This is the full transcript for Episode #273 of the Wild Business Growth Podcast featuring Bryce Wuori – Construction Meteorologist, Co-Founder of Pavewise. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.
Bryce Wuori 0:00
Go all in. I mean, if you got a dream, chase it. Just take your chips and go for it
Max Branstetter 0:19
Oh be-pave. Sorry. Welcome back to the Wild Business Growth Podcast. This is your place to hear from a new entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning who’s turning Wild ideas into Wild growth. I’m your host, Max Branstetter, Founder and Podcast Producer at MaxPodcasting, and you can email me at to save time with your high-quality podcast. This is episode 273, and today’s guest, I don’t know why I said that weirdly, today’s guest is Bryce Wuori. Bryce is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pavewise and asphalt tech company – bet you didn’t guess that – who is bringing tech to the construction space, specifically, making paving as efficient, and least time and task wasting as possible. In this episode, we talk introducing a longtime industry to something completely new, what is involved with changing behavior because we know that so easy, how to remind yourself and your team to celebrate wins, and some crazy focusing relaxation techniques. And all things North Dakota and there are a lot of things about North Dakota. It is Bryce. Enjoyyyyyyy the showwwwwww!
Aaaaalrightyyyyy we’re here with Bryce Wuori, Co-Founder and CEO of Pavewise, really, really cool company in the construction and efficiency space, I’ll call it but also gives us an excuse to talk about asphalt, which we don’t usually talk about on the podcast. Really excited to have you on. How are you doing today, Bryce? Thanks for joining.
Bryce Wuori 2:11
Hey, Max. Thanks for having me. Yeah, asphalt is a little unique. Not a lot of people talk about it. But we drive on it every day. So it’s something that you know, it’s part of our life and stuff. But yeah, it’s great to be here. I’m excited.
Max Branstetter 2:24
Yeah, of course. So I have carved out 45 minutes for us to talk about the science behind asphalt. No, I’m just getting, you know, maybe well, maybe we’ll get into some of that. But it’s a really cool and really important space you’re in and as you mentioned, something that we all deal with every single day. But before we get into pave wise, so I know you come from a family that has a little bit of a background in the construction space, can you share what it was like growing up in a, quote unquote, construction family?
Bryce Wuori 2:52
I mean, wake up early, hard work long days, you really kind of mold your place. It was it was good. I mean, you, you learned to work hard run equipment, and just do multiple wear multiple hats. And I think that’s really one of the things that’s helped me is, I’ve been in a lot of all those positions from, you know, running equipment to managing a few people to managing a whole company. And I’ve, you know, stepped down those, those paths in my own shoes. So it’s been good, hard work, you really taught from the beginning, you get what you put into it, the early bird gets the worm and that’s what being part of a family that, you know, as construction in their blood. That’s what you have to do to survive. So
Max Branstetter 3:40
yeah, hard work early mornings. I mean, there’s a lot of similarities, I think to like, my dad’s side. So he grew up in Southern Indiana, and not specifically his generation, he did work on a farm for a little bit, but you go back generations to like my grandpa and great grandparents and like that, and like, it was big time farming world. And I think some of those same lessons passed on to generations about getting up early and just doing the work. And it’s like, you can’t, like there’s no choice like, you just got to do it. And you got to work hard. And I think a lot of those similarities, you know, crossover to the construction world as well. It sounds like what lessons did did your family and those involved in the construction space teach you about how to work about hard work if you could pronounce it, because it’s one thing to say it but it’s another thing to get yourself motivated to do it every day. I
Bryce Wuori 4:29
mean, you learn from the people, you know, your mentors in front of you. So when you see your grandpa wake up early in the morning and work, you know, hard and adapt like, that’s the other thing is you learn? Do you learn to do multiple things. I remember watching my grandpa who could weld he was a carpenter. He could run equipment and like something would break down and you know, we’re miles from a shop or we’re weeks away from getting a part in. We would have to build this ourselves in the shop too. Keep going with the equipment and keep moving forward. So being adaptive and just, you know, taking a problem and finding a solution for it and, and just thinking outside the box really is one of the biggest things that I was taught was just like, Okay, we have this problem, we have this issue. How do we fix it? And what can we do? What tools can we use to fix this issue? I really feel like that was one of the biggest things. Again, being in a construction family was just thinking outside the box and always finding a solution for the problem. Even if you don’t have the right tools.
Max Branstetter 5:33
In what was it like if you if you think back from an early age, what aspect are like construction activity? I don’t know what the official name is, what was it that as a little kid, you were like, Oh, that’s really cool. I want to do that one day.
Bryce Wuori 5:46
I remember one time, my grandpa had a case international tractor with a, maybe a four or five yard scraper on it. And he was moving dirt. And I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. Not only because it was, you know, every little kid loves construction and playing in the dirt. But there was a time where one of the hydraulic mounds to lift the the actual scraper up and down broke, you know, he pulled it over and started grinding fixing the weld on it as far as where the mound comes in and, and did that all, you know, right there. And within an hour, he was back up and running. And I just found it really neat that he was able to fix that broken piece and continue working. And as I kept getting older and seeing my dad do the same thing, pulling a truck in the shop and mounting tanks on it. And using like other parts from other vehicles and trucks to make this work. It was just always intriguing to me to think outside the box and like how can we make this work. And there’s multiple other instances to where we always just worked with what we had and found a solution to the problem.
Max Branstetter 6:56
So thinking outside the box, segues swimmingly to pave wise. So let’s get to pave why’s your company which is I know the term disruption and disruptors overused in the business space, especially in the tech space. But it totally applies to what you’re doing. Because you think about an industry and you know, construction activities that have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. And you’re taking an approach using technology using software that makes things so much more efficient, saves time saves, just stress and so many other you know, negative things that come up, I’m sure. What was it for you, that was the first like seed of an idea of like, hey, we can we can really disrupt the space somehow.
Bryce Wuori 7:47
I organically fell into technology. Within construction, I was one of the first adopters of a lot of technology like automation for great control for earthmoving, I seen the future of it. And before that was even a thing you know, surveys that go out and put stakes in the ground with cuts fills all that in, I seen that technology coming with GPS, and we adopted to that right away. And I mean, it literally turned our efficiency around just like that as a company, time saving safety, all that. So I really seen how technology was going to change this industry. So as we moved into intelligent compaction in the paving world into paver mounted thermal profilers, all these things that give us data to allow us to be proactive and change our operations to be more successful. Because without this data, we’re running what I call blind, you can’t make adjustments because you don’t have the technologies to telling you to tell you how you’re performing. So I attracted to those heavily in the early 2000, about 14-15 and started implementing them into not only the construction company I worked for and own but other companies that like Hey, you gotta run this for training and use this is going to help you significantly and it just kind of grew out into I became this technology expert in the paving world, which kind of steamrolled or snowball defected into pave wise
Max Branstetter 9:15
you can say steamrolled. I think that’s perfect. Actually.
Bryce Wuori 9:18
steamrolled. Yeah, well, I literally did. Because it what it turned into is I created a consulting company, that’s all we did was worked with taking technologies and integrating them into construction operations to help them perform and make more money, be more efficient, produce higher quality roads. And that was ultimately where pave wise was developed and created.
Max Branstetter 9:41
How’d you start to learn, like familiarize yourself with the tech side of things because it’s like, no one, you know, especially anybody who, you know, isn’t born in the past 510 years, like, no one is born with just that like tech backing naturally, especially when it’s in like an in history where Tech is a newer thing, how did you familiarize yourself with that?
Bryce Wuori 10:03
Practice, practice lots, lots of lots of failed attempts and, and never gave up on it where a lot of people were because they just found it as more work than benefit. And, and I just I kept pushing through it. And I’m like this will get better just give it some time. Because it’s a behavior change, we’re dealing with that right now, even with our software, We’re disrupting an industry with an idea of, we can help you perform better by integrating 95% accurate weather into your schedules, looking out, forecasting your impacts on your projects, ground, choosing your weather data, giving you operational recommendations based off of the upcoming weather. So being like adaptive, these industries all work outside, and the biggest thing that controls anything that you can do is the weather. So why we know we can’t change the weather, but we can, we can plan accordingly and change our operations, you have to adapt to the environment in to stay successful with efficiency, with quality, all those things. And nobody’s been doing that. And it literally blew my mind five years ago, when I was working on huge projects, I’m talking $30, $40, $50 million projects with, you know, 60, 70, 80 days of paving, and I’d sit down with the contractor, and I’d look at their paving schedule, and they wouldn’t have a rain day scheduled in like in 60, 70, 80 days of paving like no rain days. And I’d be like, This is not even realistic, like, let’s look out at least into the next month and put in at least a few rain days and impacts here or else, we’re going to wonder why we’re falling behind in our schedule. And that’s what really sparked the interest in creating pave wise and then knowing that the impacts like if you don’t change in the environment, the wind picks up, it starts cooling that matte asphalt, you know, is hot comes out hot, just like a piece of food. If you blow on it, it cools faster. So if the wind picks up and cools that mat, and you don’t adjust and move your operations tighter together, the quality of that road decreases, because it’s cooling faster. So like making those changes, proactively knowing that this is coming, improves the quality of the road and the efficiency or profits, all that and that’s what we’re really trying to get through to people with when we say We’re disrupting, that’s what we’re trying to disrupt is that mindset of, of being reactive. The industry is reactive, we want them to move into proactive.
Max Branstetter 12:34
So as someone who’s a paving virgin, I can guess what might be better conditions to pay them. But I’m curious like what what is like your perfect day look like from a weather standpoint in order to pave and get it done efficiently.
Bryce Wuori 12:48
I love this question because we’ve actually built engines based off of like, a perfect day. And that so good day and like it, the weather comes through, or 95% accurate weather comes through this. And we’ve actually built the impact. So we know, a perfect day of paving is anywhere from 70 to 80 degrees, it’s almost like lab conditions like inside, you know, a wind speed of less than 10 miles per hour 65 to 85 is what we consider in our engine as a good temperature. With low wind speeds. Obviously no moisture, the humidity really doesn’t affect too much. But a humidity of less than 60% was nice for certain mix designs. So that’s a perfect day, a beautiful sunny day, we do cloud coverage as well. So cloud coverage can affect the way the asphalt I don’t want to call it curing but sets up cools all that as well. So a beautiful sunny day just like if you were gonna go out on a nice walk, you’d want that same condition for paving. And
Max Branstetter 13:48
what does rain actually do to asphalt light your concrete you know if it’s not set in
Bryce Wuori 13:53
yet, asphalt is one of the most sensitive construction industries because rain and oil dune or water and oil don’t mix. And the way that asphalt sets up cure sets up is that it has oil by two minute and what happens if you get water and bitumen together, it actually creates a disruption between that oil to cure set up and can cause quality issues. The same with the heat process. If it’s cooling way too fast, you need heat, you need that heat to get it to roll to get the air voids out. And if it cools too fast and sets up, it gets hard you can’t roll those air voids out. And what that causes is low density. Low Density equates to low quality so that road is going to fail or you’re going to get deducted as a contractor because they’re paid based off of the performance density of that road. It’s it’s a sensitive construction process because everything affects it wind the moisture, the temperature you can’t pave unless it’s 30-35 degrees. He’s and it gets more difficult to pave, the colder it gets and even hotter. So what happens when it’s like 90, 100, 110. And like Arizona, Utah, even Texas I just came from San Antonio is that material stays active because it’s warm, it doesn’t cool down very fast. So you can allow traffic on it and it can become tender was what we call it. So that mix just doesn’t set up real fast and everything so you can actually start to damage it. Because of the timing on it. I’ve seen mix like for two days after it’s been paved, and like 110 degrees temperatures that hasn’t set up yet, just because it’s so hot outside.
Max Branstetter 15:37
Oh my god. By the way, you could have a whole second career as a meteorologist like a construction meteorologist. I think whenever you get tired of construction, you’re born to be on the news as well.
Bryce Wuori 15:50
Well, that’s what pay vies really is is it’s a Foreman’s best friend that is literally like their personal assistant meteorologist right in their hand, we text notify them, like when inclement weather is coming, what operation to change, like we are like giving them the data and knowledge to be proactive and make decisions and change and just know what’s gonna be happening. In
Max Branstetter 16:13
your example of the different chemicals and the rain, not mixing together, it takes me back to Science class growing up, like I think it’s pretty common in school for your science teacher to do like the glass bottle, and then you put in like water, and then oil and vinegar and like see how it all like doesn’t exactly match up together. You can tell I don’t have my PhD. But in addition to weather in like the weather forecasting and weather tools that you showcase in your software. What other elements do you provide that you’ve heard feedback from foreman of like, this is awesome, like, Thank you for creating this,
Bryce Wuori 16:48
the coolest thing that we created, that it’s really nice to hear that we can save about one, two, even three hours with some of the operational managers we’ve talked to, is a tool, we call it pet peeve wise assistant tool. And it’s actually an AI tool that we developed, we just listened to our customers, there was some friction between. And it was mostly the older, less tech savvy generation where they would upload data or take a picture of something and they’d upload it. But they wouldn’t take that data and put it in the right project folder and just kind of like manage the data and where it needs to go. So we created Pat pay wise assistant tool that’s built off of AI, that is literally smart enough to when it’s uploaded to put it in the right project, the right folder, and even text notify that project manager like it does it all at 93-95% confidence right now. We can scan documents and identify what that document where it belongs. And it’s just saving a whole bunch of time and busy work. Because even though it only takes a few minutes to take a file, put it in, you know, it still takes time and these people are busy so but if you add that up across the whole day, and you’re getting emails, you’re getting documents, test results and all that and taking pictures, we allow in our software, like if you take a picture of the paving operations to upload it be We liked that because not only we get a, it’s a proof of work, but we also can then timestamp certain conditions and like we’ve kind of turned into a little bit of what I call an insurance package for contractors as well. That’s happening naturally. Because the data we’re collecting is proof of work. The weather impacts are proof of conditions. And we’re even setting up what we call hyperlocal weather stations, which are certified weather stations that we put up on site to track the real time data, they self plunge rain gauges, they automate some of the requirements of weather tracking on these projects. And they’re really an insurance package that if there’s inclement weather that happened for three, four days, and the contractor wasn’t able to work, they can, you know, use that data to go back to the owner and be like, this was not my fault. I couldn’t work this wasn’t your fault. How do we use this data to prevent like some litigation and like work together almost like a smart contract, instead of pointing fingers and being reactive at the end of the project? Well, we didn’t hit our completion date. Why? Well, I mean, we can we can we have the data and the the software to prevent that. I mean, like let’s work together. We can’t control weather. We all know that. So that’s really one of our goals is to to help be that mediator between parties because we want them to perform and quite honestly, you don’t want a contract. You don’t want to be paving when it’s raining and if I was the owner, that hired that contractor to do the work. That’s a low quality that the chances of that road performing at quality and hitting its lifecycle I as an owner wouldn’t want to. It’s like having someone come paint your house when it’s raining. Nobody would do that, right? That’s our ultimate goal is to do some of that. So not
Max Branstetter 20:05
only are you an entrepreneur and a meteorologists, you’re an insurance agent as well. So there you know you wear many hats Bryce, I think he can indicate herself more credit in the versatility there.
Bryce Wuori 20:20
It just while these things just kind of happen as you introduce something new to an industry, it’s you find more tool or more, more voids that can be filled with what you’re doing. And that’s what’s kind of happening with us is, we find more of these like problems. We deal we talk with our customers, we run the software like, Hey, this is really actually a huge problem. And this is something that there’s no nobody’s doing. Like with our weather stations, they self automate some of the what they call storm erosion control. So like they have to track if there’s a quarter inch of rain, they got rain gauges like out that we have up that we go dump, right. These projects are required to have that federally, if they disturb over an acre of land. And now if they have a weather station out there, like ours itself plunges they get a text notification when they get a quarter inch rain, they don’t have to go and dump a rain gauge now. It automated that process forum. And that was somebody’s time to go out and literally take a picture of a rain gauge and dump it. And now they don’t have to do that. That’s huge. That’s time savings. And that anytime you can save people time, it’s like gold in this industry.
Max Branstetter 21:28
Yeah, time. And then convenience, that convenience factor, obviously, like huge priorities for you. You talk about introducing something new to an industry, which is much easier said than done. What are some of the biggest challenges that you’ve seen trying to you know, be one of these? I’m gonna use it again, disruptors.
Bryce Wuori 21:53
I mean, we’re changing behaviors, right? It’s this industry, our biggest competitor, quite honestly, is pen and paper, and just a single point weather radar app, or they watch the weather in the morning, you know, on the news, and to take people that have done something that way for even 1015 2030 years. And now give them the access to a technology that does it all. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of hand holding, teaching trust, trust is huge. Like, we have to let them trust that it’s going to do what they did before and make their jobs easier. So that’s our biggest hurdle right now is we have to build those relationships based off of trust and show them and teach them and that you can do this still, like, if we have an inspector or a project manager that refuses to give up writing on a piece of paper, like their journal, that’s fine. Just take a picture of your journal and upload it into the software so that we have that data in there. And at least, everybody has access to those notes and everything. And so we are definitely working through some of the changes. And that’s why we do these podcasts is just to introduce people to the idea. And I mean, there isn’t a contractor. You could pick out any contract. It’s like I’ve never been affected by rain, or the weather. I mean, everybody has,
Max Branstetter 23:22
that’d be like a superhero, like, rain doesn’t bother me. Yeah, right. I
Bryce Wuori 23:25
mean, it just it happens. And if it’s not rain than its wind, or temperatures, it doesn’t matter where you are or what what you’re doing. If you’re working outside, you’re going to be affected sooner or later by something involved in with weather. Yeah, that
Max Branstetter 23:41
changing behavior piece like that’s a big kahuna, like that is a big barrier that is so hard to change. We just all see it in our daily lives. Like we all have our routines and habits and like once we find something we like, or we’re used to, like, why would we want to change and it takes so much education, as you’re talking about to be kind of almost enlightened of, hey, this is something that’s better, and it’s gonna save you a lot of time and getting over the hurdle is that has to be so much constant effort for you like in the minds of your customers, what have been the best ways that you’ve been able to actually somehow change some consumer behavior, especially in the, you know, as you mentioned, some of like the older and less tech reliant consumers,
Bryce Wuori 24:28
finding a champion within a company, or somebody that really sees the potential of how this could help the company be more efficient in that person that really like gets excited about it helps significantly. And I mean, just training and going out with the customers, we do a lot of that like, go out and run a project with them and watch them run it and listen to them. Listen to the customers is huge. You have to listen. You know there’s always great ideas everybody has great ideas when when They’re running a software like you should do this, you should do that. But like, we listen more for like this part, I just, it’s kind of clunky. And you know, like, this would be really neat and like, listening to them and watching them interact with it, the training aspect to it as far as, you know, we we do customer on boards, where, you know, I will literally go out with the customer, set up projects, work with them, and just interact and like build that relationship. Like, that’s our one thing as a software company, we will not sell our software to somebody if it’s not helping them improve in their efficiencies, or just help them be more profitable. So we often do like 30-60 Day trials, like, hey, let’s run a project and just see if it works for you. If it doesn’t, then we don’t want to sell you something that’s not going to help you. That’s part of the problem with the construction industry is they’ve been sold technologies that they got a bad taste in their mouth, like they maybe didn’t get the right training, or they paid $50,000 for the software that was supposed to do all this stuff. And now they’re like, kind of hesitant to, to take on some of this technology. We’re trying to change that too. So
Max Branstetter 26:19
yeah, that integrity and just transparency is super important to have. I’m starting to think you’re a good guy. I don’t know why.
Bryce Wuori 26:28
I mean, I’m gonna be completely honest, I absolutely love this industry. I’ve been in it for 17 years and asphalt paving and construction my whole life. So like, my number one goal is just to like help the industry succeed. Because it’s a little scary right now with the amount of people that need. This industry needs not just asphalt paving, but construction, like there’s 120,000 job posts a month, looking for people in blue collar construction. And we feel like there’s a way to attract even the younger generation to construction with technology. I mean, we see it all the time, an engineer gets comes out of college or a technical degree with a construction tech. And all of a sudden, you know, they’ve, they’ve learned about technology in college, and they get handed a pen and paper in a journal. And they’re like, alright, here you go. And here’s your Excel spreadsheets, you know, and they’re like, this isn’t cool, I got a phone that can do all this right here. You know, like, and that’s where about 90% of our users are running it right on their phones, because everybody has a phone, and especially this upcoming generation, like I look at my 12 year old son, and I mean, he does so much on his phone, he doesn’t even text anymore. He just talks to it. And I’m like, this is the future of of not just construction, but just this is the way it’s going to be whether I like it or not.
Max Branstetter 27:48
It is funny, isn’t it? We’ve gone from talking on the phone to texting being in this new thing to being so tech reliant that nobody was doing phone calls at all. And now people are using their voice again for you know, Siri and everything else on their phones. So we’ve come full circle.
Bryce Wuori 28:04
I found it funny actually is kind of off topic. But I seen a on. I think it’s Facebook, where, you know, back in the early 2000s We all had our phones and we had to download like the ringtone that was really cool. And I haven’t had my phone off silent for like, eight years now. Right? So I don’t even know what my ringtone is anymore. But we have taught things change with technology as well. Like we all had to download that cool ringtone and play a song and stuff. And now my phone’s been on silent for years. And, and I talk yeah, you talk to text. And I mean, it’s just things keep evolving. And, and it’s cool to see that that construction is a little far behind right now.
Max Branstetter 28:42
It is striking when you’re in a public place and someone has an actual ringtone or like ringer go off. It’s like alarming. It’s kind of like, it makes you take a step back. Like what what was that blast from the past there? Yeah, right. It’s also alarming when you go through every Thursday without receiving a Podcasting to the Max newsletter for that week. I know, I know. I used to be there myself before starting the newsletter. If you want your favorite newsletter you’ll ever receive that combines podcasting, entrepreneurship, and the worst puns known to humans or foremens, you can sign up at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. As I often say, you probably will regret it. Now let’s get a little more personal. I would love to dive more into you more on the personal side and how you operate and how you you know the whole work life balance thing and any entrepreneur knows how stressful it can be as a business owner in any business, but especially when you’re trying to spend so much time change behaviors and educate consumers. is in do such a big an awesome undertaking that you’re doing? What are your favorite ways to keep yourself calm and relaxed and keep your mind kind of open receptive to creative ideas when there’s, there’s just so much going on for you every day. I’ve
Bryce Wuori 30:16
learned that you need to take time for yourself. And I learned that I learned it from experience I did, I had a mental breakdown, like 6, 7 years ago, where I just was work, work, work, work, and eventually caught up to me. I mean, it was a lifestyle, I was living lots of coffee, lots of bread bowls, just to keep my company going. I had a consulting company, and I wasn’t taking any time for myself, and it caught up. Now. I make sure in take time every day to meditate, read, go for a walk, just anything just to reset meditation has I love meditation. I started doing it about six years ago, what I kind of took it on for was someone recommended it to me, like just do a mindfulness meditation, I use calm, I use it religiously. It took a long time to get I have a very active brain, I’m a very active person. So like it took me years to get to a point where I could sit down and actually meditate and use it efficiently. But after I found out how important it is just to to reset and take time for yourself, whether it’s 10 minutes, or reading and just like taking a little bit of time is so important. And I wish if there’s anything I can stress to anybody who’s like starting doing a startup and thinking about pursuing this journey is like, make sure you celebrate the wins and take some time to you know, meditate, read, go for a walk, exercise, just it’s so worth it in the end. So that’s that’s how I do that. And I got a family. I got four kids, my co founder is also my wife so we we are a family business. My son is doing cap cuts and editing and LinkedIn for me and like so we’re a family business. And so we’re all involved. They all just came down to San Antonio for I had a paving event down there and visited so we traveled together and spend time with the family. And yeah, just enjoy the time you have because it’s time is the one thing we can’t get back. So. So that
Max Branstetter 32:19
was you that was going viral for paving the riverwalk this past week. No just gotten. I totally feel you on the active mind or active brain part. Like I’m someone who, personally I don’t meditate, but I totally understand and like see the benefits there may be able to get into a one day but I’m a big fan of taking naps. And just like the you know, shorter power naps. And, you know, my mind is so active as well. Like sometimes when I just lay down on the couch for a nap, I got so many things going through my mind. And also I’m so excited to nap that I’m like, I almost get to the end of my 25 minutes. And then I realized like, Oh my God, I didn’t fall asleep at all. That’s considering metal, consider meditating or just poor napping behavior, but But how have you how have you learned to like get your mind to quiet down enough that you can, you know, check the box counted as meditating. Practice,
Bryce Wuori 33:13
practice, practice, I mean, it literally that’s the only thing you can do it. And I tried different types, you know, like Tai meditation. And then I would try with a call. Well, there’s mindfulness. But there’s another one called like a body scan where you can actually concentrate on like your toes, and then your knees and stuff. So I tried multiple ones and practice them all. But like, your brain is a muscle like so the more you do something, the more it learns that like, alright, this is our time to just shut off and just relax. And breathing helps a lot in concentrating on specific parts of your body. There’s actually a meditation I do that is really unique, where you have the fluid in your spine that goes up to your brain. And you can literally concentrate hard enough that you feel like you’re pushing your fluid following it go up through your brain and down through your spinal cord. And it’s so relaxing. And I do this a lot for meditation. I’m not a good flier. I do not like flying on planes, and I flew on 66 flights last year.
Max Branstetter 34:13
Wow, that’s a lot for another fly. Yeah. So
Bryce Wuori 34:16
what I had to do was like I was a horrible flyer, I just did not like being it’s not the flying I just didn’t like being trapped in a plane not being able to get out having that control, the control, it was the control and I found that out but I practice meditation like visual meditation. I do that before public speaking or anything where I just, I literally see myself in the situation, and how well it goes. And you can almost convince your mind that like it’s gonna be fine. It’s gonna be good. And it’s all about positive energy and all that and I’m a very humble, very positive person, for the most part. I just tried to represent myself that way and teach people like I haven’t always been this way I haven’t and I’m so glad I have But it’s all from learning, I struggled with a lot of those things in it. So I hope anybody can maybe before it gets to that point to like, Alright, I’m going to try this, I’m going to change my lifestyle here and do this. I was
Max Branstetter 35:12
trying to do the spinal fluid, focus meditation as you were talking there, and I did not get anywhere close. So I think I need a little work there. So you’ll need to show me your ways after but that’s really cool. Really cool, a unique approach there. And then speaking of positivity, you mentioned that, like, so often people forget to celebrate wins these days. How do you and your team and family celebrate wins,
Bryce Wuori 35:36
we’ve really made it a point to like a big win is something that we we have a Slack channel, we really you know, talk about it on there. And we have an error I sorry, a monthly update that we we celebrate our highs or lows. And we take the time to have a supper dinner celebrated, you know, just take a little bit of time to be like, Yes, this is awesome, like really concentrated on it. Like even when it gets to a point like, Oh, we got a new customer is sometimes like, oh, that’s going to be more work. But like, that’s good, right? That’s good. So like, we have to, you know, approach those differently and everything, but it really did, it got to a point, like being a startup and everything going on. Like it’s so busy that like you do have to there’s so many negative like things pushing and everything that like when you do get a positive, like grab it and hold on to it because it’s like a roller coaster. And you need those to keep pushing forward and be like yes, you know, like this is sometimes I do a happy dance. I’m not gonna lie. I’ll put on some music and I’ll just, you know, do a little happy dance. And my wife was gonna guess that. Yeah, I mean, but no, I, you got to celebrate it. Get to take them there wins.
Max Branstetter 36:47
Now, before we move on, you mentioned supper and dinner. What’s the difference between supper and dinner in your mind?
Bryce Wuori 36:54
I just gave myself away as being somebody from the Midwest, didn’t I? So supper is just something that you do at home, like around five o’clock come to supper. Dinner is more formal, like seven o’clock. That’s kind of how we define it. And I really don’t know why we even say the two but like Dinner, dinner has to be like after seven more like maybe a restaurant more formal, like a steak supper is just what you come home to at five o’clock and eat.
Max Branstetter 37:23
Appreciate the crash course there. I’m somebody who’s from Ohio. So I’m from the Midwest, but I think North Dakota and Ohio are different, very different parts of the Midwest. We didn’t use supper growing up. But on my dad’s side, so like my grandparents in Indiana growing up, I’m sure that word was tossed around. So I just couldn’t let that one go. Let’s wrap up with some Rapid-Fire Q&A. Are you ready for it?
Bryce Wuori 37:47
I’m ready. All right. So
Max Branstetter 37:49
can you explain subrogate? No, I’m just going. What is your best bit of advice for anybody who wants to get into or start a family business
Bryce Wuori 38:03
had go all in. And like, the best thing that we ever did was like, my, my wife is the CEO. And she’s very involved with what’s going on in the business. So we were all on the same page of what’s happening. There’s full transparency, everybody’s all in it helps just with the stress with everything. Because we’re all on the same team. We all know what’s going on. And that’s helped significantly a lot of people are like, Oh, I can never work with my significant other and I love it. We can talk business, we can talk about the kids, we can do all this stuff. And it’s just kind of like this natural flow. Go all in. I mean, if you got a dream, chase it just take your chips and go for it. All
Max Branstetter 38:44
right. Now what is something about you know, daily life in North Dakota, that people probably wouldn’t expect?
Bryce Wuori 38:54
Oh, yeah, well, they’re gonna expect it’s cold in the winter. Everybody knows that. North Dakota is is a very humble state, you can’t go anywhere. Like I live in Bismarck in there, somebody’s not willing to help you. And it’s just, we’ve built a community based off of like, we got to help each other, it’s cold, and we all live in this environment. And, and so like it is, it’s like the whole idea of like, the four way stop where you all like four of cars in North Dakota meet at the same one. And they all just like alright, you go, No, you go, No, you go, you know, it’s like it’s true that that’s the way it is here. And it’s great because it’s it’s such a humble community and we live here for a reason because we want to not because of the winters and the short, you know, two weeks summer but because of the people in the in the environment in the way of living. Well,
Max Branstetter 39:42
that’s great. It actually gives you an excuse. If you’re ever late for something you could just say oh yeah, we were at the four way stop and we you know, that took up half the day.
Bryce Wuori 39:50
Yeah, yeah, no, I’m not kidding. Like if you honk your horn in North Dakota, you usually apologize as you drive by. So that’s I’m
Max Branstetter 39:56
all for that I like want to ban car horns. I know there’s a point for safety when it’s necessary but like, here in like the greater New York area it is it’s way too often it’s like definitely on the North Dakota note. For anybody who hasn’t been to North Dakota before what is like a must-visit place?
Bryce Wuori 40:14
My favorite places in North Dakota Badlands, Medora – they have a musical. I’m an avid bow hunter and outdoors person. So like that is my place to go. I like hike five miles into the Badlands. And there’s like, it’s so peaceful. There’s no noise as far as like you can’t hear vehicles, you can’t hear anything except nature. And they got some cool trails, they got the little Missouri and the musical. So like go to Medora go to the Badlands. It’s one of the I’ve been all over. And it’s one of my favorite places still is just it’s so peaceful and beautiful. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 40:48
I’ve never been but I’ve seen pictures and it literally looks like something from another planet or like a movie or something like it’s just out of this world. So definitely we start working on like, a national park tour or something because there’s just so many beautiful places I’d love to go to in bad places. Badlands even. All right, what is the the best way to stay cool. If you’re working near hot asphalt on a really, really hot day. In Arizona, for example.
Bryce Wuori 41:16
It’s kind of seems counterintuitive, but putting on long sleeves and covering yourself is the best way to do that. And staying hydrated. I mean, we even send out we got some safety things in our software that we’re working on where like if there’s dehydration issues and stuff like staying hydrated and taking shifts like we a lot of those hot hot days, we’re literally driving along with a vehicle where people can just come in and take a break, hydrate keep moving forward because it is very that that asphalts 300 degrees are under 20 degrees. So on 110 degree day with high humidity and then the asphalt right behind us 300 gets cooking. It’s hot. So yeah, I mean staying covered though, because like the sun to being out in the environment. Make sure you wear hat long sleeves and all that and gloves. Like it’s very important because if you touch it, it’s it’s hot. It’ll burn. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 42:10
yeah, well, that’s an awesome tip. And that explains it like I’ve seen workers, whether it’s construction or landscaping, like you see people that are layered up and I get it for the protection standpoint, but also like, not the worst thing in the world if you sweat and cool yourself down. So that’s an awesome tip. And then last one, one last asphalt question for you to come full circle. What is the strangest reaction you’ve ever got from somebody outside the construction space when you told them that you’re an asphalt expert.
Bryce Wuori 42:39
A lot of people don’t even know like the difference between concrete and asphalt.
Max Branstetter 42:45
Yeah, that definitely wouldn’t be me.
Bryce Wuori 42:50
Yes, yeah, real quick, actually, what
Max Branstetter 42:52
is what’s the quick definition of that?
Bryce Wuori 42:56
The big difference asphalt is rock with bitumen, sand, bitumen is the oil, it’s oil-based where concrete is actually produced from keeled through limestone cement, Portland cement. They’re like cousins, but completely different. asphalt is flexible pavement, it moves cracks, it adjusts with the ground concrete is rigid. It does not fit cracks, and breaks. So that’s the biggest difference once flexible ones rigid.
Max Branstetter 43:24
I knew all those things. I was just checking to make sure you really know your stuff. So that’s why
Bryce Wuori 43:30
and I’m an advocate for concrete too. We have concrete companies, I love concrete, they both have their places. And so like I’m all for putting the right thing in the right place instead of trying to push something that doesn’t belong there.
Max Branstetter 43:43
Well, Bryce, thank you so much for dealing with my questions as an outsider to the asphalt and even concrete space. Thank you so much for coming on. This has been an absolute blast just love everything you’re doing with pave wise and beyond. Where is the best place for people to learn more about pave wise as well as if they want to connect with you online at
Bryce Wuori 44:02
all? You know, we’re pretty active on LinkedIn. We have a website www.PavewisePro.com You can check us out there connect, we allow demos, you know, get a demo account. But yeah, we really active on LinkedIn. We have social media, Facebook, oh, we have Twitter, X and all that. So yeah, just we do training on there. We talk about asphalt like construction projects, why these things are doing why you see this as you drive through a project. So we were really trying to help people understand how important roads are and how important it is that we keep building good roads with technology. So huge advocates for the industry.
Max Branstetter 44:42
And it’s just wonderful what you’re doing. And last thing Final Thoughts, stage is yours. It could be a quote, words to live by. You could do your happy dance, whatever you want. Send us home here.
Bryce Wuori 44:52
My favorite quote, honestly is do the best you can until you know better than do better. That’s really what we’re trying to do is give people the knowledge to do better, be better, work smarter, not harder. And we see a lot of that in this industry where people are just thrown into positions and they’re not really told what they’re supposed to be doing. They’re just kind of thrown to the dogs and we want to see people excel, and give them the opportunity to do that with knowledge and training and our software.
Max Branstetter 45:25
Smarter indeed, some would even say SmartLess. Thank you so much, Bryce for coming on the show, sharing your incredible story, all your lessons from North Dakota and beyond. And thank you, Wild Listeners, for tuning into another episode. If you want to hear more Wild stories like this one, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Wild Business Growth Podcast on your favorite podcast app. Go hit that button right now. I’ll give you two seconds to do it. Two seconds takes so long in the podcast and tell your friend about the podcast. You can also find us on Goodpods, where there are good podcasts and recommendations. And, for any help with podcast production, you can learn more at MaxPodcasting.com and sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter. That is at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. Until next time, keep on pavin’, baby. Let your business Run Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!
