967. The Contractors Who Win Know Exactly Who They're Talking To

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Fullerton Unfiltered – Episode 967

"The Contractors Who Win Know Exactly Who They're Talking To"

Host: Brian Fullerton
Guest: Adam Fullerton (Brandable co-founder, Brian's brother)
Date: May 18, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the critical importance of understanding your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) for contractors, especially in the green/lawn care industry. Brian and Adam dive deep into how defining and evolving your ICP impacts every aspect of your business, from marketing and website design to everyday customer interactions and profitability. They share practical stories, highlight costly mistakes contractors make, and discuss how communicating changes can make or break client relationships. The conversation is peppered with humor, personal anecdotes, and actionable insights to help contractors avoid pitfalls and set themselves up for scalable growth.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What is ICP, and Why Does It Matter?

• ICP Defined: The Ideal Customer Profile is the clear definition of your best, most profitable customer – the one you build your entire business and messaging around.
  • "Icp, Ideal customer profile, for any of you guys that don't know, it's a real word. It's a real thing. Companies and brands talk about this all the time. You maybe have heard the word avatar." – Brian [10:32]
• ICP is also referred to as a target market or avatar; the crucial question is, "Who are you talking to?" – Adam [11:46]

2. Evolving Your ICP Over Time

• ICPs are not static; as businesses grow and evolve, so does their ideal client.
  • Brian transitions from serving mostly residential to more commercial accounts, adjusting his marketing and branding accordingly. [12:05–13:07]
  • Adam notes many Brandable clients are in the 0–$1.5M range, but as they mature or aim higher, their needs and ICPs change. [13:07]
  • “That's a journey, that's a process, that's an evolution.” – Adam [16:51]
• Regularly revisit and redefine your ICP based on your business goals, services offered, and lessons learned as you grow.

3. Why (and How) Contractors Get ICP Wrong

• Many contractors apply the wrong approach to high-value clients, losing out on profitable jobs.
• Anecdote: Lucas loses a $25k+ high-end residential client by using a mulch blowing technique (suitable for commercial/standard residential) where hand-detailing was expected. [27:27–34:46]
  • "That guy wanted to see 10 people on his property, doing detail work... and he wouldn’t care if they were on his property all month. He doesn’t care about the price. That’s what he was looking for." – Brian [29:39]
• Contractors often get into a “zombie mode,” failing to adapt their methods to outlier or premium ICPs – and lose big.

4. The Power of Communication & Managing Change

• Communicate any operational change to clients, especially if it could impact perceived value.
  • “If that new blow truck showed up, if I was the plant manager... I'd be like, dude, he's totally cheaping out... Is Brian just making more money?” – Brian [37:00]
• Brian successfully shifted from hand-spreading to blowing mulch by proactively informing customers—even lowering their price as a goodwill gesture, which increased satisfaction. [35:20–39:25]
  • "We shot them an email... including: who’s showing up, why their price is cheaper, same results, and we checked on them after.” — Brian [44:48]

5. Pricing, Value, and Agency Headaches

• Many contractors get taken by expensive, underperforming web/marketing agencies—often due to poor alignment between product and contractor ICP.
  • Adam shares stories of businesses paying $1,000–$2,000/mo for sites or fees that don’t fit their size or needs. [22:43–23:53]
  • “Why are you paying $1,000 out of a $1,500 budget toward fees? That's ridiculous.” – Adam [23:35]
• The importance of right-sizing marketing and website investments for your actual needs and growth stage.

6. Branding & Marketing: Matching Your ICP

• Your website, branding, sales tactics, and even processes should reflect your desired customer.
  • “If you’re trying to land $50,000 projects, you need to look the part.” – Adam [24:13]
  • “You evolve from something simple and establish your online presence to something more robust.” – Adam [23:53]
• Brandable’s philosophy is to grow with their clients, scaling services as businesses transition to new ICPs.

7. Industry Stats & Quick Response

• The average landscape company takes 3–4 days to return customer leads, costing jobs in a competitive market.
  • “It’s just absurd… we’ll have a signed contract before someone picks up the phone.” – Brian [20:24]
• Quicker and clearer communication is a competitive advantage.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Knowing Your Customer:

  • “Who the hell are you talking to? Who’s your ideal customer? And basically, the idea is you build everything around that.” – Adam [11:50]

• On Drifting from Your ICP:

  • “Don’t get so zombie driving your business, life, mowing—where you just think you have it all figured out… and you’re out of your lane on a big account.” – Brian [30:40]

• On Agency Overpricing:

  • “Most times we’re significantly cheaper because we strip out all the agency garbage.” – Adam [22:43]
  • “Sometimes the people I hire are just good at marketing, not good at performance.” – Brian [24:31]

• On Communication:

  • “It’s a blend, a balance between what’s best for the business and what’s best to not piss off your customers.” – Adam [38:35]
  • “Every snow customer wants communication, not just a good price. The good ones do.” – Brian [44:48]

• On Customer Experience:

  • “If you can’t figure out who they serve in 12 seconds, they got work to do.” – Adam [48:29]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:21–05:00: Catch-up, intro to Adam, context on their family & business banter
• 09:14–13:07: Adam & Brandable’s evolution, team growth, intro to marketing dashboard, and industry needs
• 13:07–17:22: How Brandable helps define ICP for clients; business growth; adjusting strategies as you scale
• 18:33–20:23: Common pitfalls—contractors switching providers, high fees, and misaligned expectations
• 27:27–34:46: Story: Losing a high-end job due to mismatched service method (mulch-blowing vs. wheelbarrows)
• 35:20–39:25: Brian’s own transition to mulch blowing—how proactive communication and price adjustment won clients
• 41:19–45:24: Discussion on communication: why, how, and where it impacts retaining clients and evolving services
• 46:18–46:49: Adam’s closing advice, Brandable call to action for marketing support

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Practical Takeaways for Contractors

• Continually define, refine, and evolve your ICP—don’t assume it’s set forever.
• Align every part of your operation, marketing, and communication to the precise expectations of your ICPs.
• Over-communicate, especially during operational shifts that may affect perceived value.
• Don’t overpay for marketing or web services not suited to your size or stage; partner with providers who “get” your industry and customer.
• Always view process changes through the lens of your ICP—not just efficiency or margin.
• Quick, detailed responses set you apart and win business in a crowded field.

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a masterclass in why “contractors who win know exactly who they’re talking to.” By obsessing over your ICP and adapting your approach, you build a business that not only brings in more customers but the right customers—those that fuel long-term, profitable growth.

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For more on Brandable: brandonbull.com

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Pass it along: If you found these insights helpful, share them with your crew or peers! Want to connect with Brian or Adam? See show notes for direct contact info.

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Transcript

[Adam Fullerton]

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

[Brian Fullerton]

Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton.

Welcome to another episode of the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast. It's your host, rightfully. It's in here hanging with you guys. And good morning. Happy Monday to everybody. If this episode goes out on a Monday, we've got returning guest, my younger brother Adam Fullerton here joining us with himself and Brandon Bull.

[Adam Fullerton]

So great. Me and myself.

[Brian Fullerton]

Me, myself and I, right? I think that me, myself and I read or something. Is that Jim Carrey movie?

[Adam Fullerton]

Jim Carrey movie.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's an oldie and a classic and a crazy freaking movie. Hilarious movie. Uh, anyway, so welcome to the fully sound filtered show. We're gonna talk about all things marketing, branding. Uh, got a really good conversation I want to have today about icp, your ideal customer profile. Adam's our resident expert, so we're going to be talking a little bit about that today. A little inside baseball. Once every couple weeks, couple month or so. We have a cousin Friday, so all the nieces and nephews and cousins come on over and we just have a, you know, chill day. You know, we got this beautiful yard and backyard patios. Kids are outside playing in the grass, making friends and, you know, just living the dream, really. And Adam and I. Adam and I are like, hey, you know what? Sounds really fun. Now we should run away and do a podcast and get away from all the ladies talking and, you know, doing ladies do. And we're like, hey, want to go bro it up and do business? You know, because never. It never turns off, right?

[Adam Fullerton]

No.

[Brian Fullerton]

So that being said, except by having Adam on the show, if you don't know, he really is my brother. Uh, some. It's not just like, hey, what's up, bro?

[Adam Fullerton]

Allegedly. Allegedly. I've never seen the results.

[Brian Fullerton]

I've never seen papers that confirm that he's even a legal resident. So if anyone wants to call ice on him or something, that's fine with me, but that'd be funny right there. Or get him spotted next time he does a live stream. But anyway, excited to have you on here. Do you know what that means, by the way? Swatted.

[Adam Fullerton]

Swatted. No, I'm. I'm not 12.

[Brian Fullerton]

My guy, my guys turned me on to it. I didn't know what it was. When people do a live stream, like, they'll call like, the feds, and then the feds SWAT comes in and like, oh, yeah, Raids the House while you're doing a live.

[Adam Fullerton]

It's like a prank. Like, it's. Yeah, it's a prank.

[Brian Fullerton]

I mean, dude, like, pranks to me is like, you know, putting, like, you know, vegetable oil on the floor and see if you fall, you know? Or, like, you know, I don't. Yeah. But today the kids, like, swat. I called the federalis on you.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's like you got deported. It's like, dude, you went to jail last night. I'm like, you're in Mexico.

[Adam Fullerton]

You're in Venezuela in jail for a week, bro.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's like, oh, okay. Like, that's. That's apparently where things have escalated to. I'm like, that's a whole. Another level of. I didn't even know that existed. So my guys were telling me about that because a couple of them do twitch live streams or something like that, I guess, or live streaming. And, dude, I don't even know. I don't even work or, like, operate in that space. So it's kind of funny.

[Adam Fullerton]

I saw another meme this morning, actually, and it said, if you want to have a fun day at work, print off a resignation. L. Resignation letter for a coworker, just leave it on the printer.

[Brian Fullerton]

Really?

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

Oh, my God. Watch the chaos. That's a good break. I heard a guy similar once. He was working in corporate America, and somebody mistakenly left the corporate reorganization chart on the printer, and it was, like, a department of, like, 25 people, and there's only, like, six names on the thing, and so they, like, found it on, like, a Wednesday or something like that, and they're on new. The other 20 people knew they were getting canned on Friday, so. Yeah, that's.

[Adam Fullerton]

Spoiler alert.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, I know. That stuff is. Is absolutely wild. All right, so let's talk about marketing, branding, if you guys don't know, like I was alluding to a minute ago, Adam's my brother. We have known each other for quite a while, and about a couple years, what, five, six years ago, you started Random Bull now?

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, it was. I think it's five years. Five years.

[Brian Fullerton]

It seems hard to believe.

[Adam Fullerton]

Time flies.

[Brian Fullerton]

It really is.

[Adam Fullerton]

I always feel like we opened up, like, a, you know, a year or two ago or maybe three years, but, yeah, I think you're right. Probably. Probably five years in totality, which is kind of crazy.

[Brian Fullerton]

Well, my tier one website was definitely, like, four years ago, because I know I had it for, like, a year or two, and we're going on year two with my new one.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's there's like the official, you know, being out there. Then there was the. The quiet launch, you could say, like I was still in corporate America, right. Doing my job. And we had launched maybe a year or two before then, and we were slowly ramping things up. And then I quit, obviously, So I quit when Olivia was. Was born. She's turning. Well, she can be for this. This fall. So. Yeah, I mean, basically, yeah. Five years. Wow. That's pretty cool.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yep. Well, congrats. They say most businesses fail in the first 80 of the first what, five years and 80 the next five years, so. Good thing I'm attached to that stupid, you know, anchor, you know, if you go down, we all go down.

[Adam Fullerton]

So I'm never going back, so it doesn't matter.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, it's.

[Adam Fullerton]

They can't take me.

[Brian Fullerton]

Why not work 40 or 80 hours a week instead of working 40 hours a week? Right. I pick my hours. It depends if I want to work at 11am or 11pm or 2am or 2pm or whatever the joke is.

[Adam Fullerton]

But you're working.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah. Somebody's got to do it. Somebody's got to move this needle forward and circle back. Boil the ocean.

[Adam Fullerton]

The house like this.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's a castle. Yeah. We're living the dream. Are you guys. You guys. You guys. Where are you guys at right now?

[Adam Fullerton]

We're still trying to kind of find a house.

[Brian Fullerton]

What's going on?

[Adam Fullerton]

I mean, let's not get into the conversation markets right now. This is ridiculous.

[Brian Fullerton]

Just make more money. That's a whole. To make more money here.

[Adam Fullerton]

Here we are.

[Brian Fullerton]

Double the business. Go to rentable.com. double your income. Double the fun. Like double mint gum.

[Adam Fullerton]

Say it sounds like.

[Brian Fullerton]

I mean. Easy, easy. You should just 10x your income and then get 32 rental houses by the time you're 30. How old are you now?

[Adam Fullerton]

37.

[Brian Fullerton]

37. Oh, my God, dude, you're almost 42. You loser.

[Adam Fullerton]

Loser. How old are you?

[Brian Fullerton]

I'm 40. 40 in June. Yeah. I'm skating in also next month. Yeah, weeks. But I'm not homeless.

[Adam Fullerton]

Oh, we. I didn't say we're homeless. Houseless.

[Brian Fullerton]

You're residentially flexible.

[Adam Fullerton]

Or. Or what do we. What do we say? What do they. What they call it? We're.

[Brian Fullerton]

Bring your mic up. People can't hear you.

[Adam Fullerton]

What do they say in California? You're not homeless, you're residentially flexible? I don't know. What do they call them in. In California? People on the streets all over. What do they call them? There's another term for it.

[Brian Fullerton]

Homeless.

[Adam Fullerton]

Unhoused or unhoused.

[Brian Fullerton]

Okay, dude, whatever. California.

[Adam Fullerton]

You need to use the right. Right verbiage.

[Brian Fullerton]

Sounds like business is going good if you can't afford a hole.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, well, it sounds like the market's insane right now.

[Brian Fullerton]

You guys live in a camper down by the river.

[Adam Fullerton]

Probably should.

[Brian Fullerton]

We've been there, done that.

[Adam Fullerton]

A few bucks.

[Brian Fullerton]

We offered you our camper.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, I don't want to know what happened in that camper. I'm good.

[Brian Fullerton]

Well, there was one. One little spawn chitlin, but it cleans up while, you know. Well, it's. Those floors are like basically laminated plastic, so. But anyway, I digress. Yeah, I digress. We're. We're back to talking about marketing, branding. Adam's been on too much. He doesn't pay me to do this, so I had to give me equity in the business. So I told him my rates. He's like, I'm not paying that. I'm like, that's what people pay. And that's funny right there. So you've been on for probably five or six shows. You're probably honestly my most returning guest besides Liz at this point. Because I'm honored. Yeah, you should be. And we've talked a lot. We've talked a lot of different topics over the years. If you guys go through the search list or player list and type in Brandon Bull or Adam on the title with fully sound filtered, you'll probably come up with the shows. And there's probably four or five good ones.

[Adam Fullerton]

We've done like 10. There's probably four or five.

[Brian Fullerton]

We actually've done 10 shows. There's four or five good ones. That's funny right there. So we've talked a lot about websites, marketing, you know, SEO. I know we did a great one on SEO and there's been some really good conversations and discussions. And again, a lot of you guys, we joke a lot, but I know a lot of you guys have picked up the phone, submitted a website request or form, whatever, to. To Adam and Brandon Bull for logos, SEO website design. Graduating from a. A base entry, tier one website design to a tier two. Some of you guys have went all in with Adam and their team with customs, which is really cool. Definitely, you know, pay to play at that level for sure. And so it's. If you'd never heard of Adam and Brandon Bull, they're doing big things. I know if you're just new to the show, like, who are these guys? But for a lot of you guys, you know, Adam, he's been at EQUIP for three or four years now Lel for really seven or eight years because you guys come and just help work it before Brandon Bull was there. So it's it, it is family. It is cool to have Adam here and a lot of you guys have made friends and, and know Adam just as well as I do. You know, it's really cool.

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So anything I missed out, you want to, you know, reintroduce yourself, take it from the top. Anything I missed, anything that you know what, give us the latest and greatest while you're at it.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, for sure. I appreciate being on as always and I'm one of the original founders of Brandable and Lauren is the partner when we founded this, gosh, again about five years ago. And yeah, now we're up to a team, about 10 of us from every, you know, from, from developers to, to designers to, you know, customer support, everything. So things are, are going very well. We've seen tremendous growth over the last few years, without a doubt. And we're just continually looking at what we can do differently in, in this market and how to help your listeners more and more and more as they try to grow their lawn care and landscaping business. So, you know, we've been busy, busy, busy to say the least. And you know, we rolled out our all new brandable dashboard which is proprietary to us, so it gives customers better insights into their website, you know, live chat functionality, change requests, all the cool things that you would expect from your website in this day and age. We're, we're talking about rolling out some additional services, maybe some social media management services that can, you know, help people just consistently post online, get those, those graphics out there and just help with SEO as well. So, so different things in the pipe, pipeline down, coming down, yeah, hike, whatever you would call it. So it's very busy to say the least. And as always, I'm always excited to be here and talk about ICP and how to help people dial it in.

[Brian Fullerton]

For sure. I like it. I like it. Well, I do want to talk about that because I think that's something that we all can continue to dial in, revisit. I've got some fun stories that I want to share. I'm going to borrow one or two stories actually, as well today. I've got a great topic that came from Link Live. Last week, Wednesday, when we were having this discussion, we had one, two, two different great stories that came through about guys that won jobs, lost jobs based on basically communication to customers and clientele. And I want to go through these for a couple of minutes, and I'm not entirely sure where we can bake these in, but let's, let's do this really quick. Let's do a little bit of, you know, when people start a speech, they're like glossary terms, you know, and then they, like, build a speech off the word, you know, commitment. The definition in Webster is, you know, whatever. And then they do this whole talk. So I do want to just start from the top. Icp, Ideal customer profile. For any of you guys that don't know, it's a real word. It's a real thing. Companies and brands talk about this all the time. You maybe have heard the word avatar, right? Anything else in the marketplace. You come from 10 years of a marketing background at Carhartt. Do you guys have ICPs back in the day or profiles?

[Adam Fullerton]

You know, target market, icp, it's all, it's interchangeable. Who the hell are you talking to?

[Brian Fullerton]

Right.

[Adam Fullerton]

Who's your ideal customer? And basically, I mean, the idea is you, you build everything around that.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

You're talking to the right person.

[Brian Fullerton]

Well, that's something that, like, my company, as we've continued to grow and evolve, has changed dramatically. We were exclusively residential. A couple residential. I'm sorry, exclusively residential. Added some commercial on the way, and then we still have about 40 active residential clients. And I think like 30, 32 commercials this summer, which is really cool. Like, in a portfolio mix, it's 40, 60, 50, 50. Let's say revenue wise, it's, you know, 9010, 9055. I mean, the residentials are decent money. It's probably, I don't know, you know, two grand a year cuts at, at, you know, times 40 is what, 60, $80,000, whatever the number is on five to 750 wherever we land. So it's a, it's a chunk of business. 5 to 10%, whatever. But really, like we're all in on commercial. And so the last couple of years, we've really tried to make our marketing and branding speak to that. And, and Adam, why don't you go through the evolution of folks that come to you guys and talk about their ICP and really, like, just branding as a general, like, newbie to trying to be more established, to looking seller. That's what you guys do. You're the integration tool. That's what you guys do every single day for brands and companies.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. I mean, there's so many people that work with us in our ICP is those doing about zero to a million, maybe a million and a half or so. And we have some customers that are definitely bigger than that. And it's not to say that you can't work with people outside of your icp. It just has to make sense. And so for us, you know, we've dialed in our ICP over the last year or two, and, you know, from there we've figured out who do we want to help, how do we help them best? What are the services and the prices and the packages that we can offer to help them at their size, with their budget, with their goals and. Yeah, so when you come to us, you know, we have those conversations without a doubt. And we get people that are just starting, which is always awesome because they're like, hey, I'm gonna go full time in this. Or, you know, I have a job right now. I'm trying to get out of it, and I'm doing this part time. I have a couple, you know, yards right now that I'm. That I'm cutting, trying to get into this and that. And so it's always cool to hear those stories of just people, people growing and people trying things and trying to just build a business, which is amazing. And so we've, you know, with our services and our packages, we kind of help you regardless of where you are. Right. Spectrum. Or where you are in your journey.

[Brian Fullerton]

But what if we're on the spectrum? Can you help us too?

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, that's a different spectrum.

[Brian Fullerton]

If we catch them, can you help us out? Dial this thing in. Adam works with all versions of all of us calling in.

[Adam Fullerton]

Not a licensed therapist, but I can definitely get. Give some feedback.

[Brian Fullerton]

So, folks, we got the high touch. We know what you. We know what you want to do. We know what you're struggling with. Adam and Lauren and I have a. A weekly strategy call. What? It's at least an hour, sometimes two,

[Adam Fullerton]

and we have hours.

[Brian Fullerton]

You babbling on about the nonsense Going on in my own business, in life. Because Lauren's always like, so, so what are you doing today? What you say you do here? What would you say you do here? And, and Lauren's really funny. She's an integral part of what we're doing, obviously. And she's like, what? So like, Brian, like, help me under. And you guys are always asking great questions, right? Like LMN folks as well. Like, dude, they understand what you guys are doing. Like, they're not just corporate banking, you know, nine to fivers. Like they most. These people can do Lynn and bid and price. Maybe not the physical work because they've never like done it in the field, but the other 95 of like running the business. They're incredibly smart and educated. Not everyone, but quite a few. Especially the guys that, you know, are out front and work in the events. Like, they do know they could start a landscape company tomorrow. Like, they're very, very good guys. Lauren's all the time, like, so what are you struggling with? What are you thinking about? I'm like, I need cash. I need cash. I need people to show up on time. We've got an endless amount of work. She's like, okay, okay. She goes, are you busy? I go, lauren, I'm dying. Like, you know, I'm like, it's the spring rush. It's the 100 days of hell or whatever. And she goes, so maybe like we should maybe just like, you know, ride a chill month or two and then we'll like amp up marketing in June, July, when people can breathe. I'm like, yes, yes, you should do that. She's like, we have a couple websites we're trying to launch and we're waiting for some assets back, you know, some photos and videos. And I'm like, lauren, ain't nobody picking up the phone for the next four weeks to finish their website. And. And it's just funny. It's like, it's funny like you guys are learning as we all have this funny workflow together. And then of course, you guys get slam packed, you know, Q3, Q4, because things wind down for all of us. Right. And we have a little bit more time, as they say, to work on the business, not just in the business, you know, so it's a fun discussion there. But I want to go back to the conversation about icp because you guys work with folks that don't have a website, let alone they have an older website or an outdated website.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. And anybody from, from brand new who's been. I mean, we get Calls all the time from people that have been in business for 10 years. And it doesn't really matter if you're brand new or if you're 10 years into the game. I mean, you could have a quarter million dollar business and be in your first year or your fifth year, it doesn't matter. I mean, when we have conversations, it's about where are you now, what are you trying to portray and what try to, you know, who are you trying to attract, who's your icp and then where are you trying to get to? Because you want to understand what works now to get you your ideal customer.

[Brian Fullerton]

Right.

[Adam Fullerton]

But then also how does it help you grow into the company you want to be. And that's a journey, that's a process, that's an evolution. And every business evolves, just like yours has, from being residential to switching over to mostly commercial. And that's evolution. And so your ICP changes and it evolves. And you know, we love having those conversations and just teaching people what to consider when they're going through that process. Because your website should look different, your branding should look different, your, you know, the style of ads that you're running should look different. I mean it, the whole thing grows over time.

[Brian Fullerton]

It evolves for sure.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And that's something that like we've really tried to work on our messaging as Brandon Bull to let you guys know, like we're here to partner with you. Like not just hey, let's build one website and we're done in, you know, some of you guys maybe as soon as 12 months. Other folks maybe as soon as in 60 months you're like, hey, I want to maybe reinvest and go from a tier one to a tier two or from a one to a custom, you know, maybe, maybe a business boom. You were doing 80 grand part time and now you're doing 800,000. You're like, yeah, I'm going to drop 10 grand in a website. I want to build a phenomenal design, build looking website, everything from scratch. We can do that for you. I mean there's a real team of people here. Something I really always try to emphasize. There's a lot of folks out there, I know a lot of the names, a lot of folks advertising other shows. I just really sincerely, without trying to be a, but just, just telling you not to waste your time, I think you're going to find that after 12, 18 months and maybe going the other way, I would, I would love to know, Adam, this is kind of a jerk kind of comment but like how many people come to you are, like, prospects, if you will, from my content or otherwise, from what you guys do. And then how many. Like, like. And they're just kind of green and they just need something versus other folks coming on over. And I say this with love, but somebody else messed it up and they want you guys to fix. Fix the mess.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, I say this a lot. Internally, I'd say it's not really a matter of if, but when, because we have so many people that come to us. And, you know, you guys sit on mowers all day. No offense to you. Like, you're not familiar with how. With how website websites work. You don't know what advertising really is or how to do it, per se, like, with Google Ads. And so a lot of people come to us and we have these conversations, and then, you know, they're like, hey, we went with a different provider. And cool. For whatever reason. But I just had another call two days ago. No days. Yeah, so yesterday. And he's like, hey, I made the wrong mistake a year ago. I want to sign up with you guys. I'm like, cool, let's rock and roll. Like, better late than ever.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

And that's fine. So we get so many people that come back to us after going with somebody else for, again, whatever reason, and that's fine. And it's not to say that the other company is bad or anything, is just you guys aren't getting the support you're looking for, or maybe the pricing is crazy, or they're just leading you down a rabbit hole trying to get you to spend more money than you really need to. And that's definitely.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's been all three.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, 100%.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's great because you guys give me, you know, information, too. I'm like, what's working out there? What's. We're in business. We're trying to get customers. Right. Let's just, you know, obviously. And dude, the amount of folks that are spending way too much money. There's. There's a lot of folks like that.

[Adam Fullerton]

Oh, for. With poor results. I mean, at the end of the day, again, I had a conversation two days ago, and the guy's like, I haven't heard from my web guy in two weeks. I'm like, time is money, bro. Like, you have to have this stuff updated because we believe that a website should be a reflection of your business, the here and the now. And certainly if you want to add stuff on there. I made this joke with a person the other day. I said, hey, if You've never done a swimming pool, but you want to add swimming pools as a service on your website, go for it. I mean that's for you to figure out how to handle the actual operational piece of it. That's for you to decide. But a website is a reflection of your business and if it takes two weeks to get that, especially during spring

[Brian Fullerton]

rush or anything like, that's insane.

[Adam Fullerton]

Time is money for sure.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah. People that you know take five days to get back to a lead or submission form. Like, I've already got my. Dude, we've already entered them in the CRM, got their measurements with attentive. I've built their estimate on it off of a template invoice or not the invoice, the estimates already submitted same day, if not next day by 9am mean literally. And dude, I'll have a sign contract back before somebody else even picks up the phone and says, hey, what are you guys looking for? Yeah, and, and dude, it's absurd. I was on a leanscaper webinar just the other day and the average lead time that people take, it's still like three to four days or something to get back with a prospect like industry stat. And I'm like, it's just absurd. Like, and I jokingly have said, but I'm not even kidding. Like if Liz and I were doing the deal, I would literally say we're stopping and pausing and I'm calling that customer back. Like that's where we're at with how important a commercial lead is to us. You know, like it's, it's so mission critical.

[Adam Fullerton]

Well, especially in a very competitive, hyper competitive industry like lawn care, landscaping. I mean, let's be honest, there's a dozen competitors in around you, wherever you are. Unless you're in like, you know, bfe, let's just say like a tiny, tiny town somewhere. Like good for you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't answer your phone. But ultimately in most major markets there's a dozen competitors.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

And speed is absolutely important and customer service is huge. And we understand that as well because you can go to Google and type in web company and find a thousand providers.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

So like that's the thing. We're all in the same boat together. We're all learning this stuff and going through the same challenges. But you have to pick up the phone, you have to be responsive, you have to understand what your customer wants ultimately. Yeah. And connect with them on it.

[Brian Fullerton]

I'd say of the what the feedback that you and Lauren share with me on Our, on our calls and we're always, you know, trying to improve and get better and you know, get, get build the right product for, for everybody that you know is calling in and emailing him. I'd say a lot of them are misaligned. Price point, you know, it's crazy. Or, or the, or the, the, the one thing that I despise is the Gicha Gachas. You know, like they own the website. They, you can't take it with you, they shut you down, you know, something ridiculous. Or, or frankly like they fumble and close up and then like all their proprietary is your proprietary and all goes away. We've seen crazy stories of that. There's other folks in the industry that, you know, like you said like 500amonth or a thousand bucks a month. We're like, what, what are they even doing? I know you had a great call, I'm not gonna drop name drops. But dude was paying like $2,000 a month.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And I was like. And he's like, well, there's a little bit of SEO in there. And then you guys had a great conversation. You're like two, we can save you literally half off the top immediately.

[Adam Fullerton]

That's a lot of conversations for sure. It's kind of like, what are you paying now and what are you looking for? And here's what I'll say. Especially when it comes to the services we offer. Branding websites, local SEO and PPC or Google Ads, most times we're going to be significantly cheaper because we strip out all of the agency garbage, so to speak. You don't need to sit on phone calls every week or every single month to run Google Ads. The campaigns aren't that crazy. Like our team does it and we're extremely good at it. But the whole point is you shouldn't be paying thousands of dollars per month in management fees for something so quote, unquote simple. Simple for us, difficult for you, and

[Brian Fullerton]

if you don't know what you're doing,

[Adam Fullerton]

you're wasting your money. But like, why are you paying one thousand dollars out of a fifteen hundred

[Brian Fullerton]

dollar budget towards fees?

[Adam Fullerton]

That's ridiculous. Same thing with a website. Why are you paying $500 a month for fees when you're doing a quarter million dollars? Your website doesn't need to be crazy. You don't need a $10,000 website. And an agency that tells you you need a $10,000 website because of your ICP is, is ridiculous.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, right.

[Adam Fullerton]

You evolve from something simple and establishing your online presence to something more robust, to something Even more robust. It's like you get your first car and it's great. It works. Maybe it's not the nicest thing on the block. Eventually you upgrade your car, eventually gets a really nice car because that's what you want. And, you know, maybe that's what your customer needs to expect from you at that point.

[Brian Fullerton]

Right.

[Adam Fullerton]

You're trying to land $50,000 projects. You need to look the part.

[Brian Fullerton]

Right.

[Adam Fullerton]

But that's the craziest thing to me is we have conversations all the time where people are being sold on the single best website or single best campaign possible, and you're working all day to afford it, and you're not getting anywhere because you're not actually making any money.

[Brian Fullerton]

And then you realize, like, I have many times in my life that sometimes the people around me are. The people that I hire are just good at marketing. Yeah. Not good at performance.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

Ironically enough. You know, and they're good at getting customers for them. They're going to get customers for you.

[Adam Fullerton]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

And that's, that's, that's the line of the, of the show so far, if you ask me. Because again, I was going to reiterate. It's like. Seems like there's two great customer lead gens for us. One, it's like bad experiences and then also bad prices. And frankly, that's probably 50 to like, 80% of what comes in that we're fixing other situations. The rest is the organic, the paid ads that we do. That brings in the inflow and stuff from my content. That brings the inflow. If people are, you know, usually pretty green and pretty excited and pretty, like, first experience, you know, you've never had a website or, you know, nothing maybe that you haven't built personally, and now you're looking for something more legit, more real, more professional.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, yeah. And to bring this full circle, I mean, in terms of icp, that's like, that's what we're doing. Right. We're trying to understand what our customers need and what our ideal customer goes through in terms of making their decisions and the struggles and the challenges that they have. And then we're building products and services around that, that. Check those boxes, essentially. So you're not paying a thousand dollars a month for a website or having 50% of your budget go to fees. Like, that's insanity. Especially when you're small and new. And, like, money is tight.

[Brian Fullerton]

Right.

[Adam Fullerton]

Budgets are tight. You don't have time to. You don't have money to waste on fees. The biggest thing for sure.

[Brian Fullerton]

So this economy is like the line of the year, like, right now, like, in this economy, like, anywhere I go. My guy, one of my guys was at the. Our equipment dealer, Weingartz, and I. I heard him on the phone, and we. We had a new tire for one of them for our stand on leaf blower. One of the tires is leaking air on the rim. They tried to fix it three times. We couldn't get it. I'm like, just order a new tire. We've. We've already spent, what, the entire cost of labor and time and dumb down time just to go get the damn tire three different times, you know, in the last 18 months. So 240 later and the 250 later and the guy goes. And I tell my guy, and I'm like, tell him we'll give him like, 240 final answer. Yeah. He goes, 250. And I go, and this economy. And like, you could hear of all the guys at the counter laughing, you know, and we're. I'm like, off. I'm like, tell him 240. And he's like, you're not naming your price. And I said, what's the Brian's Law maintenance price? He goes, 280. And I go, damn it.

[Adam Fullerton]

So that's how I tell people when they call us. They say, I heard about you from Brian. You, Brian's brother. Go, that was a bad, bad name drop. Don't do that.

[Brian Fullerton]

We just added 10.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, exactly.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's how I get paid, actually, just so you guys know, that's. That's how I get paid out of this thing, right?

[Adam Fullerton]

Impressions.

[Brian Fullerton]

When you drop Brian's name. Brian's gotta. He's gotta pay for that fancy house somewhere, right? I want to do this really quick. I want to talk about two quick stories that I thought were really relatable, and I. I'm gonna do my best to make this translate to our entire conversation right now. They're just. They're stories that I'm like. I don't know where to include them on a podcast show. So here we are. We're gonna dump them on here right now.

[Adam Fullerton]

Go for it.

[Brian Fullerton]

Number one, it relates to Mulch Lucas, one of my buddies. Great guy. Yeah, Mr. Blumling. Like, you guys have seen his transformation last couple years as well. Dude's on a major upswing. He's kicking butt. Awesome stuff. Great mindsetable website customer. Is he?

[Adam Fullerton]

Yep.

[Brian Fullerton]

Okay, Even. And you guys, did you guys do his logo, too?

[Adam Fullerton]

So we did his logo, and I think he evolved it. We did his Logo for sure.

[Brian Fullerton]

But he didn't do his rap.

[Adam Fullerton]

Not his rap.

[Brian Fullerton]

No.

[Adam Fullerton]

We don't do graphic design work. So we didn't do.

[Brian Fullerton]

Okay, okay, so his, his, his graphic design work or rap or whatever you call it. His trucks, his fleet look fantastic. And again he like was where I was at. Same thing. You know, a couple years ago we were all in link go figures Link member. And so we're all making this journey and pilgrimage together. Evolving, growing, expanding. He's double tripled his business in the last 36 months. I know that, but he was telling me a really crazy story that the he picked up a client that another company was doing a very high end home. All their mulch they were doing like it was like a 10 million dollar home. Like super high end client like this. Exactly. Our castle. And no, I do own my own mall chair.

[Adam Fullerton]

Lucas was doing a job for you.

[Brian Fullerton]

Lucas was working at my property. Okay, let's just get the story right. Lucas was at my house. That's funny, right?

[Adam Fullerton]

Ha ha ha.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's like the Jeff Bezos laugh with the money signs emojis in between on text. But. But there's a $10 million home. And Lucas told me the story and it was like 220 yard mulch job, big mulch job. Like the big sites we do are 20 to 40 yards. The 20 to 35 yard mulch jobs on average, we're talking like a lot of mulch. That's, that's like a week of mulch, maybe two weeks of mulch depending on your setup. I mean, and then, and so this company, long story short, that was previously doing the work was being the key word here on the last time they did it that they decided to blow the mulch in and instead of doing wheelbarrows and hand, you know, spreading and detail work is what we call it when you spread it by hand. We just did a four yard mulch job. It took legit four hours because you could you. I mean it's under every shrub, every bush, everything in a mature landscape, you know, and it's like you can't just dump and pour or spray it or spread it. And so long story short, Lucas gets this call, guys. The house manager, the property manager is like, hey, my, you know, my. The guy that I work for, the owner, the rich guy, was not happy that it was blown in for whatever reason. That's the million dollar question why? Right? Because what the other company was like, hey, let's get lean, let's get efficient. Let's, let's be More effective. Like nothing wrong with that train of thought. But here's the deal. Like the icp, let's say that it was a company that has a hundred clients and they've got 75 residentials, 10 commercial sites. They got the Chipotle's, the dollar stores, the speedway gas stations, the local two, you know, restaurants, runs on maintenance and that, you know, just a little business. And then you pick up this way outlandish, outlier type of client. Way different in terms of an ICP than what you are just used to with your bread and butter blocking and tackling. And you're like, you know what? We're going to take the same thought process, the same care. The same care, good or bad, right? Like let's say you do a good job, but we're going to take our, we're going to take our good job to somebody who literally demands and expects excellence. And then one like, I mean, high touch, I mean they want to own you and that's fine. There's a number for that. And anybody who tells you otherwise is lying. Like I've got clients, they make, they pay 30 GS with brands on maintenance. They call, I haul, I'm there in 30 minutes. I don't care if it's on a Tuesday at 10 or Thursday at 7pm, right. Like that's a big deal client to me. And so don't I always say, like, don't ever get it confused. Like we all work for somebody. Like we all have to answer to something and someone, right? Well, Lucas is telling the story. And long story short, like I said, the guy, whoever was last year decided to blow in 220 yards of mulch. And the wealthy guy clearly was looking for five or 10 guys, the lackeys, the peasants, the maybe even people that he values, you know, Hey, I love, I love, I really respect what you guys do. You know, I'm, I'm CEO of a bank, but I, I, I'm just not good with my hands and I'm just not a blue collar dude in the landscaping world. Maybe he does respect what we do, you know, who knows, There's a spectrum there. Who knows, who cares? But the point is that guy wanted to see 10 people on his property, let's say doing detail work, fresh spaded bed edges, you know, attention to detail with wheelbarrows, pitchforks and you know, guys chumming it up. And he wouldn't care if the people were on there on his property all month because he doesn't care if it's a hundred Dollars a yard or 300 a yard. He wouldn't care if the job was 20 grand or a hundred grand. Maybe that's just what he was looking for. For whatever good, bad, weird, whatever reason, right? But you take this thought process of your typical ICP, your residential, 5250 for a weekly cup, man, Credit card on file. We mow on Thursdays, charge card on Friday, whatever, you know, and they're like, awesome, honey, sign me up. Commercial. Hey, we do eight services, you know, 27 cuts. It's a $9,000 account. We bill on the first of the month, no big deal. Then you get to the commercial guy or the $10 million guy, you know, yeah, no big deal. We can take care of this. How much yards to 20? Oh, anything over 30 we blow in and we'll have it done on Tuesday. The guy's like, Tuesday? He goes, it's a three week job with the last company, but sure, yeah, go ahead. And then you blow it all in and then you don't get the account next year. And people go, well, what just happened? And we just, you know, in business, a lot of folks have studied this topic called switching. Like, if you're just switching, like you're not in the zone or in the flow and you get out of your lane or you drift or you draft and you're like, you're out of this slipstream, right? And that's the, that's the huge. That's something I'm really trying to stay more hyper vigilant on is don't just get so zombie driving the car, zombie driving the mowers, zombie driving your business, zombie driving your life where you're like, you're getting good. And so you're in this repetition, this habit, this stupor. You know what I mean? You're in this stupor and you're just like, yeah, yeah, dude, I'm God's gift to my local market. Of course we can do your 220 yard mulch job, or we've always done it by wheelbarrows. But this year we're gonna get smart and fancy. That's a crazy, crazy story about somebody who probably lost a $25,000 job. That sucks. Imagine having a client for 10 years, $25,000 kind of, you know, you're making, let's just say 10% on that, probably more. And it's $2,500 to $5,000 of profit that your family no longer gets to make or you don't get the profit share with your guys. Not because you really did anything wrong, right. Like at the end of the day, but you didn't pay attention to your

[Adam Fullerton]

ICP and the expectations of that icp.

[Brian Fullerton]

Precisely. And, and, and so when we talk about for the first 25 minutes of the show, I, I sincerely like don't want this to be a pitch fest on, you know, hey, go with Adam and Brandon Bull. But like this is why we spend time on this topic. This is why we try to dial in and lock in like who, who are you guys? What are you trying to do? What's the end goal here? Is it a $2,000 problem? A $10,000 problem? Is this a two month problem? A ten month problem? Where do you want to be in 36 months from now? What type of work? What type of image? What type of feel?

[Adam Fullerton]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

Like what are we trying to do here? That's why Adam's been blessed to be able to go on tour with me and we've done some speaking engagements with lmn. He's been on some webinars, he's been on stage at lel, he's done some stuff at Equip, he's, he's done some stuff with leanscaper and, and Adam gets it like and I'm really excited for him to be in this awesome circle with all because that's all where you guys play and that's where we're all getting educated. But folks like we do literally eat, sleep and breathe this topic and the other quick conversation. I just wanted to say my other buddy Shane, part of link. We're discussing this whole topic.

[Adam Fullerton]

He had explained Lawn shark.

[Brian Fullerton]

The lawn shark. You guys know Shane. Shout out to Shane, he's going to text me, dude, you said my name, you know and you saying. And Shane was saying the same thing where I think it was him. Another guy, Matt Kohl's and another guy Josh. We were all talking about like if you start blowing in that mulch and this hyper example we're talking about blowing in mulch. If you start blowing in mulch and your customers are used to you doing wheelbarrows? We were talking about, they were asking me like Brian, what was your process when you switched over 12 or 15 clients in the spring from wheelbarrows to blowing in mulch. And I said we shot him an email and we did. We have a newsletter that we shot to our mulch customers saying the mulch is going to get blown in on such and such day. You'll see one of our subcontractors in a big truck that's us. Our team will be on site supervising and make sure it wraps up nice. And a couple of guys said, well, like, what about the. The pricing? You know, did you change the pricing? And I said, oh, yeah. All of my mulch, I did 10 to 25% cheaper because I was able to save a lot of money by having these guys do it and still make more money. But I just felt it was the right thing to do to pass that savings along to my customers. And so all of our renewals is that. Here's your quote. Basically everything's the same as last year. Quick side note, because we've leaned out our operations and became more streamlined in our mulch installations, you'll see that the mulch price is actually reduced, including the total seasonal contract total. Because imagine this, like you just have done wheelbarrows for your commercial account for five years in a row. And this big truck, in this one example, I give you a hundred more. This one example, this big truck comes in, they blow it all in. And if you're a customer, what do you think? Are they going to do a good job?

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

Who are these people? Well, why did he do that? Let's just be honest. Every single decision, most everybody's decisions in life is based on a dollar bill. Oh, clearly somebody saving money or making more money. Think about it, like, so if I'm the customer, and this is what you guys really got to play like, like role play and think this stuff through. You can't just make these pivots. You really got to think this stuff through. If that new blow truck showed up, if I was the plant manager, the office manager, I'm thinking, dude, he's totally cheaping out. Am I getting the same quality mulch, the same level of bed edging, the same bed redefining and bed prep, Is Brian just making more money, more margin, and he's just kind of like weaseling it out and like schlepping it off. Like, I'm gonna show him, we're gonna rebuttal the bill and just make it a fuss because, you know, maybe we don't like the type of mulch, which there's no reason to real complaint. He just does. He's just unhappy. So we don't. We don't look at these kind of ramifications for our customers. And then we, you know, we get dropped and people go, well, what the heck? Screw that customer.

[Adam Fullerton]

You don't. I think it's important to look at the changes you make and the decisions you make from the lens of the customer. Because for example, if you were to go and let's say you're, you're making this up, but if you spend five hours laying mulch, right. And then you do, you invest into a blower or a machine and you can do it in half the amount of time, you can keep prices where you are and make more margin. Sure, there's nothing wrong with that. But if your customer, your ICP says what the heck, you're doing it twice as fast and you're still not giving, you're not reducing your rates for sure. That's understanding your icp. Is your ICP going to be annoyed by that? And you have to understand and like the rich guy.

[Brian Fullerton]

Like the rich guy.

[Adam Fullerton]

I think it's important to always go through the lens of your icp. And yes, you have to protect your business, obviously. But it's a blend. It's a balance between what's best for the business to survive, grow and what's best to not piss off your customers and make them feel like you're, you're, you're doing a disservice to them.

[Brian Fullerton]

Totally. I talked about on link. It was awesome. It was such a rich in dude. It was a deep discussion. It was awesome. Like in the fact that there wasn't 200 people on the call is what's even more perplexing to me because I'm like, this is good stuff. What I did is I gave back some of the house and helped the customer save money.

[Adam Fullerton]

Sure.

[Brian Fullerton]

What I also did is last year I bid all my mulch at 16.9%. This year we bid it at 20%. So I made 20 guaranteed in theory. Right. Hypothetically. But I made 20 on all my mulch and saved the customer 10 to 25% on their price.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah. It's a win, win, win.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's a huge win, win, win. And so, but here's the deal. Like we communicated that to the customers because I knew if a 40 yard, you know, 50 foot long giant blow truck, it looks like a snorkel sucker truck but you know, obviously they're blowing out mulch. You know, like the big tanker trucks that suck up the water out of the grates on the highway, you know, after a giant storm.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yep.

[Brian Fullerton]

Big trucks.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yep.

[Brian Fullerton]

If that thing showed up, I would be like what? Like for example, if Trugreen showed up to my lawn and normally there's a stand on spreader sprayer guy and he's putting down, you know, whatever we didn't feed on my property and they showed up With a tractor with a boom. And they just started going up and down my property with it with a, you know, John Deere tractor and a, you know, a 24 foot boom off the back. I'd be like, what the hell is that? I freak out now. The guy said, hey, just quick note, dude, we've got this brand new tractor, state of the art. We got this awesome boom, state of the art. Same exact quality product, same quality that we, that you expect and that we deliver, which this would never be a conversation with True Green. So that's funny right there. But some of you hypothetically, hypothetically, True Green's like, hey, we do a good job. But if they said, you know, nothing to be concerned about, if you don't feel comfortable with it, we can do a different route. Might be a little bit more money, but we respect that. But we're streamlining our operations. We're here to just make it a more effective. And by the way, that's why your bill didn't go up this year. Because we're able to streamline our operations and you know, just basically do more properties and volume. And we really have this rig set up for people with properties like yours, 2 acres and above, to streamline operations. If that was a 30 second call, text conversation in person, you know what I'd say? Oh, cool. Yeah, no big deal, man. Go for it. So they're not going to rut anything up, you know, big turf tires? No, no, we're good. Good. Oh yeah, dude, Go for it, man. That's awesome. Hey, congrats on the new rig. Is it pretty cool? Yeah, it'd be pretty cool. Dude, that's awesome. I know you guys would probably get a bunch of my neighbors now with that big machine. Like I'd be an evangelist.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah, I think that's the emphasis of communication and what it can do for people because you, I mean, at the end of the day, I'm of, I'm personally, this is me speaking. I'm of the belief that if you always ask customers what they want.

[Brian Fullerton]

Right.

[Adam Fullerton]

The famous thing from Ford is they would have said that a faster horse.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

So there's nothing to stop you from changing how you do anything in your business from processes to, you know, operations to. However, whatever it is, doesn't matter the equipment you use. But understanding your icp. And what do they expect when they have a contract or service through you? Do they expect constant communication? Do they expect these types of updates? Like that's the whole point. And you know, you can get into the weeds Pun intended. About what you should share with them. But the whole point is understanding your ICP and what their expectations are. Because if they're expecting you to do this or to do that and then you just do your own thing, that's friction that can create chaos within the business very quickly. So to kind of bring this full circle, it's really understanding what your customer is looking for from you. If they don't care about your equipment, then don't worry about it.

[Brian Fullerton]

Right.

[Adam Fullerton]

But if they care about something else, like how you're installing certain, you know, paper patios or whatever, like, probably worth communicating to that. That.

[Brian Fullerton]

To that.

[Adam Fullerton]

Communicating that to them.

[Brian Fullerton]

Maybe some customers, you know, commercial don't care that your whole team is in uniform. Maybe. Maybe you're 3% more because all your team is in uniforms. Maybe you're able to save them money on their salt bill because you use the best snow plows, but they don't really care about the cost.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And so you're 3% more on your snow, you're 3% more in your uniforms, you're 3% more on this. And now you're 9% more on a 10 grand account. And you're 11 grand. The other guy's 10 grand. And you go, that customer sucks. And we, we are not communicating correctly to the right icp, the things that we value versus what they value.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And then we say, oh, the low ball guy. Maybe the low ball guy perfectly dialed it in, probably accidentally, Right? He found his ICP and his I, you know, love found each other right at the end of the day. And so the long story short here is obviously, don't just get into this mental funk slipstream of just always having it all figured out. I. It's crazy. Like that outlier story that Lucas was sharing because I told him, so what are you gonna do? He goes, do what? We will bear that thing that kingdom come is like, we'll get 10 guys on that side wheelbarrow all week if we have to. Maybe you can get a sal.

[Adam Fullerton]

But.

[Brian Fullerton]

But you know, a small articulating load, like the little bobcat I have. But ask the customer, hey, is he cool with that? Or like, what's his M.O. what's his prerogative? No, he loves going to the ivory tower and looking out of his back patio with his coffee and seeing 10 worker bees on his property. He's just weird like that.

[Adam Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

Okay, cool. The guy's fourth generation generational wealth, dudes. Just baller rich. Awesome. Guess what? I'm head aunt back there. You know, I'm saying, like, I'll be out there tomorrow and we'll go get this mulch job done to make $5,000 profit in a day or a week, whatever it is. So I love this conversation because you can spend a lot of time here on a lot of this. You know, like you just said, like, go back to snow customers. You know what I found that they all want, no matter what the pay grade, communication. They want to know, what's your plan? There's never been a difference in the plan for every snow event. We've got a route, we've got a process. But they want to know, hey, you guys good? You guys coming? What? Did you come? Oh, you already came. All right, cool. Are you going to bill me all the same five to eight questions?

[Adam Fullerton]

Yep.

[Brian Fullerton]

Nothing's changed. But they just. Every snow customer wants communication. Not just a good price. They want communication. The good ones do. So that. Those are kind of my stories for today. I thought this was just. I told Adam, I'm like, dude, I want to talk about icp. I've got a couple good stories I want to share to go full circle to those mulch customers. Like, we told them why their price is cheaper. We told them who's going to be showing up. We told them it's the same product, the same results. And then our team is going to be on site to supervise, to clean up, to check out anything, to make sure that they're happy. And then when it was done, we called every customer, hey, are you happy? Because it's a new process.

[Adam Fullerton]

Sure.

[Brian Fullerton]

You know, when you get a new customer after that first week or first month, hey, are you happy? Just like when you get a new team member, do a two week review, a 30 day check in. Hey, are you happy here? You feel supported, like you have to talk to those people. So anyway, we could, you could split the ICP conversation or onion, you know, a thousand different ways for sure. I just thought those were like two really, really good, practical stories. And it was. I thought they were great stories that Lucas had shared with us. And then Shane was asking me about our blowing in the mulch pivot that we made for a company. But it was like very strategic. It wasn't like, no, dude, All I saw was dollar signs like a boo and ruby eyes. Like, you have to look at it as a holistic approach. That's what I'm trying to do. I know Brandon Bull does. I know you guys are. So let's just, you know, just a quick reminder for the Carrot Top Today. So I'll give you the final thought. Any. Anything you want to add, subtract, minus good, bad, ugly, or I'll just give you the final thought.

[Adam Fullerton]

No, I just think it's important to dial in your icp. Like I said, over time, and that evolves. And one day it might be this type of customer and next year might be a different type of customer. And that's totally fine. Everything evolves just like we have evolved. And I'll do a, a hard, hard pitch here that if you're listening and you're that zero to a million or so and you're frustrated with your marketing, you don't have any marketing. You don't know how to establish your online presence. You don't know how to collect those reviews. You don't know how to do Google Ads. Guys, reach out to us, spainable.com. we're here to help and hook you guys up. So check us out whenever you. You get to it.

[Brian Fullerton]

There you go. Awesome. Well, this is a funny last thing I'll say here. Had a miss Call. See the transcribed voice. No, not my. Not this time. No, it was. Hi, my name's. I'm not gonna give his name from Chase bank back the. The location. Nothing urgent. Want to call to introduce myself? Your accounts came across my desk. They were recently assigned to me for your personal business account. Uh, give me a phone call back. Like, oh, basically his investment banker. Send me your Bitcoin, uh, private client banker. Well, gotta have some money in the bank to be a private client. So he got that wrong.

[Adam Fullerton]

Wrong number.

[Brian Fullerton]

That might have been before I built my home. So that's funny right there. So his ICP has shifted, if you know what I'm saying. But folks that call me for, like, investment banking, I'm like, dude, wrong guy. Your ICP is wrong. My favorite's Instagram. When Instagram starts showing me ads like Rolls Royce, I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna go buy a Rolls Royce. I'd be the first landscaper in town with a, with a Rolls Royce. So I, I. The ICP conversation, it's so wildly funny. It actually truly is. Like, let's now get the a National Geographic lifetime vacation type. Well, they're not lifetime. I mean, that's how I look at you can tell where my brain is at. They're like 75, 000 excursions. Yeah, you know, they'll take a little Boeing jet, 200 people, and they'll go like Istanbul, then Turkey, then Greece, and like, you know, it's a 75,0002month weekend trip. Exactly. Two month, three month vacation. And like, listen, I in retirement would love to do like those kind of trips. You know, that's just like ridiculous money. We're getting the magazines now. Just so we're clear, we opted into them. They did not send it to us. You don't hit a certain tier and like the word gets out, hey, they got money. We opted into them because I think we actually had to do an interview process before they wasted the, the paper

[Adam Fullerton]

to send it to us.

[Brian Fullerton]

Like, you guys can send us your tax returns and we'll see if we send you a magazine. I think that's how that actually worked. But it's always fun, like seeing whose ICP you are, seeing what ICPs out there in the marketplace. So when you, when you actually dial this in, you're, you're, you just become hyper aware. And I know, Adam, like you and I, when we drive down to an event and we're driving down the highway, you're just like, who is that brand? Who, what do they think they are? Who do they think they do? Who do they serve? If you can't figure it out in 12 seconds, they got work to do. And I'm like, Jesus, God. Like, I'm like, we're going to Chicago. Only four hours to go with this kind of stuff. But we do eat, sleep and breathe this. And we're really excited. We're, we're making a splash. 300 plus green industry businesses.

[Adam Fullerton]

Probably 350, maybe closer to 400 at this point. I don't even know anymore.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's insane. Real team of 10 over here. We're kicking butt. I mean, we were, look, just, you know, scheming and planning for Q3, Q4, equip and lal and all the great stuff that's coming down the pike. It's, it's going to be a really good year and we're here to help you guys out. Like, we got to get the phone to ring for all of you guys and we're here to help you do that. So, Adam, any final thoughts? But if not, we'll land the plane.

[Adam Fullerton]

No, I'm good. I appreciate being on as always, and I know so many of your listeners really reach out to us all the time and our customers as well. So we're always appreciative of every single customer we have. And so if you're a customer and you're listening, if you have questions, reach out to us. We definitely appreciate it. Without a doubt.

[Brian Fullerton]

Sweet. Awesome folks. Well, take these stories, share them, pass it along and tell your team, teach your team. You know, share this stuff with them. Thanks for sharing the podcast as well to another long bro long gal. We super appreciate the organic growth here. Uh, if we can do anything for you, shoot me a call, text, dm, email, carry pigeon, smoke signal, whatever you do, whatever you use. If you want to reach out to Adam and Brandon Bull, we'll leave all their information in the show. Notes brandonbull.com Let them know that you heard about us on the podcast. We'll get you hooked up and set up and that's what we got for you guys today. Hope everybody has a great day, has a great week, and we look forward to catching up with all of you guys here on the next one.

I'm going to make this simple. If you run a landscape or outdoor power equipment business, Equip XB position needs to be on your calendar October 20th through the 23rd in Louisville. This isn't a trade show where you walk around collecting pins. This is where you get hands on with equipment, find software that actually fits your operation, level up your cruise training and invest a few days in your own growth as a business owner. The contractors building real systems are the ones winning right now and equip is where everything comes together. The super early rate is $25 before May 31st. Go to equipexposition.com today to register. Register now at equipexposition.com or use the link in the podcast description. Save 50% off your registration when you apply the code. Brian at checkout we can't wait to

see you in Louisville.

[Podcast Producer]

Thanks for taking the time to listen to the Fullerton Unfiltered 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 Bryan 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 to go on out there and crush it with your own business.

[Brian Fullerton]

Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening and

[Podcast Producer]

we hope to see you on the next episode.

[Brian Fullerton]

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