Jun 16, 2026 · 50 min · 12 segments
In this special crossover episode of Monument Matters and We Rock, Mike Johns, Tony Watson and Austin Keese explore how education, networking and association involvement continue to shape the monument…
Tony WatsonGuest
Mike JohnsHost
Austin KeeseGuest
I'll say, you know, I try to when we because we've talked about it, we've had on our show, we had Matt early on going through some tumultuous times or whatever and not really hitting on it.
But I always kind of feel like it's important to talk about certain things because you go you can't understand how to learn how to fix things unless you go through it.
Matt did a great job of kind of taking things in a bit of turmoil and kind of holding the ship together and then come in and you've got Nathan Lane.
And Nathan did a phenomenal job of kind of getting everybody back on their being value and really trying to push their being something of value for everybody.
I mean, and for the sake of just complete transparency, for a while there, we had dropped our membership at Watson and we came back after, you know, having This last convention, as well as seeing all the things that have been done and are being value and being efforts being made, not that there wasn't efforts being made before, but they're being efforts made or whatever to really just push it hard to get education out, which is stuff like this.
The force of I think in today, the day that Jed's got his webinar, I think that's right.
But stuff like that, you know, there's there's things that are that are going out there to get out education and even beyond just regular MBA, MBA members to help the industry grow.
And some of these new guys to learn stuff that we're afraid is going to get forgotten at some point.
Well, I'll say that, you know, that education has always been MBA's primary focus, but over time.
The last several years, you know, when you go back to when we had a different company, our partner in running the association, it got to the point where the volunteers were really doing too much of the heavy lifting and trying to manage the association instead of working on the programs themselves.
And so the smartest thing that the board did was finally aligned themselves with the folks at the Rayburn Group.
Their support has really turned this association upside down and got it moving in a much more positive direction.
only that, but I mean, even from our perspective, you know, of course, Austin's the the vice president of Southern Monument Builders.
I've been on the board for and actually I can tell you exactly how long I've been on the board for for Southern.
And the reason I know that is because it was two weeks prior to James being born that I was brought on.
But in seeing some of the things that they're doing even well for us is stuff like going over our contracts with our hotels to make sure that we're getting a good deal on stuff.
I know that we discussed that in a recent board meeting for us and they found things that, hey, no, this is a good contract.
Let's maybe make some concessions here or get them to kind of make the concessions towards you.
I'll say, you know, I try to when we because we've talked about it, we've had on our show, we had Matt early on going through some tumultuous times or whatever and not really hitting on it.
But I always kind of feel like it's important to talk about certain things because you go you can't understand how to learn how to fix things unless you go through it.
Matt did a great job of kind of taking things in a bit of turmoil and kind of holding the ship together and then come in and you've got Nathan Lane.
And Nathan did a phenomenal job of kind of getting everybody back on their being value and really trying to push their being something of value for everybody.
I mean, and for the sake of just complete transparency, for a while there, we had dropped our membership at Watson and we came back after, you know, having This last convention, as well as seeing all the things that have been done and are being value and being efforts being made, not that there wasn't efforts being made before, but they're being efforts made or whatever to really just push it hard to get education out, which is stuff like this.
The force of I think in today, the day that Jed's got his webinar, I think that's right.
But stuff like that, you know, there's there's things that are that are going out there to get out education and even beyond just regular MBA, MBA members to help the industry grow.
And some of these new guys to learn stuff that we're afraid is going to get forgotten at some point.
Well, I'll say that, you know, that education has always been MBA's primary focus, but over time.
The last several years, you know, when you go back to when we had a different company, our partner in running the association, it got to the point where the volunteers were really doing too much of the heavy lifting and trying to manage the association instead of working on the programs themselves.
And so the smartest thing that the board did was finally aligned themselves with the folks at the Rayburn Group.
Their support has really turned this association upside down and got it moving in a much more positive direction.
only that, but I mean, even from our perspective, you know, of course, Austin's the the vice president of Southern Monument Builders.
I've been on the board for and actually I can tell you exactly how long I've been on the board for for Southern.
And the reason I know that is because it was two weeks prior to James being born that I was brought on.
But in seeing some of the things that they're doing even well for us is stuff like going over our contracts with our hotels to make sure that we're getting a good deal on stuff.
I know that we discussed that in a recent board meeting for us and they found things that, hey, no, this is a good contract.
Let's maybe make some concessions here or get them to kind of make the concessions towards you.
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