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Folks, now is the time to get registered for equip Expo 2026. You can use promo code Brian to save half off your Registration. Come join 30,000 industry peers as we descend onto Louisville, Kentucky for the super bowl of green industry trade shows and expos. There's over a million square feet of exhibit space on the inside where you can see all of your favorite brands and all the equipment that they have the offer. And also 40 acres of outdoor demo where you can test before you invest and you can try before you buy. There's education, there's community, and there's training, all available for you at no extra cost. Come check it all out and we hope to see you guys there again. Save 50% with promo code Brian and register today and we look forward to seeing you guys in Louisville October 20th through the 23rd this fall. You're now listening to the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast. Straightforward, no nonsense business advice. Completely unfiltered. Grow your business, grow your life. Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton. Welcome back to the show, the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast. I miss you guys, man. If you can't hear. The voice is slowly coming back and your boy has been out hardcore sick for the last couple of days. But I'll tell you what, feels so good to be back. I got a couple podcast topics while I've been incapacitated the last couple of days and I've been writing down some different ideas. One of them being today's show. It's an idea or a topic or a thought that I heard a couple of months back from Mark Bradley at a conference. And he said, you know, if you're incapacitated, you know, or if you're unavailable, even, you know, what breaks first. And that's something that really stuck out to me this last week or so and I want to talk about it for a couple of minutes. Just a little bit of context here. Last week, Monday, dude. Well, I guess let's even back up before that we went to Florida like three or four weeks ago, dude. And Cape Coral event leanscapers. I think it was the operations intensive or whatever one it was. And great time there. Learned a bunch, networked with everybody because in here, hear me, probably taking short breaths right now, good time. And then we extend the trip for about a week. Went to Disney for a day or two and it was a good time. And then we caught something, dude, like that Sunday, Monday, my daughter had it Monday or Tuesday, Wednesday, and she kind of got snubbed a little bit on Disney, we'll repair that later. Another return trip is going to be an order just for a day or two. But we caught something on the way back, dude, in that Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, dude, we got blasted by I don't know what. Well, that, that ran through the family for about a week or two. And I've heard stories of, like, folks that have, like, multiple kids, like three or four or five kids, that like, once one sick, one is sick, like, it's just game over for like a month because it's got to make its way through everybody. Well, this is the first probably example of that really happening in our family. And for like two weeks, dude, everybody just bombed out. And then we were sick for like two straight weeks. And then out of like, nowhere, my wife, like, kind of like got re sick. And I'm like, that's weird. Like, maybe you got a round two of this thing. And I felt good for about two or three days, actually. Flew on down to John Deere, did some videos there, and that'll be coming down, down the pike in the next couple of days or weeks here on YouTube. Really excited about that edit. Really fun time there. Got to see a lot of great machines, meet a lot of great people. And I get back, and that was like last, well, week and a half ago. And dude, I got back, wife's out, she's sick. Kids get sick again, Crew get sick. My second. And I'm like, that's so strange. I'm like, oh, boy, here we go. And no joke, that Sunday, Monday, I caught round two of whatever the hell we just had, which was the freaking plague and a cough from I don't know where. I don't know what. I wouldn't wish this on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or my worst enemy, okay? Like, absolutely terrible sick. And then Monday I did that. Or Sunday I did that podcast episode talking about hiring last week. And I just knew Monday, like I. I asked Mr. Producer, I was like, hey, can you break this up into a Monday, Wednesday show? I'm not feeling like I'm going to be here Wednesday, bro. And no joke, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, incapacitated, sick, sick, sick. And I want to talk about all that for a couple of minutes today because it's just a reality of being a, you know, potentially a small business owner, owner, operator. Like this kind of stuff can affect you. And it's not just being sick. It could be a debilitating injury, you know, something more catastrophic, maybe even something less, you know, difficult or challenging, right? Maybe, Maybe it's just you want to take a vacation, right? It doesn't have to always be bad. But I'll tell you what, folks, this last four or five days and even, like, the last 24 hours, I'm coming at you guys right now, and I'm telling you, like, I have been the sickest I've ever been, minus, like, norovirus that I got four or five years ago, and maybe, like, early Covid, you know, like the. The OG Covid, you know, in January, February, March. April of 2020, I guess it was, right? And I mean, incapacitated you. Like, I was laying in bed, buckets of sweat, chills, fever, flu, Lost my voice. I mean, dude, could not pull it together. The shivers at 3, 4 in the morning, dude, are real. And taking a shower and a bath and a bath and then a shower at like 1, then 3, then 5. Laying on a heating pad, like, dead, dude, dead, dead, dead. While the baby sick, mom sick, the kids kind of springboard, and they're almost out of it, you know, And. And that Monday rallied the guys. They were on the. Out the gates even. I'm thinking maybe that Tuesday, then maybe it was like Wednesday or Thursday. We just got poured with, like, three or four inches of rain here in Michigan. So we took those days off. Then the guys did a bunch of big cleanup work on Friday. And. And it kind of got me thinking about what Mark Bradley said not too long ago. And I've always thought things like this, but the way he said it was just different. It's like, what, are you leaving your wife and kids? You know, maybe if you're gone, or is this thing gonna move forward without you if you're sick or laid up or whatever? And maybe a little bit more of a different approach is like, what breaks first if you're. If somebody can't get a hold of you. And it's a really, really, like, cool kind of conversation and stress test about your business. I've got some really, really fun stories I want to share with you guys about this topic. And I'll go as long as I can, as long as my voice holds up. But I'll tell you, like, right now, or let me. Let me rephrase this. Mark used to call it, like, your 2 inch by 2 inch kingdom or 2 foot by 2 foot kingdom. And some people have a 3 foot by 3 foot kingdom, and some people have a little 4 foot by 4 foot kingdom. And, you know, maybe you can take a day off or a week off or even a month off, right? And maybe your business will still go and grow. And he does this whole story, this whole analogy, and usually it's related to, you know, financial independence in a way and, and having leadership, you know, in your business. But it's, it's no, no different whether you got a 100 person organization or it's just you, like what breaks first. And again, it doesn't necessarily mean like the business is on fire or failing, but let's just imagine it's just you and, you know, three guys and you're unavailable to get a hold of just for an hour and there's a flat tire or a truck is broke down. Maybe truck's got a flat tire on the side of the road and they've got no fix a flat, no way to repair the tire. Who do they call? Like, what do they do? What's the SOP if they, if they can't get a hold of you? Who calls State Farm to call your insurance to get a free tow or to get your tow? What do they, who do. Who do they call? What local toll tow truck company do they call? Where do they haul it to? Where's your, where's your shop of choice? One second here, guys. Let me get a sip of water. Where's your, your tow truck shop or your, your auto repair shop of choice? You know, if you get an Isuzu and it breaks down, do you take it to the same shop or do you take it to the Isuzu dealer? It's a really, really challenging thing to hire folks and the teach thought process through an organization. Like, that's a, that's a real thing, but you can, it is doable. It just takes a lot, a lot, a lot of teaching and training. And that's just what I wanted to talk about for a couple of minutes here today because thankfully I was able to text my guy Rob and say, hey, dude. I think it was Wednesday or Thursday morning and. Or maybe it was even Tuesday. And I said, dude, I'm out. I think actually Liz was working my phone and she just responded back, brian's out. He's just not available, dude. And I text Rob, like, dude, I'm sorry, I'm dead. Like, literally, I'm incapacitated. You got to carry the team today. We already had the cleanup list for the week and the MO route for the following week. Mulch bed prep has to get done this week because we're getting our mulch installed today real time. Like the, the team had the 10 day, 12 day, 14 day calendar, and I've gotten really good at that. I think I've. I wasn't like, aced it by any means, so it's not like this grand thing to ace. But I've just been more organized at being more communicative to the team about what's going to be going on the next day, week, and month, because I have to. I've got a couple different businesses. I have a ridiculous travel schedule. Going on tour with LMN here over the next six months with Gamble. There's a lot that's got to be communicated to the team. The expectation is I'm not in the field. This is a you guys get the work done kind of conversation these days. And it has been for a couple of years. Calling the rat the troops. Call in a buddy, calling a friend, calling another guy, calling a sub. Anything breaks down, you're authorized to fix it up to like 500 bucks. Up to 5,000 bucks, I should say. If a plow goes down, you total a plow. You call up Alex or Ted at Weingartz and you will get a new plow for $10,000. And worst case scenario, we got to back up. Not that we're made of money, but, like, my guys know, dude, just get the work done. Because everything in our industry rise and falls is on a job getting done. Well, I heard Marty Grunder say that on a recent podcast, like getting. Getting the job well done. Okay, the point of today's podcast was for you guys to maybe go through a thought exercise no different than when I lived this last week so you're not caught with your pants down, whether you get sick, whether you want to go on vacation, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right? Think about all these SOPs that we're explaining about in our business. And again, if you got three guys or 20 guys, it doesn't matter. But, like, what happens when your credit cards decline to the pump twice in a day? What's the sop to so get fuel? Well, it should be you go inside and you buy 75 worth, or exactly eight, you know, gallons of mower gas per mower to. To do zero turns. A five gallon, a two gallon, you count up, we got 23 gallons. You buy exactly 23 gallons. They can do the math at the pump inside. And even though you use your credit card twice at the pump or your coast fuel pay cards twice at the pump, you can still buy $81,34 worth of gas at the inside and it's all done. Or my guys know that I'll venmo them back more expensive Back to them through gusto. And I'm pretty much same day, next day, right? Because I don't mess with anybody's money. But my guys know, hey, if there's an error, just run the pump. I don't have 75. Okay, then, then they know to call up somebody else to get a card there. There's always, always, always a way. It's not, well, I guess I just didn't get gas. It's these are these contingencies that I'm always talking about. And this takes time. This takes time to layer up. No doubt about it. My guy Rob and my guy Ryan and my guy, you know, Mark and back in the day and my new guy Phil, who's going to learn our network of people, they know to call Rick with Snowpower or Bryson, you know, at three in the morning, they know to call Alex. This guy, this guy they know to call a boss if we're having an issue, they know to call X Mark if we're having an issue, they know to call with this product if we're having an issue. It's not just me. Like I can't be the silo of information. Does that make sense? Now the more of this that you can write down or the more of this that you can role play at team meetings bi weekly. Hey, guys, last week we had, you know, a mower broken. We had this exact situation, got to the site, we had a flat tire or a leaky tire. You know, one of the trailers and my crew lead, Rob, we had this huge clip, five or six of us on site. Ron calls me, he goes, hey, man, he called about something else and he goes, hey, while I gotcha, Just, just so I know thought process rise. I know things are evolving here, but are we still running it back the same way of trailer's got a leaky tire. Do I go run up now or do you want these two guys to go run up or do you want a crew member to go run up? And so we don't want the crew, you know, the front line guys, because they don't totally know what's going on. But definitely a right hand, you know, or another crew lead. But Rob, you as a super, the supervisor and the show is going to be short and sweet. But Rob, you as a supervisor, my goal is to keep you on site, right? Because you're really the quarterback of the show and or the crew lead on site. Right? But you have to, and we have to now teach this thought process to the next level of leadership and give the thought process about what do we do with this bad tire? Do we go right up to the tire shop and lose an hour, but they can get us in and out? Do we change the flat, lose 15 minutes, but then somebody's got to take it up end of day, I'm kind of fine with both, to be honest with you. Do we take it to what tire shop? The one that we always go to or the one that's five minutes down the road? Like, do we take one where we have an account who's taking it? Do they have a card to pay for it? Do we have an account there? It sounds like really simple stuff, right? But, like, what breaks first? And this is like, little stuff, you know, if a lead comes in, you know, a lot of leads came in while I was incapacitated for a couple of days. And my VA was like, pinging me back on WhatsApp. She's like, hey, I noticed these couple leads came through. Do you want me to respond back and get the attentive going and you want me to get the estimates in the element? I said, absolutely. And I told her, by the way, like, hey, I'm not here right now. I'm incapacitating. I'm sick. I'm not gonna be able to connect with you. And she was like, absolutely no big deal. A year ago, Brian, like, if I was totally linking capacity and couldn't even, like, get out of bed or, you know, run a laptop, those might have waited two or three days, which is an eternity for a commercial bid, right? Another thing that happened Last week, Wednesday, 6 o', clock, my wife comes in, I'm laying in bed, I think I'm watching Nobody good movie. And, you know, she comes in, she goes, hey, payroll's due. Gusto's due. I got a notification, payroll's due in an hour. I'm like, oh, shit. You know, so thank God she gets the same notifications I do. And she's on that notification list because payroll is run by me and her because she's quote, unquote, hr and it's just a redundancy. So we ran payroll at 6:30. It's due by 7. Perfect. Guys got paid next day, obviously. And then next day I saw an email come through at 5 o'. Clock, hey, payrolls due at 7 for the hourly team. And we caught both. But if I was incapacitated or gone or totally MIA or Liz was as well, I think about all this stuff, like, who's got the logins, who's got the schedule, who's going to be running this stuff. And I'm like, man, like, you need to have systems of checks and balances, for sure, right? And a lot of this was just super illuminating to me. I. I wanted to give a couple other examples, like, let's zoom out. I have another friend and I asked him one day. He has 150 team members and a big company. I said, like, dude, it's just, it's. It's overwhelming sometimes. He goes, oh, yeah, yeah. I go, do people ever, like, just disappoint you, broadly speaking? You know? He goes, well, it's not so much disappoint you. He goes, you just got to manage expectations. He goes, it's not their business and you can't put too much on them and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And he kind of talked me off the, off the cliff a couple months back on some, some challenges I was dealing with and just real life stuff, you know. And he said, can I give you an example? I said, sure. He goes, my business. He goes, I was out of town and I got back three days later, and I had heard him realize that we didn't go out on these two different days. And I said, you know, it's funny, we. We actually did go out on those two days. It was after a holiday, and it was a Friday, Saturday. And I said, we did go out and do work on that Friday, I should say. But I said, almost everybody took that Friday set off. And I said, the irony is, like, it rained that Tuesday, Wednesday. He goes, right? He goes, that's what I heard. He goes, brian. He goes, because we didn't go out that Friday, Saturday and do cleanups. He goes, my business lost out on 100 grand worth of revenue production. I was like, come again? And they lost out on a hundred grand of revenue production in those two days. And he goes, it's. It's very hard to communicate to the team, like, how are we making up that revenue, right? Like, what extra free days do we get to make this revenue up on? And basically he was just saying, like, that's just lost revenues, just lost opportunity. And again, you know, again, it doesn't matter if you have a smaller company like mine or a larger company. Like, somebody has to always, always be on it. But, like, what breaks first right when you're not there of another friend, Same thing. He was gone. Large company, they had a snow, snowstorm come through. He did not call the go. He was out, you know, obviously. And his second in command made a wrong call. And the next day they're getting like, phone Calls and emails. And he calls his buddy and goes, hey, like, what the heck? And he goes, yeah, we didn't go out. And he's like, okay, sounds like you should have. He goes, well, I was like, kind of right there. He goes, well, you're kind of right now gonna have to go fix this. He's like, well, you know, like it should melt off. He goes, dude, rally the team. Like, it is what it is. And maybe that's an expectation thing. Maybe it's a miscommunication thing. Maybe it's not as ambitious or care about the end result as the. The owner does, right? I don't know, dude. Who knows? I have another buddy of mine. He went out of town for a couple of weeks and he will tell you his business that month that he left. Fantastic business, awesome branding. You guys would know his name. In the month that he left, I think he was getting married. They lost like a hundred to 100 or $200,000 out of the business. They lost like a hundred or two hundred thousand dollars out of the business. And I'm like, jesus, I'm like, can I never leave again? It's like, no, no, no. It's like, it's not, it's not that. It's not bad like that. It's just. The point is there's a lot to this thing, man. And I. I think it's a really great discussion about like stress testing your business. What breaks first if you're gone, if you're incapacitated. For me, it's obviously gonna be production. You know, in a way, once I guess have the routes, like, that's not too bad, but it's the, the very dynamic dynamicism of the spring rush. Like, excuse me, getting all the cleanups done. Which one's the most prioritized, getting bids and estimates done, all that. You know, the basic stuff that I'm trying to sell and schedule mowing. Once we have the schedule, it should be 27 weeks straight of, you know, pretty much the same stuff, minus a couple. This is. Or that's. Or playing chest and shifting a couple things around, right? So that. That is nice. But even a landscape company and the owner's out, or the estimator's out, or your design guys out, or your design guys backed up, or your design guys getting ready for his wedding and he's taking two weeks off. Like what breaks first? You better have contingencies about all of this stuff. Backups on backups, backup mowers, backup trimmers, backup blowers, backup edgers, backup trucks. Or if you can't, don't wait for it to break and then have a backup. Like, think ahead, you know, like building relationships with your local enterprise or fleet rental businesses, you know, or your sun belts or your chats, or your local dealers, supply dealers that maybe can demo you a unit for the day if, if you're, you know, a really good customer of theirs. I just thought it was a really good discussion about, like, what breaks first, because for me, I was very confident that everything would be okay, but I was like, hey, I can't really do this for more than a week or two. And that's why I'm trying to get back up on the horse today. Right? Decision making, obviously, is going to slow or stop a lot of folks along the way if they don't have clarity, right? If they don't have the vision laid out in front of them. But your systems are going to get exposed when you or key people are sick or are out. Right? Like, this is another exact reason and testament about why we should have our SOPs documented and system systems documented in our business. Right? Another thing, too, is like defining who's picking up the slack in leadership to run your payroll, to call the shop for the crew to design the routes. Let's say we were starting mowing this week and I was out for another week. Like, who's going to design the routes? Is it really, like that much wizardry for the owner to have to pick, figure out the routes? The guys know how long it takes to Mow a certain property. 45 minutes here, 30 minutes there. You know, an hour and a half on that big one. Okay, well, we got nine hours a day of production going in. We got to get six sites over there. Okay, cool. First day, do they do it, they get done at 3 o'. Clock. Okay. Add two more sites. First time they do it, they get done at 6 o'. Clock. Okay? Take one or two off or add another guy. It's not rocket science. Last one I put here is, you know, the culture can get tested too. You know, do people let quality slip, attitude slip? You know, do people mentally say, hey, the owner's out, time to coast, or is that a time for your culture to step up? I'll tell you what, my guy stepped up in a big way. I'm really, really proud of them. All three of them. I. I texted all three of them, two paragraphs privately each, and I just said, hey, man, I'm out, I'm incapacitated. I'm not even kidding. You guys all got the Routes, you all know what to do. I really am counting on you to step it up in the rally of the team. And I, I've made the investment into you for situations just like this, and I know you guys can crush it. If you need anything, please call the phone. Liz has it, but I'm out. I'm sorry. I'm really that sick. And I look forward to regrouping with you guys here soon, but go get him. Proud of you. Have a smooth day. All of my guys text back, dude, we got you. We got this. You know, rest up, don't die. And then they all sent a funny meme because that's what my guys do, you know, like some kind of silly funny meme. Just like any of you guys listen to it, right? So I'm just gonna leave it there today. I don't want to go too long. I do apologize for the coughs, as you can tell. Like, dude, I'm still very, very rough because of that. Just so you guys listening in that have it, and there's a lot of you that do. The SOP bundle, I'm gonna kick it back about another week, week and a half. It'll be available last day or so of April. I'm telling you, we've been making a lot of progress on it. It's. It's gonna be a very full rollout. Very, very excited about it, but give me another week, week and a half. It was supposed to be coming out this Wednesday, publishing the content. I have not had announced to work on it over the last two weeks. Dude, we have been sick for a month. I just don't even know what else to say. And this is something I've been obviously trying to put the final touches on the last couple of weeks. And I've had a little bit of, of a distraction and minimal ability to commit to the final wrap up of it. But we're gonna make it very nice, very, very helpful. It's not from a lack of, you know, having content ready to go. We do have to just upload it, organize it, and make sure that's very digestible for you guys because there's a lot there. So we're gonna have that pushback just about a week, week and a half. I'm telling you, when it does go live, you'll know. And every day, every week for the next couple of weeks and months, there's gonna be something new pretty much every day populated into that thing. And you're going to be very, very grateful and glad that you have it. So that being said, SOP bundle will go live, I think, on the 29th or whatever it is Wednesday, and we're really looking forward to that coming on down the pike. So check it out at lunchtime, academy.com get the SOP bundle. You guys already heard me. Probably share a lot about that on the other couple of shows. So no big pitch on that one today, but just want to give you guys a quick update while I got you. All right, well, that, folks, that's where I'm going to land the plane today. What breaks first, think about it. It's a. It's a real conversation, and my business just went through it. Oh, my other story, two stories were bnb, right? He broke his wrist two, three years ago and couldn't find any help that year as well. Right? Like, really, really simple case study. But talk about being incapacitated. A broken right wrist. Can't cut, can't trim, can't right hand throttle on a blower to. Dude, you're cooked. My other buddy, Jeremiah Jennings, a lot of you guys know Jeremiah, with growing green, you know, decided to high five his hedge trimmer while trying to catch it, and it's a bad joke. And dude mangled his hands like Dr. Strange style. And. Is it Dr. Strange? I don't know. Whatever. The dude is from Marvel, but had like a million dollar emergency surgery. He tells the story like it's crazy. I've seen photos of it, dude. Like the uncut and raw, whatever you want to call it, photos, unedited photos. Like, it'll make you gag and yak. Like you're like, dude, you're a miracle baby. Like, to be this far with your hands. But he talks about it, dude, like he, it was. He was. He was in the field. He was in the thicket. He was a producer, you know, solo or with one or two guys even. Like, that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Like, oh, growing is tough. Hey, like, being solo has its risks, too. You roll your ankle, you get pneumonia. You catch COVID one truck, your truck gets t boned, you're out. There's just as much risk and drama. Being solo. Stay small. Keep it all well, there's not much to keep if you get put out of business because you're out within a week or two and your customers do not care, unfortunately, they just don't care. They'll care for a week. They don't care for two. Residential or commercial. Eventually long. The grass gets long. Eventually that patio is supposed to go in and they don't care. They just really don't. Right. So that's, that's all I really got for you guys today. Just some, some stuff to think about, some stuff to chew on. It's a really, really important topic. I hope it maybe gives you guys a couple of ideas and maybe helps you to put together an organizational structure of accountability. There's a thing called a Raci Matrix. Raci. Give that a Google AS chat. Who's responsible, who's accountable, who owns it kind of a deal. And then who's your backup? Like, who do they report to? Our ac. I go check that out. But that might be giving you guys some ideas about who owns what, you know, for decision making in the company. And it might free up as well to make sure that you're no longer the hinge pin on the whole business. Right. That is what I got for you guys today. And go on back listening to our regularly scheduled square dance with Eminem because, man, it does feel so good to be back. All right, love you guys. Appreciate you. Hopefully by the time this comes out, my cough is totally gone. Another day or so and we're gonna have a big week, man. Big, big week this week. And I know you guys are as well. So looking forward to it. All right, over and out, fam. Love you. Appreciate you. And we'll catch up with you guys here on the next one.
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B
What would you change in your business if your team could operate with confidence without needing you at every turn? That's the goal behind the LaunchPR SOP bundle. This powerful training system was built from real world processes used inside a growing company designed to help you train your field crews, develop your office staff, and create the structure needed to scale. You'll get over 50 field training SOPs covering everything from mowing and snow to trailers, blades and equipment basics. You'll also get office training for leads, estimates, payroll, marketing, sales systems and more. Plus over 30 documents and resources to help you build a stronger business foundation. Best of all, it works with the systems you already use. The price is only 9.99.
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A
You heard that right.
- [28:24]
B
Just 9.99. Get in early at launchpreneuracademy.com.
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C
Thanks for taking the time to listen to the 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.
- [29:09]
A
Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening and
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C
we hope to see you on the next episode.
- [29:16]
B
This has been a Brian Fullerton and Mr. Producer Production.