Latest / The Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast / 019 - Leise Sandeman
Transcript
- Brewer - 101726: And welcome in to the Slump Monkeys Concrete Podcast. On our way to being the world's number one concrete podcast. And the way you get to number one is you bring in the head of pathways. Liza, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me. I thought you already were number one. That is how you butter up a host. Thank you so much. Did I pronounce your name right that time? Absolutely perfect. Absolutely. man, this is a great we're getting off to a brilliant start. This is a brilliant start. Everybody here's your action. Accent tell us where you're from. Well I'm from Copenhagen, Denmark. Copenhagen, Denmark. We're headquartered in New York. And then, you know, right now we're in Nashville and we do business all over. Yes, we are live. Concrete works in RMC has Concrete Works here in Nashville, the beautiful Gaylord property. Thank you for having us. So tell me, how on earth do you go from Copenhagen, Denmark to New York City? What's that journey like? What's the what what's the route that took you here? Well the physical journey took me via London, UK and then out to India. What? Absolutely. Where I work with Tata Steel. And that was my first that's the first time I tipped my toes into materials. Is that right? It is. What were you so what were you doing for them? I was working at McKinsey a consulting house at the time and I was doing supply chain stuff. And then I was in Jump Shapur and all I could see was steel and I fondly call it my material point of no return. I was like, this is what I'm gonna be doing. That's awesome. That is absolutely awesome. So for those that don't know, and you probably already do, but Pathways is like the next generation of EPDs. So EPD generation, being able to track, log, implement, get all those things integrated into your systems or a Ready mix per well, we're in the ready mix, so we're gonna talk ready mix. getting integrated into the ready mix system. These guys have the best UI and UX out there for EPDs. And everybody that talks about you and your company, it's all five stars, high praise. I can't believe you're sitting here across from me. I feel like the most I'm just honored to have you here. No, it's such a privilege. I mean I I like to say we're here to keep producers moving. And most of them don't want to bother. They want to do the main thing they're good at, which is producing ready mix concrete. And we're just here to make That's a little bit easier. Well the EPD thing, it's an extra burden. now we have to do this other thing, we're already kind of busy here, Liza. What do you think? No, I absol I a hundred percent agree. I'm like it is, you know, it's and it requires a lot. You know, talk of Redmix producer, you gotta get all your supply information, all the transport, all the production information. I mean, what what I really had a thesis about was the data's where the whole thing is. So if we can make that a lot easier. We have a ton of agentic flows on our back end, but at the forefront you need a human. You know, I'm here with George O'Kari, Dorian, Jack from my team. Ultimately we always have a phone number that's step number one. And then we do yeah the data ingestion however you have it. Utility bills given to us. So in in the world right now that we're living in where i I guess maybe it's my algorithm, everything's about agentic this and AI that and you just said our first step is a phone call, human to human interaction. So how what made you say that's my you know, that's how we're gonna run this business? What led you there? I think If you put the customer at the center, and for me that's what it's all about, it's about making their life easier, making it easier to decarbonize or make money out of having made good choices, or as a bare minimum, respond to what your buyer wants from you. Then you look at that customer and you say, Well, if they're used to doing things on the phone, let's meet them where they are. Then we can have all the fancy agency flow on the back end, but that's not that's not what we're selling. We're selling an outcome. We're selling them being able able to do what they're doing better. And I think that comes by having good good folks at the center. I love that. And you know I I feel the same way about the Radiomix business that I I travel a lot for what I do. And the reason that I do that is because I think you have to shake their hand and look them in the eye and let them know that like I'm a real person and we're gonna be competent together and we're gonna solve problems together. And I I think it's great that you guys seem to be taking a similar approach. I mean, I'm very inspired by you. I mean, not only are you having ultimately the number one podcast in concrete and you're very, very good at it, but then you're out there innovating materials as well, right? I mean, I I think a lot about how can we ultimately present data of what happens in the real world because the hard work is what you're doing. You know, we're we're doing the software part and I love it, but the hard work is is actually getting someone to make a new test with the new material to try something new because we all know it's easier to do what you did. Yesterday and then what you're doing tomorrow. Absolutely. And I'm I'm lucky because I our plant that we have is in Georgia. And I cut my teeth in this business in Georgia. So I have friends that we grinded together 15 years ago. And you know, we are out there at two in the morning getting our teeth kicked in on a job site. So we're battle tested. We we trust each other. And so when I come and I say, hey, I have this new thing, I know that I have people that are at least hear me out. And then when it works, now we're all in it together, and we get to work with the folks that want to lower their carbon values in the concrete. And you know, one day I'm gonna have to call you because once our plant's been running long enough, we're gonna have to get the DPDs sorted out. Listen, I I told you already, I will be there, and you'll be put right at the front of the queue. You know, this is this is all we want. No, no, all I need I need that friends and family discount. We'll we'll sort you out with some good some good kind of marketing, affiliated marketing deals. Is that is that what it is? No, but I mean it's it's real, right? Because also sometimes it doesn't work perfectly and we make a new release and there's a bug and and you gotta have you gotta have some trust as well, right? That ha have you have your customers back. You know, we just had someone call us and say, you know, I have a portable b plant, I needed the EPD yesterday. How soon can you get it? And in that case we drop everything we got and we make it happen and I the fastest we've gotten portable planned on is in four days, including Everything on verification. And like I can't promise that to everyone because that takes extraordinary effort. But if someone needs it, if someone needs it, we'll get it. If you're listening to this right now and you don't know the verification process that goes in the back, four days is insane to get a full plant online. That's that's incredible. That's incredible. Good for you. So also I got to meet some your team. And I think people that meet you, they're already impressed by you, but then you meet your team. And my goodness, what a team! Where are you fighting? I need these people. Where are you finding these people? It's very, very hard to find this these types of people. I mean, they are again who's who's with me here? It's Jack and Doran and Giorgio and Carrie, and they're just all, I mean, what are they number one? They are curious and they're kind. Right? And they and they're very tenacious. They don't give up. Anyone who's who's who's been been a little delayed on getting data, they they get a phone call right away. Because we also know part of our responsibility is making Making sure that you know you give us what we need so we can make life easier for you ultimately. Business development might be one of the hardest jobs out there, but we all are doing that to some degree, and you're doing that to an extreme degree. So for you to find people that are technical, they might not be concrete experts, but they are smart, they are technically proficient in some aspects, and to be nice to be able to do technical and to be able to do business development, like that's a really rare combination. You got a freaking pack of them following you around. Around here. Yeah, I mean I can't I I can't take credit for any of it, right? They came they came as they were, but I mean what are my beliefs when you think about building a company, really, right? I I say to everyone, you're both building your own role and responsibility, you're building your team, and you're building pathways. which which means you if you give them ton of space and I've hired folks who are all much smarter than me, right? Karina Alventosa who we just brought on, PhD in alternative cement, right? I can't believe it. And then extremely thoughtful person. And and and willing to do the work. You know, that's exactly who I'm looking for. And if there's anyone out there, I'm gonna use this for a plug. If there's anyone out there like that, I'm I'm looking for more. Well, one of our sponsors on the program, Concrete Careers, you know, they're really good at headhunting, so you can hit hit them up. Right now we're live at Concrete Works inside of another sponsor's booth. We are with Vince Hagen. We're very thankful that they've given this way. Look at this setup. Is this not incredible? It's so cool. I mean, it's so cool. But Paul, I mean, this is crazy. It's getting the right folks involved, the sponsors, but this is beautiful. And I mean Vince Hagen, very impressed. I I am too. I'm very impressed because you you don't when you do when you enter into something new and I'm putting a lot of trust in the guy behind the you can't see him, he's behind the camera. The guy behind the camera over there put a lot of hours into this. I'm putting a lot of trust in him and and we communicated along the way, but when you finally get to see it come to life and it's just it's a wonderful thing to have folks like you. Our our guest lineup is incredible and then You see people walking by and everybody's stopping and looking. They're like, what is going on over there? And we're having the best conversations in the industry that happening right here right now. I was kind of starstruck when I saw the lineup you'd you'd managed to get on. I thought that's a great, that's a great list of guests. Nobody was more surprised than me. That many that that that lineup all said yes to come on here. So we're really thankful. if you guys want to find Liza, that's how you say it, I learned today. I felt so horrible. I've been saying her name wrong. She's so polite to never correct me. And I listen, I'm not that Fussed about it. I said this to someone. You know, you call anything that's remotely my name, I'll react. Yeah, you did, you responded. Yeah, respond. But if you guys want to reach out to her, she's very active on LinkedIn, Liza Sandman, you can find her pathways, their group. I I had not met your your team until this week, and I couldn't be more impressed with them, with you. Everybody that knows your product is just saying they're just over the moon about you. So you guys feel free to contact her. Anything else you want to say before we get out of here? No, but if you if you need an E PD, hit us up. We we that that's what we're