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Brian Fullerton
You're now listening to the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast. Straightforward, no nonsense business advice, completely on unfiltered. Grow your business, grow your life. Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton.
Hey, what's going on guys? Welcome to another episode of the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast. It is your host, Brian Fullerton here hanging with you guys and good morning. Well, right now, real time it is a little over 10 o' clock at night here at the hotel room doing a road show for you guys. I want to make sure I have a Friday episode to give you guys a little shot of encouragement, enthusiasm, maybe a couple tips or ideas here today, hanging with you guys. And one thing I wanted to do is give a little bit of a real time update and debrief on the Arlington, Virginia Break Records tour. The very first spot in the very first stop that we did here down in Virginia. First things first, big shout out to Granum, big shout out to Element for hosting this event. And I wanted to give you guys just a couple of quick observations. Debrief. Not really here to give you a pitch on checking out the tour, although I do want to let you know that just like most of the stuff that we put out, it's about 5% element, 95% just a value add. Education, business education, how to run a successful company, et cetera, et cetera. The content was incredibly rich and very, very well received. We had a quick event survey already that went out and stellar, stellar feedback from the audience. We had 25 people here for the first one which was really, really exciting and actually real time. Tomorrow morning we're going to do the part two, which is the shop tour for the local host, which is no with Ionza Landscaping and they have a yard that's about the size from what I understand, about an acre. And they're doing like two and a half million dollars out of this shop. Very, very cool setup. So I'm very excited about hanging out with everybody tomorrow, maybe shooting some quick video while I'm there and bringing some of that back to you guys as well. I will just say as I record this podcast, late night, what a fun day. What a rich day. Like I'm, I'm honored. I'm humbled I was able to co lead the class with Sam Gumbel. Some of you guys out there are like fully. Tim, what kind of business do you have running an event like this? Well, I will tell you, it has been a lot of fun over the last two years, maybe two and a half years, really learning how to quote unquote, grow a real business. It's, it's actually been a lot of fun. I have learned a lot, a lot, a lot along the way. And this is the first time that I was able to kind of teach in a different fashion or manner about some of the breakthroughs that we've had with our business. Some of the ways we're approaching our numbers now with element and really just the general philosophy we have going into the business's growth is we've really doubled, if not tripled the business in the last 36 months. And it's been a phenomenal, phenomenal conversation. Now it also helps when you got big brother over here, Mr. Sam Gamble, who's on the road with us. They're doing 11 million at Atlas and they're kicking but taking names. Recently acquired about four or five months ago, if you guys know, Sam made that information public. But between both of us tag teaming folks, I'll tell you what, it was so much fun, so much good chemistry. The room was very well, like receiving the content that we're putting out. The folks in the audience were fantastic, by the way. We had a couple, two different guys that had ten plus million dollar businesses, two guys that I know for sure that had five plus million dollar businesses and a bunch of folks. I mean every revenue rung in between. We had some guys that were just getting started that were doing about 75 to 100 gram and then we had a bunch of folks that were doing as you might imagine, between 750 and two, two and a half million. And the conversations, interestingly enough, were no different than what you would imagine at a $250,000 company to a $3 million company, to a $10 million company. Just add a 1 at a 0 and the problems are just multiplied as you continue to get bigger. So the conversation was on finance, people, operations, AI habits and so, so much more. And it was just a rich one day classroom visit where we were able to really like get into the thick of it. I mean, there was so much knowledge shared and presented that these guys were able to take tangible suggestions, topics, trainings and bring them home to their business and implement them literally on Monday. That was the goal. And so I wanted to just share a couple of quick takeaways from the event here this morning. Because honestly, if you guys are looking to plug into one of these events or anything from the Element team, Random team, the webinars, the seminars, they've got a webinar series going on in June, totally free, another webinar series going on in July for snow, totally free. They've got a couple of boot camps that will help you get better with the software all summer and all fall. Those are a consistent schedule. They're already up on the website. They have a lot that they're putting into the community, into you guys all across the country. And we just, I just, honestly, I couldn't be more thankful, more excited and more humbled about the, the turnout. And again, this is the first one. Of course, we had our couple stumbling blocks or fumbles, a couple continuity conversations that we're going to have to fix some slides, fix a couple pages in the workbook, the notebook, the basics. But honestly, like a grade A minus grade on the first one that we read it back here over in Arlington, Virginia. A couple of things that stood out to me that I just want to cover for a couple of quick minutes and we'll probably keep this episode tight. First things first, I am just so continually impressed by the caliber of entrepreneurs and business owners that have been attending the Element events, the grand events. There's such a rich history and diversity of folks that are building beautiful lawn and landscape companies all across North America and Canada. And I will just tell you, it is a different crowd, is a different group. They, Element and Grantham themselves and really even Mark Bradley, you know, is the precursor to a lot of this as he passed the baton a little over a year, year and a half ago. They just pull a great crowd and the conversations, the education, the type of individual is just a more serious business owner type in general. And by the way, that's you guys listening into the podcast. That is my audience, my crowd, my folks, you guys, myself. Right? Especially as we all look to learn and grow and become more educated in the art of growing a successful business. Not just being a glorified owner, operator maybe or you know, somebody who's just in the field exclusively or solo and it's just you and yourself. But as we continue to grow these businesses and the folks that are attracted to the content that Mark and now Element is, you know, putting out, it's, it's just phenomenal. I mean these folks are fantastic. More people that are focused on systems, leadership, profitability, right? Not so much just the guys with a mower, the chuck in the truck maybe mentality, more, more of like a CEO approach to their business. And again, it was a eight and a half, nine hour discussionary workshop. Okay? It wasn't just top down speeches from, you know, Gam, Sam Gamble or myself. Point number two that I want to talk about was the hunger for growth is really, really evident and real in the classroom today. One thing I just like have to get off my chest. I had somebody trolling and commenting, you know, about two weeks ago, and they said, anybody who's going to this event is literally a comment on Instagram. And I'm thinking to myself, first off, I know this dude. I know this dude's business. He's. He's a joker on Instagram, He's a clown and he knows it. He's just a troll that's out there. And I've seen his post before on other people's pages. And I'm thinking to myself, dude, first off, you have a guy, you know, leading an $11 million company is what I'm thinking, leading an incredible training workshop for 5, 6, 7, 800 bucks, whatever the number was, whatever the investment was to get here. And I'm thinking to myself, what other opportunity do you have to get around somebody like that set at the feet, humbly put, of some of the folks, not only like the gambles and maybe myself, if I'd be ever so honored to say that humbly, but somebody like a Mark Sedgley and you know, a lot of the great folks, part of the Element Granum team, who are incredible, incredible individuals in their own right. But to say anybody who's going to go into this thing is just clearly getting bamboozled. It. It really made me want to show up and show out even more, to pour in to everybody there, whether they needed help with their numbers operations, people, or just to, you know, be loved on, you know what I mean? And just to show some compassion and some love and that, hey, I'm proud of you, brother, like, you're doing a great job, whatever that looked like. I just wanted to go all in and all out for everybody that showed up today. And I'll just tell you, the folks that were here, we already did like a quick little post event survey. I mean, just incredible feedback and remarks from everybody that said, this was incredible, this was awesome. The thank you, thank you, thank you. And I don't say that to encourage anybody to get there. I don't say that to say, wow, we were great. I say that because when you make the investment to come and you want to have some breakthrough, get some clarity, get some and really, you know, elevate your business. That is a good sign that what we're putting out, folks need, folks are looking for and they're able to take that, put it into their business, you know, just in a couple of days or 48 hours from now or the following week to start getting continuous traction and more traction in their business. Right. We're talking about scaling and recruiting. There's a lot of conversation about sales and marketing leadership for sure. AI you know, I know that's kind of a, maybe more of a buzz trend, but elements making a huge investment into AI Mowing lawns is one thing.
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And so I just wanted to mention the caliber of the folks just, just continues to grow and to elevate at these events. The hunger that the folks were looking for and pursuing in terms of knowledge and maybe some nuance, right, for some breakthrough was very evident today. And last but not least, I'll say the relationships that we strengthened today and built new relationships today was very, very real and very tangible. And for me, believe it or not, I, I might be ever so inclined. And again, if I was honest with you, I'm finding way more enjoyment than I ever have before. Opposite of my, you know, normal personality type to go on out there and make new friends. And it's a lot of fun. I got to be honest with you guys, I met so many great people here today. Some that have seen some of our content and knew who I was in general, and some who have never seen any of my content or even anything from Sam in general and from, you know, a spectrum of everything in between, as you might imagine. But the relationships and the friendships that we made exchange numbers with a half dozen people, couple people followed on Instagram. I followed back, you know, the whole deal. And it was just, it was just real, authentic people. Folks that knew some of the folks from the Element team, some of the Element team that was able to pour into those folks at some of the breaks and at lunch, whether it was a demo, all the way to somebody helping, you know, with a nuanced part of their account if they were already an LMN member or customer. Right. The relationships are really what I find so much value on the road and what we're doing. And for me personally, it was just so cool to have this outreach, right? Like being able to go and hang out with so many great folks and so many new friends along the way. The conversations in the hallways, the conversations just in the hotel lobby. We went out to dinner with a bunch of great folks. That, that was just a fantastic time. You're cutting up, you're laughing, you're me telling, telling, telling stories or talking junk. It was just, dude, it was just a great time right at the end of the day. And honestly, it's really fun and cool. I know a couple guys took a couple photos with myself and whatnot. And it's like, dude, I've been watching your videos for years and years and years. And dude, it's so cool to see this like, new wave of you and this new season and this new content and the upswing that you're on. And I'm like, dude, thank you. Like, thank you for recognizing that. Thank you for the kind words, thank you for the encouragement. Like, I'm a real person too. On the other end of this podcast, on the other end of this microphone, trying to do what you guys are doing and you guys are in some ways and shape or forms, right? Hopefully trying to do what I'm trying to do. And it was just a really, really an intangible that I didn't think that I would necessarily, you know, pull from the event, which was making new friends along the way. And by the way, knowing with Ivanza, an incredible dude, an incredible host, we get to go hang out with him for a half a day tomorrow. I can't wait to strengthen that relationship and friendship. Got to make friends with him at grow. Just a couple of months back, didn't know from Adam and now he's like my Hispanic brother from another mother. Okay, like, that's what this is all about. I will just tell you the things that resonated with me the most was honestly the financial clarity. I do want to just mention that for a quick second. There was so much great conversation. We're supposed to do a five minute demo on Element. That's literally all we had slated the Element platform part of this eight, nine hour day workshop. And we ended up spending 35 to 40 minutes because we had so much questions about estimates, price list, budgets. We did. We talked about the golden hammer. We talked about moors, multiple overhead recovery. We talked about labor burden. Honestly, like terms and glossary and definitions that I honestly didn't know just two or three years ago, and to see 10, 20, 25 people's light bulbs turn on, you know, over their head and to finally start that journey or go on that journey or to start that pilgrimage themselves was truly, truly remarkable. I just can't speak highly about it enough. The questions that folks were asking before, the questions that folks were a asking after all the stories seem to connect with a lot of the attendees, right? And they were just very, very real conversations. You know, hiring VAs and promoting crew leads and everything in between. I'll just tell you guys this. There is a workbook that we follow. There is an action plan, There is a 90 day sprint. There is a, I think it was 18 different takeaways that we have with six different modules, with a three action steps that we put this whole thing together. And it's a real workbook, It's a real roadmap, It's a real marching orders for what you can do over the next 90 days. And I'll just tell you what, it gave me a lot of hope. At the end of the day is where I'll just wrap up about the whole event in the conference in general. Because, you know, you put out an event, you put a date in the calendar and you're thinking to yourself, dude, you know, hopefully some people show up right at the end of the day and to have 11 pre registrations a little over or a little under a week ago. And we're like, look, we don't care if 11 people shop or 1100. This is our first time. We're doing the Break Records tour. We're going on tour. We don't know what to expect. But I'll tell you, just, you know, the nature of some of us with landscaping. Got to check the weather, check the crew, see how things are going, and we'll decide the day of or the day before. And we get it. We totally respect that. I get it. I'm the same way. We try to avoid that, right? You know, in a way like LAL, we sell 75 plus tickets, almost like 25 to 30, 35% of the event. About two to three weeks before the conference tickets actually go offline. We get it. We understand, like, got to check the weather, make sure everything's good to go back at home. But it was just so cool that 25 plus people ended up making it out. And just to see again the hope that all these folks had leaving the room today, everybody was excited, everybody was charged up. And I'm just thinking about this guy that was trolling Anybody who goes to that is just, is just silly and wasting their money. And how, how ridiculous for you to charge 800 bucks. And I'm thinking to myself, dude, every single person there, I didn't take this exact poll, but I guarantee you said they got their money's worth and will probably pay as much or more if they could set in a class like that and hear somebody like Sam Gamble roll for eight or nine hours or Mark Sedgley, the CEO of LMN roll for two different 45 minute sessions. Yeah, what I mean, so I do want to just spend a quick minute. It's not so much to promote the tour, to get you there. We would love to have you there if you want to go and check it out. Break Records Tour, just type it into google or golm.combreak-records I have that memorized now because I've said it a thousand times. We'd love to have you there if you want to check it out. It is a nominal investment for sure. It's going to cost you a flight, hotel and your ticket, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But it's an investment into you, it's an investment into your education, it's an investment into your business, it's an investment into your team and your future. And honestly, that's just probably where I'm going to leave it here tonight. It was so awesome. I just got to tell you, the folks that we met today were so cool, so, well receiving, so encouraging. It was a great discussion. Nothing was top down. And I feel like all of us, honestly all of us were better for it. And so that's just my quick Arlington, Virginia recap on the first Break Records tour. Hopefully just I was able to share with you guys a couple of minutes what impacted me the most. Until next time, folks, I'll just let you know. Keep growing, keep chasing excellence with everything that you guys are doing. It is so cool to see so many of you guys out there across the fruited plane. Whether you're in Virginia, whether you're in Columbia. One guy flew in all the way in from like Miami. He's originally from Columbia. Whether you're from folks all over Baltimore and the east coast, whether you're from Chicago, Tennessee, doesn't matter. Like it was great just seeing people flying in from all over the country that had the same mission and vision to, you know, run a successful lawn and landscaping business and to take care of their team. And so that being said, just a quick debrief. I had to share that one it was fresh off my mind and on my heart. What an incredible time. What a. What a. What a humbling experience. You know, one. One big takeaway. And last thing, I'll just say we were doing the class, and we're talking about lean and some lean principles and overhead. And, you know, I said, yeah, you know, it's kind of like the Golden Hammer Hammer conversation. And Campbell goes, well, we'll talk to him about that for a quick second. That's a great thing. You got that award that you guys actually do at Brian's Law Maintenance. And I said, for sure, you know, and I said, we got the Golden Hammer Award. Said, who here has ever heard the. The Mark Bradley ism of the Golden Hammer? And nobody in the whole room, believe it or not, had actually heard the Axiom or the. Whatever you call it, the Bradleyism of the Golden Hammer Award. And if you never heard it, it's a. It's just a fun, quick story. It's, you know, if you leave the shop when you forget a tool and you take five steps this way and you got to go back, it's five steps back, you'll get the tool. Then you got to go all the way back to the job site that, you know, is, what, 15 steps, if you will, right? Because we made a mistake and we forgot something, and this very simple and crude analogy. And I said, you know, the. The analogy is if you got a $25 shovel, that's now a $300 shovel, because lost revenue, lost wages, etc. Etc. Really lost revenue production in the field. Especially if you're doing hardscaping, you know, a couple hundred dollars an hour per guy, that could be 500 to $1,000 worth of revenue production for that, you know, mistaken hour or two in the mistake of leaving that shovel or tool or part or supply at the shop or the yard, right? And I had raised my hand. I'm like, nobody's ever heard the Golden Hammer story. And as I was telling it, I was like, thinking to myself, dude, don't mess this up. Like, you got big shoes to fill with somebody like a Mark Bradley, who used to teach and train this every single week for 20 years out in the field, if you will, doing webinars and seminars like this all across the country. And it was a kind of a proud, proud moment for myself to share this funny story that I'm sure everybody listening in, especially if you listen to my podcast regularly at all, you've heard this analogy at least once, if not, you know, 100 times before. But for example, in a room of some great folks, especially with some strong businesses in there. Had never heard that analogy before. And I was like, fullerton, don't mess this up. Like, you got one chance to get not only the analogy correct, but to pay homage to somebody like a Mark Bradley. And I told it, I believe, correctly, which was great and fun. And you just saw the light bulbs going off. And that was one of obviously, you know, hundreds and hundreds of nuanced tips and suggestions that were proposed here today. And so I found a lot of pride, a lot of proud, you know, moments, sharing today because somebody has taken the time to share important to me, you know, this kind of content and this kind of topic and this kind of education and this kind of thought process and the mindset to grow, to grow the way that we have in the last year or two. And we have a lot of more growth to do and to grow. But I'll just tell you what, what a, what a humbling experience to be able to pass maybe just some of that wisdom and knowledge onto the next guy. Amen. And so where I'll just leave you guys today, please, please check out an event, check out a conference, you know, this one or any other one we'd be honored to see on the road, see on tour somewhere, somewhere shape or form as you guys are looking to grow, looking to scale, looking to get the clarity that you guys need to have those same breakthroughs and to break records with your guys's business. And so that's where I'll leave you guys here tonight. I'm about to shut it down. My voice is already gone. I'm losing my voice from talking all freaking day. But I'll tell you what, it's worth it. And we got seven more of these across the country. We're taking the month of June off. And then we've got like two in July, one in August, two in September, one in October, one or two in November. Like, it is going to be a busy, busy next six or seven months. And we hope to see you on the road at one of these or at least at another conference or event sometime this year. So that's where I'll leave you guys today. I love you. I appreciate you. Thanks for listening in. I'm gonna turn it over and going to bed. And we look forward to catching up with all you guys here. On the next episode. Have a great day, guys.
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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.
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Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening and
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we hope to see see you on the next episode.
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Host: Brian Fullerton
Date: May 29, 2026
In this energetic late-night episode, Brian Fullerton delivers a real-time debrief from his hotel room following the kickoff of the Granum Break Records Tour in Arlington, Virginia. The episode is packed with insights from the tour's inaugural event—a hands-on business education day for lawn and landscape company owners, co-led by Brian and Sam Gamble of Atlas—plus candid stories, practical takeaways, and the palpable excitement of building community in the green industry.
Event Setting:
Event Goals:
Wide range of business sizes and experiences
Owners hungry for professional growth and transformation
“The caliber of entrepreneurs and business owners that have been attending the Element events, the grand events... there’s such a rich history and diversity of folks that are building beautiful lawn and landscape companies all across North America and Canada.” (13:05, Brian)
Notable Attendee Mix:
“The relationships that we strengthened today and built new relationships today was very, very real and very tangible… Opposite of my, you know, normal personality type to go on out there and make new friends. And it’s a lot of fun.” (12:45, Brian)
Exchange of contact information and new friendships forged
Organic hallway conversations, group dinners, and authentic networking
Memorable Moment:
“If you got a $25 shovel, that’s now a $300 shovel… because lost revenue, lost wages, etc. Especially if you’re doing hardscaping, a couple hundred dollars an hour per guy, that could be $500 to $1,000 worth of revenue production for that … mistake.” (21:00, Brian)
“Had never heard that analogy before. And I was like, Fullerton, don’t mess this up. Like, you got one chance to get not only the analogy correct, but to pay homage to somebody like a Mark Bradley… you just saw the light bulbs going off.” (21:58, Brian)
On business transformation:
On community value:
On making the leap:
Brian closes with heartfelt gratitude, reflecting on the privilege and responsibility of participating in the community’s collective growth journey:
“What a humbling experience to be able to pass maybe just some of that wisdom and knowledge onto the next guy. Amen.” (22:35, Brian)
The energy and value packed into this debut event set a high bar for the rest of the tour, showcasing the power of peer learning, professional development, and the relationships that propel small business owners forward.
If you’re considering investing in your business growth, this episode illustrates the ROI—both tangible and intangible—of joining industry-leading workshops, building relationships, and chasing operational excellence. The next Break Records Tour stops (after a June break) resume in July and run through November.