The digital dirt world is here. Well, it’s been here for a while now, but it’s officially into heavy dirt work now.
Whether your story or project begins on paper, it is more than likely going end up becoming digital. Once it’s digital, it does a much better job telling people your story by moving around the meta-terrain known as the Internet, than it does stored in a digital file folder.
Meet Luke Eggebraaten, who is the founder of Phaser Marketing and the Dirt Bags Podcast. Eggebraaten graduated from Detroit Lakes, MN and currently resides in Gilbert, AZ with his wife, Olivia. He is one of those who can move your story and investment in the digital world.
Eggebraaten considers himself more than a serial dirt entrepreneur and a Dirt Bag Podcaster, so he used that momentum to springboard into becoming an author too.
The book “The Digital Dirt World” is now available on Amazon and is for a very small audience, according to Eggebraaten.
“This book is written for about 1% of people. We’re taking a deep dive into the fundamentals of digital marketing for construction companies,” Eggebraaten said. “This is for the construction management student that wants to understand how to market a construction company. I’m writing to the innovative and curious 63-year-old septic company president, who inherited the business from his great-grandfather and is motivated to keep it running and well-branded for future generations.”
The following is a raw, unedited Artificial Intelligence transcription
Jason Spiess
digital dirt world. What in the world is that your book covers got looks like, you know, some sort of tractor digging device with some dirt on it. So let’s describe the cover of the book. And first off, how you doing today?
Luke Eggebraaten
Well, first off, I’m doing great, Jason, thank you for making the time today. We just
Jason Spiess
jump right into it here, by the way, we just get right into it. Yeah,
Luke Eggebraaten
I love it. Um And yeah, the cover of the book, you know, shout out to Luke Payne, owner of Black Iron dirt and demolition in Fargo. Uh He supplied me with that picture and so we used that he’s got his loader and his excavator on there and it just makes for a good clean cover for the book.
Jason Spiess
And where can people get the book? We’ll start with that and we’ll of course, end with it as well. But quick give a plug. Where can people get the book and how much is it and purchasing and etcetera.
Luke Eggebraaten
Yep. So the book is live on Amazon. You can search my name. Luke Eager Broaden or the Digital Dirt World, you can find it on Amazon. It’s 15 99. And then also if you go to our website phase or marketing dot com, you’ll see a link to buy the book.
Jason Spiess
Alright. So Digital Dirt World, let’s talk about this a little bit because you know, honestly, I have not read the book and a lot of these interviews I do, I do read the book ahead of time or at least read enough of it to get a general sense of it. So because I know your father, we we we ushered you right to the front of the line to make sure we can get an interview. And I also love supporting young entrepreneurs, but for total transparency, I have not read the book.
And so uh when I think of the digital dirt world, honestly, I’m thinking of like Bitcoin and I’m thinking of these types of things. But when I, when I look at the cover, you know, you’ve got to quote Titus and Drama Don from Kimmy Schmidt, you’ve got a dirt digger contraption device on the cover.
Luke Eggebraaten
Yeah, so to back up a little bit, um when, when I mentioned the digital dirt world. So the dirt world was a phrase coined by a company called Build Wit. And essentially, it’s the dirt world, it’s mining excavation, dirt movers. And it didn’t really have a name that was universally known until they kind of started to shine light on it. And in 2019, I started a marketing agency where it was all digital marketing.
And, you know, we’re kind of working with all companies under the sun. Uh In about 2021 early in the year, we decided to niche down to only work with companies in the dirt world. So since then, we work with about 35 excavation companies across the country and Canada and we only work in that industry. So we don’t take on companies from other industries.
So that’s helped us really hone in on what we do on their website, you know, the S C O that we’re trying to rank them for and then also having the book and going to these different trade shows to speak, it’s, it’s kept it very niche for us, which has really helped.
Jason Spiess
Did you find that to be successful um immediately or was this something that took a little bit of time or is the body of work not quite done to um I guess give it an ample view and what I mean by that is in 2019 the Crude life, which is another company that I own. We went uh down the path where we only accepted money from companies that pledged to do ethical energy.
And what I mean by that is, is, you know, it didn’t necessarily mean their E S G score was at the top or whatever the case might be by the standards of the populace, we had our own set of criteria. Hey, as long as you know, you guys were self bettering and trying to do the right thing and you weren’t lying and, you know, just basically following at least 10 of the five of the 10 commandments, we’ll start there, okay that, you know, just that type of thing and, and we found that we had to reject
some business. We actually did because we did our homework and we did not want to be associated with certain companies going into this new economy, which it’s changed, it’s changed a lot. So talk to me about that journey that you guys had going into your niche field.
Luke Eggebraaten
Yeah. So one of the biggest things that I’ve learned that’s really helped propel the business is being able to say no kind of like you mentioned there, Jason is if, if a company now comes to us and says, Luke, we want to pay you a bunch of money to redo our website, but say they’re like a big grocery store chain. We won’t take on that work. I will refer them to a friend who does digital marketing for grocery stores.
So being able to niche down and say no at the beginning was a little nerve wracking because, you know, we weren’t a huge business at the time. And so it’s saying no to business saying no to money was a little difficult, but it was the long term vision of okay if we’re only working with one industry, demolition excavation, that core industry, we are going to become the experts fairly quickly because we’re doing this stuff every single day and um to back up a little bit, one of our first
clients was Luke Pain with black iron dirt in Fargo. And so we had already had the experience of working with a demolition and excavation company and we just kind of looked at our other client and who we were working with and we said, okay, we want to fully niche down into this dirt world and, you know, keep the foot on the gas. And so we, we eventually then turned away all of their business and only work with excavation companies. And that has really helped propel our business and with
the book coming out now and just launched, um last week that has really helped uh work with companies that can’t yet work with us. And so if somebody is just starting their construction company or they’re still in the early stages, they can at least read this book. Now, get familiar with, you know, how to navigate the digital space for their company. And then when they’re ready, they can start working with us down the road.
Jason Spiess
What is it that your company does if I might ask you mentioned websites and S C O and that sort of thing, but go on a little bit more.
Luke Eggebraaten
Yep. So basically what we do is we split it up into three programs and these are the three phases. And so phase one is your set, your foundation that is tailored for six figure excavation companies. So that’s anyone doing 350,000 year to 1.2 million about. And what they get with that is website, the ongoing hosting and management and also our phase one S C O program.
So we’re helping them grow through Google, not just for leads, but to hire um you know, to hire new workers and new labors and operators. So that would be your phase one, a little bit more hands off. Phase two. That’s when that’s tailored for seven figure excavation companies. That would be your website, your ongoing hosting, your ongoing S C O.
And then we also add in our full graphic design team and our full paid ads team. So you get more of our team working with you. We integrate ourselves in as your digital marketing department, but we’re also outsourced. So you don’t have to pay our insurance or benefits or anything like that. And we end up being a lot cheaper than hiring one or two people full time in house.
So it’s a good option for people that are looking to grow and get more into this digital space, but also um not break the bank in a sense. And then, so phase two, that would be grow your brand is what we call it. And then phase three is dominate your market. And that’s for our excavation companies that are doing 10 million to about 100 year. And that’s just a custom digital marketing plan.
Typically, they have staff in the house that we work with and that way we can integrate ourselves in with them to complement what they’re already doing and kind of fill in the holes where we need to. So the phase three is a custom plan. Phase two is kind of our full team. And then phase one is a little bit of a starting program for them to get rolling.
Jason Spiess
In addition to the Crude Life, we do a company called ESG University Environmental Social Governance University. And I started speaking on that back in 2015 and 16, 17. And, and it’s become a very big hot topic in the last year. Uh And I tell you, the website has reflected accordingly while we were doing the interview, we just picked up two more subscriptions, uh free subscriptions.
But we also, yeah, we picked up a couple paid subscriptions yesterday because we charge $7 a month for the information because it’s uh E S G information. Why not? It’s a substack thing. We’re trying to, you know, do the capitalism thing, see if the free market works and it is, there’s a big follow. In fact, we have 32 states and 30 countries now of subscribers with E S G University and we’re gonna air this interview on there as well.
Um I don’t know if you are into the E S G world at all, but has that come across your desk in any way? From the corporate sustainability side, from the digital uh environmental side to, you know, hey, we gotta do this with our dirt work type of a thing because, hey, you guys are dealing with the earth. So I would imagine, I think you get a protester with every contract, don’t you?
Luke Eggebraaten
You know, it’s a great question too. And what we see is is that we’re so narrow focused that um typically, you know, we’ve been approached by other companies within the industry that aren’t necessarily excavation companies and they might be companies in the oil field or companies that do a subset of a subset of the excavation industry. So, you know, when we work with those companies, like we get to see kind of everything they deal with, but it’s not necessarily um on us because our
job is to do digital marketing and branding for construction companies. So it’s incredibly niche where when it comes to like the environment, like we’re not necessarily uh involved in like that, but we want to get more involved with it and have more of a say with our clients. So whether that’s them telling their story of how they’re doing it sustainably or why they do the work they do on their website, that’s where we would kind of
jump in and help them out with is talking about their mission, their story and how they’re taking the right steps to be a bit more sustainable and environmentally conscious.
Jason Spiess
So, your digital dirt world, what is the gist of the book? I guess. So, if, if somebody’s at the airport and, you know, they were to pick it up or whatever, it’s actually, it is available in paperback. Huh? You can buy it on paper back. Okay. So, yeah, if that’s the case, um, you know, what’s the, what’s the quick elevator pitch, the quick takeaway? And then I got a follow up question about your turf wars racing too. So.
Luke Eggebraaten
Oh, yeah, I love it so quick, quick pitch on it. It’s on the title. It says the Ultimate Guide for construction companies to succeed online. So, uh, in the first couple of pages I say who this book is for. And I also say that it’s, it’s for about 1% of people out there. It’s not for my family and friends to read every single New Year because they love the stories.
It’s not for, um, you know, some random person that kind of, you know, doesn’t know much about construction. This book is really for people that are really interested in construction there. Construction management student. They are a 63 year old owner of 1/4 generation septic company and they want to take their business up a notch or, you know, maybe they’re 35 years old and they’re just, they just bought their first mini Excavator and they want to know how do you navigate this
whole digital space and branding? So, it’s really a kind of a crash course. It’s 13 chapters. It’s a quick read, 27 pages. Really outlining what is a search engine? And how do they work? How do you optimize your Google business profile, social media? Where should you be? How can you jump on there and just easy tangible steps of explaining what it is and then also how you can kind of get started.
So um also put my contact information in there as well because this book isn’t the end, all be all. You’re going to continue to develop questions as you move through um marketing in this, this space. And so I encourage them to reach out to me. Um And in the book, I talk about how I want to be a resource first and a marketing agency second and just help push the industry forward because it’s typically the oil and gas, the construction, the septic industry,
it’s, it’s lagging in the digital space. And so our business and what I do and what I get to speak on is helping them move their businesses forward and the industry as a whole.
Jason Spiess
Are you still out of, I’m sorry, are you out of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota?
Luke Eggebraaten
So my wife and I moved down to Gilbert Arizona, but we come back, we come back to Detroit Lakes quite a bit still. We just did the polar plunge and jumped in the lake, which is great. But then we scurried on back to Arizona to warm up a little bit.
Jason Spiess
Alright. So you actually did the polar plunge. Yep. What, what, what, what’s your okay? The polar plunge folks is where a bunch of crazy people, they’ll, they’ll cut the ice open on Detroit lakes and they’ll jump in the lake and they call it a polar plunge and it’s supposed to be like a rite of passage and, and I’m the guy that will try anything twice
because the first time might be a fluke. Okay. But I will not do the polar plunge. I’m just like you guys are just crazy that says, I don’t even like the cold wind. So, how was it for
Luke Eggebraaten
you? It was awesome. So, the boys and girls club of the trail, like they put on the event. And so this is, this is their 27th year doing it. And my company Phaser marketing, we helped sponsor a little bit of it last year and we jumped last year. We had a team of six of us. We did the play And then this year helped sponsor it again and then we had a team of 17. So we just keep growing each year and want to throw out a couple of stats for you because this is really incredible.
So they, you know, it’s a one day event part of polar fest and The stats for this year, it was 15° Air temp. We had 238 plungers, which is a record by far. So 238 people jumped in the water that day from six states and seven countries and we shattered, you know, the previous record raising 56th $1000 that one day. Um and we had 100 and 43 1st time plunger. So Jason, I think there’s a spot for you next year on our team.
Jason Spiess
First of all, I’m not sure I want to be a part of anything that I’m called a plunger. But that’s, hey, that’s, you know, that’s just wordplay. That’s just me being the editor that I am and the writer. Uh secondly, I donate money not to jump in there. And like I said, it’s so weird because I’m so willing to try everything. But that is the one thing that just I went.
No. And, and the reason why is because when I was in my mid-20s, you know, I grew up in the Minnesota North Dakota. So I’m used to this cold, cold weather and everything like that. You gotta take the good, the bad and everything. But one day I just, one day I was um I think we ended up on Lake Clitoral which is near Detroit Lakes Fergus Falls and a friend of mine called me and he said, hey, it’s so nice out today.
And this was that, that winter, it was like 65 consecutive days below zero and it was the first day it was above zero. And a friend of mine calls me and he goes, it’s so nice out. Let’s go ice fishing and it dawned on me. That is the most crazy thing I’ve ever heard. It is so nice outside. Let’s go drive on a frozen lake and I went, that is not a good place to be okay.
All right. So the polar pledge, I gave a little bit more money that year to those crazy people. But outstanding when I was at K F G. Oh man, we would, we would try to give that outfit as much pr as possible. Well, because I’m a big enabler of crazy. I love crazy. Crazy. Makes the world go round. If we don’t have crazy, we don’t have airplanes. There isn’t anybody that’s gonna go up in an airplane and try it out.
We’re not gonna have autonomous cars without crazy people getting in the car to try it the first time. So I like crazy people. Um Speaking of crazy, it’s, it’s crazy to be an author. That’s a kind of a weird transition, but we’ll go back into the book for a second. You also do a podcast called The Dirtbags Podcast. Is that still a thing?
Luke Eggebraaten
Yes, sir. It’s very much a thing. And that is with my co host on there is Luke pain from Fargo, North Dakota is my, he’s my business partner in the dirt bags. And it has been incredible. We dirtbags podcast has listened to and over 22 countries right now and it has been just a blessing. We, uh the support we receive more and more each month. But it’s what we try and do with the podcast is dive deep down into value.
Like what value are we giving our dirtbag listeners and really what it is is it’s a lot of business insight, but like how to bid, how are people um running their spreadsheets? How do you market your construction company? How do you transition from residential to commercial? How do you ensure your construction company? So we really try and dive deep into these topics in a very consumable way which as you know, podcasts and just putting it on the radio, putting it on as you’re
driving, it’s such an easy way to consume content. So we’re meeting people where they’re at, but trying to deliver as much value as possible and, and they’ve given back 1000 times and we can’t thank our dirtbags and Dirtbag gets uh for listening and it’s just been quite the ride and we’re gonna keep the foot on the gas and keep it going.
Jason Spiess
I was looking for the podcast show that, you know, was taking candy from a baby and other dirtbag activities. But you guys sound like a bunch of successful people. So I, you know, I, I couldn’t relate at all. You know, that type of thing. I’m just kidding. All right. So, yeah, you know, me, I always got to try to do something with wordplay in my mind.
At least I’m a Libra. So we basically take everything and batted back and forth like a game of mental ping pong until it becomes water vapor and then we go from there. So, um Turf Wars racing, that was the other thing I wanted to talk about because uh the actually the lead story right now by lead the latest story at E S G you dot org. That’s E S G University.
Uh E S G you dot org is does NASCAR and E S G Groover drag and Groover drag, of course, being NASCAR terms and what we looked at was we’re not going to take a look at how much gas they spend. We’re not gonna take a look at how much emissions that come out of it on a weekend. No, we’re gonna take a look at the body of work that this NASCAR has done and it is incredible when you take a look at what NASCAR has done for sustainability in the green movement.
They just started back on their own in like 2008 or six or something like that. And they’ve been doing recycling programs adding recycling water, solar panels, the investments they’ve been putting into the clean emissions with the engines. And so they haven’t even filed in E S G report. And that’s the story that NASCAR is such a leader in E S G.
They don’t need to file a TSG report. And so that’s actually what we wrote about. And so if you kind of being, you know, with your dirtbag, dirtbag demolition or dirtbag racing, sorry, Which one is it here? Turf Wars racing. There you go. Sorry, we’ll just to go with your marketing. So, you know, about consistency and congruity. So that’s all anyway, with the racing side of things, you know, take a look at the E S G you dot org and, and kind of what some of those, um, stories are that
NASCAR has been able to accomplish to do what they’ve been able to do in this environmental movement that we happen to be in. And so, uh, I just wanted to bring that your way because your turf wars racing, but also with your marketing firm. But what is Turf Wars racing? So, so
Luke Eggebraaten
Turf Wars was started in Cormorant, Minnesota. So, right near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota by Hunter Walls and Jake Sherbrooke. And then a couple of years later, um, myself and Jenna Walls came in and so it’s a group of four of us, we all four of us own this company, Turf Wars. It started out as one day a year in the summer, we would bring people together from all over the country to race side by side in your quad, your dirt bike.
You’re, if you were five years old and had a little 50 cc pit bike, you could race basically just fundraising all day double elimination, you can win a trophy, but really to promote racing, having a good time. And, you know, beginner classes, kids class we have and then we go all the way up into open my, where you have side by side screaming by each other.
And you know, some of the fastest racers from around the Midwest, if not the country. So we started doing that once a year and then we picked up a little bit where last year we started traveling to different county fairs and that was a huge success. So what we saw is that the county fairs typically have a demo derby and then they might have like another open night where they’re really trying to find like, what’s that next demo derby?
Like, how can we bring people out? Have a good time? Something that’s interactive as well. So that’s kind of been our model and it’s, it’s worked out really well so far where we come in, we’ve got all the signage, we’ve got all the logistics, uh, people in your town can sign up to race. We handle the entire event and then we pack up and we, we hit the road so that has been, I always call our guilty pleasure Your business because it’s four friends.
We all own our own separate businesses. But this one is like, where we come together, have a great time, do some racing and get to see like the smiles on the kids face, the adults. You know, we have people from four years old to 77 years old racing and sometimes it’s their very first time on a track. So it’s really rewarding and a ton of fun to bring that all around.
Jason Spiess
Getting back to the book available at Amazon, the digital dirt world. So you mentioned earlier, you know that if somebody’s like septic company, worker or owner of a company, this might appeal to them, that type of thing. I thought, boy, that’s a pretty specific uh target audience right there.
So, uh this is, there’s obviously more to it than that, but somebody in the industrial uh sector is definitely gonna get quite a bit from it. But it sounds like even uh individuals in the marketing or the online marketing world could get something from this too. Huh?
Luke Eggebraaten
Yeah, absolutely. And I had somebody reach out to me today actually and said, hey, look, uh just curious if I bought the book, like, could this apply to other industries or could this apply to me learning more about marketing? And I said, absolutely. So as as specific as I can get in the book, you know, I talk about working with gcs, working with bigger construction companies, you know, things like that, but the framework of it is not new stuff, it’s not reinventing the wheel.
And so, yeah, anyone who’s interested in digital marketing and learning more about it could read this book and get value. Um The messaging in the marketing behind it is, you know, if you are a construction owner or you own a septic company or you’re in the oil fields, like this would be probably a better fit for you, but you can absolutely still get value. Um, if you’re interested more so in the digital marketing world,
Jason Spiess
it’s like I tell people, you got to look for the formula and the template in some of these other industries and then just adjusted to yours just, you know, instead of the word dirt, change it with the word house or whatever it is, you know, and then go from there if it makes sense and etcetera.
So it’s kind of like reverse engineering, I guess. Um that’s kind of how it goes, but, well sir, in closing here, what’s, what’s the take away? What do you want people to remember? I’ll give you kind of the last word.
Luke Eggebraaten
Yeah. Well, Jason, I appreciate you having me on. This is uh has been incredible talking with you and yeah, if anyone’s ever interested in buying a book, you can jump on Amazon after shipping, everything is gonna be under 20 bucks, but definitely reach out to me. I’m on linkedin, Instagram and Facebook. I try and be as available as possible. If anyone ever has questions about entrepreneurship, um you know, giving back starting a business construction marketing, any of that, I
want to be as available as possible. So for anyone listening, if you want to reach out and you have any questions or you just want to let me know that you listened. Definitely appreciate it and I would love to hear from you.
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