932. Why You're Losing Jobs Before You Even Quote Them (And Don't Realize It)

Summary

Fullerton Unfiltered — Ep. 932: “Why You're Losing Jobs Before You Even Quote Them (And Don't Realize It)”
Host: Brian Fullerton
Date: February 25, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Brian Fullerton offers a direct, practical lesson for business owners: you may be losing jobs not in your quoting or pricing, but in your initial communication and listening skills—or lack thereof. Drawing from both personal and business anecdotes, Brian breaks down how active listening not only transforms your relationships but forms the true differentiator in winning work before the numbers come out. This is an episode packed with hard-won wisdom about sales, taking ownership, developing processes, and—above all—putting the customer first.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Spring Rush & Business Realities (00:21–08:50)

• Brian opens with the chaotic pre-spring rush in the landscaping business—contract renewals, quotes, spinning plates, and wearing many hats.
• He encourages listeners facing stress to “zoom out,” reminding them these problems are universal among growth-minded business owners.

“I know some of you guys are probably starting to feel a little bit of the stress, a little bit of the anxiety, a little bit of the wondering, right? Like, what's going on? … I'm right there with you.” (00:21–02:20)

2. The Core Message: Listening as the Key to Winning Work (08:51–17:20)

• The central thesis: active listening determines whether you win or lose jobs before quoting.

• Brian admits that most disconnects with customers or even at home trace back to poor listening: "When I have more disconnect in my life with people, it's typically because I'm not listening…” (03:05).

• When responding to leads, don’t rush to sell—slow down, ask intent-driven questions to truly understand the customer need.

"Instead of just immediately saying we can do everything and we're the best ... calm down. … and say, what are you looking for?” (26:59)

3. Sales Process Failures: Real-World Examples (17:21–32:40)

• Commercial Bid Loss (Last Year): Brian lost a major HOA account—his quote was double competitors’ due to a failure to clarify the scope before pricing.
• The Sales Process Breakthrough: After humbling experiences, he overhauled his intake/bidding process, asked better questions, and drastically improved outcomes (e.g., winning three new commercial bids this year).
• Standardizing intake and qualifying questions, thanks in part to leveraging SOPs and training his team (including an overseas VA).
• Building an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and not being afraid to decline jobs outside the company’s core offerings.

“It's not like, oh, cool, exciting, let me get the quote to you in 20 minutes… It's like, no, I have to... not goof it up." (33:05)

4. The Power of a Defined Sales Funnel (32:41–38:21)

• Brian offers a short tutorial on best practices: document the process, define scope, provide a ‘buffet’ of service options, and clarify expectations up front.
• A well-defined process enables fast close times (submission to signed contract in 72 hours) and 100% clarity for all parties.

"When you're perfect and when you are smoking this thing, you can go from submission form to signed contract in 72 hours, no problem." (36:55)

5. Side Story: When Salespeople Don’t Listen (38:22–63:25)

• Brian shares a personal anecdote shopping for a new Audi RS5. He contrasts his experience as a prospective buyer (who knows exactly what he wants) with a non-listening salesman more focused on clearing stock than meeting the customer's need.

“This dude's about to already lose a sale, and we've had three sentences together... you're not listening.” (54:14)

• He riffs on the direct analogy for contractors: not every customer simply wants “maintenance”—dig deeper to find their true wishlist, or risk missing out on thousands in upsell or losing the job altogether.
• "You can't make a bad customer into a good customer by forcing a fit.” (66:44)
• “The more money you make, the more that your time is valuable, the more you're like, dude, don't waste my time. Do not waste my time.” (55:01)

6. Life, Growth, and the Rewards of Listening (63:26–end)

• Brian draws big-picture parallels between business and life, reiterating that many big wins—in sales, marriage, or personal development—come down to listening and the openness to build on feedback.
• Customer service isn’t about fawning, it’s about empathetic engagement and knowing how to suggest the right solution.
• For those who feel like they’re "guessing" their way through pricing or business decisions: that's OK at first, but educate yourself and keep improving.

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Notable Quotes

• On Communication in Marriage:
  “When my wife and I are communicating well, our relationship's great. When we're not, we turn into roommates…” (26:02)

• On the Real Ask:
  “Is your goal—like, you need a guy to cut the grass, you need a grass cutter, or do you want the outdoor living area looking nice and to be headache free? Like, those are two wildly different propositions, right?” (27:57)

• On Process Improvement:
  “When these customers now come together and come to us through a submission form, we have a process... and it's helped me to get more clarity. When you do, you definitely understand and learn more when you teach.” (33:41)

• On Salespeople Who Don't Listen:
  “I'm here to give you a commission check and pay your rent in June. Like, let's be very clear.” (56:40)

• On Customer Service Culture:
  “Life. The best people that are going to get my money are good people that are great at customer service.” (65:17)

• On Business Growth:
  “There's a spectrum here and there's always going to be more along the way... I did not start with any of that stuff.” (66:35)

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Key Takeaways & Action Steps

• Your natural excitement at new leads can sabotage your close rate if you aren't careful. Don’t rush into pricing—ask questions, clarify expectations, and deeply listen.
• Systematize your process for intakes and estimates—don't just wing it. Have a standard “package” but be ready to tailor it, and don’t build a business on one-off exceptions.
• Confidence in sales comes from process clarity, being able to offer what you can (and push away what you cannot).
• The customer’s real ask is often quite different from their initial request—listening is your best sales tool.
• Whether in marriage, business, or large purchases, good listening builds long-term trust and wins.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:21 — Spring Rush, Setting the Episode Up
• 08:51 — The Real Reason You Lose Jobs Before You Quote: Not Listening
• 17:21 — Contractor Anecdotes: Losing and Then Winning Bids
• 26:59 — Practical Tips: Slow Down, Ask Questions
• 32:41 — Standardizing the Sales Funnel & Estimating Process
• 38:22 — Car Sales Story: A Deep-Dive Parable
• 65:17 — Wrap-Up: Lessons Learned, Broader Life Impact

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Episode Tone

True to the “Unfiltered” brand, Brian’s delivery is conversational, candid, and woven with personal anecdotes. The tone shifts between practical sales advice, hard truths, and stories from both business and real life, making the episode relatable, motivational, and—at moments—funny.

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Summary

Brian drives home a universal truth: you’re probably losing jobs not because of price or process, but because you’re not listening deeply enough. Practice intentional listening, refine your sales process, and, whether quoting a large HOA or buying your dream car, remember: the best deals are won in the details before any numbers are ever sent.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

You're now listening to the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast. Straightforward, no nonsense business advice, completely on unfiltered. Grow your business, grow your life.

[A]

Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton.

[B]

Hey, what's going on, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast. It is your host, Brian Fullerton here hanging with you guys and good morning. Well, today's podcast episode, filming real time for you guys. It's actually bright and early Wednesday morning. I have a big office day today. Had a big office day yesterday. Big office day, last couple of days. To be honest with you guys, we are in the thick of it, just like you guys. We've got a lot of spinning plates, a lot of hats that we're wearing, and there's a lot to do in a short amount of time because spring is going to be right around the corner. And I know some of you guys are probably starting to feel the, a little bit of the stress, a little bit of the anxiety, a little bit of the, the wondering, right? Like, what's going on? Where are we at? Let's get contracts renewed, let's get quotes out the door, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I'm right there with you. And this is very typical, you know, from about now until almost, you know, pencils down mid March, maybe even, you know, mid April and, or late March into mid April. And it's just a very busy next couple of weeks. Well, the long story short, I wanted to talk with you guys for just a few minutes on today's show about contract renewals and quotes. And just a quick tip about listening a little bit better as we go into the bidding estimating and renewal season. I want to just give you guys some encouragement. This will be a shorter show today, but I really do want to implore you that as you guys continue to develop your sales skills, your sales process, you guys are looking to, you know, earn more work. And really just, I mean, this is, you know, let's zoom out. This could apply to almost anything and everything else that you're doing in life. It's the ability to hear better or listen better in general. And I'm not going to go super heavy or super deep on this topic this morning, but what I will just say, like, I have noticed that when I have more disconnect in my life with people, it's typically because I'm not listening or yes, in a way, maybe they're not communicating as well as they could be or as clear as they could be or should be. And so, you know, of course, you can only take responsibility for your side of the equation, but you can still prompt the other side, right? You can still prompt the other side to get better answers or better expectations or, you know, what they're looking for from the other side with good questions from your side, right? So, like, I don't want to just say, well, I didn't know, because they, I didn't know. You know, that's, that's not a good way to approach life. You can say, all right, I'm gonna do the best I can. And then I'll take even more responsibility for the other side to necessarily, you know, answer what questions they have or don't have or don't even know to ask. And I've known that to be true with almost everything that I navigate in life. And by the way, other folks hopefully do this with me, right? Like when I'm looking for a product or service, hopefully people ask good questions. Let me, let me break down a couple simple stories and analogies here. And again, this can apply to your wife, your husband, you know, whatever you got, and then this could apply to your customer. So I do want to go through a couple quick scenarios here, and I think the stories will really relate and kind of drive the point home more than me just saying, hey, be a good listener, because I got a couple relevant stories and examples here that I think would really help out for you guys. All things being said, before we do that, it wouldn't be a full attendant filtered podcast show without talking a little bit more about our show sponsors and announcements. I'll be quick with that. I will just tell you guys, we've got some exciting news with Elliman Granum. They've got the Spring Kickoff tour and they're going to be doing a webinar series as well. The tour is coming down the pike. Just a quick little tease. Gamble and I are going to be hosting this across the country. More details to come in a very, very short order. We'll have a bunch of shop tours that we're going to be doing co hosting with Element Granum. So just a quick little tease on that. Number two, the Spring Kickoff webinar series is next week, Tuesday through Friday, Every day at 2pm Eastern. Free webinar, free registration. It's all about building teams, crews, getting a training program together and getting your, you know, spring chickens, you know, and ducks in a row before you head on out the door. It's going to be all things based on the spring boot camp. Sam Gamble with Atlas Outdoor, who by the way, breaking news if you happen to saw the lawn and landscape management article or blog that went out and also Sam sent it out on his email subscription newsletter, part of the Culture Proof podcast. Sam sold Atlas as a quote unquote strategic partner now with Shill Grounds Management, which is really exciting. So they sold and rolled up into Shill. They're going to still keep the name Atlas and there's still like a platform, you know, business, if you will, in southeastern Michigan over by me. But Sam did sell. He, he did get the big check and he's still going to be there for a couple of years with that transition, of course, and then probably still part of Shill Worldwide, if you will. So big shout out and congratulations to him. But Sam's going to be co hosting this with me and probably the reality is I'm co hosting it with Sam, if you know what I'm saying. So if you guys were on the last year snow and tell webinar that we did with LMN when what was that, guys? Like July or August, maybe even September. Like that was a fantastic week with different guests. There was like I said, four one hour sessions Tuesday to Friday and we had other great guest speakers on there. It was just a really, really great time. Just a ton of note taking, a ton of getting your head in the game. Like really, really fun, practical time. Well, LMN is doing that with a spring team that wins spring boot camp here next week online. We'll leave links in the description. Go register. Totally free. Check it out. Quick little pro tip. Register. Even if you can't make it, more than likely you're get the replays or see the replays, you know, a couple days later once they process those. So if you can't join live because you're doing snow or maybe already doing some spring cleanups or something, right? Maybe down south. That's okay. Like, that's okay. We get it. But take an hour, you know, join with your team. Maybe set up the phone on the dash in the truck and take lunch, get pizzas and watch it together. You know, like, let's train our teams together. Other than that, I just want to sincerely say like, thank you guys for using our code everywhere. I do start to see on a couple different dashboards that I have with some of the brands, like our code gets used and just tracking analytics and sales and revenues. Like, honestly, sincerely, this is like my side hustle, you know, business that like allows my wife to be a stay home mom and for us to Earn a little bit more extra income. Just like another thing, another, you know, wheel turning, if you will. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to all of you guys that have been using our codes, the Brian's 10 code, you know, with equipment, Defender, Cujo yardware, iotsotunes. You know, Ballard, a lot of you guys are buying your spring, you know, load up of mower blades and edger blades and all that kind of stuff from Ballard. Thank you, sincerely, like, it really does mean the world to us. And I can't thank you guys enough for the love and the support cycle. Cpa. I know a lot of you guys have been onboarding with like LMN and Cycle and like the software type of stuff over the last couple of months. Thank you guys for using our code there. If we can ever be of assistance or help you guys with any of those questions, please let me know. I was talking to Brad Sweeting. He had a question about how to add a service item, line item on a service estimate for subcontracting. And I said, let me send you a message. I'll show you my screen and help you out. Last week we did Element and Coffee, you know, on Saturday from 7 to 8am, you know, bi weekly. We've been doing those, and we're going to keep doing those, by the way, through March, which is really exciting. I think it's like on the 7th and the 20th, or 7th and 21st or whatever the Saturdays are to help you guys out with a couple more free, just hangout sessions, right? And the last one, we had about 21 people that started to gain a little bit of traction, which was fun. And all we did was just Q and A on lmn. And again, if you use Jobber or Yardbook or anything like that, dude, that's awesome. Like, super cool too. It's. It's not Element or Die around here, okay? Like, I know we've been a little heavy on the paint for Element in the last two years, but it has been that transformative for my business. But I'll just tell you folks, we grew to like a 3, 400 grand business with yardbook. I know a lot of you guys are doing half a million, million, two million with Jobber. Like, that's totally awesome. Totally fine. Just make sure you're dialing in your numbers, wherever and whatever way you can do it. I do have another show, by the way, on Friday for all of you guys that don't use like an LMM that you build in your budget, your pricing and your price list and can Just, you know, import your measurements, you know, in from attentive to get your production rates and to have it spit out a number, which all that sounds fancy and it is. And it's a little bit of a. It's a lot of a front end lift. But I do want to do a podcast to help some of you guys with knowing your numbers a little bit more, which will probably be Friday's episode. If you're using a software like jobber yard book, or even just pen and paper, or you're just using, you know, your side hustle, you've got 10 lawns and you're just getting this thing going and you're like, dude, like, I don't know what to charge. Like 45 bucks, 55 bucks, 65 bucks. Quick tip. Here's how you know if I'm talking to you. If you have any service listed on your invoice or your estimate, I should say that ends with a 0 or a 5. More than likely, your numbers are probably guesstimating. And that's okay. That's okay. I did that for literally 17 years. I mean, probably about 15 years. And we had our little calculator that helped us out big time for about two years. Started to dial it in. But folks, if you don't know, that's okay. It's literally okay. It's okay for a season, but then you do have to dial it in. All right, so I want to help you guys with that. It's a very, very simple approach. I can teach you how to do it with napkin math. Nobody has ever shown me how to do it with Napkin math until 16 or 17 plus years in the business. I went to a conference or a seminar, Element Masterminds with Mark Bradley. He did it on a whiteboard. I'm like, oh yeah, duh. And of course you can use fancy software to do it. But regardless, you should be running all of your pricing through a formula to help you come up with a man hour rate to recover overhead and to stack profit. It's really, really simple. At least that way you guys know, hey, I'll be at $70aman hour to do the work. This site's going to take one hour based on my measurements with square foot. And now I know that I'm going to be there for a labor hour and a rig hour, and I can, you know, mow that lawn for $95 or whatever it's going to be, right. So I'm going to teach you guys how to do that on Friday. That'll be Our fun episode there. What else we got? Gosh, other than that, I guess I'll see you guys in about three weeks in Cape Coral, Florida for leanscaper. I know it seems like we were just in Arizona two minutes ago and we were. These are a little bit more squished back to back, the spring intensives and they're trying to get them in before we all have the spring rush. But I'll tell you what, the spring intensive that we're going to be going down to in Cape Coral, Florida first off, beautiful area, you know, if you guys are in the Midwest like come on down just to get out of the snow, you know, there's not usually too much snow going on in March. So come on down, come join us and that'll be a fun time over there. But I'm really looking forward to that. We did the, I think it was the revenue intensive right in Arizona and then the operational intensive is the one where I really kind of started building the business the most. The same time last year with Brian saw maintenance and it was absolutely transformational. We did so much building of our SOPs and structuring our business and again that was piggybacked. Last year they had a one week event, basically two and a half days for session one, two and a half days for session two. So we built like our sales pipeline, our operations, you know, conversation. I dialed in so so much with our company and give it a shout, give it a try, go check out the event. Your first time's free. It's a three thousand dollar ticket by the way. You probably heard first one's free. All right, that's how they get you. But go there, check it out if you want to go, let me know. I'll get you access to the events team and they'll get you a free registration code. A couple of you guys actually have taken me up on that in the last couple of weeks which is really fun and if we can ever help you guys get into that environment, let me know. In fact, funny story, Coast Pay and we'll get into today's show. But coastpay, see I'm starting to wake up and warm up a little bit here. Coastpay had a client in North Carolina or a customer to be a prospect, I should say in North Carolina that had a. They're probably about 10 or so million dollar business. And the, the controller actually called me about the fuel cards and she was asking you know, if they were like hey can you do a demo or just share a testimony with this lady I'm like, yeah, sure. Like, whatever I can do to help. And it's actually like, or third one I've done. And this lady, super, super kind lady, you know, North Carolina voice and lady and woman, beautiful girl. She. You could just tell, like, older lady. And she was very sweet. And the y' alls and the. And the. Honey, you're so sweet, like, kind of. Kind of lady. And the down south hospitality. Right. Well, we were talking about coast and fuel cards, and they were thinking about switching from WEX and all this other stuff. And I'm like, just. Yeah, like, I don't have a $10 million company. We've got half dozen rigs, half dozen cards, half dozen guys, you know, and it's been working great. And. And she. She was really sweet and great conversation. And they're navigating if they want to switch to coast pay from a recent conference they went to. With. Who was it? It was like, with Real Green or some kind of Fertilizer Conference Essay 5 or something like that. So it was a fun conversation with that. But, oh, gosh, where was my point going about software and signups? Gosh, I'm trying to think. I don't know where I was going with that one. So it's still early in the morning, so my brain. My brain's still skipping around. But the. I guess the long story short, thank you guys for all the conversation. Gosh, where was I going? Professional broadcasting here. I guess just. Long story short, thank you guys for all the love with the signups and the codes and all that fun stuff. And again, putting a great business together. That thought will come back to me. Fleeting thought. That's awkward. But long story short, I just want to say there's a lot of great stuff going on. Oh, what? That lady, we were talking and she said, well, what? This is how it works. She goes, I caught my thought. She goes. She goes, well, we use our real green software. And she goes, what are you guys using? She goes, you do landscaping? We're fertilization. And I said, oh, we use lmm and I follow this guy, Mark Bradley, and blah, blah, blah, you know, great guy. And she goes, I've heard of him. She goes, I've seen him on LinkedIn. And I go, yeah. I said, that's the guy. So he's my guru. And she goes, okay. I said, have you ever seen his leanscaper stuff? And she goes, I have. She goes, I see the ads. She goes, I didn't know if that was for us. She goes, we'd kind of do things differently here. And I was like, yeah, I don't know what that means. Everybody does something a little different. That's. That's the irony. And that's the best part about running your own business. And I go, you should check it out. I said, like, I'll be there if you guys want to go. Not to give you a pitch because we're talking about fuel cars now. I sound like, you know, the, the guy with the, the trench coat selling insurance, selling, you know, watches and, you know, in the subway station here. And she was really funny. She goes, no, no, no. She goes, I've seen the stuff. She goes, that's so funny that you go. And I've seen the ads. I've seen them on LinkedIn. She goes, I will. She goes, I actually, I'm going to take a. Consider taking a look at it. And if I don't go, I'll send somebody from the team. And I'm like, sounds good. You know, so it's just funny, like, how it's kind of like getting out there. You know, people like, what's a Leanscaper? It's like, it's like cult, you know, they just got to join her, like, drink the Kool Aid on. So it is fun. It is a great time. You will learn a lot. Your brain will fry every time you go. I have like 10 spiral notebooks, you know, from the last year or so hanging around Mark at these kind of events and some of his other seminars that he was doing. And I'll tell you folks, like, there's not a more encouraging environment to, to plug into if you want to learn how to operationalize your business. And that's this the best way I can say it. It's how to operationalize. It's systematize your business and not just like, throw mud up against the wall and sticks. Like there's a blueprint. And Mark has basically been ruling that out for a year and we'll continue for hopefully years to come. Right? And so anyway, it's going to be a great time. Cape Coral, I think it's like March 8th, 9th and 10th or something like that. Or 9, 10th, 11th. Don't. Don't hold me to those dates. Just check out leanscaper.com quick little plug for those guys. And that's where we have it. So there's your four minutes of ads. All right. There's your four minute of ads. So maybe, maybe Mr. Producer doesn't have to add an ad. Maybe we'll just end a and with an ad at the end of the show. So you guys aren't, you know, crashing your trucks here and we drone on for four minutes of ads. That's exciting. But I mean that sincerely. There's a lot of great stuff going on, and I hope you guys get hooked up. I hope you guys get plugged in. There's a lot of great stuff going on that you should hopefully try to take advantage of of it, and if not all of it, some of it. Right. All right, one quick second here. That's me drinking the Red Cherry Alani, which I. I think I had one or two of you guys send me 12 packs or 24 packs of those from. From Amazon. Somehow somebody got my address or dropped it at our PO Box, I can't remember, and sent those when we had our third child, Beckham. And that was very, very greatly appreciated. And they're not cheap, dude. They're like two, three bucks a can. So I. I do recognize that the. The funny part was. Or the funny part is that Beckham is nine months. He's almost walking, like, literally, like, not goo goo gaga crawling. I mean, like, he's, like, stumbling, walking with assistance. And our other kids even do that to, like, a year, maybe 13 months. He's literally goo goo gaga, like, talking, dude. He'll be. He'll be words and talking within, like, another month. I mean, it's. It's insane. Like, he's a little super baby. That's what happens when you got bigger brothers and sisters to, like, model after, which is kind of like a whole analogy of its own. Maybe I can do a whole topic on that. The example of the original is so vital. Right? And that's a whole other story for a whole other time. But let's do this really quick. I want to talk about listening. I got, like, one or two, maybe three good examples here for you guys that I think will be really, really helpful. Let me just grab my notes here, and that's what I do. I just jot down some ideas that I think will be helpful because, like, everything that I do in my life, it's got to be practical. Like, I'm very utilitarian at this point in my life. Like, if it doesn't serve me, it's gone. If it's a relationship that's not, like, adding value to me or I'm adding value to it, it's gone. Equipment that's sitting, you know, guys will DM me, hey, man, you got any extra equipment? Usually it's the guys that are putting in zero effort and they're like, hey, man, can you, can you go fund me? I guess that is some type of effort, like to crowdsource and ask for donations to start your business. I mean, I guess, you know, I'll give you that, but it's like, dude, why don't you just go get a, your, your dad's push mower for, you know, 100 bucks in the, in the barn or the garage or the shed and go get a push broom and start like all of us, like, I see people that have like, GoFundMes for 15,000 bucks. Well, you know, Chad's trying to buy his first lawnmower and first trailer and first Ford Ranger. Well, no, dude, like, go get a push mower and a push broom. Like, that's how we all started. But anyway, I guess I appreciate the ambition of trying to. But your GoFundMe shouldn't be $25,000 to start with all the best equipment that took me, you know, eight years to get to, or some of you guys four years to get to, right? While you were like, living in your parents basement or in your bedrooms while going to school, while side hustling, while doing second jobs like, or first jobs plus a side hustle, like, come on, let me go back to the topic of listening. When I have noticed, like anytime my wife and I are communicating well or better, it's because one of us or both of us are listening and we're in a good flow state. And the opposite of that, when things are jammed up and we're fighting or we're like living like roommates, which happens, dude, it happens in any relationship for days, weeks, months, hopefully not years if that's the case. For real, for real, for real. Seek professional help. There's no pride and ego in letting your marriage die in the vine or turn into a roommate sesh. And for all of you guys that are like married two, three years, like, it's the honeymoon phase. It's easy, it's fun, it's cool. You almost can't do anything wrong and you're just little jackrabbits. All right, that's fun. That's fine. That's great. I love it. Year five to seven, Things change, you know, you, you have kids, you have different responsibilities, different career poles. It doesn't get any easier as you get older, right? As you get into your late 30s. You know, maybe your income goes up, but your expenses go up because you have aging parents, your kid, you have more, more kids, you move, you have a different house, different car. You know, you're trying to have a different socioeconomic level, right? Like, things become potentially just as heavy, just as hard, if not harder, right? And so you're never, like, out of the woods. It's not like you, like, make it to, you know, marriage year 11. And it's just easy. Okay? My wife and I, like, we're very regular, normal, real authentic people. You know, when we're communicating well, our relationship's great. When we're not, we turn into roommates. And you have anxiety and, or not maybe anxiety, but animosity, apathy, frustrations and anger, right? So it's all about communication. Well, let's take it from, like, a very simple customer perspective. When you are talking to a customer, I've noticed, myself included, and this is like, about me. What I've noticed that I do way too often is, and here's just the practical tip of the show. You get a lead or a bid or a submission form, right? And like, hey, we need service. And I've talked about this at length, so I don't have to beat it as a dead horse or beat it a dead horse. But here's the deal. Instead of just immediately saying we can do everything and we're the best and all this other stuff, like so many of us do, and it's hard not to because we get all excited. We're very, excuse me, including myself, we're very excitable people. As soon as that quote comes in, like, calm down. You know what I mean? Calm down and say, what are you looking for? Well, and then somebody that's a little bit more smug or pragmatic or, or a smart butt would say, well, obviously they want maintenance. Well, maybe, but, like, is your goal. Like, you need a guy to cut the grass, you need a grass cutter, you need the lawn maintained or lawn care company. Or do you want the outdoor living area looking nice and to be headache free? Like, those are two wildly different propositions, right? Like, why I want the honey? We're looking for a grass cutter. Okay, cool. You get there. And then she goes, yeah, and the mulch looks terrible. The last guy didn't redo it last year. We were going to do it. We got busy with 4th of July. It looked like crap. The neighbors were over. My husband wished it looked good. The shrubs have been, have, you know, been scraping against the, the siding. Tearing it up now needs power, washing. And oh, by the way, like, it keeps the kids up at night because that's the spare bedroom with the baby. You know, the, the lighting looks terrible. We bought the Home three years ago. The landscape lighting, we knew we were going to replace it. And. And so you're. Whether this is on the phone, in person, via chat, via email, via text, via whatever the heck you guys are using, Zoom Zoom calls, FaceTime calls for bids. All of it. All of it's fine. Those are all tools in the tool belt. But, like, the proposition there is, well, we need a guy to cut the lawn. That could mean different things to different people. And it's one of those things where, like, I guess, you know, for the most part, right, you don't know what you don't know. And I didn't know that for a while myself. I just assumed that everybody, you know, is looking for the same thing. It's not. It's not the case. Right. It's one of those deals where you're thinking, they just want the grass cut. So you go over there and offer a $55 quote. They're thinking, we need to spend $6,000 to get this backyard cleaned up. Right? It's a big difference. And so when you guys are getting these quotes, these bids that you're, you know, having come into, you the obvious, right? But again, just a quick reminder, because this will pay dividends. And I'm going to give you another fun analogy here in a second. Like, you have to take five minutes and slow down and actually ask the customer what they're looking for. I'll give you another couple for instances. We have three new commercial bids going out right now. We've already earned two. The third one I know we're gonna get, it's coming online. In fact, the third one is a bid from last year, where it was the actual bid that I lost that I did not receive. And the guy literally said, dude, you're double what my other guys are. And I went into, well, your other guys suck. That's why you're calling me. We're better. Blah, blah, blah. Like, 75% of that's true. Like, we are better. We do care. We're going to do a better job. I just know that. I just know that in my knower. But if I quantify, like, why it's not like we have to be double the price to be 30% better with trucks, equipment, labor, and branding. Like, those numbers don't correlate, right? Like that. Those don't conflate. So I'm like, okay, interesting. And that was like the. I don't know if that was the second or the fifth or the tenth bid that I had lost the same time last Year. But this is what humbled the Chicago out of me. You know, the you know what out of me. Try to clean up the language. It humbled the crap out of me. And I don't know if it's like that day or that week or I had just came back from the leanscaper operational intensive and revenue intensive, AKA talking about sales and marketing and building an organization. I just came off a grow. And I do know that this is one of the sites that I know humbled the crap out of my sales process. And I was like, we need to fix this stuff like now. Like right now. Like, you can't imagine the laser beam of taking the sun through a magnifying glass to focus into a laser beam that your boy was on. Because I lost a couple sites, my big HOAs like 70 grand in the hole down in revenue. This site was like, dude, what are you. What are you talking about? These numbers? Like, you sound great, but your numbers don't work. I'm like, something is wrong when I'm bidding in my commercial bidding process. Anyway, I'm very excited about getting a new crack at it because we renewed our estimates year over year. We refined our pricing, we massaged our account. A lot is squared up now. Better in element. I understand production rates. The quotes that I'm sending him today are legit. About 30 to 40% cheaper than what I was bidding on same time last year, which is a huge testament to our sales and, you know, bidding process. Some of you guys that you know actually like encouraging other folks. You're fist bumping in the air right now. You're excited for me as I'm excited for you guys when you guys do this stuff. Listen, dude, I'm trying to do the exact same thing you guys are doing and I'm learning. I. I do not have it all figured out. Shocker, right? This isn't a top down podcast, like I'm telling you guys. I'm learning how to do this stuff too. I'm very, very excited about resubmitting this quote. Well, here's the deal. The big thing about these sites is I'm doing my best to listen. And now we're documenting everything. So we have SOPs and you guys have heard this is coming down the pike. When these customers now come together and come to us through a submission form. We have a process. It's not like, oh, cool, exciting, let me get the quote to you in 20 minutes or by tomorrow. It's like, no, I have to. I'm teaching my EAVA executive Assistant, virtual assistant who's in the Philippines to do this. So I have to teach her how to not goof it up. Right. And it's helped me to get more clarity. Right? You understand, when you do, you definitely understand and learn more when you teach. And so now that I'm teaching this to you guys and to my va, like holding her hand doing this, it's helped me to refine this process and to really, like, not goof up by just having a knee jerk reaction to, hey, I need a guy. And we're like, yeah, we can do maintenance. And they're like, no, like, we need a guy for $9,000 in our backyard and on our property, like the residential client. So when a client comes in, have a standard core program, whatever that looks like for you guys, your business is different than my business. You're where you were at, the services you offer, the type of contracts you want to offer. Please don't ask me what I do. I've already talked about it on the podcast. Learn from there. Or number two, ask Chad. GPT. Don't, please. I've been getting actually a lot of emails from folks, hey, what about this and how do you do that? What do you think about that, dude? Like, I don't know you, I don't know your market, I don't know your business, I don't know your cash flow. I'm not offering coaching calls right now. I need to know a lot of data to be able to even propose certain things to you. It's not fair to you, it's not fair to me. I, I, I, I can't be your guru. I always say that. Start building relationship with Chat GPT. Dump everything you can in there first. And then if you're using leanscaper, folks use Lana. And that's like their AI at Chat GPT. But it's not fair for you to say, hey, like, I'm thinking about this, I'm thinking about that. Like, if you want to spitball some ideas about, you know, certain things on a macro level, sure, but, but I can't, I can't build your business for you. That's where you have to decide. I like having regular cash. We're going to do seasonal contracts. I like the complexity and, you know, the doing something different every day of landscaping and design, build. I want to warranty plants, I don't want to warranty plants. I want to stick with Belgard, I want to stick with Unilock, I want to stick with Teco. Like, dude, you have that's you have to put in the thousands of hours to decide and to, to build your own business, your own brand, your own process. Like, you can't just copy me. You can't just copy your other bro. Like, this is actually what the building of a business is. But when these customers come to you, say you have a standard program because you have to have some type of duplication process, a operating system, a way we do things here. This is what we offer. Type program. And either they fit the mold or they don't. That's called an icp Ideal customer profile. Either they fit into what you guys are looking for, to do, to perform, to offer for work or a service, or they don't. And that's okay. And so this customer came in and he was like, hey, we got these. We need service. And I go, sure. And this is actually an in person visit. So I went and visited him, obviously in person. And we were talking. I'm like, hey, so what are you looking for? Like, and people like, what do you bring into an estimate? I go, nothing, my ears. Because anything else that I'm bringing is a distraction. I don't bring my folder, I don't bring anything. I bring my card. Again, here's my card, by the way. That's my cell phone number. Call it. None other than that. Maybe I'll have my phone up open with my notes app so I can forcefully take notes to be an attentive listener. But I'm not here to, you know, talk. I'm not here to like, present. I'm not here to share. I don't bring my iPad. I'm not saying you can't or you shouldn't. Maybe that's part of your process. That's awesome. I don't need that for commercial. We have our website. That's our business card. I've got 20 different sites I can quote around town. Hey, go drive by this one. Go drive by that one. Go by, drive by this. Those are all our sites that we manage. That's our business card drive. You have to hit past these sites on your way to the highway ramp where we live. So you're going to drive by a half dozen of both my sites no matter which way you go. Awesome. Like, we have that blessing. And when you just kind of talk that way, people assume like you're, you're, you're, you're competent. Right? Like, it's just like an aura. It's just like your confidence. Okay. And that takes a long time to, to get there. Longer than it should for me. But that just is just a bravado. And I'm like, yeah, like, Nick, no problem, dude. We can take care of your site. So he's like, here's what, here's what? And I go, so what do you need? He goes, oh, we need the maintenance. I go, okay, cool. And I have a checklist of our seven or eight different services. Mowing? Yes. Fur, no. Irrigation, no. Pruning, no. Mulch. Beds. Give me a quote for it. Weeding. Bi weekly visits. We spray the weeds and the cracks in the. In the beds. Yes. Right. Like, where are you guys at for snow? We don't have a snow guy. We had a guy, then he quit and we just. We just been self performing it. We got a machine, but it's just not. It's not working. Okay, cool. We get that quote to you in August. That fair? Yeah. Last thing you know, Nick, is payment terms. We're net 30. How are you guys with paying your vendors? Do you guys pay well? Do you guys pay on time? How's your controller? How's your AP in AR department? Yeah, they're pretty good. And it's up to me on payment terms. Normally our stuff is net 60, but I can always override and do net 30. Honestly, Nick, we're at 30. If you can meet me halfway on that. At net 30 quote, unquote. That's a joke, by the way. If you can meet me halfway net 30, then I think we can do business together. And let me go back, whip up some numbers and get it back to you. Awesome. Like, now that we have a core process to filter people through and that's what these events do. That's what like these workshops do. And it's not a pitch to get you to get a cheek in the seat. I don't. I don't make any money off the leanscaper events. Just so we're clear. I don't like. I don't. I think we have a code, Brian, if you sign up. Like, I think we're still massaging that one with leanscaper. And I don't even know what I get for that. Like, Mark has literally helped me make hundreds of thousands of dollars in my business because I've been at these conferences. That's why I'm like, mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark. Nobody's getting paid to say nice things, all right? This is where you actually put pen to paper and you define your processes. You get all your stuff out of your brain and put on your paper and you get to work in a table with a workshop. Environment and say, like, hey, like, have other people poke holes in it as your peers. That's exciting. That's fun. And then you get to ask, like, best practices, why? Why do we do what we do? Why are we doing that? I don't even know. Never even thought about that. I don't even know what that term means. I don't even know what that word means. I don't even know what that phrase means. I don't even know what that system means. I've never even heard of that software. Tell me more. Like, that's why you go to events and conferences. LAL leanscaper grow. All right, let's keep going. And I'll button this up because this is getting a little bit longer than I anticipated. But I really want you guys to, like, hear me when I say this, like, analogy. It's not like, oh, I need to hear better in life. What does that mean? My trades talk last year, it was actually really funny. I had a great time. It was what you say versus what I heard, maybe a theme in my life, if you know what I'm saying. Like, I'm not. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer trying to be a better listener. The last, like, 12, 18 months, last couple years, last decade. I still have a long ways to go. So don't think I had this all figured out. When that client asked, like, hey, we need a bid. And I came in there and I said, like, hey, what do you need? I'm in the long cut. Okay, cool. But what about these seven other services? Where we at? Are we performing them? Do you have a sub? Do you have trugreen? Do you have, you know, sprinkler company? Like, who's doing what? So be a good listener. Okay? When you have that quote command, now you have the opportunity to send a proposal. Hey, here's the core contract. Here's the a la carte services. Do you want the a la carte services listed? Any of those baked into the core contract? Do you want these, or do you want them broken out? Like, how do you want me to structure the contract for us? Lately, we've been doing a lot of maintenance, spring and fall cleanup and weeding, because all of our commercial sites want to keep the place looking good. Weeds are a big deal for commercial sites. Then we in LMN can click per visit. And outside of the core contract, that's bid at, you know, 6,000 bucks. We can have the extra auxiliary service build per visit, and it breaks down mulch. 20, 100 bucks. Fertilization $146.71. Build five times, you know, five rounds or whatever. Irrigation. Start a blowout one, you know, 201 for a. A blowout 16723 I think it is for a startup, whatever it is, right? Like, do you want those broken? Alart. Sure. Okay, cool. Now we're listening. Now we're listening. We're presenting the right package and that's. I did a podcast episode a couple years ago called Black Holes. Like through this bidding process, like sometimes your bids just like get ghosted. There is a absolute reason for a breakdown in communication. And when you're perfect and when you are smoking this thing, you can go from submission form to signed contract in 72 hours, no problem. Everything's clear, all expectations are met, all questions are answered, and the confidence is there that you're their guy. Like, that is what a well defined process looks like. And that's a sales funnel process. That is something I did not have last year, something I do have this spring. We're three sites up this spring already because we dialed all this in and put in the frickin work. And I'm not a hero. I'm just telling you, like, this stuff works. The stuff that I'm listening to and the stuff that I'm doing and the stuff that hopefully you guys are doing as well. And I know you guys are because I've seen the growth and I know you guys are kicking butt and taking names. Like, that's where this all comes together.

[A]

Okay, is your team ready for spring? Every year, crews scramble, deadlines slip, and business owners end up stressed before the season even starts. But it doesn't have to be that way. From March 3rd through March 6th, join Team that Wins Spring, a free four day webinar presented by Granum with Brian Fullerton and Sam Gimble. And get your crew ready the right way. Across four live sessions, you'll discover how to hire the right people, train them efficiently, and streamline workflows so that your team performs at its best. You'll also learn how to turn foremen into strong leaders and strengthen your company culture. This is practical, real world advice that you can implement immediately so your team hits the ground running when spring arrives. You can't miss it. Register [e-mail] events or use the special link in the podcast description and start your season strong.

[B]

Last but not least, I'll end with a funny story. And I don't know how deep I'll go into this one and I'm not making any announcements And I doubt that I'm even gonna do it, but we'll see where we're at. Long story short, listening. Like if, if I call you or you call me, be assured that I'm hyper focus and listening to our conversation. I'm thinking about where is the last time I talked to you? Where's the last story that I told you or you told me? Where you at in your life? What's the last thing I saw on your social? Where's the last thing I saw you out of an event? How's your kids? How's your wife? What's your dog's name again? Like all of it, dude. Like, if you're talking to me, I'm doing my best to be locked in. And that's what any good salesperson would do. That's what any good human being would do. I should say that's what any good salesperson would do too. Well, long story short, about four or five days ago, I'm on Instagram, you know, at like 9 o' clock at night, my daughter's laying in my bed, she's in my arm. Best feeling on planet earth by the way. Like just, she's my little peanut dude. And I'm scrolling on Instagram late night, got the earpods in and just, just doom scrolling, checking DMS like you guys do at 9 o' clock at night, right? And I see a new reveal of a car, I see a new reveal of a car on Instagram and I'm like oh, like what's this? Actually I think it was the day before and it's like the worldwide debut tomorrow. And I'm like, what? Like, like the, the State of the Union address. Like people start hyping it up, right? And I'm like, what's this all about? So I look around, I'm like, oh, Audi, Audi has a new car and it's the new Audi RS5. And I'm like, ooh, like that's a good looking car. Let me check that out. So long story short, about a decade ago, my car to be was the Audi S5. Like I love that car. Like that was my jam. Like the 2012-2014, 2015. Body style, sweet car, a little 3.0. I think it was V6, maybe like mid threes of horsepower, maybe like 400 or something with the S line. Anyway, sweet car. And then they like redid it and then they redid it again and it looked like crap. And Audi got really soft, like rounded corners, no sharp edges. Not a very aggressive body styling. Blah Blah, blah, blah, blah. And I talk about it only to say, because, excuse me, I know a lot of you guys are car people. Is cars are pretty sweet, dude. Like, you got to make this money and do something with it. Like, I'm not taking it to the grave because can't spend it in the next life. You know what I mean? So I'm like, you know, I, I, here's the deal. Along the way, I bought the Tesla Model X. And it's a sweet car, awesome car, amazing car, bodacious car. But I like tech stack jumped, you know, in a tech stack or a tech leap, you know, like, remember when you like upgrading your character in video games or your car and you can like buy upgrades and like, faster engines, better tires, better suspension, better handling, better driver, you know, all that kind of stuff. And again, like, you get like the cheat code. You get like a million credits or a million dollars or a million gold coins and you just buy like the best, best, best, best, best. You buy the rockets, you buy the turbo, you buy the big tires, you buy the best suspension, and it's like, it's fun, it's cool driving like the best of the best car. But like, earning it was fun. Like, earning it was the goal. Like when you made like these small upgrades to your car into your vehicle, like you were making progress and you're like, yeah, I got the new tires, I got the new suspension, I got the lift. And like, I came from video games, right? Like, I'm a video gamer, like at heart, so trust me, I get it. And along the way, Liz and I bought the Tesla model next and we kind of like just like leapfrogged over about four different cars I would have liked to have owned or driven along the way. This is very first world problems. Like, I'm very aware of like, what I'm saying to like, just go to the end line and buy a super cool car, like a Model X, you know, the Falcon, doors, white, long range. Like, the car was 100 grand, folks. Like, I took all my social media money. If you guys don't know if you guys are new. I made no money with my social media biz for like five years. Nothing, not a dime, not a cent. Like 100 bucks here, 200 bucks there. Maybe that free trimmer along the way from Echo. Like, we made no money from social media. And by the way, other end of the spectrum, it's not like we're making a million bucks here right now, okay? We've made a couple bucks along the way. The last Couple of years. Like, literally last like three or so years, four years, but the first four or five years, nothing. And by the way, I have 10 years mid March doing social media. So this business is 10 years old. So. Sounds kind of funny, right? Like, talk about parallel paths. Most businesses, you don't really make a lot of money your first, like two, three, four, five years, and then all of a sudden you start making some gains, some progress, and everybody says, must be nice. And I'm like, well, it is now. It was not in year two when my total YouTube earnings for the month was $47 and I had to buy a new GoPro that I smashed or got rough or fell off the truck bed or got smoked by lawnmower blades because I was trying to get a cool POV shot. And I smoked a 300 GoPro at the time, right? Like, fact happened all the time. Every single dollar made went right back in like Mr. B style. Okay, well, eventually I took all that social media money after like a long seven or eight years, whatever it was, and we bought the Tesla Model X. And literally, like, I. We didn't live on the social media income. We didn't. Like, I bought a couple of trinkets along the way, lifestyle wise, but like, not, not really. Like, it was just, it was just extra income, so I just banked it. I'm not like a big, like, fancy dude. I don't have a bunch of crap. I have a little bit more crap now, but, like, I was very conservative with my money. Not ultra conservative. I'm not like Caleb Altman frugal, but I'm still like, pretty cheap. Okay, you guys hear me rant about, like, real life stories with my banker, my QuickBooks account, or like, extra fees. And like, no, it's just like, I'm. Dude, I'm still like, cheap, cheap bro in there sometimes, you know, I'm like, give me back my 3495 NSF. I said I don't have it in the first place. How could you take $35 that I don't even have if I don't have the first $5 because I'm negative in my account. How can you take 35 more? Like, these are real, like, stories, bro. So anyway, I bought the car and it's fun. As cool, as awesome, as amazing accomplishment. I can't even, like, begin to describe her. Underestimate or overestimate, whatever. Over describe how, how exciting I was for this car. So I'm like, dude, I got this new car, it's awesome. And I was like, yeah, I love it. I'm like, I love it. And then after like a year or two, I'm like, okay, cool. Like, we're getting more kids who are popping out. I don't know how that keeps happening. We need more space. Gotta get rid of it. And now I'm like, well, now I gotta make a lad roll to like the family. The family wagon, right? Like the. Got the Expedition, okay. But I'm like, dude, along the way, like, there's a lot of cool cars that we stopped or we didn't stop off and get like. And normally people do. And normally, like, this is a five or ten year process. So you go from like, I had a Hyundai Elantra, then I had my Infiniti G37 sedan, which is pretty cool. I like the G50 or G30. I had a Infiniti G37. It was like a G39 or whatever the new one was, or the M50 Infinity. I loved my Infinities back in the day. Never buy an Infiniti, by the way. The terrible. But I liked my Infiniti at the time. And of course, I had a a demo once because I had to drop my car off for repairs. And I had this loaner, like M50 or whatever. It was like the next tier up and. Or M37 or M43, whatever it was. Sweet car. You know, of course they always give you the, the loaner, the nicer one. So, you know, then you're like, man, I want to get an extra car. But how much is that thing? Like 38,000, 42,000 bucks. Dang it. Liz wanted a Lexus, you know, is, you know, 300 white, you know, a little F sport with the, the red seats, you know, I don't know, 35 grand car. Then she wanted the Lexus RX 350 or 430 or whatever it was. The, the little crossover, you know, midsize suv, right, with the, with a hatch. Red seats. Because she loved the red seat thing, right? And then, you know, I wanted things like the audi, the Audi A5. And you know, I wanted other, other different cars along the way, right? Like at the time, I'm like, wow, Tesla Model X. Or, you know, you can get the, the Mercedes CL63AMG, which is $120,000 black on black. You know, the gunmetal rims by turbo, like, you know, four or 500 horsepower car. Like, badass car, right? But obviously I'm not going to like throw kids in that necessarily, right? All these Sweet cars all in the same, like, pay grade all the way above, right? And at the time, an escalade was, like, 80,000 bucks. Now today, they're $120,000 for an escalade, 140,000 bucks for an Escalade. Just ridiculous. So, like, all these different cars along the way. Like, I grew up MTV rappers, like, cool cars. I wanted a bunch of different cars like this along the way. And I was always like, yeah, dude. Like, I'll, you know, be able to climb the economic ladder and get these other couple cars along the way, right? Well, long story short, tech stack, leapfrog, no. No cars along the way, no different experiences. And I'm like, that's why, like, I appreciate Caleb Walman turning me on to Turo. Because when I go out of town, I'll. I'll rent, like, other fun cars. I rented, like, Jeep Gladiators, Jeep Rubicons, Mustang GTs, just like you do for, like, 40 bucks a day, 80 bucks a day. Like, it's just like a rental car. Liz and I, when we'll maybe go out of town, we have to use, like, an enterprise. We'll get, like, an Audi Q3, and then it was a Q5. And then we rented a. An Audi Q8 over in. What's it called? Salt Lake City. We went up to Deer Valley. You guys heard some of those snow stories. A long time ago, I rented a QA. You know, again, folks, 150 bucks a day. Like, just normal stuff. Like, anybody here can do that. Well, I. I love, like, that experience of driving other cars. Like, I just, you know, I know they're depreciating assets, and they're a pit of money. I find my. My boy, Nick Carlson, right? Like, he's got all these different cars, and he's got a race car background, NASCAR background. I'm like, dude, this is my guy. So. Not to. Not to again beat a dead horse on this point, but I've always liked cars. And so 39 and a half. I'm 40 in June. I was like, you know what? Like, maybe I'll buy something fun. I'm not there to get the Lambo yet. Don't let anybody fool you. I'd love to get a Lambo the tomorrow, you know, or something like that. Or maybe find an old Hurricane pente, red and black, you know, maybe like a three or four more years. Let's. Let's, you know, grow these businesses, get some cash flow. 100 grand down, 4 grand a month payment. You could do that. You're taking home, you know, two, 300 grand a year from your business. You could do that. And by the way, elephant in the room, not everybody is broke. In long care, landscaping and snow. There are a lot of people that make a lot of money. Like, we had a good January. I'm like, man, if we had a good January like every month, we could like, I could literally pay my guy 70, $80,000 a year. Like, let's do that. So I don't want to apologize for anything like, along the way. Like, dude, we are here to make money with these businesses. Like, like that's what keeps them alive. And as Mark Bradley says, that's fuel to like, do fun stuff, help your people, do something for the community. Buy yourself a trinket along the way. Like, you do deserve it. Like, if you're gonna like, stress out about these customer phone calls and complaints and cash flow and all this stuff, I'm not saying a Rolex on your arm feels better or a Breitling on your arm feels better, but, you know, it helps me a little bit along the way to cope. Okay? I'm a real dude, you know, just like any of you guys. People like, oh, you don't need a nicer hotel room when you travel. I promise you, when you're spending 800 bucks a day at a on site Disney resort and you can take the monorail back because your kids are tired after the 9:30 fireworks, it's a lot better experience than getting on the bus. That's 20 minutes to the terminal. Then it's 20 more minutes to the ferry. Then it's a 10 minute walk back to your hotel. That was $199 off site. What's the difference? Just green, stinky paper. It doesn't mean you're better or worse than anybody. Just means you have different choices. And not lugging my daughter, you know, 12 miles across Orlando to Kissimmee, because the difference is 400 bucks a night, like, means the world to me. Just so I can drop her off in bed at a nicer bed that, you know, isn't the roach motel. So let's be like, very clear as we like, say all this, okay? Like, because I don't want to sound, you know, like we're too good or too bad, right? We're just in the middle. And I think anybody listening in would like nicer choices in life. You know, there's nothing wrong with a Tudor watch. There's nothing wrong with a Seiko. There's nothing wrong with the Breitling. There's Nothing wrong with a Rolex, and there's nothing wrong with an Audemars, and there's nothing wrong with a Patek Philippe, okay? Like, you can pick wherever you want to be at any socioeconomic level, and hopefully we're all growing to those higher rungs. And if you don't want to buy a watch, that's fine. Go buy a Polaris Razor. You don't want a razor. Go buy a snowmobile. You don't want a snowmobile. Buy a boat. You don't want a boat. Put in your savings account and let it rot and let the Fed borrow out against you, you know, 35x to 1. And watch your inflation just eat your savings alive. So if you don't invest it or spend it, you're dumb, because if you're saving it, you're losing it. Anyway, go back to the audience. So no announcements or anything like that. I'm 39 and a half. I'm 40 in June. I'm not having a midlife crisis. I'm actually really happy with where my life's at.40. At 30, I had my midlife crisis. I will tell you that. 40. I feel like I've made some progress. I have a lot of ways to go. A lot, a lot of ways to go. But I'm like, you know what? Like, things are pretty good. Like, if I complain at this stage of my life, I'd be pretty petty. So, long story short, I call up, and here's my last point. Let me see here. Let's see. Making sure I'm texting my guys. Almost done. All right, here's the last thing I'll say. Like, and this is the whole listening thing. Like, this dude's about to already lose a sale, and we've had three sentences together, and I'll hopefully have some more fun and exciting conversations about the Audi, right? If I even get it. Liz literally said, dude, just do whatever you want to do. I don't care. I'm not even talking about it. She goes, how much is. I go, I don't know. Like, it's probably 90,000 bucks. But I said, I probably lease it. I'm not a big, like, lease guy yet. I. I've explored the idea of a lease, you know, more. And. But I said, like, dude, I don't know. It just be fun car. Like, I can't afford the Lambo. I have, like, five things in life that I'll take about 100 to 500 grand. I'm like, I can only do one or two, you know, until I make big boy gains in my business, which is why I'm trying to grow this thing just like all of you guys. Just like all of you guys, dude. Like, I want to make more money, but I was like, well, I want the Lambo. I can't afford it. Maybe like a three or four years. But I said, like, maybe I could lease something fun in between. Maybe that's why, like, if I leased it for two or three years, it'd be a more fun purchase. Because then I don't know if I really want that car long term. Because maybe in three or four years I get the Lambo or the Porsche, right? And I'm trying to figure that out just like all of you guys in scheme and try to hustle and get my way there. But I was like, maybe I could get this car, you know, put 10 grand down, thousand bucks a month. Like, that's okay. I can do that. You know, Is it. Is it a practical expense? No. But is it a fun car? Sure. So long story short, new RS5 comes out. I'm a big Audi fan. I'm like, dude, this is my car. Like, holy cow, they redid it, if you guys don't know. Little pitch for Audi. Audi S5, they revealed it in, I think. I don't know if they revealed it in Europe, but I saw the press and it looked like over in Europe. And there's an S5, like a sedan, you know, so four full doors. And then there's the Avant, I guess as they call it, the hatchback, which actually looks really dope. It's like 100. You would want to get the hatchback. It's the most beautiful looking car ever. Check it out, Tom. Brian said, yeah, Brian's 10 on Audi, that'd be awesome. So Audi S5. And I'm like, that looks pretty dope. And the performance specs are there. People are, you know, complaining about this or excited about that. I don't really care. I'm just like, look, the macro is pretty cool car. And that was like my car. Like, I wanted to get that car. And I, I leapfrogged on the tech tech tree jump. And I never got to, like, have any fun cool cars along the way. Liz included, by the way, she wanted the RX350H or whatever it is, or 350R or whatever. I don't know, the red spec interior. And that was her car. I'm like, hey, like in a couple years, once kids are out of diapers and out of car seats, I'll get You a little Porsche Macon or a Porsche Cayenne or whatever the little, little SUV is, right? The little crossover, because that's like the typical, typical mom car, you know, or post kids mom car, you know. And I'm like, I'll get you the Escalade in five years. I can't afford an Escalade right now. Maybe I'll get you an Escalade in four or five years and maybe by then their engines will stop blowing up. So long story short, talk about a 20 minute rabbit hole. I call, I put a submission form into the website at our local Audi dealer. Guy calls me up and this is the whole thing about listening, dude. And it's funny, like, the more money you make, the more time you're, the more that your time is valuable, the more you're like, dude, don't waste my time. Do not waste my time. And it's because your time is so valuable. Like, I need to be with my team or my kids and my wife, not answering stupid questions. Well, put the submission form the way. This is not a good plug for audio on this part at our local dealer. I'll leave the name out, but you know, there's only one local and you can figure it out. And I put out the submission form. The guy goes, hey, so like, you know, you know, so tell me a little bit more like, what, what, what, what are you looking for? And I said, oh, the, the Audi RS5. I said, the one that was just released. And he goes, okay, okay, okay. Well, we have a lot of the, the, the, the Audi S5s on the, on the lot, we have a lot of, you know, on the lot we got a couple different options, you know, couple different colors, which is really nice, cool car, you know, beautiful car. And again, like, in terms of like, who's going to sell who, I'm a 10, this guy's a 2. Like within the 1 first sentence, I'm like, I just know where this conversation is. And unfortunately this is like life with a lot of things lately. You're like, dude, gosh, I'm paired with an idiot. And he goes, well, there's a lot on the lot that I could get you, you know, into and check out and test drive. I go, it's impossible because the car just came out yesterday. I said like, it's not going to even be in the States for another six months, bro, is what I'm thinking. So I go, well. And he goes, what do you want to design, like, and build or do you want to like, look at some Existing inventory. I go, you're not listening. Number one. Imagine us as contractors going through this process with a commercial bid and how non professional we look if you stayed all the way to the end. Here's the fun stuff. Here's where it gets juicy, right? Imagine us walking into a contractor and saying, hey, we need maintenance. And you go, okay, sure. Here's 25 cuts, 28 weekly cuts, 32 weekly cuts. And they go, what do you. What are you talking about? We have 24,000 hours worth of work here. And you just, you think, high five, Facebook group, texture, bro. Got a lead. I'm growing this thing. That customer thinks this guy's an amateur. He's a fool, right? Because like, he's not listening. And so I'm in that exact position talking to this guy who's not definitely, definitely not gonna be my Audi sales rep. And I talked to this guy and he goes, do you wanna design or build? You wanna like, look at something that's on a lot? I go, well. And I literally said, well, to be frank, I said, I'm talking about the Audi RS5. It just came out like a day and a half ago. He goes, oh, okay. Oh, okay, okay. So very clear on my submission form. Very clear on my first phone call. Rs5 not listening. He wants to sell what's on the lot. He wants to make a commission today. I'm not here to make you a commission today. I'm here to give you a commission check and pay your rent in June. Like, let's be very clear. And so again, folks like, you guys know this. I'm sure you hate people wasting your time. So he goes, well, he goes, what if we, like. Gotcha. And you can take a look at these ones. They're priced really aggressively. I was like, are you fucking kidding me right now? Are you even listening? Like, can you get your manager on the phone? Can you give me a different person? Like, you've already struck out two, three times in this. You're not asking me questions, nothing. You're trying to sell me what you already have. I don't want what? That. I don't want the Audi S5 that's on the line. I want the RS5 that's coming out in June. And so I know, I said, no, it's pretty impossible for you to sell me an Rs5 considering that they are just going to start taking orders in March or April, which is why I'm calling. And then they're going to have deliveries, you know, mid June forward. And, and also, I know, like, there's an online petition to get the Avant over here, which is actually a really sweet car. That's probably the one I would get. But I do like the sedan as well. But again, like I've already built out Te and specs. I'm just seeing if you guys have a back end page to do a custom build out or anything like that. Just a fun thing to tool around on the website, obviously. Unfortunately, it's not updated yet on the audi.com website, but when it does, I love to take a look at that and build cards. Late night. That's what I do early morning and late night. I build cars. I drift and I want to go build a car. I built a thousand different car, 10,000 different cars and trucks on websites. In fact, the other day I had a skits to your question. Jamie Fi and I called him up at 8 in the morning on a Sunday. I was doing a salt run and I text him, hey man, you got a quick second? I got a question on skid skiers. He says yes. I call him, hey man, what are you up to? He goes, just on Porsche.com, building up Porsches. I was like, dude, that's awesome. That's awesome. That's what I do. And I was like, what do you, what are you buying me for my birthday? And he laughed. We both laughed. Because he wants to get a Porsche, right? So we do the same thing you guys do. And the same thing you guys do, we do. Okay, like Fullerton's fake or he's an actor. He doesn't, you know, like he doesn't get it. Dude, I do the exact same stuff you guys do. Like for any hater that's, you know, out there, trust me, I'm a regular dude just like you. You guys. Anyway, long story short, the guy's like, well, yeah, there's no website build out just yet. I don't really have any information on it. I, I, you know, in fact, he goes, I, I, I knew that they're coming out with something new. I haven't even seen a presser on it. And I'm like, you sell the car. Like you should be a fan. You should, you should be a raving fan of what you sell, if you believe in it. How do you not know that the new Audi just dropped over the weekend? Have you not been living on Instagram? If I go to YouTube.com to upload a video and that, that that algorithm is a killer. It knows me. It knows you. That my top eight top 16 photos, whatever, you know, videos to Click on. There's always one that gets me. Godzilla versus King Kong. Have you seen the new trailer? Sure, I'll click that fan made trailer. Damn it, they got me. You know what I mean? I always click on at least one, right? I give myself that guilty pleasure. And long, long, long story short, there's like all Audi videos on there now, right? And I'm like, I want this and the tech specs. This and Audi versus that and Audi versus BMW M3, is it? What? Which one's the killer of the other one? The end of a dynasty. The end, the beginning of a new era. The best car in America, like the, you know, the best looking sports car in the last five years. Like all these videos, right? And I just, and I just like soak it in. I just lap it up. But this guy doesn't even know the car exists. Doesn't even know that it came out. Doesn't even listen to me, that that's the one I want. He thinks I want something else on the lot. I couldn't even have been any more clear. And it's just a frustrating conversation. What is he not doing? Listening. He's not listening. Dude smoking a $90,000 car sale. Buyer lease, doesn't matter. He's losing a $90,000 car sale because he, he's not listening to what I'm saying, what I want, and encouraging me. He wasn't like, oh man, that's a cool car, dude, for sure. He goes, why would you want to get that car? And I go, well, it's always been my dream to get that car. He goes, man, there's no better car that you can get than the Audi S5 or the RS5. That car is the top of line. He goes, you want to talk about velvet ropes parring and people knowing that you're somebody, you know, awesome and that, you know, you've accomplished some things. What you said you're a business. What do you do for work? Oh, I'm a business owner, man. I'm sure it's been a 15 year grind to get to where you're at now to be able to afford or look at a car like that. I'd fucking cry if somebody said that to me. Here's my credit card. It's not hard to get me over the finish line, bro. But this guy's not listening. He's not learning. There's no sales process here that he's he failure on his end for a sales process. Audi. Hope you listen to that one. There's your free plug. Well, this Was going really good. If I'm bringing you up, 50, 50 chance it's good, 50, 50 chance it's bad. Most of the time I can't stand people that waste my time and waste my money. So the only thing funnier than that, I come back to the kitchen. Liz goes, who's that? I said, that was the audio dealer. She goes, oh yeah, you calling about the car? I go, yeah, yeah. She goes, you buying it? I go, no, I don't know yet. I said, I, I, I literally don't need to buy it to prove anything. I don't need to buy it to not prove anything. I said if I did, it would literally be just a fun extra car. I said, I'm even thinking about just leasing it, you know, like 10 grand down, 36 months, thousand bucks a month, 10,000 miles a year, Just a fun, cool car, putting the extra stall in the garage and just something fun to tool around. I think just be a cool, fun, you know, reward. She goes, yeah, sure, like for sure. Because I don't have 90, 000 bucks just sitting around for that. I do not want to allocate 90 grand for that. I got a lot, a lot more that I can do with 90 grand, aka buy more Zuzu's and buy a yard and buy a salt bunker. Amen. But I can do a thousand dollar month payment on something like that, that's fine. So I, I told Liz the story and she goes, and I was frustrated because I go, he wasn't even listening. I said, like, just frustrating me. She goes, sounds like he wasn't even listening to you. And I go, yes, yes, that's exactly. She goes, yeah, he's not your sales guy. And I go, not like she was telling me that. But she knows how I think. Like, if you're not gonna listen to me, if you're not gonna give me the time of day, if you're not going to hear what my wife and I want to do, like as a customer, then what are we doing here? What are we doing here? So like Liz said, that is not my sales guy. The guy goes, hey, well, he didn't even ask for my information. I go, hey, so like, do you want to take my information? He goes, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that would be a smart thing to do. I'm like, did I catch? No, let's just be nice. Let's just say I caught him at a bad time. He's got his Jimmy John sandwich, he's selling cars, customers at his desk, new car sales phone rings, pick it Up. Never know who's on the other end, right? It could be a grandma with 90,000 bucks cash giving it to her son because she's a Rockefeller and giving it to her nephew, her grandson, her great grandson. Sure. Never know. So who knows what the actual story was, right? But listening, listening, listening, listening. All right, I'm going to end the show here today. How about that for an impromptu hour plus podcast. I thought this would be a 10 minute show. Legit. When I have the best relationship with my wife is when I'm a better listener and I better communicate with my customers. It's a better relationship when I listen and I better communicate and I assume nothing and I present every option and then let them have a buffet to pick from when I'm trying to buy something. Life. The best people that are going to get my money are good people that are great at customer service. You go to Louis Vuitton store, you go to Tiffany's, you go to Christian, Louis Vuitton, you know, you go to, you know, Chanel, you go to Neiman Marcus, you go to Dior, you go to Burberry, you go to Gucci, right? You go to those stores, it's not they fawn over you, but they, they listen and they propose and they suggest and they, they know how to sell, right? Most of those folks know how to sell. You go to Macy's, it's like, yeah, here's our tie section. It's like, thanks, bro. I'm looking for a suit at Men's Warehouse. Oh, here's our suits. It's like, no, dude, like, if I want a Canali suit at Nordstrom, you go over there, tell those guys you're looking at a suit. My gosh, you're going to be invited to their Christmas party within three minutes. Those people want to sell you a suit so bad. And they know how to, and they will, and they'll tailor you a beautiful 2500 blue Canali suit for you. It's stuff that I've just tried to pay attention to over the last five or ten years is like, I try to climb this socioeconomic ladder as I just have different events and different opportunities and different places that I get to go to and check out. I'm just, people like, look at me and I'm always like a deer in the headlights. And when I go out, believe it or not, I'm probably the quietest guy at the dining room table, the dinner table, the fancy restaurant table. I'm just like soaking it all in. I'm like, who pays for this? Who owns this? They own all of these hotels. Who does the landscaping here? How much was the lighting bill? How much does the water cost to run that fountain per day? And people like, well, you're just like, walk around, walk around mesmerized. Dude, I came from no money. I came from nothing. I knew nothing, I knew no one. And I'm walking around like, who, who owns this? Who buys this? Who, who can afford a Breitling? Like it's crazy stuff. And I'll never forget that I've been able to buy a couple of things like that along the way. More recently, very recently, but man, I did not start with any of that stuff, you know what I'm saying? And I don't think you ever finished project product. There's a spectrum here and there's always going to be more along the way. So no announcements on the car. If anybody's got a, an Audi, a plan or whatever you guys call that, or anybody's got a hookup, let me know. If your brother's in Columbus and he's got an Audi, you know he works at Audi, please don't call me. I'm not buying a car out of state, I'm going to buy it local. But if you know a local guy that knows how to listen and he works at one of the three different dealerships in Metro, holler at your boy. Because the car, the guy that I called and the dealer I called probably lost a $90,000 sale because I can't listen. And I, I really am a one time shot with that kind of stuff. Like, dude, you either get it or you don't. That's what Liz and I have talked about endless times. Either like we find people, interior decorator person, or you know, somebody that was a vendor for a house or, or our builder, like, either get it or you don't. We just realized in life. Fiverr, you go to fiverr.com and you hire somebody for a gig, it's like either like their first revision, they're 90, 95 there and you just gotta dial a few things in or they're like 20% of the way and like, dude, all right, I gotta massage this to the finish line. Either they get it or they don't, you guys know what I'm saying? Customers, you know, if a customer is going to be a good blend or a good fit or they're not. You can't make a bad customer into a good customer. You can make a good customer into a bad customer by, you know, being bad with customer. Service or doing a bad job. But it's hard to make a bad customer, quote unquote, into a good customer, no matter how hard you try. Right. I'm not here to fix the world on all that. People got to put in their own work. All right, that's what I'm gonna leave you guys today. This is a long story freaking podcast. I guess this will happen. We wake up at four in the morning, get a little bit of a Runway. So, Mr. Producer, I do apologize for the late publisher. I do apologize for the late upload, but nonetheless hope you guys are all doing well. God bless all of you guys that were in the northeast that got 12 to, you know, 36 inches of snow. It's been crazy. I'm ready to make a pivot to spring myself. And we're ready to rock out the door here for Spring Rusher before you guys know it. All right, that's what I got for you guys on today's show. I love you. I appreciate you a lot to take in here today, but please do a better job at being a better listener. I know it's paid big dividends in my life, and I know it'll pay better and bigger dividends in your life. All right, over now, guys. Have a great morning. We'll catch up with you here on the next one.

[A]

If you've ever looked at a commercial lawn or snow contract and thought, I have no idea how to price this, you're not alone. That's exactly why Brian created Commercial Bidding Made simple. Now available at LaunchPreneur Academy. This $249 training program is built for everyone from the brand new contractor to established businesses doing up to a quarter million a year. Especially if you don't fully know your numbers yet. Inside, you'll get a full one hour webinar where Fullerton breaks down exactly how commercial bidding works, the mindset behind winning bids, and the games larger landscape companies play to get proposals accepted. You'll also get the popular Know youw Numbers calculator to help you dial in your man hour rate. Plus two real world takeoffs, one lawn and one snow. Showing how we measure sites, build estimates, and present professional proposals. And the best part, you get one real bid, personally crafted with Brian Lawn or snow. So you can submit your next commercial proposal with confidence. Stop guessing, stop leaving money on the table, secure better contracts and grow your business with commercial Bidding Made simple. Available now at lawntrepreneuracademy.com bid is good for one takeoff, lawn or snow. Attentive price. Takeoff capped at $75. More expensive takeoffs will require a supplementary invoice. These takeoffs and estimates are designed for commercial sites 1 to 5 acres in size for lawn mowing or snow removal. Whether you're just getting started with your first commercial bid or you're a seasoned pro looking to have somebody check your notes, this program is for you.

[C]

Thanks for taking the time to listen to the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast with Bryan Fullerton. We hope you enjoyed this production. If so, please consider leaving us a five star review for the show. While the techniques and ideas presented here are designed to help you grow a more successful and profitable business, no one can guarantee these results for you. We want to emphasize that entrepreneurship is not easy and the ideas presented here are just the opinions of Brian Fullerton and his respective guests. No one can guarantee success for you. That being said, we hope the ideas presented here help you and motivate you to go on out there and crush it with your own business.

[B]

Fullerton on Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening

[C]

and we hope to see you on the next episode.

[A]

This has been a Brian Fullerton and Mr. Producer Production.