980. The People Intensive Compilation: Industry Leaders Share Their Best Team-Building Lessons

Summary

Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast – Episode 980

The People Intensive Compilation: Industry Leaders Share Their Best Team-Building Lessons

Host: Brian Fullerton
Date: June 19, 2026

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Episode Overview

This special compilation episode features a series of insightful mini-interviews conducted by Brian Fullerton during the Leanscaper People Intensive event in Chicago. The main theme is team-building and people management—a foundational topic for business owners working to elevate their operations and leadership skills. Industry leaders and high-achievers share their best lessons, practical advice, and personal experiences on building strong teams, improving company culture, and becoming better leaders.
If you’re looking for real-world, unfiltered takeaways on growing your business through people, this episode is packed with actionable nuggets to help you finish your week strong.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Importance of People in Business (Brian Fullerton)

• [00:21–04:44] Brian frames the episode around how business success ultimately comes down to people—customers, employees, and partners.
• Emphasizes personal growth as a leader and communicator.
• “Business would be so easy… if it didn’t involve people. But people are everything.” – Brian Fullerton [01:00]

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2. Interview Clip: Jeremiah – Growing Green Podcast

[05:45–09:39]

• Growth Through Struggles:
  • “It's only a failure if you don't learn from it.” – Jeremiah [06:51]
  • Last year was challenging with the first real business struggles.
• Getting Out of the Comfort Zone:
  • Faced new challenges with larger projects and more complexity.
• People-Focused Culture:
  • “Make your people feel valued and ask the questions, have the meetings, do those things even when you don't think you need to.” – Jeremiah [08:02]
  • Losing valuable team members prompted a focus on nurturing culture and communication.
• The Human Element in a High-Tech Age:
  • “Even in a world where AI is taking over, people still want that people connection. That's never going away.” – Jeremiah [09:02]
• Key Takeaway:
  • Pouring into your people ensures they’ll pour back into your business.

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3. Interview Clip: Mark Sedgley, CEO of Granum (formerly LMN)

[10:08–15:23]

• Leading Through Change:
  • Granum underwent a major integration: “One company, one team, one mission.” – Mark Sedgley [11:32]
• Expansion with Intention:
  • Investing in new platform capabilities and intelligence to better serve customers.
• Building Teams with Intention:
  • “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – Mark Sedgley [12:34]
• Defining and Elevating Talent:
  • Success relies on identifying “A” and “B” players and developing them—“If you don't define that, your team's going to tell you what it looks like versus you.” [13:10]
• Beware of ‘Potential’:
  • Don’t fall in love with potential—act decisively with under-performers.
  • “Potential is potential, and that's all it is.” – Mark Sedgley [14:33]

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4. Interview Clip: Mike Arnold, Creekside Outdoor Living

[15:36–26:51]

• Business Evolution:
  • From humble beginnings to a 10-crew operation over 18 years.
• Company Culture is Everything:
  • Mike credits mentor Sam Gimble for infusing the importance of culture:
    • “I was just the guy… here's the task, here's the person, here's the instruction. Let's do it…I wasn't intentional about culture.” – Mike Arnold [21:25]
• Protecting Culture at All Costs:
  • Fired a high-level executive after only six months for degrading the culture.
    • “You can train a good attitude… if someone degrades the culture, it doesn't matter their skills.” [21:44]
• Emotional Intelligence & Engagement:
  • Leaders must focus on emotional intelligence and employee experience.
  • “In 2026, you have to be a leader with emotional intelligence. You cannot be a drill sergeant.” – Mike Arnold [23:31]
• Dealing with Pain Points:
  • Confront the hardest problems directly—“You cannot move forward … if you are not confronting those hard things.” [25:19]

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5. Interview Clip: Kevin Dorsey “KD”, Leanscaper – Onboarding and A-Player Attraction

[28:01–37:56]

• Accelerated Team Integration:
  • Developed a seven-page “Working With KD" document for new organizations to speed up relationship-building.
    • “We skip the 6, 9, 12 months of getting to know each other, feeling it out, walking on eggshells.” – Kevin Dorsey [30:36]
• Hyper Self-Awareness:
  • Encourages everyone to draft a “Who I am” and “How I work” guide, referencing Ray Dalio’s “Principles.”
• Attracting A-Players:
  • “A players aren’t only after money. They want control, vision, autonomy.” [36:06]
  • Go where A-players are—events, masterminds, communities.
• Empowering Top Talent:
  • “Too often, founders will hire an A player and then manage them like a B…Let them come in and do what they do.” – KD [36:44]
• Vision is Contagious:
  • Be passionate, give autonomy and resources, and A-players will want to build with you.

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6. Interview Clip: Christian Schlegel, CNI Services

[38:01–41:28]

• Business Growth Trajectory:
  • From a solo fifteen-year-old mowing lawns to a 17-person team over 13 years.
• Leverage Infrastructure:
  • Recent hires (account manager, designer) enabled Christian to focus on building systems instead of working in the weeds.
  • “When I’m working on systems, the company, and the people, I feel like I’m building something for the future.” – Christian Schlegel [40:32]
• Stepping into Leadership:
  • Overcame hesitation, embraced leadership, and saw explosive business growth.
• Continuous Improvement:
  • “Every day’s a challenge and I feel like I’m not doing enough, but I know we’re all in the same boat.” [40:21]

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7. Interview Clip: Tommy Cole, Leanscaper

[42:28–46:40]

• From Architect to Operations Chief:
  • Built processes to scale a company from $4 million to $30 million.
• Stop Chasing Unicorns—Build Your Team:
  • “Stop trying to find the unicorn and build the team that you have.” – Tommy Cole [44:09]
  • Focus on dialing in process, culture, accountability, and continuous improvement rather than waiting for the perfect teammate.
• Onboarding & Pay-for-Performance:
  • Leanscaper will be rolling out tools for onboarding, recruiting, and pay-for-performance.

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8. Interview Clip: Christian Visalis, Leanscaper Tech Integrator

[46:49–54:04]

• The Rise of the Tech Integrator:
  • “Tech enablement” is becoming a key strategic role in landscaping.
  • “At some point, there’s going to be a lot of new technologies…someone who can integrate it all together will be a critical hire.” – Christian Visalis [48:04]
• Reducing Complexity:
  • Integrators translate owner/leader know-how into systems and SOPs for the team.
  • “Let me take that fire hose away…let me build operational efficiency and delegate.” [49:22]
• AI as an Organizational Asset:
  • Tools like Leanscaper’s “Lana” AI streamline learning, SOP access, and task delegation directly from a mobile device.
  • “AI is not here to take over your job. AI is here to help you do your job so you can focus on what matters.” – Christian Visalis [53:03]
• Give Back and Teach:
  • “If I know something, why would I keep it to myself? That’s my why—help others and let the knowledge ripple.” [53:33]

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Notable Quotes

• “Make your people feel valued…even when you don't think you need to.” – Jeremiah [08:02]
• “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – Mark Sedgley [12:34]
• “You can train a good attitude… if someone degrades the culture, it doesn't matter their skills.” – Mike Arnold [21:44]
• “A-players want control. Let us do what we do.” – Kevin Dorsey [36:16]
• “Stop trying to find the unicorn and build the team that you have.” – Tommy Cole [44:09]
• “The future is actually yesterday.” – Christian Visalis [48:13]
• “AI is not here to take over your job. AI is here to make you do your job better.” – Christian Visalis [53:03]

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Timestamps for Main Segments

• 00:21–04:44 — Brian's episode intro and event background
• 05:45–09:39 — Jeremiah: Growth, struggles, and valuing people
• 10:08–15:23 — Mark Sedgley: Team integration, A/B player frameworks, rewarding investment in people
• 15:36–26:51 — Mike Arnold: Culture over skills, emotional intelligence, and confrontation of issues
• 28:01–37:56 — KD: Team integration, self-awareness, hiring and retaining A-players
• 38:01–41:28 — Christian Schlegel: Infrastructure through people, business growth
• 42:28–46:40 — Tommy Cole: Systems and process over unicorn hires
• 46:49–54:04 — Christian Visalis: Tech integration, operational efficiency, AI in landscaping

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Conclusion

The People Intensive event offered a masterclass in team-building, leadership, and organizational development, with honest insights and action items to help business owners break through people problems and focus on building thriving, future-ready operations. Whether you’re leading five or fifty, the message is clear: Invest in your people, define your culture, systematize your processes, and leverage technology to make the team—and the business—more resilient and successful.

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Follow the guests:

• Jeremiah: [Growing Green Podcast | Instagram]
• Mark Sedgley: [Granum]
• Mike Arnold: [Creekside Outdoor Living | Instagram @creekside_outdoor_living]
• Kevin Dorsey: [LinkedIn]
• Christian Schlegel: [CNI Services | Instagram @cni_services_llc]
• Tommy Cole: [Leanscaper | Instagram]
• Christian Visalis: [LinkedIn]

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Listen. Implement. Grow. See you on the next episode!

Transcript

[Brian Fullerton]

Foreign. You're now listening to the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast.

[Christian Visalis]

Straightforward, no nonsense business advice, completely on unfiltered.

[Brian Fullerton]

Grow your business, grow your life.

Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Hey, what's going on, guys?

[Brian Fullerton]

Welcome to another episode of the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast. It is your host, Brian Fullerton here hanging with you guys and good morning. Well, I will tell you guys what. This is a podcast episode. I'm going to do something a little bit different. We're going to compile a bunch of clips that I was able to grab with a whole bunch of folks over at the leanscaper People Intensive over in Chicago. And that was here just a couple of days back on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I will tell you what, that whole event deserves its own debrief and dissertation because it was probably one of the best things that I've ever been to ever. And the reason for it, not only was it great content, great speakers, great lineup, great information, but it was during and for a topic that something that I've been trying to, you know, get better at for 20 plus years and that is the topic of working better with people and not only with the folks that I get to work with myself, right? I as I want to become a, a better leader, a better communicator, a better friend, a better husband, a better dad, a better everything, right? And they always say like, you know, hey, business would be like so easy if it didn't involve people, right? And then go figure, here I am 20 years ago, I'm like, you know what I'm going to do? Go into business for myself and talk to customers and hire folks and lead people. Like, holy cow, right? So what we're going to do is I'll do a dissertation on the whole event here over the next couple of days. And it was a fantastic time. Great company, great folks, great content. No doubt about it. While I was there, two quick, two quick things I want to mention over the next, you know, couple of minutes. Number one, we are going to have a bunch of shows release from the event. I was able to get a couple of great interviews with some folks like Frank Bork, Jason Cromley, a couple of the keynote speakers, some really, really like high performing, high level individuals. And we had a great, you know, boots on the ground. Give me the 20, 30 minute, like what's life been? Give me the last six months. Give me the last two years. The keynote folks were able to share a little bit more. We had Eric Tremonde and Jennifer Hubie Moscow, I think is how you say her last name. And she was the, the vision gal that was there. Is that one of the keynotes? Like just great speeches, great conversations with everybody. So we have like four or five shows there and then again we're going to do a compilation video or compilation podcast today. So that's what I wanted to share with you guys here on today's Just, hey, like, you know, what's your thoughts, what's your debrief? Give me two minutes. Like, what's new?

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

What's shaking?

[Brian Fullerton]

What's bacon? And there's actually a lot of like tips and nuggets through all these little interviews that we were able to snag for, you know, three to ten minutes per person. And so we got a little round wrapping here that I want to share with you guys today. Last thing I'll just say is launchpinner Academy live tickets are going to go on sale here in just a couple of weeks. Looking forward to like the week of the 24th, 25th.ish. Like that Wednesday or Thursday to keep you guys head on a swivel. We'll be announcing the speaker lineup here very soon. We're going to be announcing the, the tickets when they're going to go on sale very soon. We've got a lot of great stuff coming down the pike. So I did want to mention that because outside of like, hey, like, change my business, change my life, great conversations, great handshakes, great folks that I was able to meet there. Number one question was, hey, how's the family? Number two question, hey, when are LAL tickets coming? And I was like, dude, that's actually really cool, really thoughtful, really appreciate that. So a lot of folks there, part of our ecosystem and again the, the ecosystem I'm plugging into with the Leanscaper community and Mark Bradley's, you know, posse and entourage, it was just an incredible couple of days, an incredible group and I was very, very fortunate and excited to grab these interviews for you guys. So without further ado, let's throw all these together. We'll try to stitch them together, do the best that we can. We'll get this on over to you guys and hopefully this helps you guys finish up the week strong. By the way, you know, it's been a beautiful spring rush, a good, you know, eight or 10 weeks under our belt and we just got up of operator week last week with lmn. We've got a couple more grandm tours coming up here in July. Break Records tour is hitting the highways and byways. We've got seven stops in the next, like, four months. It's going to be a. It's going to be an incredible time. Very, very busy. A lot of time on the road right now. Real time. We're taking a vacation with the family. So that's where I'm going to leave it. With everything that we're doing over here, we work hard, we're going to pivot, we're going to play hard, take a couple of days off and vacation. As you guys are listening to this, we are up North Michigan, but nonetheless, always with you guys in spirit as you guys finish up the week, as we're finishing up the week as well.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

All right, that's what I got for you, fam. Just a quick little update. Little round robin.

[Brian Fullerton]

Brian's 10. Everywhere you go for cycle, LMN equipment, Defender, Cujo's, the usuals. Thank you guys so much for using our codes. We had a couple people signing up with LMN just a couple days ago at leanscaper. I don't take that for granted. We had somebody use their gusto link again the other day. Got a couple, you know, bucks there, and you guys save a couple bucks, which is nice. So, folks, thank you so much. For real.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

At the bottom of my heart, thank

[Brian Fullerton]

you so much for all the love and all the support. It meant the world to me getting to see so many of you guys as we podcasted live at the leanscape event in Chicago. And I can't thank you guys enough for all the kind words, all the support, all the love, and it's so. It's so cool. It's so cool hearing you guys grow, hear your stories and what you guys are excited about and for good reason, right? Like, there's good opportunity here to grow our businesses and to drop it down a gear, take it up a notch and really make some good money doing this thing. Amen. Let's get to our first interview, and we will look forward to jumping on into it. Let's go.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

All right, gang, we're hopping back on into it here.

[Brian Fullerton]

We got our next guest on the firing line running through the. The hallway here with his hair on fire.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

No, I'm just kidding.

[Brian Fullerton]

But, Jeremiah, you actually got the. Great looking here this morning.

[Christian Schlegel]

You got the.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah, I know. You throwing me this headset on earlier,

[Brian Fullerton]

it's going to mess it up. I know. My. My third kid, Beckham, he's got curls. Oh, we were always like, if he's got hair, like Jeremiah. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying, so.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah. Both of ours. Jack and Tate.

[Christian Schlegel]

Both.

[Jeremiah]

Tate's hair's coming in and the curls are curling.

[Brian Fullerton]

Is it really?

[Jeremiah]

Jax was crazy when he was a baby.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Okay.

[Jeremiah]

His was super curly.

[Brian Fullerton]

Is still curly. No, once you get out.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah. Once you get cut, they're gone.

[Brian Fullerton]

There he goes. Oh, geez. Don't hit the button. Mr. Mr. Caleb Allman. Anything for a shout out, you know what I mean? But, Jeremiah, give me. Give me the two minute man. We got everybody round robin. What? Shaking and bacon. Growing green podcast, growing landscapes. For anybody who doesn't know you, give them the 32nd and give me the two minutes, man.

[Jeremiah]

Wild time. Wild time to be alive. Super glad to be here in. Where are we?

[Mark Sedgley]

Chicago.

[Jeremiah]

I feel like I'm becoming a world traveler just because these lean skipper events, but. Right. It's been a. It's been a good year. The last 12 months have been a. It's been a pretty challenging time in business.

[Brian Fullerton]

I said, I've been listening to your show. I'm like, it's a good year. You're. You're like, hey, we've had some difficult landscape jobs.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

I'm like, you're like, smiling through your teeth.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah.

[Jeremiah]

100% like, yeah. Yeah. My life, making it. No, it has been good. It's been a lot of learning. You know, I always say it's only a failure if you don't learn from it. Right. And so true failure. Make it through the trials and. And. And everybody's gonna have this time in business. Right. I've only been in business for seven years, so there's good. And I had not had anything up until this last year that were real. That was really, like, struggle. Challenging. Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's like. But you probably also, like, you're getting out of your comfort zone now more than for sure. Like, you did your first six figure job.

[Jeremiah]

Y. Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's huge.

[Christian Visalis]

Yeah.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

I.

[Brian Fullerton]

And. And you were telling some numbers and showing some stuff, and I'm like, yeah, like, dude, we had to double cut a lawn the other day. It was terrible.

[Christian Schlegel]

You know.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah. Lost a thimble of gas.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

You know.

[Jeremiah]

No, hey, it's.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's all.

[Jeremiah]

It's all relative. Right? That's awesome.

[Brian Fullerton]

So where you guys going for the

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

rest of the summer? Give me the one more minute.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah, it's been good. We're on a big growth curve still. We're still. We're still shooting to grow, and so we've restructured a little bit, bringing some really key players in. We're at the People intensive right now. And that, that is really what we're focusing on is just like hammering down, bringing good people in and making sure we build a culture to where they want to stay and grow. That's really what the, the gist is.

[Brian Fullerton]

Justice.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

Give me, give me your biggest, like, takeaway, you know, win, loss, aha moment. Give me, give me something that's tangible for the guys this last six months.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah, I, I think it does come down to like, make your people feel valued and ask the questions, have the meetings, do those things even when you

[Brian Fullerton]

don't think you need to.

[Jeremiah]

That's been my biggest, like, realization. We lost a couple good guys and it was like, okay, well, I'm doing something wrong. Like, they're not, they're not leaving for, for some, for like, for just randomly right there. There's a reason behind. And so even if you're not mistreating somebody, right. They just may feel like you're not getting what they, what they want or need. So just make sure your people are valued as you grow a team. Like, don't, don't forget about your people and make sure that they know what's going on. Clear communication and pour into them. The more you pour into them, they'll pour back into you.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's good. It's. And what better place to learn, like you said, than the people attensive.

[Jeremiah]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

I'm excited about being here myself because, dude, like, as you know, it's about business and nothing but people. And it's customer people, employ people. Everything around you is people. And my. One of the things that I feel like is a victory for me is being able to work better with people. The whole. Holy cow. I have a lot of work to do.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

A lot.

[Brian Fullerton]

Like, this has always been the biggest struggle of my life is working with people.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

And I'm just not naturally a people person.

[Jeremiah]

And in a world of where AI has taken over, like the way that it is, it's. It's still showing. Like people want that people connection. Like that's never going to go away.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Jeremiah]

And Marcus said that from day one, building landscapers, like, this is all cool and great, but like, you still have to know how to talk to people.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

So high tech and high touch. Give me, give me the good old. Where can people find you, man?

[Jeremiah]

Yeah, podcast on social media, podcast platforms, growing your landscapes on Instagram and stuff.

[Brian Fullerton]

So coming out, you're set up here with, with a podcast mixer as well. So going to be having a bunch

[Jeremiah]

of great shows, great shows coming Out. Great guest.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Growing Green podcast. Go check it out. And Cultivated Mondays.

[Tommy Cole]

Yep.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Awesome.

[Brian Fullerton]

Monday, Wednesday, back to Monday, Wednesday, Friday show.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah, we're gonna try it.

[Brian Fullerton]

Let's go, let's go.

[Jeremiah]

All right, Gold into the jungle.

[Brian Fullerton]

I love it. All right, guys, over now, and let's see who we got on deck next.

[Announcer]

This year, Launcherpreneur Academy Live is built for the whole team. Join us November 7th at Vibe Credit Union showplace in Novi, Michigan for hands on learning, expanded breakout sessions, and crew leader training designed to help your business grow. Group rates are available, so you can bring the entire crew to this can't miss team building event.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

All right, guys, up next on deck,

[Brian Fullerton]

we've got the man, the myth, the legend. You know him, you love him. Mark Sedgley with lmn. What's going on, brother?

[Mark Sedgley]

What's up, Brian?

[Kevin Dorsey]

How are you?

[Brian Fullerton]

Doing good. Doing good. You've got the whole Granum team here. You guys are enforced, man. How's it going?

[Mark Sedgley]

Great. Yeah. I love these events because it gets us so close to our customers and the energy and the vibe that's created when you're around the people that you serve is, you know, kind of irreplaceable.

[Brian Fullerton]

You were over there shaking hands, kissing babies or shaking babies. Kissing hands, whatever.

[Mark Sedgley]

Saying the babies, that's actually frowned upon

[Brian Fullerton]

these days, at least in the States. Yeah, you know how that goes. The. Are you speaking today, by the way?

[Mark Sedgley]

I am not.

[Brian Fullerton]

No.

[Mark Sedgley]

No, no.

[Brian Fullerton]

Okay. There's, like, a rare chance that you're not. I know you have shared at one of the one or two of the Leanscape events, so that's cool. CEO of Granum.

[Mark Sedgley]

Correct.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's been, what, like a year or so with the. The rebrand, the transition, the consolidation and nothing but. Honestly, good feedback. And the sky's the limit. Right?

[Mark Sedgley]

That's. That's the way it feels like. You know, we approach every day as a new opportunity to share what Grantham's all about. And, you know, our mission is to help our customers create customers for life, because if we do, we feel like they'll be our customers for life.

[Brian Fullerton]

So give me. Give me the last 12 months. Give me the next 12 months. Where are we at right now? A little timestamp. Grantham. Like, what are you excited about?

[Mark Sedgley]

Yeah, I mean, I would think about the last 12 months as what you would expect from, like, a large merger acquisition, integration. You know, we spent a lot of time, you know, letting the dust settle, bringing teams together. Last year, we said one company, one team, one mission.

[Brian Fullerton]

Okay.

[Mark Sedgley]

And so we spent 12 months building that like we wanted to create our own culture, create our own identity, and then bring that to the market. And I think we have. And so this year is all about expanding the horizons now.

[Christian Visalis]

Yeah.

[Mark Sedgley]

And so we're bringing a lot of great functionality to the platform. We're expanding its ability and capabilities to impact our customers lives every day. And we're going to start layering in intelligence all the good things that you're reading about. Yeah. In the news and maybe happy about or not so happy about.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mark Sedgley]

It cuts both ways. But I would think of it as integration and expansion.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's awesome. That's awesome. When you come to an event like this, mark your CEO, you've got several hundreds of folks that you know are on the ship and you're stewarding. What's give me your best takeaway people suggestion. You know, the. The whole theme of the weekend is people. So give me your best thought with working with people. I know you're a big, you know, connector integrator. Like you said, you live on the road, being in front of the customer. What's like something that sticks out to you that is like a great suggestion for people that are trying to get better at working with people.

[Mark Sedgley]

Yeah. Somebody said to me a long time ago, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And that really resonated with me because early in my career, I wanted to go fast and, you know, I just did everything I possibly could on my own. And, you know, the hell with it, right?

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah, sure.

[Mark Sedgley]

But I've learned that you go much, much further through the power of people. And if you treat people the right way and you invest in them and you celebrate them and you give them opportunity, it pays off in spades.

[Brian Fullerton]

So that's awesome. That's awesome. When you say, build a great team. I know that quote. I've said that quote.

[Jeremiah]

I agree.

[Brian Fullerton]

Give me something tangible with that.

[Mark Sedgley]

Yeah. I mean, I think at every single level of your organization, it doesn't matter how small or how big, you have to first define what an A player looks like, what a B player looks like, and then everybody else. Because if you don't define that, you don't know, and your team's going to tell you what it looks like versus you. Hiring, recruiting, retaining those A and B players. It's just as important to talk about how do you get someone from a B to an A because they have the potential. And that requires training and investment, taking them seriously and building into Their future. And you need to make sure that you're identifying the people, People that shouldn't be on the bus. Right. Just as fast, because the A's and B's don't want to play with everybody else. And it. It becomes a empowering or demoralizing kind of community that you create. And if you get really focused on what is it that makes somebody awesome, what is it that makes them fit so well within our culture, what is it that I want to replicate over and over and over again, and you just keep it that simple, that's how you start to build a great deal.

[Brian Fullerton]

I love that. I love that.

[Mark Sedgley]

The.

[Brian Fullerton]

The A, B, and C. I think Jack Welch said, what was this, like, famous percentage is like, 20, 70, 10. Yeah, like, the 20, like, lead and run. The 70. The 70 get done, and the other 10, we need to get them out of here.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah, Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

And so that's abs and Cs.

[Mark Sedgley]

Yeah, I think about it as abs and Fs.

[Brian Fullerton]

Oh, fair enough.

[Mark Sedgley]

And the reason why is because one of the biggest mistakes I've made in my life is, like, falling in love with potential. And a lot of times when you give them that, like, kind of. And I hate, like, labels, whatever. It's just easy for people to crystallize in their mind. It's like, you'll hold on to somebody that you think can go to the next level, but if you just make it up in your mind, like, no, not gonna work. It's not gonna work. And potential is potential, and that's all it is. Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

And so can't just sit on them, hope they hatch.

[Mark Sedgley]

Correct. Yes, exactly right.

[Brian Fullerton]

Heard somebody say that once. Stuck with me, like, I just hope I can hatch this leader.

[Christian Schlegel]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

It doesn't work like that.

[Mark Sedgley]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

Like, you're not. It's a diet.

[Christian Visalis]

Yeah.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

There you go. All right, well, thanks for the quick two minutes here, guys. Go. Well, go.

All the men.

Grant them. Check out the whole fam. Got a great rebrand going on with them as well. Code Brian. Save you some money as well. And thanks for the love, support, and Mark, thanks for the time, Brian.

[Mark Sedgley]

Thank you as always.

[Brian Fullerton]

You bet. All right, gang, we're hopping back on into it. We got another great guest interview, little compilation conversation here today. We've got the man, the myth and legend. We've got Mike Arnold with Creekside Outdoor Living.

Hello.

How's it going, brother?

It's going fantastic, dude.

You've got, like, the perfect radio voice.

I've been waiting for this opportunity because everybody always tells me That I have a radio voice. So now I'm here with a headset on. It feels right.

You got to start a podcast like everybody else.

No, no, I'll just join yours. I'll let you do the heavy, heavy lifting.

Everybody's doing it, right?

Everybody. Yeah.

Hey, first off, I got to say, you're a new face, new voice to the show and to brands on maintenance, ecosystem. But, dude, you've got a jam in business. A great story to tell, and you absolutely kicked ass on the Element Granum Operator week webinar last week.

Appreciate that.

Dude, you did great. There's 200 plus 236 people. I think it was what the average was that whole day. And, dude, you were like, what did they say? Like, more nervous than a nun in a whorehouse or whatever the saying is. Like, so you hear that one before?

I was.

No. Yeah. Like, you look nervous, but going into it. No going into it, you were like, I gotta prep. I gotta go do a good job.

Yeah, I filled that whole. It's like, whole sheets of stuff.

Dude, you, like, had notes on notes on notes. Gamble and I were like, dude, like, you're gonna do just fine. You're like, you're Mike freaking Arnold. And like, you were so excited and

nervous and, I mean, if you're speaking on something and you're. There's an attention from people there, it's like, you want to be a great job. You deliver value. So.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And you did.

Yeah.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

You should be very proud.

[Jeremiah]

I am.

[Brian Fullerton]

Full circle. You should be very, very proud. We got done in. We all debriefed, and Gamble and I were like, Mike was awesome. Like, what a natural.

Yeah.

So great job.

I guess. I guess I'll be doing it more often.

We'll see if you get roped into it, you know, obviously. But if you do, I won't be. Dude, you did a fantastic job. So just quick mention on that for anybody who doesn't know. Let's. Let's just zoom out. Give them the 50,000 foot overview.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Who are you?

[Brian Fullerton]

What's your background, where you're from, in case anybody doesn't know who you are?

So I'm from where we stand right now here in Chicago. I literally walked eight blocks to this thing, which is epic. I love.

So crazy. I never would have thought that you could, like, just walk on over. Do you have, like, an apartment condo or something?

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

No, kid.

[Brian Fullerton]

Okay.

I got a high rise. I'm on the 30th floor. I overlook, like, a ton of stuff. I freaking love it.

Dude, are you a city boy? Like a country guy?

Like, you know what? So it's like, the grass is always greener.

[Announcer]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

Like, if I grew up in the city, I. I would want to be going out to the suburbs. In the country.

Sure.

I grew up in suburbia. Countryish. And I'm like, I want to be a city slicker for a little bit. I'm like an urban cowboy. I drive a truck in the city. Like, everybody hates me.

But parking. There's no parking around here.

I have a parking garage.

Okay.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Okay.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah. Has to fit my truck. But that's why you can't have a lifted truck like a hillbilly.

There you go.

Creekside has been around for 18 years. I started it when I was. I was paying my way through college. I dropped out of college because I felt freaking hated it.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And I was just like, you know what? This thing's taken off. Let's just see where it goes. And God just kept on opening up the doors for me. I. I feel like I've always just walked through doors. God open. Because I'm like, who am I? Like, I. I'm like, I didn't even do that. Like, he brought that right person to me, that brought the right client of me.

And did you cut grass as a kid or just like, how.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

How did it.

[Brian Fullerton]

I worked for a couple other landscape companies beforehand, so I kind of knew a little bit about it. Started going, you know, not just cutting grass, but some of you be like, hey, you want a mulch job?

[Mark Sedgley]

Yeah, sure.

[Christian Schlegel]

Sure.

[Brian Fullerton]

You wanted. Can you do patio?

Sure, yeah.

I'll find the person to do it, you know?

[Mark Sedgley]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

And then it just kept on going from there and to the point where now we have 10 total crews. The makeup is for construction, for maintenance, one irrigation, one fertilizer. Got a whole stout office admin team. That is just my pride and joy. Like, those are. I. I've never had it as good as I do right now, culturally. And the strength of my administrative staff to where I should come here right now. And my phone is not exploding.

[Christian Schlegel]

Right, Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

With issues and problems because I know they got it covered.

That's awesome. Seriously, congrats on all the above. I had no idea, honestly, who you even were or existed until, what, eight months ago at Gimbel's event.

That's right.

Harvest of Knowledge. And you one of the speakers. I do. I didn't even know who you were.

Doing a good enough job.

Marketing then, I guess. Well, dude. And that's the thing. You have like a hundred Thousand followers on Instagram or something. Ridiculous.

Yeah, it's like 80. 80K on Instagram. 120 on TikTok. And then, I mean, there's all the ancillary.

Holy freaking cow.

YouTube, Facebook, and all that kind of stuff, too.

It's wild. Like, you know, when I do these tours or something, somebody's like, oh, you should drive by and go doing so and so. And I'm like, never even heard of them. And then, like, my algorithm just never had your stuff on my feed or vice versa.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

And I.

[Brian Fullerton]

Or whatever. And I believe I never saw yours on mine.

I never saw yours either. Yeah.

Really?

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

To be fair.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Christian Schlegel]

No, that's.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's so crazy. And. And I look at them, like, 80,000 or whatever, 85,000 people on Instagram. Like, holy crap. Like, who is this guy? And then Gamble introduces us, and you spoke on stage, and I was like, this guy's awesome. And we just kept in touch ever since.

Yeah, I love it, dude.

It's great. So congrats on all the growth. Yeah, congrats. The grind. Yeah. You've been putting in work, dude. 18 years.

18 years. Yeah. You need to look at somebody like Gamble, too. Like, he. Like, his trajectory was just so fast. I'm like, wow, 18 years, and I'm only here. Like, it's almost like a humble moment. Like, you look. Especially some of the people that are in this room right now.

I'm like, geez, yeah, right, right.

These are some big players just interviewing.

I'm like, crumbly, dude. 30 million.

That's.

That's big money.

That is, like, idol status.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's like, one crew, you know, for, like. It's like, I do in a year what he's doing in, like, a week or whatever. You, like, you run the numbers. Like, oh, my gosh. Like, I got more room to grow.

It's insane.

That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, let's do this really quick. Give me your best. If you don't mind. People conversation. People topic. I want to do another show with you down the road. We'll get you back on the horn.

Yeah.

I want to hear your whole story. Give you, like, a proper, you know, 45 minutes, because there's a lot there.

Yeah.

And I've been able to get to know you more, hear more about it, so it's. It's a fun conversation I want to have, for sure. But we're at the Chicago People Intensive, doing a little round robin today. Give me, like, your best people skill. People conversation, something you've learned that's helped you work better with people over the last, you know, 10, 20 years you've been in business.

Yeah, that's. I love talking about people. It's pro. If of all the things that I could talk about, like if it was like how to plant a plant, how to mow grass, I want to talk about people and I want to talk about culture. And really it has a lot to do with Sam because Sam Gimble was one of my mentors very early on he came into my business and was. Was talking a lot about company culture. And I was just a guy that's just like, here's a task, here's the person, here's the instruction. Let's just freaking do it.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

And not really, not that we had like a garbage culture, but it just was non existent kind of. It wasn't like intentional. There wasn't intentionally around the culture. So now like that's. I'm hyper, hyper focused on that.

[Mark Sedgley]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

I had brought on, matter of fact, I brought on a very high level executive person, fired him in six months.

Wow.

I knew the guy for six or seven years and I had to fire him because I'm like this. He knows a lot, but he is so degrading my culture. And that it doesn't matter what kind of skills somebody has. You can train a good attitude, you can bring somebody in who has a positive outlook on life is going to build you up. They're going to make you feel excited about going to work. If you go to, if you go to your office every day and you feel miserable, how. How do you think your people feel?

Wow.

[Christian Schlegel]

Sure.

[Brian Fullerton]

Right. So that, that's something that I had to really kind of face and go, okay, as I grow this thing, I'm not the one that's going to be directly stewarding every individual sale. I'm not out there performing the operations. So high level, what do I do? I have to steward the culture. Well, I have to, I have to feel what they feel and make moves accordingly. So that has been my number one thing. Like if I can, if I can make my people happy, if I can keep them in a position where they are happy to come to work every day, they don't hate the people that they're, that they're around, then they're going to fly. Like, here's the instruction, here's a mission. Let's rock.

[Christian Schlegel]

That's awesome.

[Brian Fullerton]

And my hands can be relatively off.

How's it, how have you changed as a leader? Looking at the what you can and can't do to influence culture, like quantify that for me, because people are like, oh, I got some bad apples, I got some bad team. Or, you know, folks hate it on Monday.

[Jeremiah]

That's hard.

[Brian Fullerton]

Coming in late.

That is hard. And I can appreciate like there, there were certain fires that I delayed making because I was afraid of the repercussions. The. You know, for example, I had a guy that, like, he had my fertilizer license. So I'm like, I gotta get rid of this guy. So what did I do? I went and got my fertilizer license. Right. So I'm like, I have to. I have to make practical decisions. And there, there is. You will feel some short term pain for a long term payout.

Yeah.

With that kind of a move. So I, I think like what I just said, the litmus. Litmus test is how do you feel walking into your office every day? How do you think your people feel? I mean, in 2026, you have to be a leader with emotional intelligence. It cannot just be. You cannot be a drill sergeant. Right. People no longer come to work just for a paycheck. They want to come to a place where they are not beaten down, where they're not berated. A lot of our people come from not great home lives either. So you don't want to compile on their stress with you being a garbage leader and not being clear with your instructions and then holding them accountable to your crappy instruction. You know, just little stuff like that. Like how. How do I increase the experience of not just my client, but my employee.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah, right.

[Mark Sedgley]

That's.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's. I almost have to. You almost have to market more nowadays to the employee as much as, if not more, the client. And show people, here's the going to be the experience if you come on this ship.

Yeah. That's so good. So good. My. My brain's just firing and I'm like doing my best to just listen, dude. Because what you're saying is just money. And it's just reminding me of like the morning session that Mark delivered.

[Kevin Dorsey]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

With all the metrics in there. You know, as he says, clarity is kindness.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

You know, and you recognize some of those different pain points and struggles and bottlenecks in your business.

Yeah.

And I think a lot of folks just hope that if we avoid it, it'll somehow get better.

Right.

And you realize you have to go in there and fill the cavity.

Yeah. Me and Sam have always joked, like, him and I are so similar. Like, we would always be like, well, here's a Problem, I'm going to fix it by. I'm going to go sell something. I'm going to go create a piece of social media. Because you, you, you internally, you're feeling like, well, I'm doing something.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

But you're not doing the thing.

Yeah.

Like confront the thing and you know what to do. You know what it is?

You know what it is?

The thing that's bugging you up and, you know, making you stay up at night.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's the thing that you got to confront because you cannot move forward in your life, in your business.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

If you are not confronting those hard things.

That's such a good line. I heard somebody say that at one of the events, maybe was at Gamble's event. What's the thing that keeps you up at night?

Yeah.

And if you can answer that honestly, then you know your Next right thing 100%.

And if you can actually have the boldness to act upon it, the bravery, the courage.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Whatever.

[Brian Fullerton]

Whatever it is, dude.

So good. So goodness. All right, man. Well, it's a almost end today. I know you're peeling out of here soon, folks. We're going to get him back on the show. If you don't know Mike, for whatever reason, like, maybe he just doesn't get service to your algorithm, maybe your shadow band, like I was for a while.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

I don't.

[Brian Fullerton]

I don't know what it is, but I. Dude, ever since then, I get nothing but your feed, nothing but your stories, and I love it. It's fantastic. I made a new friend. I'm really grateful for everything that you're doing likewise, dude.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

And you. You.

[Brian Fullerton]

You extract. You create the. I love this about you. You make the podcast work because it. You're only as good as your ability. Just like ChatGPT, you're only as good as your ability to prompt it. Right. You ask the best questions and you get people in a position to be interactive versus just being like, hey, here. Here's a microphone. Tell me your life story.

I appreciate that.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

I'm trying.

[Brian Fullerton]

I'm trying to get better at asking questions. Right. Cromley said the same thing. Dude, your questions are fantastic. I'm like, dude, you should have heard my questions two years ago.

Yeah.

You know, I would be like, hey, echo or steel?

Well, I'm looking at. I mean, guys, you can't see this right now. This is in video, but he doesn't have a script in front of him. We literally just have headphones on and a little recording studio, and he's not reading a script like this is just. It's just naturally coming to Brian.

So, dude, I'm a student, I'm hungry. And when, when I get talent, you know, good talent on like yourself and others, dude, I got to make it count.

Yeah.

Amen. So I'm not going to blow this opportunity. So, all things being said, where can people find you? And then we'll butt it up.

Instagram is going to be Creekside outdoor living. Other places is Creekside nwi. If you just search Creekside and I don't come up, well, then I'm doing something wrong.

There you go. There you go, guys. Give them a follow. Probably LinkedIn, all that fun stuff. You're everywhere for sure. If you guys are in the greater Indiana, you know, area, northwest Indiana area, give them a shout, reach out, make friends, network sub, you know, whatever you guys can do. A lot of great talent out that way. So make sure you guys make friends and check them out. All right, folks, over and out. And again, big shout out. Thank you to the leanscaper folks for letting us broadcast here at leanscaper People Intensive Chicago. We'll come on back. See you guys.

[Announcer]

Ask any landscaper what they brought home from Equip Exposition last fall, and they're not going to be talking about the swag bag. They'll tell you about a number in their phone from another owner who solved the same problem two years ago. Equip exposition is 30,000 pros under one roof, October 20th through the 23rd in Louisville. Yes, there's mowers and equipment, but the contacts you make make the difference. Early Bird Price, $30 equipexposition.com 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.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Day two at leanscaper. We've got another great guest here for you. New friend to the show. Really excited about hearing this conversation this morning for just a quick five or six minutes, but we got him, Mr. KD. He is with leanscaper. And if you want to introduce yourself and give your background, this would be awesome, for sure.

[Kevin Dorsey]

I also got that DJ voice today, right?

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

So bring the mic up just a little bit. Yeah, there we go. There you go. There you go.

[Kevin Dorsey]

So, yeah, so Kevin Dorsey. Everyone calls me KD at this point, unless I get in trouble. So if you say Kevin, then I know I went out of line here.

[Producer or Closing Host]

Kevin.

[Kevin Dorsey]

You know, I've been blessed to have been building startup sales Teams for the last 15 years now got a couple of unicorns under the belt, you know, billion dollar companies and recently joined Mark and Mike at the leanscaper team to try to do the same thing here. Like super excited to be a part of the team.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

You're, you seem to be like the cool kid over here with like, you know everybody. You seem like you're absorbing everything really quickly.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's a really cool group of people, isn't it?

[Kevin Dorsey]

It's, they're amazing people I think. And that's the key is like the product is great, the industry is great, but the people on this team, that's what, that's what hooked me, that's what got me in. And then the customer is saying like the warm welcome I've gotten here because I'm not, I'm not from the landscaping industry.

[Brian Fullerton]

Sure.

[Kevin Dorsey]

That's what's going to ask industry. And so to be so quickly kind of embraced and brought in and it just feels amazing.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

That's good for just a couple of quick minutes here folks. I'll tell you what, I hope I do it justice for you guys. Katie was leading some discussion at one of the inner circle conversations. High level stuff. High, high, high level stuff. And it was about feedback, it was about team building, it was about training. And again the whole conference here this

[Brian Fullerton]

weekend is about people.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

So two things I want to ask you while we got you for like just a couple minutes. Number one, I wanted to ask about your conversation you had about how people engage with you. You come from like this high performance background, high achieving background and when you go into a new environment, perhaps it's intimidating or perhaps somebody like myself is making a new hire and. Or you're the new hire, you want to come into new organization. This is something that I would imagine you did on your own.

[Brian Fullerton]

So what's this like you call it

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

like the Katie rules of engagement or

[Kevin Dorsey]

what is this is the unofficial guide for working with Katie.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's what it was.

[Kevin Dorsey]

And so it's actually, it's about a seven page document that breaks down how I first of all just who I am. Like just starts with who I am. You know, I have two amazing daughters, I've been with my wife, you know, been married for 14 years, together for 17. Like just tells who, here's who I am.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Kevin Dorsey]

And then it gets into how I work, how I communicate, how I look at data, how I like to be communicated with, you know, what I'm good at, what I'm bad at, strengths, weaknesses, like it maps all that out. And it one, it humanizes me very quickly, I think with my team and my fellow execs of like, okay, this is who it is. But then we skip the 6, 912

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

months of like getting to know each

[Kevin Dorsey]

other, feeling it out, getting to know and like walking on eggshells. And so it was the first thing I gave to the exec team at leanscaper. And then they went and all built their own.

[Mark Sedgley]

Wow.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Kevin Dorsey]

Chopped my onboarding time down where I'm like, okay. Meg likes to learn this way. Okay, this really matters to Mike. Oh, Sean does this. It just it. So now I can do all that and now I can even like prep for a meeting. Like, I have a meeting coming up with Sean. I can review kind of his doc and go, okay, I remember likes data first, story second, and things like that. So no, it helped so much.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Talk about that for a quick second. That was a quick example that you gave. And when you said that, I'm like, I like that guy. That's me.

[Brian Fullerton]

You're like, dude, I don't need all the details.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

You know the story.

[Kevin Dorsey]

Yes.

[Mark Sedgley]

So.

[Kevin Dorsey]

And you know, I joke about this. Even my marriage with my wife Jess is. I want. If I ask a question, I want the answer then the story, not the story. And the answer.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Time out, time out. Why is that?

[Kevin Dorsey]

Why? I don't know why it is. It's just how my brain works. Like, so, like, I actually, I like the details, but I want to know the details are worth listening to.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Kevin Dorsey]

So if I ask, like, hey, like, you know, perfect example. It's like, hey, how many customers did we talk to yesterday? Sure, I want 74. And then. Okay. And it was really cool this, that, and the other. But if it's like, oh, so I was talking with this person, that person, and I'm like, but what, what's.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Just give me the details, give me the answer.

[Kevin Dorsey]

So that. And so because my team knows that, like, if someone starts to kind of go, I can just kind of put a hand up real quick. Go, hold up. What was the question?

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

That's so good.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's so good.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

So, so let me ask you, where, where did that stem from? Did you. You again, folks. I'll tell you what, there's some folks out there. You're like, man, I can't get people to do shit. And then you find other folks like Katie that you pluck from other great organizations and just the ethos out there, because you're just probably a lot of self development, self made, you know, background. And I Don't know your whole background. I'd love to get you back on the show another time. I think I should doing a show with Allman.

[Brian Fullerton]

So if you guys see this interview

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

come down the pike, go check out the kid contractor podcast. But where did this background come? Why did you make this document? Where'd that come from?

[Kevin Dorsey]

So it was a combination actually of something I learned from Ray Dalio's book. And then I think it's Ilad God I think is the name. It's like High Growth Habits was another really good book and it talked about Ray Dalio talked about making baseball cards. So how like on his teams, you know, they have almost like these baseball cards of people's, not only stats, but like strengths.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Was that in principles or the first. Yeah, yeah, that's right.

[Kevin Dorsey]

And so I saw that there. And then in the high growth. It's high growth habits or high. I can see the book. It's a green book with green lettering on it. But talk about the same thing of like, here's the working with doc. And I was like, oh, that's amazing. And now what makes it even easier is that so I've had this for seven, eight years now. I can build a prompt in AI. So I built the prompt in AI, gave it to the team. And so it interviews them for 15 minutes, gets it all. And everyone that's done it so far is like, I learned things about myself.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Oh yeah.

[Kevin Dorsey]

That I just never even thought to ask. And it's just so money that's so

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

good to have like that hyper self awareness, you know. And I love what you said. Let me give you a similar example. Totally different. Might sound weird. My first date with my wife. You're just getting to know me. My first date with my wife. And a lot of folks listening in know it was. It wasn't a day.

[Brian Fullerton]

We called it the interview.

[Mark Sedgley]

Love it.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Because dude, we closed down Starbucks for four hours. We just asked questions. How many kids spirituality. Every question you're not supposed to ask. And, and I'm not saying that's what

[Brian Fullerton]

you got to put on your you know who Katie is statement. But at the same point people are like, dude, we.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

We did 12 months of dating in four hours.

[Tommy Cole]

Four hours.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

We didn't like, so what do you think about kids one day and beat around the bush, it was like, no. And then when we both got done, as the story goes to my wife, she went home to her stepmom and she goes, I think I met my husband tonight.

[Kevin Dorsey]

Oh, that's amazing.

[Brian Fullerton]

Right? So like, because like, dude, we were

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

just like perfectly equally yoked for the, for the most part, right? And so I love what you said. Not only does it help you coming into an organization, it helps the other people part of the organization reach back out to you and say like, oh yeah, hey, here's who we are. Yes, right. And we have like these mission and vision statements.

[Brian Fullerton]

But what about the people, right?

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Like who, who's that crew lead? Who's that executive? Who's that middle manager? Like I love that dude. That's such a great. I'm implementing that.

[Brian Fullerton]

I'll tell you what, we got to

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

steal the prop from you. I got to, I got to try

[Brian Fullerton]

to hold your feet to the fire.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

I'm like, I need the prompt. I'm sure I could ask chat.

[Brian Fullerton]

I'm pretty crafty with it.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

But nonetheless, that's good. Let's do this real quick. I got like two more minutes with you and I want to be respectful of Caleb's time. So let me ask you this really quick. This might be a little bit high level question so you won't have to get super granular. But as guys are building businesses, right? And we're on the come up and we're here like you got to hire your mentors, you got to find a players and there's a KD out there in the ethos. Let's say I'm, you know that startup. I got a million, $2 million business lawn landscape and I want to find like the KD of whatever I'm trying to do.

[Brian Fullerton]

The sales guy, the ops manager, maybe the CEO. Maybe I want to look a little,

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

hire an operations manager for the company and I don't have too much to offer, right? I don't have your. I can't pay this guy 170,000 bucks, 250,000 bucks, 400,000 bucks base. What? Who, how do I attract that talent? How do I start attracting A players on the come up when maybe it's just me, me and a couple of guys and we only have, you know, 800 grand a year business. But I know, I know that I did that next level. I need that next tier guy.

[Kevin Dorsey]

So first is be around A players. So be where they are. Go to the events, go to the shows, be in the master. You have to be where the A players are first because they're not going to come find you.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

They're not, you know, like they're out

[Kevin Dorsey]

there but they're not looking. A player is really looking for a job. You have to look. So first Be where they are. Okay. Be in the masterminds, be in the groups, be in the channels, be in the communities. Like, be where they are.

[Brian Fullerton]

First, yeah.

[Kevin Dorsey]

Second, if it's truly an A player, like a true A player, the things that they value aren't only money. I could go make more money somewhere else. Like actually very. I could go make more money.

[Tommy Cole]

Sure.

[Kevin Dorsey]

I valued who I was working with first, Mark and Mike, who they were. Yeah, that's the first value. But the second A players, we want control. Let us do what we do.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Kevin Dorsey]

Let us bring. Bring me in, Tell me where we're going. It was the vision. When Mark and I started talking about this, we didn't talk about the product at all.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

I remember you saying that.

[Kevin Dorsey]

Yeah, it was all just the vision, not where he wanted to go and who he was trying to serve. And that was contagious. A players can feel that. Like when an A player is like, damn, this person believes in what they're talking about.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right.

[Kevin Dorsey]

So that's there. And then that control and autonomy of like, too often, funny enough, like founders will hire an A player and then manage them like a B.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right. I've heard that it's like, oh, like

[Kevin Dorsey]

you're an A player. Cool. Now I'm going to tell you how to do your job. Yeah, it's the complete opposite. Right. Like let them come in and a player, they want growth and a lot of times you can stop growing as another org is gone. So to go back into the trenches a bit. And that's what I'm so excited about here. I get to build.

[Tommy Cole]

Scratch.

[Brian Fullerton]

You get to build.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right.

[Kevin Dorsey]

Just from scratch, the way it needs to be done. So that's what I would recommend is be where they are.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Kevin Dorsey]

Be passionate about what you do. Like that has to come across that you are passionate about what you're building and give them the control, the autonomy and the resources they need to do what they do. And you can get an A player to come call it back. The trenches a bit to build because that's, that's what an A player loves to do.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's so good.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

That's so good. I could pressure and get like way more in the weeds. I know you got to show that you're on deck four. So I'm gonna end it here really quick, folks. Everyone like catch up with you, follow along. Do you have like a channels that.

[Brian Fullerton]

Where people can like subscribe, follow, like,

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

you know, LinkedIn, all that mess?

[Kevin Dorsey]

Yep, just. Just on LinkedIn. That's actually my only social channel still. Which is hilarious. Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. Kevin Dorsey. And you know, I try to put good content out there every day.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah, dude, you got this great aura, this good vibe. I get good energy from your brother.

[Brian Fullerton]

So it's really, really good to have

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

you on the show. And I, I. There's so much more we can get into, but another show for another time. But Kevin, thank you so much, brother.

[Kevin Dorsey]

My man.

[Brian Fullerton]

Awesome.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

All right, appreciate you guys. All right, guys. Hey, let's see where we go next. Thanks, guys. All right, next on deck, we got

[Brian Fullerton]

Christian Schlegel, CNI Services. What's up, brother?

[Christian Schlegel]

Good to be back on, Brian. Thank you.

[Brian Fullerton]

You're probably one of my more regular

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

guests on the show, believe it or not.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah, it's crazy. Episode 3. Don't forget about that.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's right. It's still like one of our top performers. You got baked in at the beginning, brother. It's good seeing you. We're in your town, man. Chicago.

[Christian Schlegel]

Welcome. Welcome to Indy City, Brian.

[Brian Fullerton]

I do this. Chicago is a second home for me, dude. I love Chicago. Listen, I have big memories here. I've been on the west side with you probably half a dozen times.

[Christian Schlegel]

Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. At least, at least. And we got the nice weather this time.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah. So, dude, I walked the city last night on the way back from dinner. 20 minute walk and absolutely beautiful, like, walk this whole riverfront here and beautiful side of town, man. But for anybody who doesn't know, you give me, give me the 30 second background, then give me a little two minute update, man.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

What's going on with CNI?

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah, started the business 13 years ago in fifth grade and growing it from there for, you know, maintenance, install and design build. So now this year we have five crews. One enhancement, one design build and three maintenance crews. So we've grown a lot and we've added some. We have a landscape designer and staff and account manager now operations manager supervisor. So we're growing a lot and wow, a bit overhead heavy right now, but we're growing into it. So it's been, it's been going well and. Huge year of growth, Brian. It's been huge, dude.

[Brian Fullerton]

So you're, you're scaling. We're talking millions here. That's awesome. Oh yeah, dude, you were like pushing a mower and riding your lawnmower up and down the street like seven, eight years ago.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah, yeah, right? Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

No, like hopping along the lawn.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah, I was long, long pushing the mower, black and decker, weed whacker and blower. And then you know, upgrade to a rider mower, then eventually got a truck. Right. So. Yeah. Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

How big is the team this year? You said about 10, 20 guys.

[Christian Schlegel]

I have 16 or 17 employees now.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's awesome, dude. That's so big. How was winter for you guys?

[Christian Schlegel]

It was, it was a good winner. It was our first average winter in a while, so. But we had above average events, so I think we had 52 events between like saltings and plowing. So it was busy.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah. That's really good. We had a pretty similar experience with winter. 44 salt runs and like 16 plows. So somewhere right around.

[Christian Schlegel]

Right around the same. Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's awesome, man. Give me, give me a big. We're at the people intensive. Leanscaper. Give me like a big win for you or lesson learned or maybe Phil. And then you're learning, you know, kind of lesson on leadership or people or maybe yourself. Even those last like six months. Give me something tangible for the guys.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah. I would say a big win is adding the account manager and designer to our team. It's really allowed us to grow a lot this year, but it allowed me to focus more on developing the systems and taking everything out of my head, putting it into a living system like leanscaper.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah.

[Christian Schlegel]

So it's been great. And every day's a challenge and every day I feel like I'm not doing enough. But, you know, I feel like I know we're all in the same boat, so it's been, it's been huge.

[Brian Fullerton]

You're building, you're building infrastructure, building systems, building processes.

[Christian Schlegel]

I feel like I'm building something real instead of, you know, sending out an estimate. That's work for. For now. But I feel like when I'm working on the systems and the company and the people, I feel like I'm building something for the future.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, dude, it's so good. It's so good. I. I remember having a tough conversation with you. I was like, dude, you need to be here. And you're like, yeah, you think so? I'm like. I was like, dude, like, your business needs you to be here. You need to be here. And. And dude, it's been what, two years and you haven't looked back.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Brian Fullerton]

And the growth has been explosive.

[Christian Schlegel]

Oh, it's been serious, dude.

[Brian Fullerton]

I'm really, really proud of you, man.

[Christian Schlegel]

Thank you. I appreciate it, Brian. Everything you've done for me as well.

[Brian Fullerton]

I just trying to look out for people that look out for me.

[Christian Schlegel]

100.

[Brian Fullerton]

I got you. Where can people find you, man?

[Christian Schlegel]

CNI Services LLC. On Instagram, YouTube. Mainly on Instagram.

[Brian Fullerton]

So there you go.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Awesome.

[Brian Fullerton]

Give him a follow, guys. And it's Christian Schlegel. You'll see him everywhere. And, dude, you're on everything Chicago, you know, landscape forums and, you know, conferences and seminars and the circuit.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah, we're all here.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah, you're a big deal.

[Christian Schlegel]

Place to be.

[Brian Fullerton]

You're a big deal. I love it. He's humble too, folks. All right, that's what we're going to

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

leave you guys with.

[Brian Fullerton]

Plug with Christian, and let's see where we go next.

[Announcer]

If your business is stuck below that $500,000 mark, let's just say it straight. The problem, it might be you. Not because you're failing, but because everything runs through you. You're answering the calls, solving problems, checking crews, putting out fires. And by the end of the day, there's nothing left for growth. That's exactly why LaunchPreneur Academy built the SOP bundle. Inside, you'll get more than 50 Field Training SOPs, a full Office Training System, and 30 plus business documents and resources to help you build a team that will actually run without you. Train faster, delegate better, scale smarter. The price is only 9.99.

[Brian Fullerton]

You heard that right.

[Announcer]

Just 9.99. Get lifetime access, lifetime updates and the systems to help you step out of the day today. Visit lawntrepreneuracademy.com

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

all right, going on.

[Brian Fullerton]

We're going hot, folks. We got the man, the myth, the legend. We got Tommy Cole joining us.

What's up?

Yeah, what's up, goofy?

[Christian Schlegel]

Morning.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

All right.

[Brian Fullerton]

Tommy is with the leanscaper folks. It's always good to have some of the leanscaper folks on their family. All right. Yeah. Tommy, you've been on the show multiple times before. A lot of folks know your background, but if they don't and they've never met you, give them the 30 second background on yourself.

[Tommy Cole]

This is the one of the better shows here. Just let's just state that real fast. Super energy, Fullerton unfiltered.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

There you go.

[Brian Fullerton]

There you go.

[Tommy Cole]

Background. I have been a lifelong landscaper, design architect, and moved to operations. It is the most, single best, hardest, most difficult position in a company because you have to take someone's vision, produce it on time and on budget and make the client happy and go crush it. And everything's got to work out perfectly.

[Jeremiah]

Right?

[Tommy Cole]

Right. So I'm all about that. But it also starts with the people. And that's where we're here today is the people. Right? The people made that Happen we had one of the best teams ever assembled back in the construction days. And that's what I'm super thankful for.

[Brian Fullerton]

Teams win championships, right?

[Tommy Cole]

So totally.

[Brian Fullerton]

There you go. There you go. So time was actually on link about two, three weeks ago.

[Tommy Cole]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

Thank you for joining us with that. The guys loved it.

[Tommy Cole]

I was like, I got another invite. We got, let's make it reoccurring.

[Brian Fullerton]

We have to do. All of our guys are growing. So operations is like the, I don't say the bottleneck, it's just, it's the heartburn right now. We're all growing and there's like new levels, new devils. Give me, give me your like biggest tip or takeaway coming into this event. Maybe what you're looking to learn. I mean obviously you've been working with people for 30 plus years in your career and you've done it. You've done the deal. You took a company from 4 million to 30 million with that team of people. What's your biggest people tip or something that you've learned about yourself? That we're just looking for some quick takeaways here today.

[Tommy Cole]

Stop trying to find the unicorn and build the team that you have.

[Brian Fullerton]

Elaborate for me. What do you mean?

[Tommy Cole]

Everyone feels like they, they always say, if I just had the right person, if I could just find that person instead. Reframe your brain going, I'm going to be the law of attraction. So I'm going to dial in everything in my business. I'm going to dial in the process, the culture. Everything that we do is systematized, written down, accountability, continuous improvement, metrics met every, all those little things that sort of slip through the cracks that expose your business that you put a rug over. How about we dial those in and then right. Then we go grab anyone.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right?

[Brian Fullerton]

Make it the lowest common denominator for

[Tommy Cole]

anyone that can say, you. All you got to do is learn this and we rock and roll. Instead of finding, trying to find that one person that solves everything for you. And your expectation is super high.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yes.

[Tommy Cole]

And you say, go figure it out. And then what happens? You get mad and they're like, well that's not the unicorn I need.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's great. That's great. There's a lot of folks out that are like, man, if I could just find a Rob, one of my right hand guys, they're like, I need to find a Rob. I'm like, Rob was built dude for seven, eight years now.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

You know what I mean?

[Tommy Cole]

And take, take me for instance. People say, well, if I just had A Tommy, my organization. Okay. Right. But I wasn't the guy to go grab. I was not the unicorn.

[Brian Fullerton]

Not on day one.

[Tommy Cole]

Not on day. I was the architect.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right.

[Tommy Cole]

That got pulled into operations to go build. I didn't know jack.

[Brian Fullerton]

Sure.

[Tommy Cole]

But what I did know was to surround myself with good people. Like the crews. Spent all the time in the field with the crews. Learning from them.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yep.

[Tommy Cole]

And then putting puzzles together and go. That's the thing.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Brian Fullerton]

This is gonna be good. So that's what we're rolling out today. And then we'll have the agent Lana people. It's gonna be really helpful. It'll bring it all together for us.

[Tommy Cole]

It'll totally bring it all together. I mean it's an onboarding.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Tommy Cole]

You're gonna learn about how to onboard somebody.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's awesome.

[Tommy Cole]

You're gonna learn how to recruit someone. And then most importantly, what I'm so excited about is a pay for performance plan that Mark will show you this week. That's what we always talk about.

[Brian Fullerton]

Is that right? All this today.

[Tommy Cole]

All of us today. Oh, wow.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

All right.

[Brian Fullerton]

All right, cool. A little prelude, little teaser. All right, Tommy, thanks for the time. We're just doing a little round robin here today. I love leaving with the good old. Where can people find you, brother?

[Tommy Cole]

Oh, LinkedIn, Instagram. Go follow me. Tommy Cole. I'm all over and go follow this guy Brian. He's just such a legendary. I've got enjoy all these conversations.

[Brian Fullerton]

So thank you for what you do. 100 right back at you. We'll get you out of here. I know you guys are starting up here in a minute, but guy's the legend. Tommy Cole. We got him. All right, we'll see you guys. Christian Bly. What's going on, brother?

[Christian Visalis]

Hello. Good. How are you, sir?

[Brian Fullerton]

Good. This is so funny. Christian means so much to me. He was one of the first couple

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

of people that I've ever met that

[Brian Fullerton]

was back in the day working at Element. Just a couple years ago, do you remember walking through the Markham offices? You were. You were so nice, so kind, so warming, so inviting. Honestly, it's one of the reasons like I got started with the whole program was you, Kiko and Jason.

[Christian Schlegel]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

And so you actually made a pivot over to leanscaper in the last two years. And so for people that don't know who you are, you're actually a big deal and you had all these events.

[Christian Visalis]

So.

[Brian Fullerton]

Christian, take it away. I'll give these guys your background.

[Christian Visalis]

Christian. I've been in the landscape industry for the past Six years. And I help business owners in landscaping industry implement technology, see how technology will make their life much better, make more money and have some time back to their day to actually enjoy the money that they are making. So that's my mission.

[Brian Fullerton]

I love it. And what's your passion? What do you enjoy about these environments and what you've been doing the last five, six years?

[Christian Visalis]

I just want to hang out with landscapers, take their problems and tell them, well, there's, there's different, like, technologies that can help you not have these problems. And then I enjoy helping people learn new things, and I enjoy helping them get those new learnings into implementation, like straight into their lives.

[Brian Fullerton]

So you, you explained a term to me in Charlotte. You said it was an integrator, a tech integrator.

Correct.

I had never heard that word before in my life.

[Christian Visalis]

Well, this is happening in this industry because whether we like it or not, at some point there's going to be a lot of new technologies that are going to come into our industry. And the future is actually yesterday.

[Brian Fullerton]

Yeah.

[Christian Visalis]

And there will be this role that's called, like, tech enablement or. I don't know, I don't want to give fancy names to that role, but it's more the person who will bring in the old landscaping way, the old ways of doing landscaping, with how technology can now bring everything up to speed and integrate all these technologies. Because every new day you'll get a new software coming up, right?

[Brian Fullerton]

Yes.

[Christian Visalis]

Which software is the right software? Which system is the right system? And how those systems are going to be talking together is going to be a role that landscapers are going to be hiring for very soon.

[Brian Fullerton]

And, and, and sometimes you can build, you know, Christians, but most of the time you're going to find them from other smart industry.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

Like business and banking and private equity guys. Like, you are very, very, like, awesome. Like, when I was hanging with you at Charlotte, you were like, hey, I'm like, christian, I need help with this. I got this payroll with this, that and this and then Element, then leanscaper. And you're like. And I'm like, it's a lot to. To have it all speak together. And for my guys, you know, you start a new hire, a crew lead. And I'm like, hey, man, let me see your phone. We got to download this, this, this, this, and this. They're like, holy freaking cow. And then you got to explain how to onboard. And you're explaining this to me like, no, no, like, that's not the owner's job. That's somebody on the team's job.

[Christian Visalis]

Correct. And that's exactly the whole. You just said holy sh. Like holy.

[Brian Fullerton]

It's like drinking out of a firehose.

[Christian Visalis]

Exactly. And that person is going to be like, let me take that fire hose away, let me put the SOPs together, let me build indoors operational efficiency together. And then that person will start delegating. Like you will do this. And here's what resources I'm going to give you. You're going to be using this software and that's how I'm going to be helping you for leanscaper Specific. The beauty of leanscaper that it is built in a way that it's role based. Like between your people operations. Between your people operations, finances and revenue.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yes.

[Christian Visalis]

The recurring workflows and the handoffs between one operational area in your business to the other. Now this is where AI comes into picture to integrate all these oper together.

[Mark Sedgley]

Yes.

[Christian Visalis]

And then start delegating it to like, we call it like the single people leader. One person will be taking it from one phase to the other.

[Brian Fullerton]

That's incredible. And you're doing this right now. Some people might know you from the LMN days and you did a lot of the trainings and workshops. So that's why a lot of folks know you from the LMN world. But you're doing this integrating with Private paradise with Jake Bradley. Correct. Give me, give me the 20, 30 seconds on that.

[Christian Visalis]

Jake Bradley and his team, they're awesome when it comes to building in beautiful landscapes and taking care of like luxurious customers. My job with them is to be that bridge who will take all these technologies and recruit it back to the company and train their people on using those technologies. So that's pretty much the role of that, the new role we're talking about. That's exactly what I'm doing with them. So I take own that. Oh no feeling into more like, well, let's organize it one after the other.

[Brian Fullerton]

Let's systematize it, document it, organize it, roll it out.

[Christian Visalis]

Yeah. And you know the crazy part about like leanscaper in specific, like all that you have to do is just like pull up your phone and talk.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right.

[Christian Visalis]

And I started doing it more quite often in front of the team. So now they don't even come to me.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right.

[Christian Visalis]

If they have a question about like specific sop, they don't go to the office like what, what was. What was what good looks like for this specific thing. Right.

[Christian Schlegel]

Yeah.

[Christian Visalis]

Pull up your phone, talk to Lana and Lana will tell you that if you have it in your system, right. Like, there's the owner brain.

[Brian Fullerton]

Oh, yeah, Come on back.

[Christian Visalis]

Taking in the owner brain and like Jake's brain and putting it into the system so that people can now, like, run those, like, rhythms, those huddles, document everything that's happening, Let AI do its thing in delegating and organizing and ensuring everything is visible on, like, boards, lean boards to track what's gonna happen.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Right.

[Christian Visalis]

I'm doing it for Private paradise, but in a way that while I'm here for a while, I'm going to pass it over to you because it's not that hard. Just pull up your phone, talk to Lana. Let AI do it's do its thing.

[Brian Fullerton]

You're walking the walk. You're talking the talk, walking the walk. You're doing it. You've done it at lmn, you're doing it at leanscaper. You're helping Jake with Private Paradise. And all that is like the petri dish, the case study to bring it back to leanscaper. Field tested, battle tested. Right? And that's something that is just so fun to watch. You lead seminars, lead webinars, lead the weekly sprint with the leanscaper folks.

[Christian Visalis]

And that's the beauty of Mark Bradley. So Mark will be having all those Wednesdays webinars with like, our accelerator program.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yes.

[Christian Visalis]

And then whatever we're implementing at Private Paradise, Mark comes up with, this is what good looks like. Because, you know Mark, with all his experience in leading, like the leading experience in landscape industry, we're taking that brain, putting it into leanscaper AI. We're leveraging leanscaper AI in the Private paradise operations. And then we are training everybody in the industry on what good looks like through Private paradise, through our accelerator program, through events like this where we get everybody together and you see the vibe in this event where people are passionate about helping each other and sharing, learning through those connections they're making. So it's a movement. If you ask me what leanscaper is, it's the mission, it's a movement so that we can bring all these people together and show them what good looks like, learn from each other what good looks like. Looks like. And show them that AI is not here to take over your job. AI is here to make you do your job without you worrying on the things that are taking over your job.

[Brian Fullerton]

Dang. All right, well said. Well said, Christian.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

This is great.

[Brian Fullerton]

We went a little bit long, but guys, this is, this is fantastic conversation. I could do an hour show with Christian, like, good energy, Good vibes. The guy is brilliant, if you guys can't tell. He's helped my business tremendously. I was looking to make a hire the same time last year. He's like, this is what you need. I took that back, hired our ea.

Marge.

Marge is literally taking over. She's our office administrator, so she's been fantastic. She's getting more involved with our tech, running payroll, doing the whole deal. So literally, like, what you say, dude, I'm going to do it. So thank you for everything you're doing.

[Christian Visalis]

What you just said is my why, by the way.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Yeah.

[Christian Visalis]

The fact that, like, I wrap it up with that. This is my why. I know something. Why would I keep it to myself? If I learn something, I'm going to teach this something somebody else and that somebody else will teach somebody else. Like your office admin is going to be teaching somebody else. And that's my why. So you just made. I'm going to sleep happier tonight because this is my why.

[Brian Fullerton]

Well, then we documented that and we rolled it out in our SOP bundle. And that's how it goes, brother. Like, you're a ripple maker, dude.

[Christian Visalis]

Oh, my goodness. You made my day, man.

[Brian Fullerton]

All right, guys, let's sign off with the good old where can people find you, Christian?

[Christian Visalis]

You can find me on LinkedIn. Christian Visalis. And I'm. I'm here for you.

[Brian Fullerton]

There you go. There you go. And freshly married about what, nine months? Eight months.

[Christian Visalis]

Yeah, it's been almost nine months now. I'm just working on my wife's documentation to come to Canada. So I guess on my happily ever after.

[Brian Fullerton]

Dude, that's so cool.

[Co-host or Interviewer (possibly Gamble)]

Congrats on everything you got going on, man.

[Brian Fullerton]

You're in this like huge, like, upswing and glow up phase of your life, man. So I'm really proud of you as well.

[Christian Visalis]

Well, I'm always happy to be around with you. Like, you're also like a man of God, a man who built himself. So when I grow up, I want to be you.

[Brian Fullerton]

Oh, shut up, dude. All right, we're out of here, guys. This is it. We're gonna cut it right here. This is again the. The Leanscaper Chicago people intensive. Thanks, guys.

[Announcer]

Mowing lawns is one thing. Running a real lawn care business is another. The whole ball of wax from Launchpreneur Academy put puts every training program, every playbook, every pricing tool Bryan Fullerton built right into your hands. Plus, you get a full 60 minute, one on one coaching call with Brian himself. From your first customer to your first crew, the whole ball of wax is what you need and it's less than a Grand at only 9.99. Visit launchpreneuracademy.com or tap the link in the show description. Make the decision to go all in with the whole ball of wax only at lawntrepreneur Academy

[Producer or Closing Host]

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.

[Brian Fullerton]

Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening and

[Producer or Closing Host]

we hope to see you on the next episode.

[Announcer]

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