Find My Cones

08/24/2026

Let me ask you something.

When you're driving down the road and a truck catches your eye — what made you look?

It wasn't the make or the model. It was the color. The graphics. The way the whole thing looked like it meant business before you even read a single word on it.

Your truck is the most visible advertisement your company owns. It's on every road, every job site, every neighborhood you've ever worked in. Hundreds of people see it every single day.

And most contractors treat it like an afterthought.

Here's what I've learned after 27 years of watching which companies people remember and which ones they forget:

**Color is your first impression.** A distinctive color scheme that nobody else in your market is running makes you instantly recognizable. People start to associate that color with your company before they ever call you. That's brand awareness you didn't have to pay for.

**Graphics tell people who you are before you open your mouth.** Clean, professional lettering and a sharp logo say you run a tight operation. Faded vinyl and crooked lettering say something else entirely.

**Consistency across your whole fleet multiplies the impact.** One sharp truck is nice. Five trucks that all look exactly the same rolling through a neighborhood together? That's a statement. People notice. People remember. People talk.

**Your truck shows up to every estimate before you do.** The customer is watching out the window when you pull up. What they see before you knock on the door is already shaping what they think you're going to charge them.

We made a decision early on to stand out on the road. Distinctive colors. Sharp graphics. Clean trucks.

It's not vanity. It's marketing.

27 years taught me that the most memorable contractors in any market aren't always the biggest. They're just the ones you can't miss.

👇 What does your fleet look like and do people recognize it on the road? Drop it below.

And stick around — there's a lot more coming.

08/20/2026

08/20/2026

I'll be honest with you.

Not everyone who works for me stays. And not everyone who stays thrives.

This isn't a job where you can coast. We move fast, we work hard, and we hold each other to a standard that not everybody is willing to meet. Some guys try it and decide it's not for them. That's fine. No hard feelings.

But the ones who buy in?

The ones who show up every day with the right attitude, embrace the culture, take pride in the work, and decide they're going to be great at what they do?

Those guys get a hell of a ride.

Good pay. Real bonuses. 401k match. Equity for the ones who earn it. A company that invests in its people because it knows its people are the reason it wins.

We've built something here that doesn't happen by accident. It happens because the right people decided to be a part of it and we decided to take care of them for it.

I'm not for everyone and everyone is not for me.

But if you're the kind of person who takes pride in doing things the right way, who wants to be part of something that's actually going somewhere, and who understands that the culture you work in is just as important as the check you take home —

You'll fit right in.

And you'll be glad you did.

27 years building this. Still just getting started.

👇 Tag someone who deserves to work somewhere that actually takes care of their people. And stick around — there's a lot more coming.

08/18/2026

Every job site has one. You know exactly who I'm talking about.

The guy who's always got a reason why something can't be done but never has a solution for how to do it.

The guy who disappears every time there's heavy lifting but reappears the second someone mentions lunch.

The guy who's been doing it "his way" for 15 years even though his way takes twice as long and looks half as good.

The guy who shows up 20 minutes late every single day but leaves at exactly 3:30 like his life depends on it.

The guy who knows everything about running the crew but has never actually run a crew.

The guy who calls off on Mondays so often you've stopped being surprised and started just planning around it.

The guy who spends more energy avoiding work than it would take to just do the work.

Every crew has one. Some crews have three.

And somehow — nobody ever fires him.

😂 Tag the guy on your crew who just came to mind. You know who it is. He probably won't see this because he's already gone home.

And if this page is starting to feel like home — you know what to do.

08/12/2026

Let me paint you a picture.

It's 7am. I'm sitting at my desk. I've got a cold beer in my hand.

Sound unprofessional?

Good. Because that's exactly how I feel when I smell w**d on my employees before they get on a job site in the morning.

We are running heavy equipment. Pavers. Rollers. Dump trucks. On live roads with real traffic and real people driving past our crews every single day.

This isn't a desk job. This isn't a place where being impaired just means you send a sloppy email. This is a job where impairment gets someone killed.

And yet here we are.

I don't care what's legal in your state. I don't care what you do on your own time. That is your business and I mean that.

But the moment you show up to my job site impaired at 7 in the morning you have made it my business. My liability. My crew's safety. My reputation on the line.

I hold myself to the same standard. You won't catch me cracking a beer before I make a single business decision in the morning. Because that's what professionalism looks like.

So why would I accept anything less from the people running a $500,000 piece of equipment on a public road?

I won't.

27 years in this business taught me that safety is not negotiable. Not for any reason. Not ever.

👇 How do you handle this on your job sites? Drop it below. And if more contractors need to be saying this out loud — you know what to do.

08/07/2026

13 cones locked and ready for pickup.
32 still out in the wild.
That’s $1,200 of just cones sitting on jobsites right now.
Track them. Find them. Get them back.

08/07/2026

🎉 𝗡𝗢𝗪 𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗡: Applications for the third annual Women of Asphalt x Caterpillar Paving Scholarship!

This fully funded opportunity gives WofA members the chance to attend Caterpillar's renowned Paving Operations Training in Arizona, a $6,000+ investment in your career.

🎓 Gain hands-on experience.
🚜 Build technical expertise.
🛣️ Grow your career.

Applications close August 21. Apply Today!

https://bit.ly/4x71Thf

08/07/2026

07/26/2026

Would you rather work a seasonal asphalt job or a year round steady gig?

Here's what the seasonal life actually looks like.

April through November you are grinding. Long days. Overtime. Weekends when it's needed. You are making hay while the sun shines and the money is real. A skilled guy on a paving crew during a good season can stack serious cash in a short amount of time.

Then winter hits and the phone stops ringing.

No work. No paycheck. Just whatever you saved from the season and hopefully it's enough to carry you through to spring. Some guys love it — hunt, fish, spend time with the family, recharge. Other guys are climbing the walls by February wondering when the ground is going to thaw.

Now here's the year round steady job.

Same check every week. Predictable schedule. Home for dinner most nights. No feast or famine. No gambling on whether the season is going to be long enough to pay the bills.

But you're probably not making what the seasonal guy makes during peak season. And there's no February off to do whatever you want.

Both have real tradeoffs.

The seasonal guy makes more money in less time but has to manage it carefully.
The year round guy trades upside for stability.

After 27 years in this industry I've seen guys thrive in both lanes. It comes down to personality more than anything else.

👇 Which one are you and why? Drop it below. This one is going to be interesting.

07/21/2026

This might be the most important thing a high school kid reads today.

AI is coming for college degrees.

Not all of them. But more than people are ready to admit. Accounting, marketing, paralegal work, financial analysis, coding, graphic design — the jobs that used to require a four year degree are being automated faster than universities can update their curriculums.

And meanwhile the trades are sitting there wide open.

Nobody has figured out how to program a robot to lay asphalt in 95 degree heat. Nobody is automating a paving crew, a sealcoating operation, or a milling machine on a live road at 2am. These are skilled, physical, real world jobs that require human hands, human judgment, and human experience.

And they pay like it.

Here's what a kid who goes straight into the trades out of high school gets:

Zero student debt from day one.
A paycheck starting immediately instead of four years from now.
Skills that AI cannot replicate or replace.
A career path that leads to owning something real.

Here's what a lot of college graduates get right now:

$80,000-150,000 in debt.

A degree in a field being disrupted by the same technology their professors never saw coming.
An entry level job that an AI tool is already doing faster and cheaper.

I'm not saying college is worthless. I'm saying the calculus has changed dramatically and nobody is being honest with these kids about it.

The guy who learns to run a paver at 18 and starts his own operation at 30 is going to be in a better position than a lot of people with framed degrees on their wall.

👇 Would you encourage a young person to go straight into the trades today? Drop it below. And if this is something more people need to hear — you know what to do.