938. Systems, Efficiency, and Profit: One Year of Leanscaper with Tommy Cole

Summary

Fullerton Unfiltered – Episode 938: Systems, Efficiency, and Profit: One Year of Leanscaper with Tommy Cole

Date: March 11, 2026
Host: Brian Fullerton
Guest: Tommy Cole, Leanscaper

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Episode Overview

This episode marks the one-year anniversary of Leanscaper, an operations-driven organization and community aiming to revolutionize efficiency and profitability in the landscaping industry. Brian Fullerton and Tommy Cole discuss how Leanscaper empowers businesses—especially those on the owner-operator to multimillion-dollar company journey—to systematize their processes, eliminate profit-sapping inefficiencies, and leverage AI-driven technology. Tommy shares both industry wisdom and his personal experience scaling a landscaping company from $4M to $30M, offering practical insights for listeners at all stages.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Scene & Energy at Leanscaper Event

• Both Brian and Tommy report live from a vibrant Leanscaper conference in sunny Cape Coral, Florida, highlighting the boost in energy, collaboration, and optimism among landscaping business owners.
  • “There's an energy here. I’m just feeding off of adrenaline rush... it’s just my favorite, favorite week.” — Tommy Cole [08:36]

The Purpose of Leanscaper & Operations-Centric Mindset

• Leanscaper’s Mission: To build a better landscaping industry from the inside, by listening to pain points from business owners and systematically solving them.
• Operations as the Heartbeat: Operations is the “make-or-break” segment of business—the hardest, but most vital.
  • “This industry deserves much better... we deserve to pay our teams better, have the best processes, technology, relationships. That’s what we do at Leanscaper—build it for you guys.” — Tommy Cole [05:06]
• Community-driven approach: Leanscaper isn't top-down—solutions are created by first asking contractors and field workers, “What five pain points do you stress about most at night?”

Tommy Cole’s Background & Operational Experience

• 5 years as a landscape architect, experience in civil construction and landscape operations, and years of industry consulting.
• Scaled a Dallas landscaping company from $4M to $30M, rising from Project Manager to VP of Operations.
  • “My first job as employee number one was: go install a $1.5M estate and don't f*** it up.” — Tommy Cole [09:54]
• Emphasized the transformative impact of building and actually using SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for everything.

Why Operations Is So Challenging for Landscape Companies

• Owners get stuck as owner-operators, unable to scale because “it’s all in my head.”
• The danger of hiring someone to “just figure it out” with no handoff, systems, or defined expectations.
• Common pitfalls:
  • Lack of standardized procedures
  • Constant communication breakdowns and “leakage” (losing profit through inefficiencies, lost tools/materials, or rework)

The Cost of Inefficiency & Touching Dirt Twice

• In landscaping, profit "leaks" often occur through unnecessary steps—handling materials multiple times, poorly coordinated logistics, or repeated Home Depot trips.
  • “Leakage, it’s like...dollar bills flying out of the back pocket for sure.” — Tommy Cole [13:59]
  • “Don't touch dirt twice—you lose money for sure.” — Tommy Cole [09:24]; example: moving topsoil multiple times destroys razor-thin margins.
• Real-world examples: handling mulch, plants, and materials multiple times instead of direct-to-site efficiency.

Lean Principles Applied to Landscaping

• Lean = Eliminating Waste. Up to 40% of a landscape company’s activity is unnecessary waste.
  • “40% of our business is waste... Our industry is very inefficient.” — Tommy Cole [16:45]
• Benchmark: Other trades have efficient systems—fewer steps, less double-handling, and real-time invoicing.
• The importance of “flawless execution” (Tommy references the book by that name): Always be prepared with Plans A, B, and C for the crew, like a fighter pilot.
  • Take 30 minutes to plan for contingencies, reduce on-the-fly decision-making and scrambling.
• Leanscaper as the answer: a centralized, AI-powered operating system to capture and coordinate these processes.

Real-World Applications & Technology

• Leanscaper’s AI-powered platform (including the new “Lana” AI) allows voice/text/photo capture in the field, automates incident reporting, assigns follow-up, and eliminates communication bottlenecks.
  • “Let’s say I run over a sprinkler head—I can immediately take a picture, tell Lana, and it goes on the lean board. Instantly, it notifies a tech to go repair it.” — Tommy Cole [19:43]
• Organizational communication: 25% of all company time is spent “re-communicating” (per Mark Wecroft).
  • “Where do I spend a lot of my time? Re-communicating. Right. And that's because certain things aren’t explicitly written out, expressed, trained, etc.” — Brian Fullerton [21:24]
• The AI tracks “wins and wants” daily for visibility and follow-up—by capturing every conversation and operational touchpoint, nothing gets lost.

Home & Life Analogies to Lean Thinking

• Lean mindset doesn’t stop at work—applies at home (e.g., how you unload the dishwasher or plan freezer logistics at Sam’s Club).
  • “My wife’s like, you’re always thinking of a better way to do things!” — Tommy Cole [23:36]
• Preparedness and pre-planning for every day or project is essential—if you’re defining the plan for your crew in the morning, you’ve already lost.
  • “If you’re lining out the crew in the morning, you’ve lost.” — Tommy Cole [25:11]

Practical Lean Wins — Fuel Delivery, Material Handling, and More

• Example: Instituting twice-weekly fuel truck deliveries, eliminating all roadside gas-shack stops and the need for fuel cards.
  • Saved thousands monthly and gained traceability.
• Modern analog: Brian shares his move to bolt-on undercarriage fuel tanks to avoid mid-day fuel stops—these small investments eliminate waste and dramatically increase daily production.
• Every inefficiency—like multiple fuels stops, lost materials, or “death by a thousand paper cuts”—comes out of profit.

The Power of Immersion & Implementation

• Brian’s testimonial: Immersing himself in Leanscaper’s community and systems over the past year has elevated both his mindset and his bottom line. Implementation, not just knowledge, caused real change.
  • “The growth that we've had at Brian’s Law Maintenance—tangible growth—is 100% directly correlated to what we've learned and implemented from the Leanscaper environment.” — Brian Fullerton [35:12]

The Future of Leanscaper: AI-Driven Growth

• The next year will see the release of more AI-driven agents, starting with inventory management, tracking every material and tool via QR code. Other tools: Crew Huddle (logs and synthesizes daily team meetings for actionable follow-up).
  • “This industry has needed something, and now we have the technology—AI that’s powered by all this, which is the most fascinating thing.” — Tommy Cole [32:34]
• Tommy emphasizes Leanscaper’s dedication to keep building and iterating based on input from contractors in the field.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “Leakage, it’s like...dollar bills flying out of the back pocket for sure.” — Tommy Cole [13:59]
• “Don’t touch dirt twice—you lose money for sure.” — Tommy Cole [09:24]
• “If you’re lining out the crew in the morning, you’ve lost.” — Tommy Cole [25:11]
• “The growth that we've had at Brian's Law Maintenance—tangible growth—is 100% directly correlated to what we've learned and implemented from the Leanscaper environment.” — Brian Fullerton [35:12]
• “This event has a special place in my heart. I will 100% look back on it...as the week that I put my flag in the ground that we're going to build a $5, $10 million company.” — Brian Fullerton [04:14]
• “We owe it all back to you guys. The men and women out there that need an operating system that’s helpful for them...the problem is our industry is fragmenting—shiny object syndrome. We take that all into one system.” — Tommy Cole [32:34]

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Noteworthy Timestamps

• [04:01] – Leanscaper hits the one-year milestone; reflections on founding event.
• [05:06] – Leanscaper’s vision and the importance of community-powered solutions.
• [09:54] – Tommy’s background: from design, construction, to scaling a $30M company.
• [13:59] – “Leakage” explained as business profit loss by inefficiency.
• [16:45] – “40% of our business is waste”—lean principles for landscaping.
• [19:43] – How the Lana AI system enables cutting-edge, real-time field reporting and accountability.
• [25:11] – “If you’re lining out the crew in the morning, you’ve lost”—operational discipline.
• [28:40] – Success story of lean-minded fuel delivery, material tracking.
• [32:34] – Leanscaper’s next-gen AI releases and commitment to unifying systems for the industry.
• [35:12] – Brian’s testimony: business and mindset transformation after one year of Leanscaper immersion.

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Takeaways & Looking Forward

• Operations is the lever for scaling and profit—but it demands systems, not heroics or ad hoc “figuring it out.”
• Lean thinking applies everywhere: eliminate every unnecessary touch, step, or communication.
• Modern technology, especially AI, is finally empowering landscaping companies to capture, act on, and preserve operational intelligence.
• Leanscaper’s mission is uniting fragmented industry tools and voices into a single, actionable nucleus—solving real-world pain points through an evolving platform.
• The biggest ROI comes from not just knowing what to do, but from implementing and scaling systematic, lean methods—a key differentiator between working hard and building a truly profitable company.

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Connect with Tommy Cole and Leanscaper

• LinkedIn: Tommy Cole
• Leanscaper.com — Try the community, explore the Lana AI, and follow up for the latest releases

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(End of summary—skip to episode intros or ads for more content.)

Transcript

[A]

Ever pull your hearing protection out halfway through the day because it's uncomfortable? Yeah, I've done it, too. That's exactly how guys end up damaging their hearing over time. This spring, protect it with isotunes built for the noise of mowers, blowers and heavy equipment. Right now, get 20% off site wide through March 15th. Use code Brian's20 at checkout. You're now listening to the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast. Straightforward, no nonsense business advice, completely on filtered. Grow your business, grow your life. 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, folks, we are coming at you live in person from the Westin over here in beautiful Cape Coral, Florida. We're here today joined by a very special guest. Some of that you guys have heard before, a man who needs no introduction. We got Mr. Tommy Cole from leanscaper. How you doing this morning?

[A]

Oh, let's go. This is so awesome energy. Maybe it's just me.

[B]

I think you're on something this morning, bro.

[A]

I. I showed up on time. Brian was late.

[B]

I was eating this, and that's that for corn bacon. Oh, my gosh. That bacon was good this morning. They feed you well here, folks.

[A]

It's a little bit of a spice.

[B]

I got a ting right now.

[A]

Yeah, you're. You're kind of licking your chops right now.

[B]

Yeah, I got this pepper is really getting me, dude. But first world problems right over here. But it feels like, like an ESPN game day, doesn't it? Over here, a little bit of a tailgate life. We're in the thick of it. Tommy, explain the scene for these guys if they don't know. What. What are you looking at? Look out the window right now. What do you see to give. Give them the dream?

[A]

Well, the sun is shining and there's palm trees and it's a balmy 70 degrees.

[B]

Okay, now explain what the sun is because people in the Midwest haven't seen it since North.

[A]

North U. S Or Canada. This is the sun. And this is what happens when it's cold up north.

[B]

I've heard of it.

[A]

Come down here.

[B]

I've heard of it.

[A]

And you enjoy. There's a slight breeze. People are eating outside and people are. The doors are open. Everyone is walking around. Open air. Open air.

[B]

My, my kids, we've got an Airbnb. We've been swimming in the pool and I told my Wife. I think both of our kids will probably grow 6 inches this week because they finally had sun exposure, like vitamin D intake for once in five months. Because we're coming off of like the craziest Michigan winter. Endless snow, endless gray, endless clouds. Which is why we brought the whole family down. I'm like, we've got to escape before the spring rush because if we don't get it in now, it's not happen over the next four months. Yeah. I mean, so.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And you're, you're, you're down south native. Right. So you're from Texas. Yeah. Where'd you grow up in Texas?

[A]

North. North Texas? Dallas. Dallas North. Right on the border of Texas and Oklahoma.

[B]

Okay. Okay.

[A]

I spent five years out in the west, Southwest, Arizona, California, and moved back to the great state of Texas. And I've been down since then.

[B]

Are you the reason we keep going to these beautiful resorts down south like Scottsdale and here? Because whoever's picking them is picking.

[A]

Right. They're. They're picking. Right. I don't have any sway in that. Also, I would say let's go somewhere fun and warm.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So you know we'll be in the north later this year, right? Yeah, that's the way. That's the way it works.

[B]

Nobody's picking Columbus, Ohio in January. No, no.

[A]

Poor, poor Jason Crom.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Cromley and the almonds. Right. The. We have our conference lal in November and people like, you know, you could move this thing. And I'm like, no, we're very spoiled at that venue. It's the logistics to do this at a different venue every time, every quarter. I couldn't even imagine. Like you need dedicated staff. It's. It's a lot. All right, so paint me the picture. Beautiful sunny day, 70 degrees so far. It's gonna be high like 85. Yeah. You can't beat that.

[A]

It's me a little hot today.

[B]

It is 87 this whole week, which is. I'll take it again. But explain the, the scene to the folks here. Leanscaper. We're gonna take it from the top. So you've. Everybody's been hearing about it for about a year. This is actually our one year anniversary.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I mean, if you will.

[A]

Last month. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's pretty much when we kicked it off.

[B]

That's crazy.

[A]

Last month. Yeah. So right. At about a year, we were in Nashville with. Yeah, a few people.

[B]

There was about a hundred people in the room total. Right. Like attendees and folks are part of the staff.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I was there that was the best week of my entire business career. I've said this multiple times. This whole event has a special place in my heart. I will 100% look back on it. We'll get into this more as we go. But I will 100% say that that was the week that Brian's on maintenance. Like I put my flag in the ground that we're going to build a 5, $10 million company. Right? Like I knew that week. I'm like, I have to get around these people. And we're talking about revenue and operations that week because they did a back to back. Do you remember that?

[A]

That was a lot.

[B]

And you had just came off the press like you were fresh, like you were, hey, I drafted teams and I'm here with leanscaper, so. So give me the, give me the, give me the macro. Leanscaper people have been hearing about it. And then give me the year in review. What? What, where have you guys been? Where are you guys at and where are we going?

[A]

Well, it's been a year, a little over a year. Just as I don't even know how

[B]

to sum this up, that's why I'm asking you.

[A]

It's, it's, it's this, it's this energy, it's this community, all driven, wanting to better the industry. Like I'm just going to say it right there. This industry deserves much better and we deserve to pay our teams better. We deserve to have the best processes developed, the best technology, the best relationships, the best vendors, etc. And this is what we do at leanscaper is really build it for you guys. It's not us. It's almost like you guys are in the field, we're not. Tell us what you want, tell us how things will work. Give me your five pain points that you literally stress out about every night. And I want those five. And we're going to solve them. That's it. And so here we are at the operations intensive. My favorite. I will geek out anything Ops at all. I love revenue, the sales, great checks. That's the sexy side, right? Salespeople, this is where gets done.

[B]

This is where the rubber meets the road.

[A]

This is it right here. This is the operations. This is where you make or break it. And this is the hardest part of the business.

[B]

Why is that? Tommy, help me out. Zoom out and then let's press in.

[A]

Okay, Zoom out. Let's just take general work. What you do every day, you got to take that vision and that sell and that promise.

[B]

I love that.

[A]

Yeah, the vision, the Sell the promise and put it in the ground with the client expectations of what was sold, which could be different, what was sold than what they envision. You got to do it on time, on budget, with weather, with labor, with equipment and perishable goods.

[B]

Okay. Yeah. That's a lot.

[A]

So it's basically taking a pool noodle beating you in the face. Let's see if you can survive.

[B]

Right, Right.

[A]

That's what operations is. It's a hard job. It's hard to get up every day and go do those things. And what I have been in everyone's shoes in the field. I've been with the crews. I've been in the truck. They used to, it used to make fun of me because I, I would just be in the pickup F150, driving to job to job to job to job every day. And they would call me the glorified truck driver.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, you do landscaping. I didn't know, I thought you just drove a truck around in the AC all day.

[B]

Right, right.

[A]

Oh, yeah. So operations is tough. It's hard, but yet we hire people and just say, hey, go, go run this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it's a, it's a hard way of doing things. And, and I finally. No, I, I strongly believe that leanscaper has, has the product and the systems to make it lean so that doesn't happen. We don't want the firefighter. Get out of that world. Get out of the chaos and get back home with your family, not exhausted.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

And so that's what we truly believe in is this community building, something that matters the most. And get rid of this 3% profit that industry makes. That's terrible. That's awful. And here we are working our tails off for something small. And so it's been a great, it's been a great ride for you. I'm coming up on one year. It's just something I just get really enthused. I, I, I, I don't sleep these this week.

[B]

There's an energy. There is an energy here.

[A]

I, I, I'm just feeding off of adrenaline rush. I, I, I'm just, it's just full of excitement. I don't need it. I don't need a Celsius like, like Tony, like Tony does. I'm just naturally just excited with adrenaline rush. It's just my favorite, favorite week.

[B]

So, so you' resident operations guy. You're a resident expert operations. You have a rich past. Give me, give me the 32nd. What did you do with the previous company? Texas, Just so people have A little bit of context where you're coming from if they've never heard before.

[A]

So real quick, five years in the design world. So I was a landscape architect designing high end residential and then did some parks in Phoenix.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Southern California and Northern California. Design and oversaw install for 5 years. Truly fascinating on the design side.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

If you ever get into landscape, learn design and learn ops, it makes you such a powerful person.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Moved back to Texas. That's where I got into two big opportunities. Civil construction. Hard as hell pushing dirt. My recommendation, don't touch dirt twice, you lose money for sure. Change that into landscape. I worked for a very well known landscape company in Dallas. Took them from 4 to 30 million. Helped with that team. Wow. Started as a project manager. My first job on the as an employee number one was go install a one and a half million dollar estate and don't F it up.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[A]

That's exactly what I was told to that day. That client is a personal friend of mine.

[B]

That's awesome.

[A]

Many years ago. So I, I was a project manager, then senior PM and then worked my way up to a vice president of operations of a 30 million dollar company and I helped run the 15 million dollar side of it. That's where I gained a lot of things. And I will. It's just funny. It's such a funny story. I can tell you this, Brian. We built SOPs back in the day. A binder of SOPs. I showed our product developer, Sean Berry, chief product officer of leanscaper.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

On a call I said look, I, I still have those like it's a three ring binder. We made an SOP of grading a PM checklist.

[B]

Yeah, right, right.

[A]

Inventory check control, how to close a job site, how to do a pre walk through, how to deliver stone. And guess what, it all came full circle now, right. Of us building the SOPs to build the machine in your business, which is great. So I did that for a number of years and I spent many years in coaching and consulting works where I learned a whole nother aspect of what it takes to run a business. And I saw the insides of a lot of businesses over six years.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And the number one thing that I keep coming back was they need a system. So you need an operating system to run off of.

[B]

So if people have heard that before. Right. Help, help quantify that for me. Like what does that mean? And then also what does that mean for a landscape company?

[A]

Right?

[B]

Because we start our business, it's you and a couple guys and you're like hey, I Want to maybe make this thing a little bit bigger? Let's say you're at 700 grand in revenue. It's you and three or four guys, and you are. You're through the proverbial running around with your chicken like a. With a head cut off.

[A]

Yeah. Your.

[B]

Your sales, your finance, your people, your hr, your this, you're that every single day. And then you just start realizing, maybe as I have the last couple of years, dude, like, I can't do it all. And I need to start imploring people to grow this thing. I need to start building leaders and leaders who build leaders. I need to start having other people have different seats on the bus to start managing and running different parts of the company. Right. So why is operations usually the. One of the most challenging parts of the business to grow? Is it. Folks either A, don't know what to do, maybe they're B. I'm just thinking out loud.

[A]

So here's.

[B]

They don't want to let go.

[A]

Brian.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You have two. You have two things that run the business. Usually the owner is owner, operator. They do everything. And only I, as the op owner, can operate everything because I know everything. I've got experience, and this is the way I want it done.

[B]

Or it's all up top.

[A]

It's all in your head.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And so what happens is I build, build, build, build. I only have it in order for me to grow. I can't grow because it's all in my head. And they don't know what I know or what I've experienced. That's the issue. Or you have the other side, where it goes, I don't know ops, but I can design and sell like crazy. I just need to find the right person that just does it. So what do we do? We go, fine. We go fine. We go fine. We go higher. The expectation is to the ceiling. And then someone comes in, we're like, just figure it out.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[A]

Just get it done for me. I don't just. And then there's no.

[B]

Does that work? Does that work?

[A]

Well, doesn't work as long as you don't have a system. Right. Because how do we check jobs? How do we move? How do we move through the job? How do we get the client experience? How do we. How do I take your vision boss and put it in the ground? Do we have metrics? Do we have scorecards? Do we develop? Do we train? Do we. When do we invoice? When. When do I get all the stuff from you before the job starts? Do we have A pre construction meeting. Right, all of those. Do I have a good handoff system? From you to me? I don't know.

[B]

Is that, is that where the company goes from? Like you said, maybe 15, 20% net that they're, that they're estimating.

[A]

You know how to job leakage along the way?

[B]

Seepage leakage.

[A]

Leakage, it's like, it's like a weird term.

[B]

It's funny because we're laughing, but it' really tears.

[A]

It's dollar bills flying out of the back pocket for sure. You don't, you don't really. You don't pay attention.

[B]

You said we don't touch dirt twice, right? What, what, what the heck does that mean?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Why, why, why can't you touch dirt ties? I've touched dirt five times the same.

[A]

I learned this in the excavation world. It was, it was eye openening. And when you go start a job site in the excavation world, you strip the top soil, right? And then you got to put the topsoil somewhere. Why? Because that topsoil at the end of the job is dispersed all over the landscape areas.

[B]

We had this huge pile in my front yard. Yeah, we built our home.

[A]

So where do you put it matters if you put it somewhere, that doesn't matter and it's not thought out. So I strip it, pile it somewhere.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

The job goes on. Excavate, moisture conditioning, build the pads, cut the driveways, cut the streets, all that. And then I got to move that pile again because it's where the building is. I've touched it twice. The margins are razor thin in the dirt world, like 1 to 2% in the excavation world. So if I touch it twice, I've lost. If you think about that in your business and landscaping, how many times do we touch a plant? Well, Tommy, you know, at our shop we have a nursery, a holding yard. Yeah, how's that working out? Well, you got to deliver the plants, you got to unload them, you got to put them, you got to row, put them in rows, you got to water them, hand weed them, rotate them, turn them, water them every single day. And then two weeks later they're supposed to go and load them back up on the truck, take them from the truck, put them to the job site. How many times I've touched that five gallon plant that cost $30.

[B]

My favorite's mulch. You get a 10 yard of mulch. You know, you go load up, then you have some guy drop it off on the ground, then you have to scoop, shovel it out off the ground or pitchfork it off the ground to put it back in a wheelbarrow to then go throw it back in another bed.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And it's just like anything.

[A]

So, Brian, that's leakage, right? Okay, that, that, that's the issue is the 3% net profit is right there. That we think that's okay. When really if you streamline things, if. How do I get that mulch from the vendor, the shortest amount of distance and time to finished. And if you think, if you keep the end in mind where. That's where it's got to go. I want the least amount of touches to get there. And if you're thinking about that, you're thinking lean.

[B]

So that was my next question. Literally what people have been hearing it. That's what. Leanscaper.

[A]

Right?

[B]

That's the name. Summarize Leanscape or lean for me in 60 to 90 seconds. You already were. But go in a little bit more for that. Anytime you remove somebody touching something, anytime you remove something being rehandled. Right.

[A]

40% of our businesses is waste. Wow. So when you get lean, that goes down to what? That's to be determined. So our industry is very

[B]

sort of fat, inefficient.

[A]

Inefficient. And we've allowed that. But if you look at other trades, right, there's. There's. They're lean everywhere. It's a truck with a technician with the parts they need. They go do service, they use the parts, they're gone. There's not three Home Depot trips. They're not figuring it out. There's a system. You make a call, you get on the schedule, you go out repair, you get invoiced. That second, you move on. Now let's reframe that slightly. We do have. It's. Landscape's a bit tricky because it's perishable goods, right. You're working with multiple things. It's no, it's hardscape, it's softscape. There's a lot of moving things. So it makes it trickier than another service industry. So what that means is I've got to be the ultimate coordinator for everything. And when I coordinate and plan ahead of where things go, think of yourself as a fighter pilot. My favorite book of all time is Flawless Execution. Okay, go read it. I had to think about it for a second. I have a copy. It's got coffee stains and all kinds of highlights. Flawless execution. If you put yourself in a fighter jet as a pilot, before you get into that jet, you've got plan A, B and C and D before you take off. And if plan A is the option, that's what we're going for. If something was to happen, you know, in a second, I'm going plan B. If that weather hits, if that mulch doesn't show up the way it's supposed to, I've got plan B and C ready for the crew, or the crew knows what happens when the mulch doesn't show up. Okay? So if we take the 30 minutes to plan those things out every single day like we're a fighter pilot, I can take the 40% and reduce it to minimal. And if we think like that and operate like a lean mindset, then we reduce our waste, we reduce our firefighting skills that we say we wear multiple hard hats and we drive trucks around and tell people what to do. All of that nonsense gets reduced to minimal amount, minimal and be lean. Now leanscaper comes in and goes, got it. We've got the operating system for the industry. The operating system, powered by an AI. Okay, think of it like that. And what it is, is conversational AI to record things of your wins and wants every day, which then goes on a dashboard so nothing gets lost.

[B]

It's your nucleus, your hub.

[A]

It's. Yeah, it's your brain, right? The smartest person in the room that. Let's talk about. Let's just, for instance, play an example. I'm a crew member on a mower mowing grass. What's the vision? I ran over a sprinkler head, chopped it off. See you later. I got two options. Screw it, I don't have time for this because there's no process. And Bob, a production guy who knows where he's at, right? I just deal with it later. Or I could be like, stop. I'm gonna take a picture of this and I'm gonna tell Lana. Hey, Lana, broke ahead. Rainbird X, whatever, whatever it is. Zone 2, front of the HOA. Main property house needs repair. Bam. Instantly goes on the lean board. Now it's captured. It notifies a technician to go replace and repair it. Are you kidding me? That's exact. That's the versus. What would happen? Oh, I hit it. Oh, now I gotta take a picture and I gotta text it to Bob. Bob Mack get the tax. Then Bob's got to take the picture, get it to the technician, he's got

[B]

to get off the job site.

[A]

Where is it located? Right. Call back the form and where's it at? I gotta track it and no, by the way, we've wasted 350 talking about it, figuring out where it's at, that's waste.

[B]

That was it. Wecroft.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Maybe Dallas. Yeah. He said 25% of all communication in the organization is just recommunicating.

[A]

Re communicating.

[B]

That blew my mind. And he had a $25 million payroll at the peak of his company.

[A]

How much money is recommuncated?

[B]

He said, what for? You know, you know, Michigan math. 4, 5. 4, 5 million. Like just one notch above homeschool over here or maybe below, I don't know. But I thought to myself, I'm like, you know, where do I spend a lot of my time? Re communicating. Right. And that's because certain things aren't explicitly written out, expressed, trained, etc.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And so it goes full circle to the building, this machine. I love what you said about 40 plus percent as a profit is just wasted. Right. From inefficiency. It's almost like imagine if you were doing this job and it only had a 1 or 2% chance. Maybe have to trick your mind. Say you have a 1 or 2% margin on this and if you mess anything up, you're not making profit. Instead of having this luxury of having a 20 or 30%, you know, true net or 50% gross and just taking it easy because, oh, it's no big deal if we forget a hammer. After all, Home Depot is a mile down the road.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

This is actually this same time last year, maybe even a month or two before because Mark was piggybacking off of the element masterminds that he was doing.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

But it's the first time I'd heard the golden hammer analogy not even 15, 18 months ago. Like, this is stuff that's like tenant to our business today. And I never even knew what that Fraser statement meant until a little over a year and a half ago. And we've got the Home Depot receipts to prove it. The one off site site one, one extra yard, two extra yard mulch. I'm like, oh, that's normal, no big deal. Yeah, that's the drip, that's the seepage, the leakage in your business.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's why this event is so important. This isn't just, oh, you know, I'm going to teach my team and build my structure of, you know, crew members and then.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Hands and operations. No, it's, it's the whole picture about how to run a lean organization at whatever level that you guys have.

[A]

Whatever level. It doesn't matter it if you think lean. This is what this is. I drive my wife crazy because this is what I Do at home. I'm like, so in other words, we're going to unload the dishwasher, stack it on the counter?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Tell the kids to unload to do this. It stays on the counter for I don't know how long. Tell the kids four times to do it. Or I can just say, son, unload it, get it done.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Right. And she's like, you're always thinking a better way to doing things. That's the, that's the mindset of doing things. I used to work at Sam's club in college, everyone. Sam's club, Costco. I was a freezer cooler manager. Two freezers, one cooler. And my job two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays is at 5am to 12pm in college. And I would come in, yeah. And I was a forklift operator and I'd unload the trucks. And my job at that point in college was to be efficient because I don't want to run that thing all through the store. So I would set the pallets in a certain way and rotate them so that when you open the pallets, bam. It's like one step to the cooler. So think about it in your business, like look at your shop. How the trucks are run, how the equipment stored, where do they get it? Are they ready to go? Do they come back to the shop knowing exactly what their plan is tomorrow? Because preparedness equals success.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And if they prepare and take the 10 minutes to understand what needs to happen tomorrow to win. Okay, let's get this loaded now. Let's make sure the deliveries are confirmed tomorrow. Because Tomorrow we have 32 hours for a three man crew, a 10 hour day to get this executed.

[B]

Right.

[A]

We know exactly what's happening tomorrow. There's no waking up and no waiting for my production manager to tell us what to do that morning. If you're being wait to told what to do the morning, you've lost. That's the famous quote, Brian.

[B]

I love that I heard that one 15 to 20 years ago.

[A]

I have to say this. I love that if you're lining out the crew in the morning, you've lost.

[B]

Right?

[A]

No production manager, operations should line out anyone. The foreman or the crew manager calling crew managers now, should know exactly what to do in the morning. It's a five minute huddle. Talk about what needs to get done and we move on.

[B]

My when my wife and I moved in together, or you know, fiance at the time, the night before, I lay out my clothes and she, you know, innocent question, she's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm laying out my clothes for the night for the next day. She goes, why would you do that? I go and I explain, you know, which is I'm, you know, I'm reading success books and self help books. I'm like, well, because these books tell me that. She's like, I've never met anybody who. Dude, it's, it's so dorky, bro. Like on a very intimate level. But I was like, honey, if we don't lay out our clothes for the next day, we're going to lose the next day. She goes, what are you talking? She was, you know, she's serving at

[A]

lose but not laying out your clothes.

[B]

I think a little long hair boy. She's like, like working as a waitress. And she's like, well, I'm like, trust me, like, I know this is important. I don't know how or why at the time. It's not like my quote unquote time was worth much, you know, but 20 years later, I was way ahead of the curve. That's good stuff. But it's the same thing you get if you get in the shop in the morning and you get all these pick tickets and you're like, what are we doing? Or we got to fill the fertilizer tank trucks. I was, I just had Sam Gamble on an element webinar last week. He goes, it's a write up. If you don't, if you go to fill up fuel in the morning, it's a write up because all trucks get filled at night. Because at the morning rollout it's meet up at 7 and out the gate at 7:08. Because if you're every, every extra minute spent, you're losing profit. And in fact, if you, if you don't know where that extra cost is getting taken out of, that's the first question of the day. What is left for it to be taken out of? Yeah, it's profit. Profit. And that's where guys, correct me if I'm wrong, Tommy, but they're like, oh, we're budgeted to make 100 grand profit. You know, 20 net they get to the end of the year and like four and a half percent. I made, you know, 42, 000 bucks and I only have 20 in my bank account. That's the difference between cash and cash flow.

[A]

Yeah, Michigan, man.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like what, what happened? Well, it's literally that death by a thousand paper cuts.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, that's what's. That's hard in our industry because we do such amazing. This industry is like so loving the most amazing people and we literally get to put amazing things in the ground. We get to beautify this world is in a blessed opportunity. My wife looks at me and she goes, you just have the best job in the world. You get to beautify everything and put smile on people's faces.

[B]

Right.

[A]

The problem, Brian. So we just literally run ourselves on the ground.

[B]

It's true. It's true.

[A]

And it shouldn't be that way. We should be able to think and develop lean operations. And that's what we're here today, is to be lean. Like, let me give an example. I told this story Yesterday, but back in 08, the recession, we had to get lean. We created a fuel delivery system. Every Tuesday, Tuesday night and Friday night, fuel trucks came in and fueled every vehicle in every tank. They. So every crew put four gas cans in the front of their Isuzu truck. Two diesel, two gas. So every Tuesday and Friday, literally every single week, and the fuel delivery truck would come in. We saved thousands and thousands of dollars a month.

[B]

Right.

[A]

All of our crews. I had 14 crews of install at the time.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

No gas, no stops, no fuel cards, no nothing. Literally those came in and then they built a dashboard that said, oh, this truck has received so many gallons for the day, for the week, for the month, for the year. Top them up based on VIN numbers. That's called lean. That's lean thinking. By the way, we have Paul Akers, the Lean maniac.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Like, like the. The principle of lean is speaking tomorrow. I'm super thrilled if you any of his books. He's phenomenal. Well, guest speaker, quick note.

[B]

I want to piggyback off of that. Right now we're looking at a undercarriage bolt on fuel tank. Transfer tank.

[A]

Great. Yes. For Isuzu, that goes under the cab.

[B]

Yes. Because we're in this, like, awkward transition. We don't have a shopper yard for fuel tanks.

[A]

That's one step better than what I told you, than the gas tanks. That's even more lean.

[B]

Well, that's. We don't have a shop just yet. So I'm like, how can I get these guys to, you know, not in a negative way, but in a very lean way. Right. Because if we're going out for 10 hours a day, I want nine and a half hours of MO production. Right. How can I get them to, you know, take that. That excuse to stop at the gas station away? Well, if I have a 30 gallon, 35 gallon transfer tank underneath, that's enough. To carry our mowers for at least a day or two. And maybe we go from three or four stops in a week to one or none. Right. Maybe somebody fills up Friday or Thursday, the night before.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And we're good for the next week. It's a $2,500 investment. But when you do some napkin math on that, I mean, like, it beyond pays for itself. Not even in the first season. Like, in the first two months, easy. And it's. And it's taking that mindset. Here's what I'm going to use the word obsession.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Taking that obsession on removing.

[A]

Obsessed with lean.

[B]

Yes. My, My favorite. I have to go back to the house chores. It's my favorite is the. The clothes get washed. You throw them in the dryer. You hear that chime, by the way, if you guys are picking that up in the background, there really is a person at the Westin. Oh, my God, there is. That cares. Is xylophone.

[A]

I.

[B]

Somebody. I thought someone was trolling me a year ago, and I'm like, that's so funny.

[A]

Like, how do you get that? I need a. I want a drum set that beats the crap out of it.

[B]

I have a whole other podcast on that topic alone. I could literally make a podcast on that because that lady is smiling and doing the best she can at that. She's killing it. But my favorite's the. You take the clothes out of the dryer, you set them on top of the dryer, they get all cold. Now they're all wrinkly. Now you got to throw them back in the dryer. Then you forget again. Then you throw them again in the dryer.

[A]

Oh, and it's like on a chalk, dude.

[B]

It's like it's a 30 minute, you know, whole start to stop process that you now elongated over three days. You're destroying your clothes, are all getting pulled or whatever, you know, because they're just getting beat to death. And you're like, oh, it's no big deal. The wife will take care of it. The husband will take care of it. And it's like, it's kind of that analogy, but in our landscaping businesses by a hundred different situations and scenarios. Yeah, Tommy, I'll give you the last word here. We're gonna wrap this bad boy up.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Again, this, this event means a lot to me because I, I, it's hard to believe, but this has only been a year for myself in this environment.

[A]

Crazy.

[B]

And I cannot even. I cannot even articulate or describe who I was a year ago. The things I thought or didn't think the, the ways I acted or didn't act. And my team, because I'm telling you, I learned from this stuff and I bring it home and I'm like puking, you know, I'm like, we got to do this, we got to learn this. And my guys are like, yeah, we all want to be better. This is your year. Quote unquote, you know, under your legs. Give me your final thoughts, Any final takeaways? And what else can we expect for this weekend? And what can people continue to expect from leanscaper going forward?

[A]

Well, knowing what I know now, it's a game changer for everybody. I've seen the. I've seen the product. I know what's going for the next one year to two years. I know where we're headed. This industry has needed something and now we have the technology AI that's powered by all this, which is the most fascinating thing.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

We have a group of people, 30 people at leanscaper that's committed to this industry forever. And we owe it all back to you guys. The men and women out there that need an operating system that's helpful for them not. Not to talk about ideas, not to look at things and go, that's a cool thing. The problem is our industry is fragmenting. All these shiny objects we supposed to connect and it goes to our head, right? So it's between these systems and these, the vendors and do this and do it that way and all this stuff, and then you just become burned out. We take that all into sort of one system, which people always say they need systems and processes. This is it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And so we're releasing agent after agent after agent. This one this week is the inventory management agent. So you have a whole inventory of all your materials on your shop. You have all your small tools, all your equipment, Everything is tracked. You got guardrails of when things get low. What happens, where this goes and where that goes. Based on QR codes, we developed it all. It's ready to go. Watch that is want something that we need in this industry bad. Right? And so that's being. But Crew Huddle was launched. Record all the crew huddles. All the conversations of the wins and the wants every day get tracked on a board. That's what we call operational efficiency.

[B]

Right.

[A]

In your business, every sale gets tracked. Everything gets tracked. It's those conversations that you've had over and over that gets tracked into a system where you reduce the leakage.

[B]

That's awesome.

[A]

Period.

[B]

I love it. I Love it. It's folks, it's just like anything, I'm a big like immersion kind of a guy because I feel like that's the only way my brain learns. Because if you're going to like spoon feed this to me, I can't, I, I just don't, don't have enough focus in my life to get a little here, a little here, a little there. Like if I need to learn Spanish, I need to go get dropped off in Mexico. Yeah. And I'll probably learn fluent, get punched

[A]

in the face and let's go.

[B]

That's kind of how I work. And I've been. I literally, folks, got out of my comfort zone, jumped into this environment following the philosophy and the operating system of Mark Bradley, the leanscaper crew and team. Shiny object syndrome is tough and noise destroys for sure. And there's a lot of different people with a lot of different approaches. Folks, this is my guy, this is my environment, this is my team. And I'll tell you what, the growth that we've had at Brian's Law Maintenance, tangible growth, is 100% directly correlated to what we've learned and implemented. Big word implemented from the leanscaper environment. And so I can come back a year later. I'm not here to boast or convince. I'm just telling you as a personal testimony, like, I know what you guys are doing and sharing does work because I have seen dollars and cents, attitudes, everything get better in just 12 months.

[A]

That's so good to hear.

[B]

The sky's the limit.

[A]

Well, you guys keep doing what you do because stories like that doesn't keep us motivated, just keeps us going.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

We want to hear from you guys where the pain points are.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And where the wins are. Nobody's perfect. We're all human. We're all growing out. Right? But we're so blessed to have this opportunity and this technology to roll with it.

[B]

So let's do that. All right, so guys, follow Tommy Cole anywhere that you're on LinkedIn, LinkedIn, Tommy

[A]

Cole, leanscaper, the usuals. Yeah, the usuals. I'm around.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

Hit me up DM me if you got any questions or comments or just want to yell at me.

[B]

All right, guys, for you. Well, we're going to kick off leanscapers kicking off here in exactly two minutes, folks. So we love you, we appreciate you. Thanks for listening to this episode of the fully unfiltered podcast. Guys. Leanscaper.com check it out. Check out the free community. Check out the Lana AI and everything else that these guys are rolling out. We appreciate you guys. We love you. Have a great day. We'll look forward to catching up with all of you guys here on the next one. Does your accountant only care about filing taxes? Do you want an accounting firm that

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Thanks for taking the time to listen to the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast podcast with Brian 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. Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening and we hope to see you on the next episode. This has been a Brian Fullerton and Mr. Producer Production.