Build Up Without Limits Using Solid Foundations with Walker Lott and Davis Hambrick

Felipe Engineer  0:00  
What was the most challenging thing that happened in the last three days?

Davis Hambrick  0:05  
I guess, something challenging for me has been learning how to not just handle people. But you know, I've come from a side of I shy away from conflict. So I usually approach it differently. If there's conflict, I usually let it simmer, come back to somebody. And I'm starting to learn now that it's alright to have conflict that conflicts actually good. It's just how do you do it. And so a lot of people do it in bad ways that, you know, get that negative connotation around it. But I've started to learn, you know, I'm an AFM, and I'm trying to be training to be superintendent. And it just the nature of the base of being in the field, I have to have a little bit of conflict with people. And I'm learning now trying to learn how to schedule and walk the job and picture it in my head. And that's been the most challenging thing for me, because I'm still, you know, you don't know what you don't know, I can't, I can't picture like a Senior Superintendent can walk a job, okay. It's gonna take these guys, the duck work, guys, five days first floor. I can't picture that yet. But that's the most challenging thing for me right now. Because I'm getting pushed to go as I'm walking to doing my daily report every day. What are the subs doing every day? How many guys did it take? How long did it take? There's a constraint that popped up a lot of construction stuff. But in that time, too, is just dealing with people and how do you how do you motivate them? How do you lead them? That's my answer.

Felipe Engineer  1:26  
Oh, thank you, Davis. Now Walker, the pressures on the bar has been set by Davis. All

Walker Lott  1:30  
right, well, I'll go for that. I'll go from the pm side of things. You're in the field, I'm in the office. You know, for me, I'd say a challenging thing is having to experience guys on your Pm team. Because I'm doing process. So that's a lot different than anything I've ever done. So that's dealing with pumps and tanks and valves and pipes and everything else that makes in this case, alcohol, but it makes a product and all that we

Felipe Engineer  2:00  
consume or alchohol we.. 

Walker Lott  2:02  
Yeah, I call it we can say a manufacturing facility. I can't say who it is but manufacturing facility. And so I don't I came from concrete from you know, rebar, and wood and everything else. And this is a whole different worlds like world of engineering and design and having to speak different people's languages. So I'm having to learn a whole new language pretty much. And so for me, it's the balance of how much do I try to go out there and go ahead and try to get ahead on some things. Because I don't know it as well. So like I have to balance between, I want to go ahead and start doing this and try to get ahead and like try to account for it. But if I could spend hours doing it and just get it completely wrong. Because I don't know what like David said, I don't know what I don't know, in this case. So it's a balance of you know, asking questions and having to ask for help. And also just going out there and trying it and not being afraid to mess it up and just finding the equilibrium between all those and so far I think I've done okay with it. But you know, there's definitely days where you you mess some things up like an owner billing or because you don't know the the equipment as well. And you're like, Well, I think this cost this much and you know, just kind of figuring out everything else. So it's a that's been fun. It's kind of a good challenge to have every day.

Felipe Engineer  3:21  
Buckle up, everybody. This is a podcast with three people. We don't know we don't know.

Davis Hambrick  3:27  
That's right. That's true. fact of life.

Sponsors  3:30  
Welcome to The EBFC Show, the easier, better, for construction podcast. I'm your host Felipe Engineer Manriquez. This show is all about the business of construction. Today's episode is sponsored by Bosh RefineMySite is a cloud based construction collaboration platform that applies Lean principles to enable your entire team to plan, communicate and execute in real time. It's the digital tool that works in tandem with your last planner system process and puts it all together in one simple, collaborative ecosystem. This easy to use platform is available in English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and French and can be used on desktops, tablet and mobile devices. According to Spencer Easton, scheduling manager at Oakland construction, refined my site in my opinion, is the best cleanest tool on the market for the last time. Here's what our users have to say. We've looked at three other digital scheduling platforms and none compared to the straightforward approach refund my site takes from milestone planning all the way down to daily tasks. This program gives every general contractor and their trade partners meaningful collaboration, accountability and KPIs. Registered today to try refine my site for free for 60 days. Today's show is also sponsored by the Lean construction Institute. LCI is working to lead the building industry and transforming its practices and culture. Its vision is to create a healthy and thriving industry that delivers outstanding project outcomes every time for everyone. Check the show notes for more information. Now, to the show. 

Felipe Engineer  5:19  
Welcome Davis and Walker.

Davis Hambrick  5:21  
Thanks for letting us get to have this platform to talk to you. We guys the length on this podcast is gonna get to have fleet by coming out actually this Monday. So what day that that would be the seventh what see sevens coming. So Felipe, you're coming out in our podcast and we appreciate the time you spent with us. But man, we're excited just to hang out with you a little bit more

Felipe Engineer  5:41  
calm excited to I'm gonna give my podcast interview on the laying foundations podcast to my wife as an early Valentine's Day president.

Davis Hambrick  5:49  
She's gonna love it. Appreciate that,

Felipe Engineer  5:51  
it's gonna appreciate it. It's better than I think I had three Home Depot trips in a row or for Valentine's I had to buy a sump pump, like three different projects. And maybe it was only two times but it feels like it was three times. Valentine's Day. Yeah, Happy Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day. Both Davis and Walker are amazing human beings. And they are charging up so many people coming inside of the construction industry that are just getting started. Already in it. Some of you thinking about retiring after you listen to them or laying foundations podcast, you're like, I'm not going to retire. Construction has so many new bright sunny days ahead of it. Let's go highly recommend you all check out the link Foundation's podcast not just because I'm on it, because it's actually a great show. And these two do a really good job of bringing forward new excitement and energy to the construction industry. From a unique perspective. You got one from the office and one from the field, you're gonna be able to figure out if you're paying attention, which one is which already. And I want to just say check the show notes for links to their podcast. We'll make that available for everybody. So let's start off the show. Gentlemen, who's gonna fight for introducing themselves first.

Walker Lott  7:10  
Go for it. Davis.

Felipe Engineer  7:11  
He pointed to he pointed to totally the wrong way. So you have to mirror that and pointed that way.

Davis Hambrick  7:16  
Well, I thought was the right way. I guess

Walker Lott  7:19  
it's the right way for me.

Felipe Engineer  7:20  
Oh, it's perfect. Trust your gut Davis. That's right. So you got to take it.

Walker Lott  7:26  
I'd say I said it first though. So

Davis Hambrick  7:29  
we'll go. We'll do it. We'll do it. Guys. I'm David Hambrick. I'm the co host of the laying foundations podcast. And my friend over there walked a lot is also the co host. A little bit about us, I guess a little bit about me, I work for Brasfield and Gorrie, I'm an assistant field manager. And really all that means is I got to earn it every day, I got to earn the right to speak to the trade partners on our job and the superintendents in the field and just try to approach it in a way that is really humility based i I've known from internships and few years ago where I've used to walk in life where I thought I knew everything and you get home very quickly, just in life, but also in construction in general. But I learned very quickly that I don't know what I don't know. And I have no problem with admitting that I don't know if teach me show me how to do it. I want to learn from you, especially the trade partners, you know fleabay That's a real you're gonna get to see that as a real passion of mine. I love the guys that go out there and literally just risk it all to get it done every day they get to install the work, man, just some of the best guys around but I graduated from from overbuilding science program in December and kind of backtracking there. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. So just kind of two hours outside of Birmingham is Auburn. And that's where I got to meet Walker and Walker. I mean, take it from there, buddy.

Felipe Engineer  8:45  
Paul has just graduated like this December like two months ago.

Davis Hambrick  8:49  
No December 2020.

Felipe Engineer  8:52  
Like, wow, graduated in August. So Oh, you just graduated August last year last August. Yeah. Thank you. gratulations. Hey, Davis, congratulations. Anyway, that's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. That was a great intro to alright Walker, you on deck. Take it away.

Walker Lott  9:08  
My name is Walker lot. Like David said. I'm the co host of the laying foundations podcast to get the opportunity and the privilege to deal with Davis every week. And I don't know man, we I think we have 50 episodes now, which is pretty incredible. We started over a year ago, which is wild that it's been that long. But yeah, like Dave is setting. I'm also from Birmingham. We didn't know each other while we lived there at all. Never knew Davis was met him in Auburn University. We did a competition team Auburn does some pretty cool things with their building science program. So got to travel to Dallas. And from there we just became buddies. And then man, what else about me? I've been through transfer schools five times in five years. Whoa, a lot of different Yeah. meant a lot of different schools. And not It's not Yeah, there's reasons behind high schools. college credits all kinds of stuff you can ask about later. And and then what else? That's a good question. I don't like talking about myself.

Felipe Engineer  10:12  
Oh, don't worry about that of course gonna get come right out because you're gonna have to talk about so I got a newsflash for you Walker. This is your interview I got the Big Mike today baby so you're gonna answer all my questions. We're gonna start with Mike I'll make it easy for you Walker did you? Did you end up out of those five schools you went to Birmingham Alabama was the last one. Auburn Auburn was the last one

Walker Lott  10:36  
Auburn. So Birmingham's over grew up Auburn, Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, is the school that I graduated from, which is the best school. If you ask me. I'm biased. But

Felipe Engineer  10:49  
ladies and gentlemen, let us know in the comments if Walker is correct, and saying that Auburn is the best school, if you went to a school that you at least partially enjoyed, we need to hear from you. Because I'm not sure that we're gonna let Auburn take that title on today's episode

Walker Lott  11:04  
might not have the best football team. But they are the best school they got the best basketball team right now. So

Felipe Engineer  11:12  
I like it's got a little asterisk disclaimer, that it's still the best school even though the football team is not the best. It's all that matters in the SEC. You graduated last August. And what are you doing now?

Walker Lott  11:23  
I'm working as an assistant project manager for the Haskell company. And I am working on a pretty cool site. So you know, like I was talking to earlier in the beginning of the show. Sorry, there's a dog right next to me that just walked up. Like I talked about earlier,

Felipe Engineer  11:38  
dogs on camera, but it is a dog friendly show Walker. So it's a

Walker Lott  11:42  
dog for English a second ago, through the window.

Felipe Engineer  11:47  
Not sure if it's cat friendly show you this dog friendly.

Walker Lott  11:51  
Dogs, I like the dog friendly show you won't lay down again. No. So I work working with pretty cool sides, about 600 acres, about 300 of them they've been cleared the brand new manufacturing facility, about a million and a half square feet. So it's something that I never thought I'd be in. It's it's a really cool opportunity. I think it's the biggest project our company's ever had. Which is also really cool to be a part of just right off the bat. I'm very blessed to say that but I got a really cool team. So I'm actually doing the process side of it, which, like I said earlier, again, it's a whole different world. I've never done anything like it before. It's it deals with very technical, mechanical type stuff. So pumps and tanks and, and, and piping and all kinds of stuff, cleaning cleaning place systems, you know, so pretty much everything that manufactures anything food wise, drink wise, especially uses a very similar process just sometimes has different equipment, different flow patterns, or different ways that it goes. But overall, it's usually the similar, pretty similar equipment. So kinda I get to learn how everything's made. It's like an episode of how it's made. If you ever watched that show before I actually get to do it. So that's been it's been interesting. It's a big, big learning curve. But having worked with three different teams has been kind of like a turnkey construction company, I guess you could say. So we do design engineering, build the facility itself, we do the packaging equipment, we do the process equipment. So we're, you hire us and we'll get you out the door and get it working facility. So it's it's really cool to see how everything meshes.

Felipe Engineer  13:25  
I imagine at some point we're gonna get some stories about how in the startup process there'll be some some tasting possibly the different parts

Walker Lott  13:34  
of the I don't know if you want to taste some of the stuff that comes out in the startup process but there there's probably some opportunities down the road.

Felipe Engineer  13:42  
Yeah, maybe a little bit past the startup maybe like everything's the water trials. Yeah, everything's been running, everything's passed and then we do the tasting

Walker Lott  13:52  
it's cool. I mean, the office so when you walk into my office, it's pretty cool because I got all kinds of different products on the wall that we that we manufactured before. I mean, literally every mainstream product food wise beverage wise that you can think of we we have it on the wall and it's just throughout the office, there's always snacks I love snacks throughout the day if you get bored I just go and open up all the different cabinets I could find chips you can get some sort of like a round of you know fizzy drink like a Lacroix or whatever it's so good so good but every time I just walk around just you got no other location people come ask me where the snacks and liked it I got you. Let me show you. I'll walk around

Felipe Engineer  14:36  
that is spectacular. Sounds like a job site that we need to go visit at some point Davis Davis How far is Walker site from your current location

Davis Hambrick  14:45  
for Bob drive in about nine hours maybe he's no he said South Carolina seemed Atlanta right now. But yeah, I'm in New Orleans and so down here with the cages learning a little bit about Cajun food and creole style. They have a lot of good Due to its Walker just told us about snacks, but you're making me hungry already?

Felipe Engineer  15:04  
Yeah. Is it too early to start throwing some bands around? And so we spice things up in this episode. I think I got told by Tom weather said, don't say, bam, it's not a New Orleans thing I was like it is it is, you don't watch enough TV. The fact that, you know, to tell me not to say it means it's

Walker Lott  15:26  
away from it exactly. doesn't want you to know the secret. It doesn't want

Felipe Engineer  15:30  
me to know. Doesn't want me to know. But that's, that's great, man. So I'm gonna turn it back to Davis. Now we've heard the walker do a spectacular introduction. Thank you, Walker. Sounds like you went through a good college experience. And you fall in love with the field side of things. What? What was your first exposure to construction that kind of got you bit with the construction bug?

Davis Hambrick  15:53  
Well, I would say I had a good college experience I had to learn to just as well as Walker did, it took me about four or five tries to finally get into my college. But you know, what got me into construction man, I grew up going on mission trips, and middle school and high school and just got to serve people, and got to see what it was like to work with a group of people towards a common goal. I mean, I know that's really simplified, but really getting to grow up in the inner city of Chicago, or downtown Atlanta or in Baltimore, and put a roof on somebody's over somebody's head or build a extended garage or take out the trash, whatever it was like that team camaraderie is what kind of drew me to it. Obviously, there's a little bit of faith based with that too. But growing up playing sports, and just being with a team, I'm all about a team. I love people. And if I can make the team better and put myself below them, I do it every day of the week. I want people to know that it wasn't Davis Hambrick. It was, you know, Walker law and David Hamrick life. And it wasn't just me, it's never just me. But that kind of got me into construction. Because I love being outside, I love using my hands. I love talking to people. And as that mission trip experience, I didn't know exactly why I was in college, but I wanted to do but as you kind of grow in life happens and you fail and pick yourself back up and keep growing. I went back to that, and I thought about, you know, I want to get the opportunity to get a degree from a great for great college, like Walker said, but and get it from one of the best construction management programs in the nation. But also, after this, I'm gonna get to graduate with a job get to go work for companies that get to impact our nation, and do some of the best work that I can think of and, you know, fallen in love with the field. For some people, you know, they just think about it, I mean, I'm probably different from most people like being out in the field. Usually, if they graduate from construction management, they're gonna go be an estimator or be a VC or go be the PMs side, but I love just getting ridiculed by the old guys that are better superintendents, I love getting made fun of, you know, they probably think that I don't, but I love just who they are. And I was taught at an early part in my college life was Davis, if you go lead up, you're gonna lead up to these guys that have had a tough life that people came in and told them, you know, going back to that conflict didn't didn't dream the right way. And so they're gonna be really callous. But if you show them your heart, if you're willing to go work with them, if you lead up to them, and in moment, show them that, over time, you're willing to do the things the right way, they're gonna start to change and mold, and you're going to have a huge impact on their life. And so that's what I try to do. I like, it's so hard to think about going on to a job site today and think about, I'm gonna go elite, a 65 year old man is about to retire in the next five years, like, you're not going to happen overnight, but you just slowly take bits and times and you show up daily, and you work hard, and you're always there, and you have good qualities about you. And you get to that point in life where you get to know that I get to have a direct impact on someone else's life and construction, whether that be the people in my in my job site or my office, but are the GC or the subs, whatever it is. But man, you just have such an impact for people, I think in the field more so in the office. But again, I'm a little biased, I love the field. And that's just who I am.

Felipe Engineer  19:13  
It's true. This gentleman Davis contacted me a while back on LinkedIn in like, I don't want to say it was less than three sentences. Now, they weren't complete sentences. It wasn't a it wasn't like a super duper run on it was a concise, three sentences and I knew right there then like this guy actually cares. And so I immediately gave him my cell phone. And we connected and we talked about my favorite subject podcasts, talked about podcasts for a while. So that was also I do a follow up question for you, Davis. Before I turn my attention insights on Walker who is defending the greatest School of all time right now and you were trying to downplay it, but we're not going to let the audience forget that shots have been fired. And so Davis, what do you do? Tell your family members what your job is doing. Do you? Do you actually tell them your job? And they look at you like, what is that? What's that mean? And then I'll tell you why I'm asking this question. Well,

Davis Hambrick  20:14  
what I tell my family. And I think back to how Brian Melcher responded to us as you tell them a little bit, and you see if their interest is piqued, most of the time, I tell people, I'm out in the field and I already lose experience or lose a little bit of attention then but sometimes I go into man, I heard a cat today or you know, try to make a little bit funnier and tell them stories. But you know, nine times out of 10, when I tell my family what I'm doing, they lose interest of what I'm doing. But whenever I talk about maybe the people, like going back to who I am, I've getting to influence people, they love to hear about that, but they don't care, they care less about, you know how to attach a stud and how to finish drywall. They don't care about that crap. So

Felipe Engineer  20:54  
okay, that's what I was just I'm just getting data right here, Davis. So thank you for that. That data point. Yeah, I get about halfway through what I do with my family, and they're already falling asleep. I think somebody in my family actually calls them lean lullabies, I told these stories, continuous improvement. And it puts a certain somebody's right to bed. And we're just going to we're not going to name names so that we can protect the guilty. Just saved the innocent. So Walker, I want to turn this same question on to you. And you can go in reverse order. I want to hear what do you tell your family about your job?

Walker Lott  21:31  
Man, usually, you know, I've had my cousins and people ask and it like David said, depends on the interest level, it goes all the way from point to a building and be like, I make sure that building gets put out the way it's supposed to. Yeah, and that sometimes that satisfies people's curiosity, they're like, cool. But then something when they start asking that you kind of open up a little bit. So really, I say, from my point of view, we make sure and help manage the subcontractors who actually do the work hands on. Just keep everyone in line, we make sure they have all their materials that they need, make sure the price stays in budget and helps satisfy the owner and get the finished product or what they want. And then again, usually that satisfies people's curiosity, unless they want to go a little bit deeper.

Felipe Engineer  22:21  
Lovely, and then you probably have relatives, I would just assume that you've got younger relatives that ask you just point blank, how much money do you make every year? I'm sure.

Walker Lott  22:30  
I'm sure No, I you know, I haven't got haven't gotten that question.

Felipe Engineer  22:33  
I'm gonna get you some more family reunions. That's gonna happen to you if that's happened to you already. Right? Yeah, it has happened to me too, every time together. So Walker, I want to ask you what, what got you so I mean, once you had your your hero's journey, just get it navigating the school system, and ending with the greatest school ever. What made you choose construction of all things to get into?

Walker Lott  22:58  
Oh, man, it's a long story. So initially, I'll give a little backstory, I was pre med, believe it or not, so I was gonna be a doctor. My dad was a doctor. He's a chiropractor and a medical doctor. So he's got both degrees. I thought I wanted to go that route. My family's medicine. My granddad was a pharmacist, my cousins were nurses, a lot of them my answer, got her doctor, and she's a nurse and all kinds of stuff. So that's kind of how my family structured. And long story short, my parents were in a pretty bad car wreck. Couple years ago, and I transferred schools, that's one of my transfers, came back down to Auburn. And then I, I was kind of sitting there and my parents were like, you know, you should really look into construction, look into the building science program. I'd never thought about it. Honestly, I didn't, I didn't think about the building science program. But I said maths, that kind of sounds kind of cool. And I think Lord really directed it that way. So I started looking at the curriculum, and I was like, This is sweet. I wanna I want to try it at least, you know, before that, when I was a kid, my dad and I would build all kinds of stuff we go out in the garage, and when we build things for the house, or we do things outside, and not easy work, but hard work and fun work. And I've always, always loved it. You know, one time we shoveled like 20 cubic yards of dirt into the backyard to fill in this new far flower pit sort of thing with railroad ties that we made. We live on the hill. And so we built flower boxes for that. And I just remember that vividly. For some reason, when we had sand when we redid our house and we're doing breaks and stuff, we had sand in the driveway. So I took little Tonka Trucks and played with that. So I've always had it you know, I've always really loved it. I love carpentry. I love building things. And that's always been a passion of mine doing remodels for my friends and my family and parents house and all kinds of stuff. But I never thought about making it a career until my parents were say, hey, look into this. So the more I started diving into it and meeting people in the in the industry in the program like Davis and It's all of our professors that we've gotten the honor to know better. And I just the more and more I fall in love with all the time, and it's it's an awesome, incredible industry. And it's a ton of fun to be in, you have the best people around for sure.

Felipe Engineer  25:13  
You are. That's a great story. And keep a long story long. So long form podcast. People can just hit pause and come back. If it's too much, though, stay with us. I want to follow up with both of you. On the lane foundations podcast, it sounds like both you're taking a slightly different role in each of your companies. How has your work helped you with podcasting? And let's go to we'll go to Davis first we'll give Walker a chance to compose himself after he comes down from his glorious playing?

Davis Hambrick  25:49  
Man, that's a great question. I think it's helped me with with people. And I think it's vice versa. I think podcasting has helped me at my job as well. But I think

Felipe Engineer  26:00  
you could, you could, you could go all political on me and change the question go for

Davis Hambrick  26:04  
it might do that.

Walker Lott  26:05  
So the question you asked the question with the question you'd like

Felipe Engineer  26:07  
your question you should ask me was how has always helped me work?

Davis Hambrick  26:13  
Well, the thing is, I think it's true, I can answer both ways on well, so the field has helped me because I've directly seen how you build something. I've seen it. I've walked the floor, I can. I've done some of it. You know, we're the GC. So we do still perform a little bit of it. But I've seen it, and I'm not no offense Walker, but I'm not sitting in office, and I'm not getting out maybe an hour and a half or two hours a day. I'm out there with them every single day. And just the knowledge that I've taken over a year. Obviously, it may not be as highly as I think it is. But man, I think I could I really do think I could run a job. But obviously, you know, who knows, I couldn't I only time will tell but I mean, I think that so much of it, of just the basics of the inside, I think I've done really well this past year, and it's helped me understand what it takes to be in construction. And then also the podcasting side of it, of talking to people like you fleabay talking to Jason Schroeder, Miss Jen, Jennifer Lacey to Adam, who you name it. Our first guys, Nick Chapleau. It's just helped me with people, I'm able to have a conversation on such a deeper level than I've ever had before you can take it to my family life, you can take it to what I do at church, you can take this anybody, any person that come in contact with, I mean, it's just grown me exponentially. And we I think I said this last week with Jesse Walker was talking about, you know, if you really want to get challenged, and you're just looking for something, go start a podcast and just be willing to do it every week because you grow at an exponential rate. Because after that first year me Walker, look back and go, Holy cow, look how much we've grown for the good. You know, we've been pushed and been uncomfortable for a year. But man, we've grown from it. But Walker won't tell you this, but he's a lot better at just showing up and talking to people I'm not I'm this really introvert guy. And so I've had to work my way out. And you know, I used to when I first started I'd have I've just had like, just notes everywhere. But you know, as I get to it, I just own the way and just start talking. And you know, a year ago, Philippe, that wouldn't happen, it wouldn't happen at all, I would have been so nervous to get on a podcast, but now it just seems like it's second nature.

Felipe Engineer  28:25  
It's true. He was he beat Walker on this show by at least four minutes, he was ready to rock and Walker interrupted our great conversation. So I did

Walker Lott  28:34  
I had my computer decided to die right before I jumped on. So

Felipe Engineer  28:39  
that's all good. You wanted to make sure we had that. Coca Cola filter,

Walker Lott  28:43  
personal time

Felipe Engineer  28:47  
or that special Atlanta, Coca Cola filter your camera. So, so walk, I want to turn that to you now how many? Let me just ask what I feel is gonna be your answer. I'll see if I'm right. How has podcasting helped you at work?

Walker Lott  29:02  
Oh, good question. Good. Cool. I'm glad you asked. You know, first of all, let me defend myself. My, my scope of work has not started yet. So that is why I'm not out in the field. But no, it's uh, I you know, David said a lot of they said it very well. But one thing really cool about podcasting is it does force you out of your comfort zone, but also forces you to talk to people that you never would, and it forces you to have to talk to a lot of different people. Yeah, from a lot of different backgrounds that have a lot of different thinking and a lot of different beliefs. And so by having to do that every week, you learn how to kind of work people into different things. And we're not great at it, but we're learning all the time. So you learn how to ask those questions. You learn what the few questions to ask in the beginning, that kind of helps warm it up so you know which direction that they want to go in. because people want to talk about what they want to talk about what they're passionate about what they enjoy talking about. And so when you can finally get to that point, and when you can hit that, you can just cruise along, because they're going to do, you can just let them talk because that's, they love it. That's what they want to talk about. So bringing that to work, you know, you talk, at least I do, I'm on in meetings and on the phone all day long. And so, because of that, you talk to a lot of different people, a lot of different backgrounds, a lot of different beliefs. And so you get to kind of take both of those and mash them together. And it's fun. Now, honestly, I kind of play a game with it sometimes. One of my favorite things to do now is whenever someone answers the phone, because every time you start, you pick up little things, right? Because what what most of us do when we say hi to someone, or when we answer a phone, Hey, how are you? You jump right into it? Right? And well, I loved saying, Hey, how are you doing? And then stopping. And some today, I set for like five or six seconds? Until someone respond there though. Doing alright, are you doing? And so, you know, before, honestly, you kind of get a little nervous, of like having to have a conversation and talk to people if you don't do it all the time. And you're like, Oh, what did they think of me. But now I think podcasts has done a great job of taking that away to where it's it's fun to play little games and make people stop and think for a second and try to honestly let them have a better day because sometimes they'll ask what you're doing. So that's one way having to manage something is another way, you know, Davis does a really good job at it. And but they're just both of us having different roles and responsibilities and realizing that that's the same way your job, but you just have to do it on your own. Now you have to do it for your own thing. And just how are you going to split it up? How are you going to divide your time? How are you going to spend it? And it's all very strategic, and it's all very important. And so those two together, they're very, you can compare him both to work into podcasting very easily.

Felipe Engineer  31:52  
Very easily. Well done. Perfect answers to different perspectives. I love. I want to ask a follow up for you Walker, some of the technical parts of the show seems like a fallen to your to your lap from my memory. If that's if that's correct. What's something technical that you really get excited to do at work that you find yourself volunteering for?

Walker Lott  32:19  
Technical wise for the show, I'd say, you know, David's does a lot of the editing and all that so I guess he gets some of the technical parts. But for me workwise Oh, no. You cut this out.

Felipe Engineer  32:36  
We're gonna wait six seconds Davis.

Steal steal your question. Walker. I just want to turn the turn the tables on you have some fun with you, man. It's all good. Just anything

Walker Lott  32:57  
to ask that question again.

Felipe Engineer  33:00  
Yeah. Is there anything technical at work that you just like, you get into it? And you just like lose track of time? Like you mentioned, you're working on the process side?

Walker Lott  33:11  
Yes. No, no, that's a good question. It just depends. It's been interesting to have to. It's very, most of the engineers that I work with are all either chemical engineers, or there's some electrical engineers. Some, like I said, chemical, mechanical, but a lot of stuff. What we do is chemical because it's formulas, it is having to do different ratios. It's different pump type stuff, and a lot. It's kind of all together. And so what's really cool is honestly, what you do as a podcaster, what we do as a podcaster is I get lost in asking people questions about about the technical aspects of it, because one of the the PMs, the pm ahead of me, he's, he's very, very good at it. And he's done it before in a different types of roles. He's worked for Bacardi rum and all kinds of stuff. So he's been around that technical side of things, but in a pm site and pm role. And so asking him and asking the engineers, hey, tell me how this works. Like, I want to know what this does. And then just getting to listen to it. Because you hear things all the time, or you see things or you see how it's made. You're like that looks really cool. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it does. But when you start asking these questions of like, walk me through the process. So now knowing how raw product gets from a truck, a tanker, all the way through a transfer panel that goes through a pump, through pipes to a tank, and then in the there's a whole nother process down the road of it's gotta go through a blender. It's got to get flavoring. It's got to get carbonation some really cool it's going to be there's going to be nerd and nerdy. So there's something called sparging and blanketing. I really like saying this, I don't really know why I think it's really cool. So in a tank, right, you got products like freshly made product, almost, it's not, it's not gone in yet. It's not been carbonated and put into the can you do that right before. But oxygen ruins a product. So if you have a liquid, they will sparge it. So they'll pump co2 From the bottom of it from bottom of the tank, and the co2 Bubbles displace the oxygen. And so the oxygen now is going to be stuck at the top of the tank. So that would get back in the product. So they blanket it with co2 as well. And so now all the oxygen is forced out of the tank. So the product is in contact with co2. So it keeps the product fresh. And then we're at when you put it into a can they jack a ton of co2 in it, which makes it fizzy. And they put a little bit of nitrogen between the top of the can and the product. So when you crack, crack it open, you get a little pop. A lot of times that's all nitrogen into the top of it. So that kind of stuff is things I get to learn every day and people probably like going to sleep now listening to that. No, but that's really cool to me, because I didn't learn all that in college. You know, I learned how to lay concrete but now I get to learn kind of different aspects of my job that I never thought would wouldn't be something to look into more. So do

Felipe Engineer  36:21  
Walker, that was a perfect story. It took me down memory lane, my my unfortunately my saliva glands turned on. Because I'm talking about yeah, I've toured the bourbon barrels at a couple of different distilleries overseas. And the experience is incredible. And like, what you're talking about is, it's super cool. Like, please jump if you ever get a chance whether you partake in adult beverages or not. I highly recommend taking a tour at least once in your life if it's in your in your neighborhood and your possibility just to see something that human beings have been doing since there have been human beings. Just check it out. It's a very interesting very art and science process. So thank you Walker for making me suspiciously thirsty. What's in that? That's a great question that isn't after hours. This is an after hours recording, ladies and gentlemen. Who knows what's in this cup? My friend, Brian, on my good friend, Brian, he'll probably know and guess what's in my cup. But outside of him, it's anybody's guess. So I want to go back to Davis Davis, surprised me. I mean, you. This introverted person that you described is not the person that I see. And not the person that I've been experiencing ever since I've known you, which is a good more than a good minute. So I want to ask you, What, in your job, and I've already heard that it's the field. When did you realize that you don't know everything? And that conflict is good? Is there a story you can share? Where you had like, was it a one story? Or is it a series of unfortunate unfortunate events?

Davis Hambrick  38:02  
Well, for me, my faith guides me I think the Lord works in mysterious ways. And he wanted to draw that introvert, OCD guy out of me. You know, I've always loved people. I mean, if I get to meet you, obviously, I'm going to be your best friend, I'm gonna try to whatever I can for you as best as my personality. But over time, you know, I say this, because it's not like I've just drastically failed and you fell off the face of the earth. But you know, I was still I was making good grades. But I started to see in college, how, okay, Dave's you can stay up, and you can go work your butt off at work, and then come home and study and just do everything your way. But you can also drive away, you know, your your friends in the building science program. And I know, there's a few of them that probably think that I did, because I was just so focused on, you know, I had to go work. Because I didn't have I had to pay for my school and pay for my housing. And so I had to work. So I did things a lot different than people and then also had to go to school. And so it was just a tough time that I realized that I just got to be OCD and do whatever I can and try to take all of us in and I started to see how I would push people away like my comments toward them. It's a little too brash, or a little too rough on them. And so I didn't give enough grace. And I wasn't given enough grace because of how I respond. And so over time, Lord's work to me where I've learned how to forgive myself, but also forgive others. And I know that at the end of the day, I'd rather treat walk a lot and Felipe better as a person than me just if the only sense I get with them today is something that's negative out of my mouth. I would just rather do the beginning part. I would rather treat them like a human being and it'd be polite and it'd be something that I created at least a little bit of value or positive about them. That's not may not be everybody, that's just me. But to answer your question, there was no one experience. I just think through college and failing and get back up again. In learning that failure is okay, my aunt, I know, Walker's probably tired of hearing about her. But my aunt has been a huge person in my life like I cannot. I can't put her into words, I really can't. She has just taught me so much. She's done leadership, she used to be a counselor, and now she's a has a business and, but she just, I mean, taught me the lessons like Davis give yourself room to fail. I don't understand what that meant. But she just kept telling me that over time and time again, she told me Dave is gonna lead up to that, like I was telling my beliefs that superintendent go to lead up, you have the choice to lead up Davis to show people grace, like, she just told me all these phrases, and lots of me, just, I mean, honestly, I'm a crier flew by so bawling my eyes out her helping me get through it. But she just worked on me and worked on me and just pursued me and taught me leadership lessons and taught me how to keep loving people and pursuing them. And I would say, with God and her I mean, it's just helped me obviously, I've had other people in my family, my fiancee, now Walker, my friends, but if I really think back to it, she drew me out of being this introvert that was so nervous to go talk to people, I can't put into words, Philippe, I, literally a year and a half ago, I would not get on here with you. But I would want to do it, I would be so nervous, I would have had like 10 pages of notes of exactly what to say how to say it, the cadence of it. And now, I have nothing. I literally have nothing. I'm just talking to you. And you can hear my voice. But it's just crazy how, over a year, you've changed so much.

Felipe Engineer  41:32  
You have and I did send Davis and Walker questions that are just throwaway questions that I send all my guests and then I just flip the script on them as we go. I have there's no paper in front of me at all. There's zero paper. I just I just kind of feel it and go with what I listened what needs to come out.

Davis Hambrick  41:52  
That's right. So just go with the conversation and go with the flow. That's right. Yeah,

Felipe Engineer  41:55  
we're going we're putting down we have a good foundation. Now. A good foundation, got a good foundation. I do want to remind people that go to the show notes. And by the time the show comes out, I will put a selfishly put a link to them interviewing me on their show, and you can hear how I lit Walker up with sound effects. Amos was egging me on. So we had a it was it was Yeah, I told. I told Davis before there'll be no sound effects this time due to technical issue. Sometimes. Sometimes they were Yeah, I get I get the stuff take away. I do have like an analog. I have one analog bill with just the perfect expression for for the two of you. There it is on camera. That's great. That's great. So that's, that's for both of you right there. Love it. Yeah, the one the one good bill by one. Go ahead. Davis.

Davis Hambrick  42:50  
I was like, Can I ask you a question?

Felipe Engineer  42:52  
You can you can ask me two questions. That's the first one. What's your second question?

Davis Hambrick  42:55  
Second question. We so you're very gracious with your words. And you're kind of talking about Walker tonight. But what exactly is it that you know makes our show or something that you would like or you think people like minded like you are that would like our show?

Felipe Engineer  43:11  
Okay, the thing that ladies and gentlemen, the thing that you want? What makes the lane Foundation's podcast for me as an I would not have to consider myself Davis as crusty because I'm over 40 trips around the sun, I'm not going to start not going to nail you down to the exact how many times past 40 around. But it's quite a few. And I'd say that your your unique perspective, and how the two of you have like actual curiosity. You're not jaded yet. And you're you're both smart enough to know that people thought experience can sometimes be callous to use your words, they can be callous based on their experiences. And I've had I myself have had a lot of negative experiences in construction. If I look back, and I look honestly back, it's probably 5050 like horrible and great. It's not like 9010 or 8020. I wish was a two I think in my memory. With nostalgia. It's probably like 8020. But if I really look back hard, and take everything into account, it's probably 5050. And so what I love about the Lean foundations podcast is the two of you are just getting started in the industry. And you set it at the beginning of the show like eight times. Let me take another I gotta take another hit for all the times you said, I don't know what I don't know, I was gonna play a drinking game with it. So I'm gonna just just do it now. Every time these guys say I don't know what I don't know, I'm gonna take a hit right here. Or if I say it, and so for people listening, it's a when you have like real curiosity into what people do. And you don't really know your guests that well, like you guys didn't know I don't know how well you knew being like, I, myself, season three, have you listened to every one of my shows? I doubt it, because you're doing your own show every week. So I think that being open, and getting people to talk about themselves is crazy important. And like you said, like in the everyday construction, and Walker talked about this, I don't know if it's gonna make the final cut, ladies, gentlemen, but Walker did have this great story about how he asks people how they're doing. And he will wait uncomfortably. That's great. And that's something that we don't do at work a lot of times. In my training Davis, I've had a lot of training in agile project management, and specifically construction Scrum, my favorite thing to talk about, we are really intentional, or especially with new teams, to let people have space to talk and get to know each other before we just jump into the work. Alright. So I think the laying foundations podcast number one has a great name, super easy to remember, super, like my show. I don't know if you guys remember, Jesse Hernandez interviewed me on his show. And the clip that he chose to promote that show was him messing up the name of my podcast, like four or five times in a row. Of course, it was like, it's just so true to Jesse forum. But I was like, Dude, it's NBFC. Seriously. It's DC. It's like JC and I had recorded. I think by that time, we had already recorded like 10, or 12 shows together. And we did a book study on the lien builder. And I mentioned the EB FC to him at least 15 times an episode. So you've heard it over 150 times, and still not as easy to remember as laying foundations. So to my head to you all, that's a, it's a great thing, you know, even now, but the experience I have, and hearing the guests that you've had, some of the people you've had on the show on your show, are friends of mine, and I got to hear things about them that I didn't even know. So for me, it was just like a treat to get to know my friends better. And to hear other parts of the industry, I think it's the industry is so broad, like we say construction, I mean people listening, you're gonna think about those experiences you're having right now. But just like Walker got picked up from doing a lot of concrete, and just typical commercial construction going into heavy process piping, that's like night and day. It's the same industry, but it's so radically different. Like the fact that he said electrical engineers with an ass. I mean, like on the everyday construction project, you can you can start and finish an entire job and commercial construction and never utter the words electrical engineer. I mean, that's how different things are. So love that. And I want to just, I want to turn the tables back on you rightly so Davis, and I'm gonna give you the last word. Or the last phrase, the last word, and then I'm gonna go to Walker with the same thing. So Walker.

Don't even think about it. You just diarrhea of the mouth when it's your turn. Davis, you're on duck first because you asked me a question. So you think you're getting the last phrase, but I might I might have follow up.

Davis Hambrick  48:24  
That's right. Well, you know, on this coming off of what you just said, I said, what I'm thinking Walker, I are on this track of trying to understand, hey, people are in this industry. And we want to show from blank foundations podcast that there's more than one way in, there's not just this one way of a typical mom or dad thinking about their son digging a ditch. And that's one way you get into construction. This this industry so wide, and so far, and we want to show in each episode, what this person did to get into construction, and how their life has changed because of it. But also, I'm giving you a direct picture of of what it looks like what it takes to get into this industry. And if you like this thing, go for it. If you don't go to the next episode, listen to what this title was, but walk around are starting to learn. There's this huge part we talked about fleabay is, you know, there's this negative connotation for some people in construction. And I want to know more about how can I phrase emotional intelligence to something that ah, construction tradesmen would like, I know I think I've mentioned it to you before, but I'm just constantly thinking about how do I go teach someone in the in the field about emotional intelligence in a way that they understand like, what's a phrase so if anybody has anything from the EBSD show, please reach out to us. I'm looking for a phrase that takes away emotional intelligence for construction. But we're trying to find this because we believe that the tradesmen the people in our industry can create tremendous value if we learn to start working as a team. thinking a little bit more than Insane everything that comes to our mouth. And there, I mean, I'm guilty of I know, Walker omitted to, like, there's so many times in my life where I just got to put my foot in my mouth. And I spoke too much. I said something the wrong way. But, you know, trying to figure out who people are and their path and how can we make it better. That's what we're all about. We just want to help inspire a new generation of builders to live a life of purpose. And that's what I'm passionate about every single day.

Felipe Engineer  50:26  
Beautiful, and I was gonna tell you, I don't know if you were like, you hack my cell phone or something. But I actually got a text message this morning. From a friend of mine, that again, I'm going to protect the guilty and not named names. But a friend of mine sent me a text message and a text message said something along the lines of there must have been some triggering event on social media today, because the text read, why the EFF are people talking about emotional intelligence? Don't they have enough intelligence to know if they connect with people or not? And I thought, I don't think you know who you're texting. Like, is this meant for me?

Unknown Speaker  51:05  
You don't know me,

Felipe Engineer  51:07  
like I just, I sent them back a whole bunch of emojis. Last year, yeah, I got no response for a good two hours later. I want to go to walk her down a walker, I want to give you the last phrase. First of

Walker Lott  51:27  
all, to give a shout out to both of our significant others because a lot of ideas come from them. And then my girlfriend came up laying foundation and Grace has come up with quite a few

Davis Hambrick  51:37  
Walker requests kind of funny. The best ideas have come from them. So what are the

Walker Lott  51:41  
best ideas have come from both of our girlfriends slash fiance's? So I don't know if we can take much credit for anything. Anyway. No, it's, you know, laying foundation. Like David said, it's about people and we truly love people. One of my favorite things to do is go back to Auburn and, and we will my company allows me to do the career fair, I actually get to do and it's coming up in February. And I love it, I absolutely love doing it. I get to teach classes there as well just connected with few of the professors and, and one of the guys in my company, he likes to do it too. So we get to go together. And it's it's one of my favorite things to do, because it's getting to reach people teach people to connect with people, and just helping students who, or just anyone not, you don't even have to be a student, you can be in your, you know, 30 years or 40 years around the sun or whatever you are, and just want to jump into a different career, you know, we just want to help people. And construction is a really cool way to do it. Because it is such a wide range, you can be in law and construction, all the way down to a welder, you know, to a superintendent to lean to you name it, you can literally do anything you want. That's what's really cool about it. But the one thing about construction, laying foundations, you name it, and I'm stealing stuff stealing this from a guy on YouTube, I don't remember his name. So I hope he doesn't have a copyright copyrighted. But he says his your work is your singing signature, you know. So with construction, that's the only thing that you can really say that about, which is really cool. Because if you do a bad job, you're now represented as someone who does bad work. And so you can't really ever get that done. Davis and I had known companies that are known for that, you know, if they do a bad job once or twice, maybe three times, and now the only people only think they do a bad job, you can't get past that. So it's a it's a very unforgiving industry, if you are not real if you don't want to work hard and do the best you can and everything, which is why we try to make late and laying foundations that way we try to do the best and everything we do try to help people in any way we can. And I like to paint this as the real us you can't really hide it after 50 Plus episodes. And so that's kind of how construction is people know when you're faking it. And so, you know, we love people we want to help and so if anyone wants to reach out to us contact at Lang dash foundation.com And we'd be happy to help.

Felipe Engineer  54:16  
Very special thanks to my guests. I'm Felipe Engineer Manriquez. The EBFC Show is created by Felipe and produced by passion to build easier and better. Thanks for listening. Stay safe everybody. Let's go build!