← Fullerton Unfiltered
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. You're now listening to the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast. Straightforward, no nonsense business advice, completely on filtered.
- [00:16]
B
Grow your business, grow your life.
- [00:18]
A
Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton. Curious you, you had mentioned that, that now you're going to start working on, on building the business a little bit more. Right. Like the landscaping, right? Oh, how's that going?
- [00:30]
B
Good, good, good. Right now last year we ended up at 492 gross revenue. Right now we're on trend for. Yeah, yeah, right now we're on Trend for about 7, maybe 750, maybe 800 if we get some stout, you know, invoices in and some good receivables in for, you know, November, December for snow. We're, we're trending to a million, dude, really quickly. It's going really, really well and I mean good growth for us, you know. So everything good as I could hope it to be. I'll tell you that. We've spent a lot of time, a lot of energy getting it to where it's at right now and we're just trying to execute the plan that we all laid out and the guys are doing fantastic. I couldn't, couldn't ask for more. You know, we've got little hiccups and challenges along the way just like anybody. But over overall, dude, like it's knock on wood, everything's going well, praise the Lord, you know. So that's where we're at. Yeah.
- [01:23]
A
Are you. So do you feel like you've got a lot of systems in place? Like is that, that would sort of you're working on?
- [01:29]
B
I, I'd say so, I think so. Most of the foundation, you know, that we've been working with from you know, software and numbers and budgeting, from the element side to operations, scalability, you know, the who's owning what, you know, messaging, icp, branding, all that stuff that we've learned from a lot of the leanscaper folks, like it's, it's been a good. I've really only followed Bradley and went to his events kind of for like two. Well, two years ago is when I went to the leanscaper two and a half years ago and I went to the LMN Mastermind in Novi, but I got on LMN a couple months later, but really like learning from Mark himself and then a lot of that's carried over to Element and LMN is now cured of a leanscaper, you know how it goes. But I've really only plugged into Mark since last year through the Masterminds. And then through last year, winter March when he did this first leanscaper events. So we're only like 18 months into this thing, you know what I mean? Like actually learning how to grow and scale and so yeah, I'd say a lot of it's just like, dude, you know how it goes. It's the daily nuances of learning and growing, making a pivot, you know, holding people accountable to it, getting the team to buy into it and it's just like a little bit every day, you know, I hate to say, you know, it's not any like one grand change or pivot, but it's just a little bit of every day of us all trying to get, you know, 1% better, whatever you want to call it, you know. So I don't know, does that relate to what you guys are doing or how's things going over there with you?
- [03:00]
A
Well, so my, my biggest challenge, man. I mean, not challenge actually. Things are going well because it's like. So I'm used to going out and being, and selling myself right in. My close ratio is always going to be higher and being able to put things out. Now I'm not selling at all.
- [03:15]
B
Oh, that's huge.
- [03:17]
A
Well, yeah, so I've got a business developer and then you met Melody when we had that lunch.
- [03:21]
B
Yep.
- [03:21]
A
And she's sort of working as an account manager and also selling residential stuff. So like their close ratios are obviously going to be lower than an owner's but, you know, and so, so what they're selling isn't going to be as much as probably what I'd be selling. But I have to step back and I got to force myself to, to not, not go in and sell for them.
- [03:42]
B
I remember us talking about that at Grow, dude. I remember you talking about. Exactly.
- [03:45]
A
It is, it is really hard. But like that's where we talk about these systems. And then, and then now like I go, okay, now I'm managing sales. It's a whole different role. And so I'm like learning that and being able to see how I can help them. It's so different, man. Like I'm not used to it, but I, I think it sort of like those steps that when you are growing you need it. Right. And I think that's where a lot of people are. I have no problem letting go of things. I think a lot of people do. And I think that's probably what maybe separates out some people.
- [04:18]
B
That's awesome, man. That's awesome. I love it. Well, dude, let's, let's Break it down. Let's, let's. I want to talk more about all this and then some on the podcast, if that's cool with you. So, yeah, yeah, we've got an exciting announcement right, in a couple of weeks where a lot of people have already been buying tickets, where I think you guys are first on the. On the chopping block. It's always fun to go first because we're all learning over here, right. And we're. We're in partnership with LMN Granum, so we're doing a tour. So if anybody's listening to the show, we're doing a. What do they call it? The Break Records Tour. And so.
- [04:49]
A
Yeah, breaking the record.
- [04:50]
B
Yeah. Which.
- [04:51]
A
Break the record.
- [04:52]
B
Yeah, I. I like it. You know, it's kind of. It's kind of fun, a little cheesy, but I'm. I'm down with it, you know. And you know, they've always come with these cool names with the Element team. And so I think it's like 7,8ish, maybe shop tours that we're doing in education classes over the next six months. And so Avon's Landscapes is on. On deck. You guys are first. And so we'll. We're gonna get Baptized by Fire to be our first one. And you know, it's. There's something fun also and unique about going first. You know, it's the excitement, the fervency I don't you call it. But we're. We're. You guys are opening up your shop and we're coming on in and we're gonna do a day one class, a day two walk through the site, which I'm. I'm really excited to see. Dude, like, just from what you've described so far and what I've gotten to seeing, you know, on Social, dude, it's gonna be a really, really good time. So let's do this really quick for. For anybody who doesn't know you and your story and doesn't even know about Avanza, can you. Can you take it from the top for us and give us like the. Give us the 50, 000 foot macro like, you know, how maybe how you got started, you know, when you launched the business, what made you want to grow it to where it's today? Maybe just a couple pulse check ins, you know, revenue that you guys have hit along the way and maybe what the team looks like today. So yeah, I'll let you take it away, brother.
- [06:08]
A
No, I appreciate it. I mean, so when we started out, it was pretty much like Everybody else, right, with the push mower and a pickup truck. We start, like, I think about it, and it's a 96F150 that we started with back in 2012. And it started out with. With an uncle of mine getting separated with his wife, and he was like, look, I need help. He didn't speak a lot of English, and. But he had worked for large landscap companies and decided that. That he wanted to do his own thing. He was with. With my aunt, and when they separated out, he was losing the person that spoke English, the person they could help with sending out invoices and all that. And I. I always knew I wanted to get into business. Didn't know exactly what. And when we got in, I mean, we. We weren't making any money. So, like, I. I started out saying, okay, I'm going to be the one doing office work. You go ahead and do the field work, okay? And that is not how it worked out at all. So we went in and we were looking, trying to bring in customers as quickly as we could and doing signs on doors and just trying to get friends out and trying to be the lowest bid, honestly, which I respect. When I see with other people now, I'm like, that's definitely not a. But it's just a different customer profile. Right? So we did that, and we started getting into a teeny bit of commercial with, like, being a sub for one of these larger companies, nationwide companies, and ended up learning a little bit more there, and we started doing more of that, but all of that was like, net 45. You invoiced at the end of the month. And so cash flow was always really tight. So he was, you know, he's like, well, let's separate it out. You. You do your thing. I do my thing. Buy me out. And I think I bought them out for like 2,500 bucks or something like that.
- [07:52]
B
Oh, wow. Yeah.
- [07:53]
A
Yeah. It was. Again, we weren't making money anyway, so it was mostly for the truck, a couple of push mowers. And next thing you know, the day after we. We settled up, I got a call like, hey, will you take a season of snow contract for the small hotel? You know, it's literally just like four sidewalks. And I'm like, okay, sure. So that immediately started getting us more on the plan of commercial. And that that following spring, we ended up getting our first two HOA contracts. And so we were building up HOA and hoas and condos and residential at the same time. And we, you know, I think that we didn't hit our first million probably until maybe 2018, 2019. Wow. We weren't doing a very good job of tracking our numbers and now we're, we're on the threshold of hitting 3 million. The goal for this year is 3 million.
- [08:47]
B
Wow.
- [08:49]
A
So it's. Yeah, we definitely hit 2 million last year. But with having a new account manager and having a straight business developer, we're, you know, we're seeing it. It's just, you know, a lot of learning, learning things and growth.
- [09:05]
B
Dude. Yeah, that's awesome. Dude, that's awesome. And, and dude, like one thing I got to say, like your excitement and passion is just like infectious. Dude, like, it's awesome. When we were at it was grow, right? That's when we got to bump into each other, if I'm not mistaken.
- [09:18]
A
Yep.
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B
Okay.
- [09:19]
A
We, we got, it was circumstance.
- [09:21]
B
Yeah, yeah. We got lunch and it was me, you, Bennett, a couple other great folks. Uh, Melody, right? Your, uh, office gal. She, she was awesome. And you, you and I sat next to each other and Bennett's like, oh, man. He's like, it's the Hispanic version of Brian Fullerton. And I was like, yep. I was like, what does that mean, dude? And you and I started chatting and I'm like, yeah, I get it, dude. Like, I definitely made a friend that day. And so I appreciate that. When the Element team was like, hey, we're doing this tour, we got a couple ideas. Uh, here's what we're thinking and uh, what's your thoughts? And I'm like, dude, like, that's no he's place. And, and uh, I'm like, yeah, that's going to be exciting to go on down. So folks, I'm telling you, get a ticket, you know, go to your local city or whatever's the most convenient, you know, city that you want to fly into and come check these out. What I want to. Outside of the business, I'm sure we can always tell, tell more about that story because you've got a great team. I, I've got to meet a couple of them obviously, and you know, to go from a million to 2 million to now 3 million projected in what, like a six year window? Like, dude, that's, that's good growth. And so tell me a little bit more. We'll get into the shop tour that we're doing here with Granum, but tell me a little bit more like, what do you guys do? What do you guys specialize in? What are you guys known for? What are you guys trying to go
- [10:32]
A
after right now so one of our things is we try to do high end landscaping. And I know everybody talks about, yeah, we're high end. Right. Because obviously customers, if they're paying for getting their grass cut, they tend to be a little bit, a little bit more well off.
- [10:45]
B
Sure.
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A
But our thing is we do high end for commercial and that's definitely our specialty. So we don't do a lot of apartment buildings because apartments, like they, they sort of want just the, the mow and blow, they want the cheapest option. We do HOAs and condos because people are willing to pay for higher, higher quality service. Right. You know, I, I've heard friends in the industry and there's not like, there's nothing wrong with it. Everybody's got their own thing, but they go, you know, oh, you don't have to do the edging that deep. It's commercial. And we're like, well, no, we're going to treat commercial like residential. And so our work has spoken for itself in a lot of the places. And so most like, we don't, we don't do a lot of advertising. This year we did a little bit on Facebook and Instagram for the first time ever just to try it out. And that was to try and get more design build projects. But yeah, we are for, I should have said that we are full service. You know, we'll do the hardscaping, we'll do design, design, build. We, we actually outsource our designer. She's in Canada. She's awesome. We have a great system worked out with her. And, and so we, we come in, we implement these projects for residential. We do the full maintenance. We don't do just mowing for anybody. It has to be part of a package for a commercial. Again, it's the full season maintenance. We do snow removal. This past winter was great for us. You know, we, we did really well with, because we got, we had that really bad ice storm.
- [12:08]
B
Yeah.
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A
Was like 3 inches of snow and then 4 inches of ice.
- [12:13]
B
When you say full season maintenance, can you describe like that service offering? Is it like the mowing, the, like everything or do you let them pick and choose? Like, how does that work for you guys?
- [12:22]
A
No, no. So we, we don't, we really don't do any pick and choose. And especially for residential. Like so if we're doing residential, they've got to have at least the cleanup, mulching, the mowing, lawn care and leave.
- [12:35]
B
Okay.
- [12:36]
A
And, and preferably aeration and feeding in there. But the reason we do that and, and we tell Our customers to you know, we, we learn pretty straightforward is a lot of it's from experience. We used to go in, we would cut grass for somebody and then somebody else would be like oh, I've seen the way you, that lawn looks. You guys don't do it like well hold on. We only mow for them. We don't do the treatment. They're like oh okay great. But now we're like hey look, when our truck is parked in front of that lawn it needs to look good. So if you guys aren't willing to make your, your home look that amazing, you're probably not a customer. I like.
- [13:07]
B
Quick, quick pause. I like that. I like that a lot. Dude. I know there's a couple of young guys that kind of turn me on to some of this conversation with even residential, you know down South Carolina awesome guys. Brad and Jack and they, they have the exact same thing. They're you know, let's call it eight services, whatever and you get the full package and if our truck's going to be parked there, you're getting everything and that's where they're able to sell let's say like a $550 month seasonal program and over 10 months or I think they do a 10 or 11 month season and, and like just, it's just solid stable revenue because they bill monthly. But if we're there we're doing everything and, and they definitely do like, like you said medium to higher end residential at least for that portfolio of their business. So I, I love what you're doing there.
- [13:54]
A
Thank you. Yeah, I mean it. I, I can tell you I probably wouldn't have been able to do that when you were first starting out because we're trying to get. But you know, and that's one of the benefits with element elements sets it up with the per season contract. Who makes it so easy to just set that up and be like this is your recurring monthly payment and yeah then you can always do the add on. Right. So when, when we're doing it, I mean it's a lot of it is is our reputation and same thing for commercial we. When you come in there's so many properties that are right next door to each other. Right. Like large scale properties or in if they see our truck we want them to be able to be like hey, we like the way you guys are doing at that property. Let's get a quote from you guys. And again when it's HOAs and condos you're we're still able to say right There's a little bit of a, let's say we're 500 or maybe even $2,000 more expensive than the next guy. And they come in but like, well, hey, you're gonna get what you pay for. You guys. The reason you guys are going out to bid is because you're not happy with the current vendor you have, so why not just pay a little bit extra to get that higher quality that you've already seen?
- [14:56]
B
So that, that, that's like the, the everybody's question, right? Like everybody's, you know, how, how do you differentiate yourself from the other guy versus us? You know, I actually, yeah, I saw, I saw a great reel the other day. It was a, a gentleman putting out suggestions and advice, you know, on content for contractors. And his exact quote was, when you're getting bid against somebody and you're 10 grand and the other guys 7 grand, and they say, well, the other guy's cheaper. Instead of like explaining it away, he, he just had a great power phrase. Power line. You know, it was, well, why do you think that is? You know, why, why do you think that is? And then shut up, you know what I mean? Like, shut.
- [15:35]
A
Let them learn it.
- [15:36]
B
Yeah, yeah, shut the cake hole and let them bury the other guy. And because rarely are they gonna say, oh, they're probably just more effective, they're more lean and they, they have better. Like nobody is ever in the history. Like instead what they're going to do is go, yeah, I, I actually don't know why that, that is probably kind of concerning, you know what I mean? And you're like, yeah, yeah, that is concerning. What, I wonder what you, you know, and then they start unraveling that other deal and I'm like, I'm actually going to use that. I thought that was a really good little, little tip that, you know, you can, you can doom scroll on social and God knows we've all done it, but you could, when you find good pages, doom scroll on that feed and put a little bit of a, you know, some mind food into your, into your brain that morning and I just thought that was a good one. So when, when things people think Avonza over in your guys's neck of the woods, they're thinking quality, they're thinking year round service, you know, and they're thinking of a professional outfit. That's what you guys are aiming for, correct?
- [16:29]
A
Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, reliable. Right? Like we actually. So it's funny that you were talking about like the. Why is it, you know, why are we more expensive? One of the things that I would say is value. And we keep hitting on that with our. With our team. Okay, what value are we providing for the customer? And we actually did an exercise going. We went through and go, okay, what do we. What are we selling to the customer? And a couple of team members were like, yeah, mowing, cleanup, mulching, you know, pruning and all that. And I go, okay, great. But what. What. How is that different from the next person? So if. If you what we look at it, and I think I saw a lot of them, like, your eyes open up. I was like, no, I would like to think we do. Right. Grounds management or landscape management, because then we're really looking at all of that so they don't have to worry about it. We're taking something off their plate that's our value. And so it's a. I think, a little bit of a different way to look at it.
- [17:23]
B
That's awesome. I love that a lot, dude. And again, I think that's. Every company out there, you know, can. Can do the work, but it's a holistic approach is what I'm realizing, especially with commercial. Like, frankly, I found that a lot of people can get the work done. I'm surprised at how few people can do it consistently over time. Right. But then number two, invoice correctly and invoice on time. You know, it's wild. I've. We picked up a handful of commercial accounts. No. I'm sure you've had the same, you know, discussions out there. Yeah. Like, they show up, but we haven't got a bill for four months and.
- [17:53]
A
Yep.
- [17:54]
B
And you're like, for me, I'm always thinking, I just. I just came from nothing. So I'm always, like, trying to get my money, you know, And I'm like, the first thing I'm doing is invoicing, bro. Like, that's. As soon as that job's done, we're invoicing. And other companies, I don't know, maybe they're just rich and wealthy. And let's just be honest, like, they're just distracted and not organized, but they're not invoicing for a month or two months after the job is done. And then you start hearing all the company's bellyache about cash flow challenges, cash flow issues. I'm like, because you're not invoicing regularly or on time, you know, so it's. It's. It's. It's interesting, right? It always is. It's fun. It's learning. But that's. That's what makes the, the game of entrepreneurship fun. You know, knowing any, any follow up thoughts on that?
- [18:31]
A
I mean just specifically on that. Again, like, I don't know if I shouldn't be plugging LMN so much, but really that one of the big things is being able to do those systems and being reliable. I mean our biggest change in terms of being able to provide that reliability for our customers was having a schedule that's out there so that they can see in the portal, they see their upcoming visit. And you mentioned the invoicing, right? Like having something that automatically invoices the first of a month. You do an invoice run and Yep, you get 50 invoices that go out immediately. Right. Like so I, that's my huge plug for them in terms of us being able to do exactly that.
- [19:07]
B
We, we've, we've talked about that a lot with invoice groups. Right. And that's what we do. So for if you guys don't know element, set up your contract however you want. You can do a per build per visit, you can do a seasonal contract. If you do a seasonal contract, you know, 10 grand over X number of pavements in Michigan, at least for my company, we do seven month lawn, five month snow. We've had a couple request eight and four, same difference. You know, to me that's fine. I've actually had some companies do six and six that we do work for just because you know, their invoices are, you know, they have a bigger winter or a lighter winter and so they want to cash flow things over a longer period and that's totally fine too. One of the restaurants that we do, that's what they requested and we were able to honor that no problem. But it's, it's really slick. And then once those are set up, you just tag them or put them in an invoice group is what we call it and ours is called build on the first of the month. It's a bomb bom bill on the first of the month. And so we just do that and then bulk approve, bulk send and do we bill out 30 GS worth of commercial maintenance seasonal contracts in I don't know, 10 minutes, let's call it, you know. And no, you, I don't, I don't think you could under promote or plug lm frankly, you know what I mean? Like I, I know we're, we're kind of drinking the Kool Aid and we're a little all in. You know, obviously with everything we're doing and the tours and you guys are a power user of the platform and you're making it work for your business. And, and that's the theme behind what we're doing with these tours, guys, is we take you behind the scenes of some of the best companies that are doing it. Some Companies are doing 2 million, other companies are doing 10 and 20 million, which is crazy. And, and so if it, that's probably an easy segue, you know, maybe we'll make a little pivot here because, because you guys have a great business and that's what we're showcasing and we're going to open up. Obviously not perfect. We're not, I don't think anybody here is ever going to say perfect business because I don't, I don't think that exists. Let's, let's be real. But, but you guys have a great business, great growth, great momentum and you guys are hungry. Like you're, you're hungry, you're, you're putting in the work. You're looking to, to grow as a leader. You're looking to grow your team. And, and that's what we're chasing. We're chasing excellence here. And that's why you guys are on the tour and that's why you guys are first up and the first stop. So before we jump into it, quick little, just plug in promo. If you guys haven't checked it out, go to lmn gol.com you'll see the banner for the, for the Break Records tour. Otherwise go to I think it's like granum.combreakd records and you guys will be able to see the whole schedule, the itinerary, the agenda, I'm sure will be coming down the pike. It. I just actually got an email from one of the gals that puts this whole thing together with the rest of the team and holy cow, like the day one education track that we're doing looks ridiculously awesome. I can't wait to not only hear that education presented but also hear Sam Gamble ad lib as he leads the day one like classroom. Sash. So it's going to be awesome. And then day two, so you guys know, is the accompanying shop tour and facility tour which I'm going to MC and host, hopefully shoot a shop tour video, you know, if, if nobody wants to play ball and we'll, we'll have fun with it, you know. And if you guys have ever seen our shop tour playlist on YouTube, there's 40 or 50 shop tours that we've done at this point from, from 18 year old kids working out of storage lockers and shipping containers to the perfect cuts that have done 25, 30 million. I mean we've, we've tried to really showcase a big breath there for all of you guys that do want to grow a big, big business. So, so no, let me just maybe land the plane here for the next four or five minutes. What are you guys excited? Are you guys nervous? Are you guys cleaning everything up and painting the place? Like what, what are you guys thinking and what, what are you hoping people see? What are you hoping people get and what do you hope that they leave with as they come and do this tour with us?
- [22:49]
A
Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I mean, so one of, one of the biggest things for me is just like you were mentioning the shop tours. So I've also had the blessing of being able to go to a bunch of different shop tours. And plus, you know, you have grow and you have all these other things like NLP does these and you go, and especially just being in the industry and being around a lot of other people, you see these things, but you see these companies that are even $5 million and you think like Marty Grunder and they have a huge shop and you go, well, he's not 5 million now, but was and had this huge shop, right? And everywhere I go I keep seeing all these huge places and I'm like, man, if I, if I could do that, if I had this kind of space, what could I do with it? And we're, we're like, we're literally, I mean, five minutes outside of D.C. so anybody that, that flies in the, as they're coming into dca, they're probably gonna pass right over our shop, right? We're, we're two minutes from the Pentagon and, and so we don't have a lot of space. And when, when they asked us about being able to do something like this, I was like, you know what? I would love to be able to show like what a company like ours does with a limited amount of space that we have. Because that to me is so difficult in terms of being able to like, I go, okay, where are you going to put mold? Where are you going to put this? Where, you know, if you have machinery, are you going to store it? Right? Like we, we try to cut down the undoable hours left and right. But how can you do it when, you know, I know a lot of folks, they have the open trailers again, nothing wrong with that. Or they have to load stuff up on onto trucks and everything. And those are great. But when you're in a really urban area, you can't. Yeah, those are unbelievable hours. Every time you're loading up and unloading, you're. You can't leave it up there because then. Then again, you're very. In a very urban area. So you have to be a little bit more careful with equipment. And so it's like, okay, well how can you store these things? All right, great. We have to force ourselves to enclose trailers or box trucks, which we have both. We, we have, you know, we have a lot with a couple of. You mentioned the shipping containers. We, I think we have, we have three shipping containers. Each one we've, you know, we've got the bay doors on them or whatever or not big doors. The, the huge doors on them. Roll up doors with. And you organize like this to. This side is going to be this group, the side is this group. Like the way you organize things. And so like I, for me, it was unrealistic to see those huge shops and, and be like, how can I implement this? But with ours, I'd love it if people are coming in and they go, okay, great, you don't have a lot of space. Maybe we could do some takeaways for this.
- [25:18]
B
I love that.
- [25:19]
A
For us, we are, yeah, we're getting a little bit nervous. But the thing is that I don't want to change sort of who we are. We want to show people what it is. Right. Like what is a real life software? Like, what is our day to day. I don't think they're going to get the chance to see the rollout, which, which maybe might, might be a little bit different, but we want them to be able to see like, okay, the way you store things and how does it work and, and I think it should be more educational as opposed to just going out to check the shop just for the sake of. It shouldn't be the case. Yeah, it should be them trying to get as many takeaways as possible.
- [25:53]
B
And that's what we're. We're hoping to highlight. It's not like a horse and pony show or whatever. Whatever the statement is, you know, we don't want to just say like it's easy or it's always exciting or flashy or perfect or of course, when we go there, let's be real, like everything's gonna be typically. This is what I've noticed. Somebody cleans up, everybody's got the, the tools all put away. Usually. No, you might find this funny when, when Brian's coming through, you know, and outside of the tour. When I'm coming through, I'll like, go through a shop and like, the skid steer tracks are armor all, you know, and like the workbench, the workbench is like, all cleaned up and usually I'll meet the team or some of the guys that are floating around and, and the owner's like, dude, I'm actually really glad you came in because, man, we had like three days of cleaning that has been three years overdue, if you know what I'm saying. And we, we purged a bunch of stuff, we cleaned up a bunch of bays and bins and you know, we washed the machines that the mowers haven't been washed since last fall, you know, or, or ever, you know, and I'm like, so I don't know if it's like the direct pressure of all of us coming through, but it's always a fun time. And again, guys, like, nobody's here to put on a, a horse and pony show again for any of the shops, but we do want to do it right and do it excellent in first class. And so when you guys decide to come to these events, I, we really want you guys to know, like, at least from my perspective. And I know. No, he's hard, dude. We want to just give you transparent answers and in any questions that you have. And if we don't know, like, we'll tell you we don't know. And if you have something that, suggestions that, that could make Ivanza's outfit more efficient, I'm sure Noe would love to hear it. Like, we're all in this together and, and that's like the exciting conversation about, in my opinion, doing these shop tours and doing these field trips, as Marty Grunder calls it. Right. Like, I, I love that because then you get to go see how other people are doing it and then bring it back. Right? Like, that's the idea. Like, go learn, ask great questions, see what's working, see what's not working, and then bring it back. You might say, well, we're going to roll out this bonus and incentive structure to crew leads. And then, no, he goes, hey, yeah, that's a good question, man. We tried that two years ago. That doesn't work. What we found is do this instead, you know, and that's, that's when you come in with a list of questions and expectations, then you can start getting those answers. But don't. Don't just come to, to be a groupie. Don't just come to loiter. Like, come to learn. You Know, and that's. That's what we hope to do on both day one and day two. So. No. Any other final thoughts on that or anything you want to add there?
- [28:20]
A
No, I mean, I. With that, I agree. 100. Right. And I think that's one of the beautiful things about our industry. Specifically. I. I've seen a lot of different industries and. But I think with landscaping is one of the few that you could have competitors in your same area, but yet you're still like, oh, man, are you doing this? Hey, if you go to this nursery, they get better plants. Right? Like, somehow it's not really. There's not a lot of envy. It's. There's. There's a lot of, like, companionship. I think in our industry, for some reason, we love helping each other, and so I think it's just a matter of are we receptive to it or not? And I think the people that are receptive to it are the ones that grow a lot more quickly and. And they're the ones that tend to be more successful.
- [29:00]
B
Yeah, I mean, I love that. That's actually such a great takeaway. Like, as they say, a rising tide raises all ships. I've been to so many shops locally, you know, thankfully, and every time I go there, I learn something. And my guys are help. My competitors are helping me to be. Become better, you know, and I hope one day to inspire the folks around me to be better operationally, price wise. You know, the customer doesn't dictate the price. We do as contractors. So why are we all racing to the bottom when we all should be elevating each other and, you know, quote unquote, racing to the top, you know, like, I don't want to be in a market where everybody's just known as the low ball guy. You know, when, you know, when we're talking about different markets in different region, like, we want to say, like, hey, this is a wealthy area. This is a wealthy market. And the folks that have great landscape companies here, they make money and they have a great outfit and they take care of their frontline team. Like, that to me, is success right at the end of the day. So I love it. I love it. That I think, you know, 50,000 foot overview, that's kind of what I'm. What I'm looking at here today. I don't want to take your whole morning. I do appreciate you. I actually was like, hey, Noe, like, can we get on a podcast, like, immediately? Because I want to talk more about this. If you guys are in the greater Virginia area, you know, DMV area. Like, we'd love to have you come on in. You've probably been seeing the ads if, if the, they're retargeting correctly, you know, so we, we would love to have you guys there. I think it's promo code Brian100 or Brian's100 saves you 100 bucks off your ticket price. So again, you're about 7 or 800 bucks there. Maybe one night hotel stay, you know, but if you're local within two hours or an hour, you can always like come, go home, spend the night, you know, come on back, check out day two at the shop tour. But I'll just tell you guys like to, to network with somebody like Noe, somebody like a Sam Gamble, you know, the, the rest of the Element Grantham team is going to be there representing and they're wicked smart. I mean, there's, there's some great folks coming in that can help you with your accounts on lmn, you know, just some best practices like these, these folks know landscaping. They're not just, you know, punching, punching a clock. Like, these folks are engaged. A lot of you guys have made friends with these folks along the year. I could name drop 10 different people that I know are going to be on the tour that are coming. And they're great people, they're very, very knowledgeable and they've helped me, they've helped Noe, you know, and obviously the derivative of that is a more profitable and successful business. And so I don't want to make it this like, grand pitch to get you guys there. I know, you know, within a couple of hour radius is probably pretty convenient for a lot of you guys, but I was just in a group chat with a couple other buddies and they're picking and choosing which ones they're going to. Some are saying local, some are flying out to some of the shops that they want to see, you know. You know, we've all got people that we look up to and we're fans of. And so I know some folks are cherry picking. Whatever you decide to do, just go make the decision to go to at least one of them. And here's the last thing I'll say. No. This is one of my lines on the podcast and I heard this a long time ago. Some people treat a crumb like a feast, and some people treat a feast like a crumb. And you know, some people are going to say, well, there's no shop tour, you know, in South Chicago, so I'm not going to Go. And it's like, dude, the one in, I don't know, Minnesota is four hours up the road. Like, dude, I'd love everything to be within 20 minutes of my house too, but this isn't 7 11. All right? Like, you have to make a commitment. Success is literally inconvenient. It always is inconvenient. I've never seen anybody conveniently eat Cheez its and Goldfish crackers in Mountain Dew and get a six pack ab. Like it.
- [32:34]
A
It's.
- [32:35]
B
Dude, it's the exact opposite. So I'm glad that there's an investment to go. I'm glad that they're at a distance. For most of us, you might have to literally buy a plane ticket in a hotel room to go to some of these. But dude, if it was free, nobody would appreciate it like they do if you put a little skin in the game. And I truly believe that. And so, guys, I know this is like our first year doing this. If we do it again, it's going to be based on you guys showing up this year and imagine where we can continue to open up these doors to go see and highlight some of the biggest and baddest companies all around the country. So if you want to see this again in the future or you have a specific shop, like, we're all ears. We want to make that happen. But let's really show up and show out for. For Noe and Avanza. Let's. Let's show up for the Element Granum team that's making a huge investment into all the logistics to. To do this. Guys, we want to see you there. Go to the tour website. We'll leave links in the description, check it out, pick your city. And we would sincerely hope that you guys would treat that crumb like a feast and come show out and come show up and come hang out with us. We'd love to have you. So. No way. I think that's my piece. I'll give you the final thought. Any, any thing we missed, anything you want to add, any parting thoughts or, you know, wisdom, any. Whatever you want to do, brother. It's all you. And I just can't thank you enough for joining with us on the show and especially last minute man. I appreciate it.
- [33:57]
A
N. Thank you, man. Like I said. And you hit the word right there with investment, right? Like so whatever you do, if, if you can go and invest your time into, into becoming better, right, there's not much more you can do. And, and I think with that team, with the Elliot, with the Granum team, With Brian and Sam, you guys are going to be able to get so much out of it. It's literally an investment. Look at it as just a couple of days of soaking in a bunch of information. I. I would do it over 10 times, so 100%.
- [34:28]
B
I love it. I love it. Well, dude, you're. You're on deck.
- [34:30]
A
Your first.
- [34:31]
B
We're going to be there in just a couple of weeks, folks, is coming up quick, so let's show up, let's show out. Let's make it a great first one. And I will be there. We'll have a lot of fun. We'll, of course, you know, grab food. We'll break bread. Well, I'm sure there's going to be some dinners and. And so we would love to have you guys, but. No, I will. I'll let you get back to. To running your outfit. If you guys are looking to double sales, last thing you need to do is be on a show with me right now. You need to go out there and start selling, bro. So I'm with you, dude. I love you. It's been great to chat with you, and we'll see in just a couple of short weeks. All right?
- [35:00]
A
Likewise, brother. See you soon. Thank you.
- [35:02]
B
There you go. All right, gang. Well, hey, we love you guys. We appreciate all of y' all listening in. Again, we'll leave links in the show notes. Guys, go check it out. There's a bunch of great cities, I think six, seven, eight, maybe different cities across the Midwest and even Canada, which is going to be really cool. So, guys, we can't wait to see you. Hopefully they're at one of them. And. And if you do, you know, say, hey, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to the host. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Element team for opening up these tours and to make this thing happen. All right, we love you guys. We appreciate you. That's. We're gonna leave it today, and we look forward to catching up with you guys here on the next one.
- [35:34]
C
Looking to grow your lawn care or landscaping business? Then it's time to join the link membership from lawntrepreneur Academy. Inside Link. You'll connect with a powerful community of lawn and landscape professionals who are working together to grow stronger businesses. You'll get access to monthly coaching calls, live bidding hour sessions, expert guest lessons, and a private Facebook group where you can ask questions, share ideas, and learn from others in the industry. Even better, every session is recorded so you can listen anytime and keep learning at your own pace. If you're ready to make more money, Sharpen your skills and surround your Surround yourself with people who want to see you succeed. Join the Link membership today. Visit lawntrepreneuracademy.com and get your link to success or use the link in the podcast description.
- [36:23]
D
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.
- [36:57]
A
Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening and
- [37:00]
D
we hope to see you on the next episode.
- [37:03]
C
This has been a Bryan Fullerton and Mr. Producer Production.