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Hello and welcome to the Green Industry podcast, your go to guide for building a more profitable and thriving lawn care and landscaping business. Your host, Paul Jamison is the author of five best selling books including Cut that Grass and make that Cash and his latest Level up your money, all available on Amazon and Audible. Now get ready for more expert insights and practical strategies to boost your business and level up your life. Here's Paul Jameson.

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Welcome back to the show. I am Paul Jameson down here in sunny Florida where it is sunny and it is Florida. Well, today on the program we got some breaking news out of Louisville, Kentucky. I get the emails that probably many of you get when there's news in the industry from the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute and they released the, the schedule of speakers for the keynote speaker series at Equip Expo this year. And sounds like everything's kind of falling into place with all the scheduling and things of that nature for Equip Expo, which is the largest trade show in the lawn care landscaping industry. And we get a lot of new listeners to the program and maybe you've never even heard of the Equip Expo, but I'm going to share a little bit more about that trade show on today's program and what to expect at this year's Equip Expo because what happens is there's, there's a core group of leaders in the industry that is just a no brainer on the schedule. You're going to equip and you kind of have a routine of where you stay at when you go and you've been doing this for years and because you find a lot of value of going to the, the, to the biggest trade show in our industry every year to network to see the latest and greatest and, and honestly it's kind of like a vacation. A lot, a lot of folks bring their wives and, and kids and, and make a, make a vacation of it. But then there's a lot of newer folks that are getting into the industry and they either don't go because at the last minute they're like, oh, I just can't get away. I'm so busy. And this, that, and the other. And all of us who've been in the industry for a long time are like, you gotta get there, bro. And then you have other folks that go, but they're all dis, disoriented and disorganized and they just don't make the most of the trip. So I'm actually recording this episode at the, the eve of the spring rush. Now, some of y' all are already in the spring rush, but many of you are just about to get, get going good here. And so I wanna share now as we go into the spring rush and it's time to make big money, to really plan, budget, strategize how you can financially make it to the Equip Expo this year and really have a pleasant, enjoyable, successful time. And for me, I've experienced all the different experiences at Equip in regards to staying at a nice hotel versus staying at the raggedy red roof. Innovation and driving there, flying there, just all, all the different variables. And I, I've kind of figured out what works best for me with all the details. But anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's go ahead and look at the breaking news here from Equip Expo. They put out an article Equip Exposition announces Keynote Speaker Series. So if you remember last year they had Jesse Cole from the Savannah Bananas and my friend John Pay Jack and Cornell Mack were up on stage dancing off and Pay Jack, I mean, without a doubt, took the, got the dub. Win at life. Mr. Win at life. Cornell took the L to Pay Jack. Pay Jack was up there, rightfully so. One, one the. I don't even know what he won, but he, he won it. All right, so anyway, let me go ahead and read the article. Equip. The award winning international Tony Rudolph. You like that? International Landscape, Outdoor Living and Equipment Exposition has announced its keynote speaker series for the 2026 show to be held October 20th through 23rd in Louisville, Kentucky. Celebrity speaker Mike Holmes, one of North America's most trusted contractors and a star of the HGTV show Holmes Family Rescue will be equipped Wednesday morning. Opening keynote. All right, I'm gonna pause there and we'll continue reading the article. I have no idea who this guy is, Mr. Producer. Have you heard of him? Mike Holmes? You know, ironically, I don't have a tv and so my parents came down to Florida to visit me and they're like, where's your tv? I haven't had a TV in years and I didn't explain this to them. But I don't have time to watch tv. I'm running a business that's busting at the sea. I mean, the opportunities to make money in 2026, it's the best time in human history if you live in the United States of America, to be an entrepreneur, to be a small business owner. And, and there's a, there's a window of opportunity. There's, there's a famous quote by a fellow named Leonard Ravenhill. He said that the opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of that opportunity. And so when we look back on year 2026, I mean, this is like the golden era of business. We have AI just growing like crazy. And how can we be using that to basically serve our customers better and be more profitable and make more money? We have, there's just so much going on. So my point in all of that is I don't have time to watch on t. Watch tv and I honestly don't have time to be on social media. I know people think I'm on social media because I, I post content on there and, and some of the content performs really well, some of it doesn't. But I just, I just upload, upload, upload, upload. But I learned this from my friend Al Blades, who makes YouTube videos. He, he told me back in the day, he's like, post and ghost, post and ghost. And, and what that means is he just, just get on there, upload your content so that you can, you know, share your messages, values, communications with the world, with your customers, with your potential customers, and then get out, get out of there before you start the, the, the scrolling and getting distracted. And so anyways, my parents came out to visit. They're like, where's your tv? And I was like, I don't have a tv. Actually, I haven't had tv. I can't remember last time I had tv. It was a long time ago. Think back who we. It's like five. I've moved a lot. But it was, it was probably like anyways a really long time ago. And what was my point in sharing all that about not having a TV is that I am dialed in on maximizing my earnings. I want to earn as much money as I can this quarter this year. And in order to do so, I have to focus on what financially moves the needle and then eliminate all the distractions. So because of that, Mr. Producer, I have no clue who Mike Holmes is. I mean, sounds like, could be like a football coach. There's a Picture of him with the article. Never seen the man in my life. Never seen the man in my life. So anyway, that's who the keynote speaker is this year. Maybe some of you are laughing at me like, yeah, this guy's like a. I mean, it says he's a celebrity speaker. So, So I did, I did hear of. And, and, and this is a. What do they call it? Not of the hat. A tip of the hat to Jesse Cole with the, the Savannah Bananas. Because John Pack had sent me some Instagram reels in a, in like a private message of this Jesse Cole guy before the event. And I, I recognized his, like, yellow suit and the marketing and branding and just, I was, I was intrigued by, by, by the storyline there. So I, I was familiar with the celebrity speaker last year, Jesse Cole, the Savannah Bananas. And then this fellow, though, Mike, Mike Holmes. No clue who he is. Now there's other, other sessions as well. So Susan Packard, a media entrepreneur who helped create popular TV channels like hgtv, CNBC and Food Network, will keynote the Women's Leadership Reception Thursday afternoon. So they have apparently a Women's Leadership reception Thursday afternoon, and Susan Packard will be. Be the speaker at that. So let's scroll through the rest of the article here. Yada, yada, yada. So. Oh, here we go. This is exciting, Mr. Producer. We get a shout out here. Oh, look at this. I did not even see this when I, when I briefly scrolled over the article. But we're, we're in the article, Mr. Producer. Let's go. Rounding out the keynote speaker series experience is the morning show sponsored by Roco and Energize. The morning show will bring three leading green industry podcasters to one stage and is hosted by Paul Jameson Naylor, Talia Farrow, and Caleb Allman. Let's go. That's pretty cool. We're in the article. I did not even know that. Well, there you go. The article goes on to say, registration for Equip Expo 2026 is open and winner pricing for attendee Registration is only $25 through May 31, 2026. Now, hopefully by now you know you don't have to pay full price for Equip Expo this year. You can actually get half off your ticket with the promo code, Paul. So the ticket prices right now until May 31, 2026 is only $12.50. That's $12.50. And I'm on the Equip Expo website right now. They have a button there says Book Hotel. Book Hotel. And you click on that, there's A blue button that says Book Hotel. And then you type in the nights you're going to stay there. Which the main day to be at Equip Expo is Thursday, October 22nd. That's the day we're doing the morning show, which is we're going to be doing a podcast in room B103. And I'll be announcing who my guest will be where Naylor and I, we're, we're kind of going back and forth on who we should invite to be my guest. And then Caleb will have a guest and Naylor will have a guest. But anyway, we're going to be podcasting live in front of a live studio audience, which can be you on that on that Thursday morning from 9 to. No, from 8 to 9:30am And Thursday is kind of the main day to be at Equip. So you definitely want to be there all day Thursday. Honestly, I would be there all day Wednesday as well. So if you're want to really make a full experience at Equip Expo, I'd probably come in on Tuesday evening, get a good night to rest, get a, get accustomed to Louisville. And then there's a kickoff reception down at the Churchill Downs where the Kentucky Derby is. Now the Kentucky Derby isn't going on that, that day. I think the Kentucky Derby's in the spring. But the venue where they host the Kentucky Derby will have an opening reception for us. And then the, the trade show kicks off then on Wednesday and then it will go all day Wednesday, Wednesday afternoon, pardon me. And then, and then Thursday morning we'll have the morning show and then all day Thursday is a trade show and then a lot of folks leave out on Friday just to get back to their commitments back, back in their hometowns. But the trade show does actually go all the way through Friday at 2pm so it's a really light crowd on Friday, which honestly, if you want to make the most of the trip. I've walked the trade show many Fridays and it's a lot, lot, lot, lot less traffic. Wednesdays it's ramping up. It's usually pretty busy on Wednesdays. Thursdays it's busting at the seams, packed Wal30,000 folks. You know, in the Kentucky Exposition center, it's, it's wild and, and there's a 30 acre demo area outside. But it's, it's going on Thursday, that's the main day. And then Thursday the. Well, Friday, pardon me. Friday the show opens back up at 9am and it's like a ghost town in There, it's like barely anyone there because, I mean, all the brands are still there, but a lot of people, for whatever reason, they're not there. So. But anyway, I would book your hotel. Let me go ahead and fill this out. October 20th is a Tuesday. And then I want to leave on October 23rd. Number of rooms, one. And I hit search. So now. And this is all on the Equip Expo website. It's. It's searching. You know, my computer, the, the Internet guy, Mr. Producer, he just came out. I got, I got a. I got an ethernet thing where they plug it into the wall and it makes your. Com, Makes your Internet go faster. So. Yeah, so here we go. So we got the Crown Plaza, Louisville Airport. It looks nice in the picture, but you got to be careful with the pictures, folks. Got to be careful with the pictures. In so many parts of life, you could. The pictures could look nice and then you get there and it's all raggedy. That's why I like to look at the reviews as well. This is A. Ooh, 3.5 stars. Yeah, I probably want to do the Crowne Plaza, Louisville Airport. I got to have at least four stars. Comfort Inn and Suites. Nah, that's a three star. Forget about it. Spark by Hilton, Louisville Airport. This sounds. That don't sound right. All right, I'm scrolling down to the nice one. E. No logic. Oh, no, that looks like an absolute dump now. Holiday Inn Express, Louisville Airport. That one looks actually modern. The picture looks new. And that's a four star, so that one probably be decent. Let me scroll through here. Red Roof in Louisville. How in the world is that four and a half stars, Mr. Producer. There's no chance you should stay at that Red Roof Inn. I met a guy at the pool one time when I lived up in Georgia and people talk at the Poet. What do you do for a living? Yada, yada, yada. Like I'm running a lawn care business. And the guy's like, yeah, I work at Red Roof Inn Corporate. You know, he's thought he's a big shot, you know, And I didn't say nothing about red roofing to him because he thought he was so cool that he worked at Red Roof Inn Corporate. All right, now the Brown Hotel, that's four and a half, five stars. And that one, Mr. Producer, you stayed there that one year. Did, did you like it? Okay, it's. It's. I won't. I don't know if that's the best word. I'll. Outdated. It's. It's. Oh, it's like. It's supposed to be like, you know, the, like the historic. The building's literally brown. Like, brown brick is historic. And then inside, they kind of kept that vibe of, um, the Georgian revival elegance, timeless Southern charm. So. So their website, Mr. Producer, says Timeless Southern charm. You said outdated. I don't think that would sell as well. This outdated hotel located conveniently in downtown Louisville. No. So timeless Southern charm is what you're looking for there. That just sounds better. But it was a good experience. Yeah, it's right down. It's right down there. Now. The. The list goes on and on. Gault House. I've stayed there many of times. It's two, seven. It's three and a half stars. Sounds about right. I mean, it's. It's. It's outdated as well, but it's very convenient. It's downtown. That's 270 a night, which is. I might sound like a lot to you, but for all the prices are jacked up this week because of supply and demand. The Hampton Inn in downtown Louisville. That one's 251 a night. Now this one's pretty good. Home the Sweets by Hilton. I stayed at that one, too, and I was a nice one. Lamont Hairston and I saw each other down by the waffles. Keep it. You know, you got to keep each other accountable with those diets, right? Lamont's always posting his health journey. I have two. Or down there. The maple syrup, the waffles. Hey, good morning, pookie. What you eating, boy? Same thing you eat. Good old waffle at home. The sweets, baby. It's good too. But that's a nice one. Anyway, this you probably don't need. Need My. My Hotel Marriott. That one's 233. And I. But anyway, my point is, they have so many. The Hyatt House Ham. Another Hampton Inn. The. The list right now is there's. There's availability at a lot of these. Aloft. I like that one. I've stayed there before. Aloft. 179 a night. So I've been going to this show now, I don't even know, nine, 10 years. The LA Quinta Inn. I actually, I stayed there one year. That was the year. Pay Jack and I. Pay Jack gave me a ride home from the event. Well, to the hotel. And that's when he really encouraged me to start the green industry podcast. I was so. So, yeah, that would have been like 2017, I think, or two. We started the show. Oh, maybe I had. Maybe I had a Few episodes under my belt. But I just remember we're sitting in the parking lot, it was freezing cold. And John was really serious. He's like, paul, I really think you need to go for this podcast thing. Like, it makes so much sense. You already, at the time I was working in radio in Atlanta. He's like, you already work in radio. You have such a gift for this. And John's such a good friend, really pushed me over the edge to, to go for this endeavor of, of, of, of launching this podcast because I at the time was burning the candle at both ends and in the, I mean, I was maxed out my lawn care business. I wasn't as efficient maybe as I, I could have been, should have been profitable as I should have been. And it was honestly very burdensome running my lawn business at that stage of my life because I just didn't know what I know now. And the thought of this podcast and, and, and you know, the commitment and it takes a lot more time and it costs money. Some of y' all don't realize how much money we spend on this podcast. The level it's gotten to. We have to actually pay the RSS fee just for them to host it. Like they want their money and it's, it's, it's hundreds of dollars a month I gotta pay to them just to run the show and then, you know, pay Mr. Producer anyways. Like, it's like, I don't know if this is a good idea. And John's like, you got to go for it. And was like, you got to go for it. But anyway, that was my memory of the La Quinta Inn was being in the parking lot and John and I having this awesome conversation. Well, it was more one sided conversation. It was more like John telling me, hey, you need to go for this, dude. This is, this is it. And I'm very thankful for John, Paj and Naylor and them pushing me. And here we are. I think we're on like episode. Oh my goodness, it's so, so many episodes. We, we after like 1600 episodes. I started a new season. So we did like season one, which was like 1600 episodes. Now we're on season two and keep on cranking them out. So anyway, all those hotels for Equip Expo are on the website there and you can do your own research. Home the sweets by Hilton. That one looks pretty good. I think I already mentioned that one. There's a whole bunch of them. I'm just scrolling down. I mean, there's a whole bunch of them. So you can, you can get your, your hotel booked for, for Louisville now. You can grab your tickets with the promo code. Paul. That's going to be $12.50 through May 31, 2026, and then the price goes up. So I hope that you will join us at The Equip Expo 2026, October 20th through 23rd, Louisville, Kentucky. You can get your tickets today, you can book your hotel today. You can make a plan now and then be diligent to save money throughout the spring rush and throughout the summer and work your rear end off so that financially you can go and you can enjoy it. You can stay at one of these nicer hotels, enjoy that, you can enjoy the experience. I mean, if you're going to fly, you know, if you make enough money this spring and summer, maybe fly first class, just, just really go all out and enjoy the, enjoy the whole thing. You know what I'm saying? Paying for it in cash with your hard earned money from the spring rush in the summer and budgeting and planning and all of that. I gotta get going to the gym here. I got, got an appointment at the gym. So I'm gonna go today. Shoulders day and abs. So I'm gonna do some shoulder presses, some shoulder things. I don't even know all the terminology. I just kind of know how to grab the dumbbells and do the things that they taught me. And then for the abs I'm gonna do like some planks and, and anyway my gonna get rid of this belly, Mr. Producer, and get them flat stomach, you know what I mean? You don't know what I mean? All right, well, we'll just move right along. Thank you guys for listening to today's program. Mr. Producer will put in in today's show notes the registration for the Equip Expo. Make sure you don't pay full price. Use the promo code, Paul. You'll get half off and we look forward to hopefully seeing you in Louisville, Kentucky for 2026 version of the Equip Expo PE.