C (2:26)

You know, I've been asked that question a couple times this week, and I'm trying to come up with a real answer. It must have been at an industry event, probably Water Garden Expo.

B (2:34)

Gotcha. And what brought you here? I mean, there's not a whole lot of pond stuff going on at Equip Expo.

C (2:43)

If I want to continue to grow our group to be the biggest and best that it can be to support the industry, the strength to provide value to our members, and to strengthen the industry overall, then I need to get to know more of the players.

B (2:58)

Gotcha.

C (2:59)

And Triplet called me and said, are you going to be there? And I said, I don't think so. It's a lot to manage with my life, real life excuses. And he says, I think that you'd be making a mistake if you miss the opportunity. And I'm glad to be here because I have gotten to meet and strengthen a lot of relationships.

B (3:16)

Yeah, it is a. I mean, this is only my fourth year here and it's been a game changer in so many ways. Just the networking and the friendships and the relationships that are built out of this event. And everybody's always interesting and you're meeting new people and people that you've met and then bringing other people such as yourself. I mean, I've met Eric a couple times, we're in a couple groups together. And so now he's introduced us to you. I see you talking with a lot of the other guys on pod row and so you're coming into the fold.

C (3:59)

It does feel good. And one of the things of value, especially that I get out of all these events and I think we all get it, is just to get re energized about what we're doing with our lives. There was a moment on the way here, the airplane was choppy and I was like, why did I choose to do this? Why am I not home with my family? And it is a balancing act all the time. But then you get here and you realize that the community and the industry that we're building, it's very meaningful.

B (4:32)

It is. And it's so funny the different personalities and what they bring to the table. I mean, obviously Triplet is not like a lot of other people that you meet, but he still brings such great value and wisdom and just the way he thinks. And when he shares stuff, it's from the heart. I mean, it's, you know, it's. With him, it's not, it's not all business. And a lot of the people that you meet here, it's great. It's not, you know, how much money anybody makes. It's not about where you're at in life. I mean, there's young people, there's older people, there's, you know, landscapers, hardscapers, pond builders. You know, there's people that run multi million dollar companies and we all just sit at the same table and it's, it's really awe inspiring. It's, it's definitely different.

C (5:31)

I feel like everything we get exposed to that strengthens our business relationships is also making us better people for the meaningful relationships in our Lives for business and personal.

B (5:43)

Yeah.

C (5:43)

And it feels good to be reminded that doing your best in every interaction has value.

B (5:49)

Yeah. Yeah. And it's. You know, I've heard so many things this week. I'm not sure what day you flew in, but we had the summit Monday and Tuesday, and with some of the speakers and just talking to some of these guys, and it's. I love the fact that we're, you know, I guess I would phrase it like this. When we get together with a lot of people here, we're not wearing any mask. It's just this. This is real. This is who we are. We talk about personal things. We share, you know, hardships that we've. That we've faced, whether it's in business or personally. I just, you know, it's. It's like a family reunion, and it's. It's sort of like therapy sometimes.

C (6:35)

It's a lot like therapy. I think the. The practice of being authentic with people that you respect just. Just grows us all.

B (6:44)

Yeah. Tell me, what kind of. What have you taken away from the last couple days of being here?

C (6:53)

Well, we just touched on it.

B (6:54)

Yeah.

C (6:55)

Being. Being your authentic self.

B (6:57)

Sure. And is there anything that sticks out in your mind that, like, really affected you? You're gonna go home, and it's somehow gonna change your daily life as to, you know, whether it's in business or life in general that you're like, you know, you. You just had that aha moment, and you're like, this is. This is. This is going to change something.

C (7:20)

A couple things came to mind when you were asking that question. One is just about managing my time more efficiently. Getting exposed to people who are several ladder steps higher than I am in my business and professional success. Points out a few things that they're doing better than me. Ways to improve just with time management. I guess I'm kind of stuck on that one. I have a lot of things that I want to do. I'm in a lot of roles, and they're all equally important to me. But how do I remember what's on the list in each category and how do I prioritize?

B (8:02)

I completely feel you on that. Because I feel like when I get up in the morning, it's like, go, go, go, go, go. And I'm always running behind for everything. Whether, you know, I have these things on my plate today that I want to get done to, you know, feeling like I got none of them done, one of them done, and then, you know, it's time to run off and pick my Kids up and obviously, you know, I'm down to the wire. You know, I'm supposed to be there at 4:45 and it's, you know, 4:40 and I'm, and I'm rolling in to pick them up just at the, you know, thankfully, I tell my wife I'm not usually the last one there, but I'm certainly not super early picking that up.

C (8:41)

Well, and then your screen scrambling, feeling like you're behind always and you want to be present for your kids and is that on your schedule enough? I don't know if it's on mine enough.

B (8:50)

Sure. Well, I don't, I don't think it ever is. I mean, unfortunately, this day and age, I mean, we want to be more present with our family, but it's so hard with, with work and the costs of, of doing business and the, you know, the expenses that have gone through the roof and, you know, and then we always take on more for the right reasons, I think. But I mean, I run with this podcast. I technically run four businesses and the family. And thankfully my wife, I mean, she is the glue that holds everything together. I mean, she's probably, she needs a vacation when I get back because she won't take one, but she could use one because she just juggles everything. And I get to come out here and do this. You know, hopefully I can take stuff away from that that I can bring home and that, that will affect my life at home. That will, you know, so she feels that it's not for nothing, you know, that I come back whether it betters my business and it betters our, our financial situation or it just maybe changes me as a person to come home and be a better husband or father. And so I love the fact that, that like you said, we're very authentic. We're, we're, we're very real. I wish this was really a longer event because we find. And we have announcements something exciting is happening. Oh, oh.

C (10:24)

You could win a hundred dollars.

B (10:26)

Hang on. We're gonna end the pocket now.

C (10:29)

Maybe you can go home from here and schedule a lunch date with your wife.

B (10:33)

Yeah, I think my brother's going to keep me busy this week with fall cleanups because we've got a few properties that we're letting go this the end of the month. And so that's, that's kind of on our, our workload for this week is to get a final run through for those and, and kiss them goodbye.

C (10:49)

Yeah,

B (10:51)

that announcer is going on for a long time. But to be completely transparent, Mr. Producer can probably edit him out to be completely transparent. And so last night we were at dinner with some friends and somebody that I met here a year or two ago. He's going through some stuff in his business, which has really been a struggle financially. And so he's kind of at a crossroads. He doesn't know where he's going right now. Not sure if he's staying in this, the green industry, if he's going elsewhere, if he's going to go punch a clock, what he's going to do. So he's really, you know, he's had to make some hard choices the last couple months. And the fact that he's willing to sit down with us and talk about that and be completely vulnerable. You know, I'm a Christian. A lot of the people here are, you know, I sat there at the dinner table with them last night and I asked some of the other guys, I'm like, let's pray for our brother. Like, I, I care. Like we genuinely care about each other and we may only see each other once a year even, but it's like you picked up right where you left off when you get here. And we don't want to see anybody struggle. I mean, you know, we have our personal struggles, but to see somebody that you know is facing this, it's like we want to rally around them. We really want to support them and let them know that they're not alone. Like we're here for them even if we're thousands of miles away. Like, if he wants to hit me up, if he has a question, if he's having a tough time and he needs somebody to talk to, I'm here.

C (12:31)

I mean, that's the power of community.

B (12:33)

Yeah. And so I think from the outside, people that aren't part of this, they don't get it. But I got to tell you, the first year that we came down here, it was just such an eye opening thing because when you're in your own little community of where you live, you don't often have those connections, which is unfortunate. I mean, we try to form them, but it always feels like in business when you're in your own locality that everybody's at arm's length and nobody, you know, like, we can't talk about this, we can't talk about that, we can't talk about numbers. You know, you're my competitor, we're friends, but we're, you know, it's funny you

C (13:17)

brought that up because I deepened a connection with another pond contractor in my local area at a community event earlier this year. And for a couple of weeks we said, let's try, let's play this game. I'll be your accountability partner. And we're going to take our goals super seriously. Because if we don't do it, if I don't do it, you're going to do it, and then you're going to have the edge. Yeah, it was fun for a minute, but, yeah, there's value in the national community for sure.

B (13:44)

Yeah, it's so much better. And you don't even have to be that far apart. But I mean, you, you could be 30 minutes from me. I met a guy last night. I mean, he's a little bit further than that. But, you know, I'm from up in Vermont. A lot of people up Vermont, New Hampshire, upstate New York, they don't come down here. I find very, very few of them in the four years that I've been here. Massachusetts, there's a lot of people from Mass in Connecticut, but bigger metropolitan area, I mean, you're bound to see that. But, you know, so once in a while you find one.

C (14:17)

Yeah.

B (14:17)

And they're like, hey, I'm. I'm only like an hour away from you.

C (14:21)

And that could turn into a real friendship for you locally.

B (14:24)

Yeah, yeah. And it's funny.

C (14:26)

Oh.

A (14:33)

David Brown, the world famous podcaster, and

B (14:38)

Pay Jack is taking over.

C (14:41)

Pay Jack is hijacking.

B (14:49)

Leave it to Pay Jack hijacks the whole PA system. But, yeah, no, it's, it's bittersweet, I think. You know, you come down here, it's exhausting. I mean, you're going from sun up to sundown, running on limited sleep and pure adrenaline and like, there's a part of you that's like, man, I can't wait to get back home.

C (15:17)

Yeah, yeah. But you're taking home all these new relationships where, you know, if you run into a challenge in this particular aspect of your business or your personal life, you have a new person to reach out to.

B (15:29)

Yeah. And, and a lot of times, I gotta tell you, so we've, we're part of the, the inner circle with Naylor. And so he's done such a wonderful job at keeping this community going, even the other 11 plus months out of the year that we're not down here, because a lot of these guys, you see them once a year and it's great, it's great that we get together for that week and get to sit down, but the fact that he has managed to build a community that we meet once a week, if we can make it, hopefully. But we try to prioritize that. We get on a call once a week, and then that's just the one call, but we're, you know, posting to the group weekly. We're emailing, we're texting. You know, if one of us has a question, we put it out to the group. The guys are putting their two cents in to try to help each other grow, whether it's personally or professionally. And so I think those are the big takeaways to keep that going. I mean, oftentimes we come to these things, we get energized, we're ramped up, we go home and. And it lasts for a few weeks or a month or whatever, and then we start to lose that inspiration that we've acquired, because it helps you realize why you do what you do. I mean, you get together here, and oftentimes by time we get here, we just. We're excited to be here, but at the same time, it's like you're just so beat up over everything that's happened over the last year, and you. And you almost need it. It's like, just got. I just gotta get to the finish line to equip because I know I'm gonna come out of this, I'm gonna be pumped back up, I'm gonna have a renewed vision, and it's great. It's re.

C (17:20)

Energizing.

B (17:21)

It is.

C (17:21)

And that. That support that you mentioned, getting out of Naylor's inner circle is something that our community, the Pond Professionals alliance, is providing for our members as well. It's like, we all get. Have a place. It's a safe place, for lack of a better word, to share your. Your struggles and get the support you need. It feels good.

B (17:41)

Yeah. And not have to worry that, you know, the guy lives down the street and he's. Now he knows your weaknesses and he's. He's coming after your business.

C (17:48)

True. We're all just real people doing the best we can, Right? Yeah.

B (17:52)

What's next for you? Somebody wants to come in the door?

C (17:56)

Maybe we'll. Maybe we'll turn some of our. Our webinars in the group into a podcast. We'll see.

B (18:03)

Hey, there you go.

C (18:04)

I'll ask you how hard that is later.

B (18:06)

It's really easy. I mean, honestly, I'll tell you that. The funny thing is, I've gotten to know these people. I've gotten to know Naylor, and I'm so grateful for him on so many levels because he provides the community here, but at the same time, we've Gotten to know each other. I mean, him and I have, you know, we did a shop tour a couple months ago down near where he is at Stepping Stone. And I just got off a podcast with Charles, and he's another great guy. But, you know, Naylor and I have sat down just one on one and had conversations, and he's tried to help me. And I brought this whole podcast thing up two years ago, and every time he saw me, he's like, you know, what's going on? What's going on? And so when we actually, in January of this, this year, he invited me down. I went to Synclive in Atlanta. And that was his big thing, is he's like, you need to do it. And so I borrowed some of his equipment, I think Paycheck's equipment. I recorded a few episodes, got back, took me a while. I mean, that was January. I think I dropped my first episode in April. But now I'm trying to get consistent. And because of.

C (19:22)

Did you just say that out loud because you want some accountability?

B (19:25)

I like, are you trying to get

C (19:27)

consistent or are you going to get consistent?

B (19:29)

I'm going to get consistent. And it's hard, I mean, you know, with family and business and everything else. And he keeps, you know, we're always striving because we build this picture in our head of what we're striving for. Like, this is what I want. And then oftentimes, if it cannot be exactly what we want it to be, then we don't do it at all.

C (19:52)

But just start.

B (19:54)

Exactly. And that's been his thing because I'm like, naylor, I'm struggling to try to get one episode a week out. And he's like, tim, it doesn't matter if it's a 15 minute podcast, just yourself sitting in your truck. He's like, that's why I do my truck talk Tuesdays. He's like, I got a mic that sits there in the truck with me. I stop for 15 minutes and I record an episode. He's like, you can find 15 minutes. He's like, even if you got to go hide in the closet and do a quick recording, he's like, just be consistent. And you know, and then triplet. And those guys got on me about my Instagram because they're like, do you have one? I'm like, I have one. I think there's like six posts on it ever right. Of my family.

C (20:36)

There's a lot to keep up with. And getting the encouragement to do our best is.

B (20:41)

And this week I've Been good and hopefully I can keep up with that because, like, every night, even though it's late by the time we get back, and the events and the dinner and, you know, it's 10, 11, 12 o' clock at night, but I still try to get on and post. Post to my Instagram and my Facebook.

C (20:59)

No kidding. You've been doing.

B (21:00)

Throw it. Throwing a real. On, like every night. Just something, something that I took from this week. I'll take a couple pictures or, or a video and put it in there. And, you know, and he even told me he's like, you can even do like a. I can even remember what he called it because, you know, I'm not super techy by any means, but he's like, you can just post like an audio file or whatever of your podcast episode. Just post that on your Instagram. And so I'm really trying because it does keep you accountable. I mean, they don't really. Obviously he's not going to push me. You know, it's not his job and he wants me to succeed, but at the same time he's going to encourage me, but that's about it. But I know. So now it holds me accountable because I don't want to let him down. He's put faith in me that I'm going to follow through and do what I said I'm going to do. And so if I don't do it now, I'm letting Naylor down because I told him I was going to do my best.

C (21:58)

Yeah, you got to be careful what you say out loud.

B (22:00)

And I don't want to let my friends down because they believe in me. And so I. It's tricky, you know, I need to. I don't know, probably need to find like a. A marriage networking community so that they can keep me accountable in that, but. Right. I probably shouldn't have said that out loud.

C (22:20)

Why don't, why don't we do that for our.

B (22:23)

I don't understand it. It's. I don't know, it. It boggles my mind. I mean, I've had people in my life. I won't say my wife, she says I share too much, but I'm an open book. Like, I don't, you know, I don't really care. And I get it. A lot of people don't want everybody to know their business. And obviously I'm not going to run down the street and scream everything at the top of my lungs, but I like to share because if I share something about my life, it may help you in Your life. And so if I can be vulnerable and open with you, you may be going through some. Something similar that you're not willing to talk about because you don't feel comfortable. But if I open that door, it provides an opportunity to hopefully help somebody else. And that's really. I mean, Naylor really got on me. I won't say he got on me. He really dug in with me a couple months ago when him and I sat down and I told him this, and it actually choked me up that night because he's like, what's your why? And I told him, he's like, no, that's not your why. Like, what is your why? Because we all have this superficial, like, higher, you know, all encompassing why. I mean, why do we get out of bed in the morning? We get out of bed because we have family, we have bills, we have all these other things. Why do we run a business? Well, because we want to be successful. We don't want to go work for somebody else. We want to provide for our family. You know, we have all of these outer lying whys. But he really kept asking me, like, digging in, why do you want to do a podcast? Why do you want to do this? And. And it took me back to. I mean, I own my first business. See, I'm getting. I'm talking about myself. You tricked me here.

C (24:10)

I did. I asked if I could interview and you said no, but here we go.

B (24:15)

Dang you. Do you dabble in psychology or something? I don't know how you turn this around.

C (24:20)

It's a secret skill set.

B (24:21)

Right. But it really made me reflect way back. I mean, that couple day trip that I took to Virginia for that shop tour was so much more than just the shop tour because it made me reflect. It was a big moment of reflection. And I think we often need those because we lose focus so fast.

C (24:39)

Well, somebody from the outside can more easily drill into you and ask you to look more reflectively.

B (24:47)

Yeah.

C (24:48)

At the big picture.

B (24:49)

It did, because I started my first business, I was like, 17. And the reason why I have done everything I've done at its core, has always been for the same reason. Because I want to do things for people I want to. I guess that's too simplistic. Were you there for when? This week's been crazy. But when Cornell was talking yesterday at the morning show, he said something to

C (25:21)

me that I think is going to tie in.

B (25:23)

Say it.

C (25:26)

The most value you can provide to somebody is becoming a part of their testimony, which is a shortened version of if you can impact their life by sharing a part of your story.

B (25:40)

Yeah.

C (25:42)

Then you're bringing the best you can to the whole world.

B (25:45)

I mean, it was a little dark, but I loved his analogy kind of about his grandmother's funeral procession.

C (25:50)

How long will the funeral procession be?

B (25:53)

And I'm like, that's my why, though, really. Obviously, I want to leave a mark on my kids and my family, but I want to leave a mark outside of that, that there is a community that I have impacted in some sort of way. You know, when my time comes, are a bunch of people going to fly in from out of town to come to my funeral because I actually made a difference in their life? Maybe. I hope so.

C (26:21)

Build your community.

B (26:22)

I hope so. And I think that's my. Why is the fact I want to know that I'm making a difference in everything that I do. We had a conversation, my brother and I, yesterday, because, you know, these things just keep clicking, clicking, clicking. And I'm not somebody that needs affirmation. I really don't like. It's not. It's not my love language, like.

C (26:49)

But you get value out of providing value to other people.

B (26:53)

Well, exactly. And. And even though I don't need affirmation, knowing, like, I reflected back on our business right now, we have certain, you know, larger clientele that most of the time, if you hear from him, it's because something went wrong. And I reflected back as to when we first got into this. We had customers that sent you a Christmas card that gave you baked goods, and that was how they showed that you were providing value to them far beyond just cutting their grass. You were making a difference. And I say I don't need affirmation because I personally don't. But to get that, that is a signal to me that I'm doing something right in my business because I am taking care of a customer on a level that is. It's not just, hey, the guys are coming to mow my lawn. I know who they are. They are impacting my life. And so that's where I want to get back to this next year.

C (27:56)

I think that's part of the fun of being in the pond industry, is that we're not just. We're not just visiting.

B (28:03)

Yeah. You're not making progress short once a

C (28:06)

week and for short amount of amounts of time that we're. We're there. We're going to change their lives. We're going to move into their yard for six weeks.

B (28:12)

Sure.

C (28:13)

And by the end, we're part of their family and they're like, I'm sorry you have to go.

B (28:16)

Yeah.

C (28:16)

See you next month for maintenance.

B (28:18)

Right.

C (28:20)

Well, I hate to cut this out, but I'm gonna run out of time. Yeah, it's time for me to close the party.

B (28:26)

That's okay. I probably have people waiting around to talk to me. I'm sure. It was a pleasure to meet you.

C (28:33)

Yeah. Thank you.

B (28:33)

I hope I see you again. We should connect. We'll exchange information. One quick thing and I often forget to do this and I don't know why, but tell our listeners how they can reach out to you, especially if they're in the pond business. How can they get into the Pond alliance with you?

C (28:54)

We have a couple different websites. One is the pond professionalsalliance.org because we are a nonprofit trade organization. And then recently we've built a customer facing directory of pond professionals@pondpros.com Nice.

B (29:13)

Well, there you have it, listeners. If you are curious about the pond industry or you are part of it and are not connected with Anna's organization, reach out to her and maybe you can meet her up at one of these events and start to network within your community. So thanks for being here again, Anna. You have a safe flight home. And for my listeners, thank you for joining in this week and listening to the Charged up podcast and we will see you on the next one.

A (29:46)

That's it for this episode of Charged up, where tech meets turf. If you enjoyed the ride through the world of electric and automated lawn care, don't forget to follow the podcast, leave a well worded five star review and share with your fellow green thumbs and gearheads. To connect with Tim, check out the show description. Thanks again for listening and until the next time, stay sharp, stay smart and stay Charged Up.