of of all the alumni in the universities that that house the CIM program. So it was a good celebration. man, I'm so happy to hear that because I know there were some people that I talked to that were at dinner and then we were at events. I'm I'm glad that's a lot, a hundred people. Yeah, that that's really good. Where are you headed next after this, man? Because I feel like you're never sitting still. So when you when you get done with this, you're gonna it's in Nashville, so you're not too far from home. Come home, yeah. So what what's your next trip? Where are you traveling to next? Joey be a little bit mad about this, but we're we're gonna go shoot some birds for a few days with some customers in South Dakota and then they get right back on the road, get right back to selling plants and keeping Chris Hagen and I'm honest. You we're gonna the number of times Joey's come up on the podcast that ain't his, there's something's wrong with it. Well, you know, 'cause every once in a while you got you gotta you you gotta stick a Phillips head in his kidney just to remind him that you're that you get to do the stuff that you know that he was should be be doing. He should he should be. and I wanted I wanted him here. He didn't think he could make time to do it every week. I said I said, Hey, all right, well I'll do the show myself, but I want him on as much as possible. Absolutely. And so he comes on, we're gonna do like once a month. His his his college football ranking idea that he had, the bell pole, yeah, he figured out a way to make it so that it don't matter what the preseason rankings are. It only matters like how how you finish and he re ranks all the teams every week. Okay. And it's the most incredible system you've ever seen. And it is it seems like a true reflection of how good are you this week based on your actual resume, not how good we think you are, Arch Manning or how good you know Where's he gonna put us at next week? no. Well, it's not him. It's the algorithm. Well, the algorithm. I think it's gonna be interesting to see where we're. Well, we were number one. We were number one before the Georgia loss. And then we went down just a couple spots. Now we're drawing. But Georgia just lost to Auburn. I know they did. How is that even possible? I know. Well, and hopefully BYU beats Notre Dame tonight because that's gonna mess everything up. Your lips to God's. God, please. Please. Touchdown Jesus ain't gonna save you today. my God. I saw I saw something pretty funny. Somebody was a meme where a guy has driving a Jeep and he had two college decals on the back. It was a Notre Dame and a Texas Longhorn. And then he said, this is the worst person my gosh. Titana, Texas, they lost to Florida. I I mean everybody got beat today. It's incredible. Everybody got to only the only person that didn't get beat was Ohio State. Well, let's face it. They fight they play two to three games a year. I mean, come on. SEC is a gauntlet every week. It's serious. It's serious football. Anybody can be beat on any given day in the SEC. How'd you feel about the playoff expansion news? They they're saying they're going to 2014 teams. They're getting rid of the championship games. How's how's it sit with you as a diehard? I w what it you're playing for conference championships. Well well, we are because we're in the SEC and it means something. Agreed. I mean Obviously the expansion of the playoff system is going to be great for a lot of small to mid major schools. That's right. But the big schools, it it's it to me it's taking the tradition out of football in in some regard. I mean, 'cause you've got these like Tennessee, Alabama, you know, Auburn, Georgia, you know, all these, you know, keystone games that you that you plan weekends around that it seems like maybe some of that value from those games maybe d be diminished 'cause you're only wanting to get to that. That's right, the earth point that We can still get in. Yeah. So I mean, are you trying, I mean, it's it's it's about winning the SEC championship or the Big 12 championship or you know, whatever respective conference you're in. So that's that's disheartening, I guess, is the guess way to put it. But the the overall expansion of the playoffs, I mean, we can't do no more than 24. So there's two there's two things that I liked about it. Let's let's steal man it for just a Two things I liked about it. If you're going to have a playoff, you can't have an SEC championship game where the loser is penalized in the in the playoff seating or maybe not even getting at all. And then that's number one. And this eliminates that. Number two, Since the playoff came into format, I stopped watching bowl games. I used to watch every bowl game. I love college football. Since the playoff came in, I kinda stopped watching bowl games. So now those bowl games that nobody's watching anyway, now they're getting replaced with a playoff game. And if I think about it like that, I'm like, all right, that's got a lot more on the line to it than who gets to choose which pop tart goes in the toaster. After I you know. So I'm I'm kinda I I'm I alright, I can I can live with that and I'm willing to see all right, let's see how the how this works out. I I agree with you there. when it comes to those bowl games, When I was a younger man, I I absolutely watch every bowl game. like you said, but I don't I don't wanna watch a a six and six team play a six and sixteen. I don't either. It's not competitive. People are sitting out and you're not you know, the whole thing the whole bowl system just seems like it devalued it at some point. yeah. It devalued itself felt like it devalued itself. So when that seemed to happen like maybe when the BCS came in and then it went from the BCS to the playoffs. 'Come some of those outlying bowls and and I'm not gonna n name them off, but you don't wanna alienate any organization or entity, but that that seemed to be kind of when that devaluing of the bowl game really happened. The the the future in your perspective, I love this show because we bring people in that have so many different perspectives. Okay. And your perspective of the industry, when we talked last time, your perspective being an equipment guy and I and I asked you about the economy, I asked you about the industry, like you're kind of a canary in the coal mine, you see things ahead of of everyone else. But this time I want to ask you a different question. I'll ask you, what's the most exciting thing you have going on? Like is there a new piece of equipment that you guys are are rolling out that you just can't wait to see people or there are there n orders that were placed six months ago, ten months ago that are that are coming online. You're you're just can't wait to see some of these things get to re what's the most exciting thing for you as a batch plant guy? I mean interesting question. I c we can't necessarily say that there's any you know revolutionary product that's coming out there. Because concrete's manufactured, a concrete plant does three or four things. And like I said earlier jokingly, we do it better than them. But seriously, we we we we differentiate ourselves in how how that process actually works out. But we we have some orders that are in line that will hit the factory floor soon that we're very excited seeing those assets deployed. to to watch them produce a lot of these AI data center projects that we talked about in the last one. So that's I I'd say that's the the fairest way to answer that question is that there there are a lot of plants that that will hit hit markets. next spring, next summer that will be end up being flagship locations for our customers. Man, that's exciting. It it is exciting. I mean it that that's that's what I enjoy about what we do is seeing the price the process, kind of like Nick Saban. It's about the process. Did you watch the documentary? Not all of them. I think I think I'm through episode three. Me too. Me too. I'm through three. I'm through three. but it's about the process going from the initial conversation to the to the gentleman or lady and and and quoting the project, getting everybody in line and in tune with what we're talking about doing, getting the order, watching the order go to manufacturing, delivering the project, watching the erection process, the startup process. And then, you know, it's so rewarding when when the customer looks at you and says We're happy and satisfied with this process and the product that you've developed to us because the ReadyMix plant is the heartbeat of the organization. The trucks come and go every seven to nine years. You can add trucks, you can remove trucks, but that plant is the heartbeat of the organization and the trucks are the veins. So whenever a a customer gets a a new heartbeat, if you will, that's a that's a a a very rewarding process for us and for the customer because we know that over the next 25 to 30 years. Years that plant's going be producing ready mixed concrete. I love your passion that you have for this part of the business. It's fun. I enjoy it. I enjoy it too. It bleeds in to everything you do. And just so so thankful. And I'm honored that you come on the show that you're a part of it, man. It's it's wonderful. And guys, this has been another wonderful episode here live. Concrete works in the Vince Hagen booth. We brought on Chris Davenport. If that doesn't tell you how great this industry is right now, that we all get in here. Here and do this together. This is a perfect example of it. I was so excited to have you. So I really appreciate being here. Bad Saturday, but roll tide, roll. Roll tide, baby. We'll see ya. See ya.