Ep 111. Kicking off 2026: Water Main Craters, Lost HOAs, and Marketing ROI

Summary

Green Side Up — Ep 111. "Kicking off 2026: Water Main Craters, Lost HOAs, and Marketing ROI"

Date: February 12, 2026
Hosts: Jason Lee & Jordan Upcavage

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Episode Overview

In this high-energy episode, Jason and Jordan dive into the realities of running and growing landscaping and tree care businesses as they start their 2026 adventure. The duo swap tales from the trenches, dissect recent emergencies (including a literal water main crater), grapple with marketing ROI, and confront the loss (and reclaiming) of tricky HOA contracts. Listeners get an unfiltered glimpse into the ups and downs of entrepreneurial life in the green industry, with plenty of wit, wisdom, and raw honesty.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reflecting on January & Guest Highlights

[03:40–06:21]

• January was packed with quality guests, from a money expert (Danny) to a pharmacy entrepreneur ("Eyedrop Andrew", who infamously shipped a surprising volume of "dick injections"):
  • “The volume of dick injections that Andrew had shipped out was remarkable.” — Jordan [04:39]
• Recap of appearances on the "Million Dollar Landscaper" podcast discussing hiring practices.

2. Current Business Activities — Growth & Challenges

[06:48–13:47]

• Jason shares efforts to restart business development activities, especially getting more involved with local associations and targeting HOAs for speaking opportunities.

• The push to get Aaron back into business dev roles despite time constraints caused by planning the upcoming Landscape Rodeo.

• Lead flow is steady for both hosts’ companies; strategies for more efficient sales and same-day estimates are yielding results for landscape jobs.

• Prepping for spring with ongoing paver projects. Winter has slowed growth and “browned out” lawns, but expectations are high for a vigorous comeback.

  “I maintain the place also. It’s like, this is perfect. This grass isn’t going to grow for another 30 days. But when it does, it’s going to come back with vengeance.” — Jason [13:13]

3. Emergency Water Main Explosion & Tree Rescue

[13:47–20:09]

• Jordan details responding to an emergency call: a water main explosion in Tampa that destroyed part of a road and left a massive crater threatening a grand 40-inch oak tree.

• Logistics challenge: Crater size, damaged infrastructure, and tricky machinery placement without disrupting traffic or property.

• Unique, high-stakes projects keep things engaging:

  “I hate cutting trees down, but this is, in a way, kind of fun because it’s unique. I don’t get to see water explosions under trees every day.” — Jordan [19:59]

4. Tech Tools: Live Switch Shout-Out

[20:09–23:48]

• Jordan’s positive update: Listeners from Alfieri Tree Care (Massachusetts) heard about Live Switch on the podcast and signed up.

• Testimony on how video-based job documentation has upped the company’s professionalism, set him apart from competitors, and made communications easier:

  “My bid presentation was more professional, easier to understand, and was just sexier. And I think Live Switch played a pretty damn well.” — Jordan [22:59]

5. Marketing & Promotions — ROI Real Talk

[25:00–44:17]

• Both hosts dig into their work with Intrigue Media, a marketing firm handling email campaigns, search optimization, and blogging.

• Jordan details a highly effective 10% discount winter promotion blasted to 10,000+ clients; significant spikes in inquiries and jobs resulted.

• Pricing transparency: Discounts applied to labor only to keep things “not flim-flammy.”

  • “It’s legitimate and real. And it’s not all flim flammy, right?” — Jordan [30:03]

• Numbers coming in are very promising — click-through rates and open rates impress both the hosts and their marketing partners.

• Discussion on measuring true marketing ROI:

  • How do you separate organic leads from those generated by the marketing company?
  • Is it even possible, or is it all just part of the business DNA now?
  • Jason reports their marketing dollars are now returning 7–8x, with hopes for greater than 10x as systems mature.

  “It’s the most talked about thing that no one understands...and no one knows what the return should be. And it’s okay not to know, but if you’re spending a bunch of money and you don’t feel like you’re getting a return, then don’t do it.” — Jason [41:33]

• Both reflect that the true test will be a complete annual cycle with the same systems and partners in place.

6. Losing, Leaving, and Winning Back HOAs

[48:00–56:44]

• Jason candidly shares the gut-punch of losing a 12-year, $100-150K annual contract with a large HOA, probably due to price pressures and property management turnover.

• Strategic optimism: leaving the property in immaculate shape with hopes to be the first call when discontent sets in.

• The gritty truth: The green industry is full of “crazy” HOA boards, client churn, and management shakeups.

  “12-year relationship is now gone. And I don't know if that is solely on...price. The irrigation in the neighborhood is a natural born catastrophe.” — Jason [51:25]

• Story of another HOA: after seven months with a budget provider, the property deteriorated and Sky Frog was called back.

7. Dealing with Difficult Customers: The HOA Wildcards

[56:44–61:40]

• Tales of residents resistant to services, special requests, and even police being called over fertilizer applications.
• Jordan: “You have 10 or 15 change orders and special order omelets that you have to juggle.” [56:44]
• Solution: Block problem callers, document everything, and focus on legal compliance.

8. Landscape Rodeo Final Countdown

[61:40–67:28]

• The first Landscape Rodeo (Feb 19–20) — a festival of landscaping skill competitions — is almost here.
  • Major sponsors (Hustler Turf, Gravely, Super Lawn Trucks).
  • Competitions include decathlon events, paver and mowing challenges, and a VIP dinner (Lowcountry Boil — Jordan's estimating 80–800 lbs of crawfish!)
• Strong encouragement to register early for events and the dinner.
• Major prize: $1000 for the decathlon winner (“lowest average ranking across 10 events”).
  • “With my intrigue math, that's 20 times return on investment...” — Jordan [66:32]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On adapting marketing strategy:
  “That campaign goes over several days until we've liquidated 10,035 emails.” — Jordan [31:27]
• On business setbacks:
  “It’s a kick in the pants as we’re trying to grow our budget, you know, grow by a million plus. Yes, I'm losing 10% off the top of my growth plan.” — Jason [50:44]
• On HOAs:
  “And the amount of crazy people that live in HOAs… it’s gotta be at least 10%, right?” — Jason [56:09]
• On the unpredictability of entrepreneurship:
  “Let’s have fun 2026. Way to kick it off. Let's have fun this year.” — Jordan [03:27, paraphrased]

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Important Timestamps

• Reflections on January, guest highlights: [03:40–06:21]
• Business dev, bidding work, spring prep: [06:48–13:47]
• Water main explosion emergency & tree: [13:47–20:09]
• Live Switch tool praised: [20:09–23:48]
• Marketing, email campaigns, ROI: [25:00–44:17]
• Losing major HOAs & customer churn: [48:00–56:44]
• HOA crazy stories & compliance: [56:44–61:40]
• Landscape Rodeo details & call to action: [61:40–67:28]

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Closing Notes

• The episode offers unvarnished entrepreneurial realities: weathering business losses, negotiating customer quirks, celebrating marketing wins, and prepping for high-stakes industry events.
• The hosts’ camaraderie and candor help listeners see that struggling with turnovers, ROI debates, and customer outbursts is all “part of the ride.”
• Listeners are urged to sign up for the Landscape Rodeo and stay tuned for future episodes exploring business managers, growth, and all things green industry.

Contact the show: [e-mail]
Landscape Rodeo info: thelandscaperodeo.com

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Keep working hard, play harder, and keep the green side up!

Transcript

[A]

This isn't your average industry event. If you can drive it, cut it, trim it or haul it, it's time to prove it. Introducing the first ever landscape rodeo, a high energy hands on showdown celebrating the skills, machines and people that power Florida's green industry. Join us February 19th and 20th at Ancient City Farmstead in St. Augustine. Watch or compete in head to head challenges like zero turn barrel racing and three on three backpack blower soccer. Plus precision equipment runs that put real world skills on full display. Kick things off with a VIP dinner on the 19th featuring a mouth watering Lowcountry boil. Then its full throttle competition on the 20th hosted by the Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association Frontrunners chapter. Proceeds supports scholarships and training for the next generation of landscape professionals. Show your skills. Support your industry. Sign up [e-mail] that's thelandscaperodeo.com.

[B]

Welcome to Green side Up, the perfect podcast for small business entrepreneurs looking to cultivate success in the landscaping and tree care industry. Join Jason Lee, a seasoned landscaper, and Jordan Upkavage, a true tree whisperer, as they share their wealth of experience and insights to navigate the challenges of growing your business. Get ready to hear real life stories, practical solutions and invaluable advice that will empower you to thrive amidst the chaos of entrepreneurship. And now, let's keep the Green side Up with your hosts, Jason Lee and Jordan Upcavage.

[C]

Buenos dias, amigo.

[D]

Que tales verga.

[C]

What's up with you, man? Happy morning.

[D]

Happy morning. Happy Wednesday morning, bud.

[C]

Yeah, let me start this timer, my stopwatch here, so I can see how long we're recording. So it is a, it is a pre sunrise morning for us, Jason, I am, I'm pleased to share this time with you. We played nice, nice over our zoom call here for like a half hour. We played tittle.

[D]

We've already, we've already. We've already done a podcast episode without recording it.

[C]

And it was some good shit, man. We covered investment finance and personal savings versus college prepaid. And do you buy a boat or do you hoard it all away like a financial rat? And, and then we talked about how much our wives can spend on our credit cards and how expensive it is to get groceries delivered to you. All of that. What a wonderful episode that did not get recorded. But the summation of that, Jason, is. I'm probably gonna.

[D]

When's the boat getting in the driveway?

[C]

That's the summation of it, right?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Skipping Florida prepaid this year. A little bit of nickels into retirement and buy a boat. Because Florida prepaid doesn't put a smile on my face like bikinis and sunscreen does.

[D]

No. And in Florida, if they're not. If they're not getting bright futures, maybe they don't go to college. You know.

[C]

You know what? We had a fall safe. We could go into the green industry. We could be a landscaper. We could be a tree guy. And we could just do it the normal way.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, like. Like most of us did the normal way. A lot of sweat equity. Let's have fun. 20, 26. Way to kick it off. Let's have fun this year.

[D]

Let's have fun this year. I like it.

[C]

Oh, man.

[D]

All right, so I got a couple

[C]

talking points of what's current in business. I think that's going to be the theme of what we've. What we're going to cover. We've. Throughout the month of January, we had a number of guest speakers on. And I'd like to think that January was pretty rock solid on the quality of our content. We had Danny baseball. Danny was money guy. We had pharmacy eye drop Andrew

[D]

on. Come on. His name's Doug Fisherman. Don't. Don't.

[C]

We had the Doug Fisherman. He also. They used to make something called triple P. And it was an injection that you would put in your pee pee to make blood flow happen. So it's called. It were pecker injections to give you a boner.

[D]

How did we not. How did we not talk about that on that?

[C]

Because he was trying to be professional.

[D]

But the.

[C]

I mean, the volume of dick injections that Andrew had shipped out was remarkable. And he has the stories like.

[D]

Well, I'm. I feel like we got to do this follow up episode now. I mean, geez. All we did was talk to the eyedrop thing was cool that he's helping people, but I mean, that's for general entertainment.

[C]

Oh, yeah. The bulk of his business. He's gonna tell you it's for like making blood serum out of eye drops or whatever. No, it was straight dick injections. Yeah.

[D]

So that's why. That's why the company bought for the Hydra.

[C]

A lot of turgor pressure issues in Hillsborough County, I guess, despite all of our nudist resorts. Yeah.

[D]

Who would have thought when you only have to ship 45 minutes north northeast of the villages. You know, it's a good business model.

[C]

Yeah. Where the loofahs live on the top of the golf carts.

[D]

That's right.

[C]

One day I'll be there, Jason. One day I'LL have my. My black loofah. Okay, so, yeah, what else do we do in January? We had dick injection that got masked as eye drop boy. We had money guy

[D]

talks about the rodeo.

[C]

We talked about the rodeo, about the Rhodium. Didn't we have another guest on.

[D]

I don't remember. I think we had planned out our.

[C]

Planned at our year we were on Million Dollar Landscape. We did that one of the days when did. Well, if you would like to listen to Jason and I interview ourselves on Million Dollar Landscaper, you can go to Spotify or Apple Podcasts and look. What is it?

[D]

Million Dollar Landscaper and Million Dollar Landscape Podcast.

[C]

Million Dollar Landscape Podcast. And there's an episode for Jason and I and we are talking about hiring, hiring employees. That was what the topic of the day was. And we went through the whole show. So you'd like to hear about hiring. You can check out that episode. So I got some current things in business. Business. Jason, do you have some current things in business?

[D]

We do.

[C]

Would you like to share first?

[D]

Sure. So we are going on our plan of conquering the world and doing more work. We are actively trying to accomplish that. We are slow rolling in. Well, Aaron and I are still planning the landscape rodeo, which we can wrap up the episode with our updates for the event next. But yeah, it's taking a lot of time right now. So we're easing her back into some of the plans that we had for her business development position. She's been in her B and I group since the beginning of the year. We are getting back into the North Central Florida Apartment association, which we had been in the past, but paid our dues, but weren't very active, probably got a handful of jobs over the years. But anyway, we were not active participants. So we're getting back into that organization, become more active and get out in front of people, which I think will be a great benefit, I believe. Well, as we were, we were having a leadership meeting and we were laying out all the grand ideas that we had and one of them was talking about getting in front of more HOAs, you know, and for speaking engagements. And then at that point in time, Michelle comes running out of the office. Oh, this HOA just called and wants you to come talk about or wants to see if you can come talk about whatever the topic was. And so anyway, we have speaking engagement at a large HOA here coming up this weekend or next. This. Yeah, either this weekend. Gotta be this weekend. Anyway, so that's kicking off on the business development side of things. We are Actively bidding work. We are actively losing work. So we are losing.

[C]

Tell me about what you're actively bidding and then tell me about what you're actively losing.

[D]

So we are bidding, you know, this time. Well, man, I don't know. Lead flow's been pretty, pretty steady normally this time of year. I mean, we saw a pickup like going back on our. I was looking at our Google, which I need to do more often than make, you know, instead of just randomly when I. It comes across my email, like looking at our traffic on our Google business profile and then analyzing our Google Analytics anyway through. Well, through Google Analytics is where it's at. But looking at the website traffic either on the Google Business profile or like phone calls coming in or looking at the Google Analytics. But that first two days of the year after coming back from New Year's, I mean, it was a spike of phone calls. So I think it was just people that had just been waiting and then now it's kind of plateaued off to, you know, I think Clayton's running. These were probably running like 6, 6 to 7 estimates a week right now, which is.

[C]

Okay, I thought you were going to say a day. I was about to like, drop my coffee.

[D]

Oh, no, no, no, no.

[C]

I guess that doesn't exist in landscape that many. Because they take more time, right?

[D]

They take more time. But I mean, as part of us being more efficient and trying to increase our close ratio and work on our sales process, I mean, he's. We're very much. And he's performing it of if the job can be estimated while on site, then he's going to give the estimate there and try to close the deal. It's very similar to what you're doing with tree work. It's just harder.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

With landscape and especially big projects on some of the design concepts, you know, he's going through actually in Company Cam and just kind of marking them up, marking them up with a pen and kind of giving a general layout of where plants are going to be in concepts and selling the job on that. On that premise. And it's working. So he's close to work. Ben had already closed some decent paver jobs over the winter. So through December and the beginning of January, he'd close some good paper jobs. So now we are actively starting to perform those. So I think we've got the first one of like three paver jobs starting on Thursday. And then one of them. The guy just wanted pavers back. It's not a giant backyard, but it's 2500 square feet. So he just wanted pavers. I just want pavers. And then some gravel around it. It's like, well, you know what? That seems a little weird. But now you're going to have a backyard that you can slowly have fun in. You know, you don't have anything to worry about. It's as low maintenance as low maintenance can get. Now you've got a hell of a back patio to come out and do whatever you want to do. So. So we're starting. We're working through Ben's workload that he had sold. You know, he's getting. Getting settled into just an operations role, so managing install and maintenance. We are preparing for our spring schedule, which starts in five weeks.

[C]

It's fitting to happen, man. It's been. It's been cold. I. Well, for me, it's been cold. It was a couple weeks ago or a week ago. It was like 27 degrees. And I know you're way colder up in Gainesville, but 27 degrees is freaking cold down here. Like bananas are all dead and all the tropical stuff is. Is roasted or not odd. The opposite of roasted. They are frozen. My red mangroves down by the lake, those got a little chewed on by Jack Frost there. Yeah, man, it's.

[D]

It brings around here. Oh, I know it's going to happen. Everybody's like, oh, it's been so cold. I said, no, no, no. I said, it's so. Yesterday we had a meeting for the landscape radio at the venue and Yankee Dan was there and we did Yankee Dan's RV park back in late August, September, before their pre sale for their lots. And we put in a pile of plants and they're all smoked. All the plants we put in his yard, they're smoked.

[C]

You put in.

[D]

No, I put in shit that's going to come back. Oh, my God. Everything's. It's like, it's fine. It's okay. Except for your blue days that might not have had enough time to like, really establish to come back. Like, I'm. I said 95 of the stuff's gonna come back. I said, if the shit's dead, it's because you didn't water it and it was dead beforehand. Like, so. Yeah, so. No, it's. It's. It's brown up here, man. I just pick them while they're up at ODB Kids. And Bahia grass is just as dormant as dormant can be. And I was just smiling. I mean, just. I maintain the place also. It's like, this is perfect. It's like this grass isn't going to grow for another 30 days. But when it does, it's going to come back with vengeance.

[C]

It's going to go with fire. Yeah.

[D]

The only thing that, for us, for landscaping that would help slow down the landscape, which is also dangerous for the landscape, is that we've been extremely dry. So coming out of dormancy and then into drought or continued drought, it was going to stress, definitely stress on landscape plants.

[C]

Well, I got something that's on the tip of my tongue. It's on the forefront of my brain here. It's on my forehead that I want to think about. I have an emergency job coming up that we're going to do today. It is not yet 6:30 in the morning yet and we're going to be putting saws in this tree in a few hours. But I got a phone call yesterday morning is from a good commercial client of mine called Kimmins Contracting. And Kimmins Contracting has the contract with City of Tampa of like they do tons of plan stormwater and underground type work, but they also have the contract with City of Tampa and Hillsborough County. When there's an emergency like a sewer line explosion, a water line explosion or oh shit, the road's gone, you know, who responds. Kimmins has a contract. So I have a very good working relationship with Kimmins. So my phone rang yesterday. Jordan, we got a water main explosion down at Gandian west shore. Okay. It's undermining an oak tree. Okay, we need you to look at it.

[D]

Perfect.

[C]

I'll see you in 30 minutes. So I get down there and it is, I don't, I don't know how big around the water main was, but it was at least a 10 inch diameter water main, maybe a 12 inch diameter water main. You know like those big black ones that like have the blue stripe down them. Yeah, yeah, one of those. And it buddy, like the water was turned off. It happened in the middle of the night, but there was a crater the size of two dump trucks and ate part of the road that fell down. And then there was, it was at an intersection where it happened. And then there's a, an rcp, a reinforced concrete pipe, you know, that does stormwater that's probably 2ft in diameter. That pipe, it undermined it and that pipe broke. And so the RCP pipe is under the oak tree root flare. And they can't fix the RCP pipe because the tree sitting on top of it. And then they can like fix the water main because that's far enough away from the tree. But like it's underminded the tree. So it, like, may fall over now. And then the sidewalk's gone and part of West Shore asphalt is gone. And so I'm looking at this. Oh. And when I'm on the way there, I'm like, legitimately 200ft away. And I can see the. The leaf debris line up in people's yards, like the high tide mark. So that means that last night the water flooded the whole street. The water went every bit of 200ft up the road and, like, went halfway between the road and the people's front door was the debris water line. It was like, holy. It was a lot of water that blasted out of this thing to create a hole the size of two dump trucks. So I'm driving up and I'm. I passed the, like, detour, do not enter signs, and I'm driving straight towards the assignment. And one of the Kimmin's guys that doesn't know who I am, he's like standing, waving his hands around like, stop, stop. Because I want to drive my truck into the hole. I pull off to the side, and then he's like, oh, you know what you're doing? You're supposed to be here. And, dude, it was crazy. It was. They send you a picture of it?

[D]

No. Oh, let me send you a picture of it.

[C]

Plant healthcare seems to be all the buzz in the green industry right now. Are you like many business owners that don't know how or where to start, or are you looking to add a new tool to your PHC toolbox?

[D]

Mitigro is an innovative product that focuses on root and soil health. A different approach than loading up the ground with more npk. Mitigro is a blend of mycorrhizae, fungi, bacteria, vitamin B and iba, which is a rooting hormone.

[C]

The concept is simple. More roots equals a healthier and more robust plant. This simple concept is exactly why both Jason and I have incorporated mitigro into our PhD programs. Deep Root applications on my end for mature or struggling trees, soil drenches, and spray applications for when Jason installs trees and installs new sod.

[D]

Give Mitigro a shot for yourself. Their product is easy to apply and no special licenses are needed. Visit mitogrowpro.com to learn more. That's M I T O G-R-O-W-P-R-O.com how big is the tree?

[C]

40 inches in diameter. It's a grand tree here.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Let me send this to you right now, Jason Lee, and then I will show all of you what that looks like. That Is.

[D]

Oh, boy.

[C]

The tree in the crater.

[D]

Wow.

[C]

So I got to go down in the bottom of the crater down there and look deep in the hole of the RCP pipe that is underneath the tree. So it's kind of cool. I got to go down deep in the hole and check it out. And it was. Okay. We're going to need a right of entry into this privately owned residence's house. I'm going to have to put a grapple truck here. But come to find out, I can't use a crane because they're going to open up two lanes of west shore and they're going to keep the eastern most northbound lane closed for stability because the roads undermined. So they're going to. They're going to shift traffic to the southbound lane and the turn lane. That means I can't put a crane there because they have traffic. And then I can't put a crane in the. The intersection of the neighborhood because there's a above an overhead grand camper tree. I can't get the boom up. So that means I'm gonna have to pull a grapple truck in their yard and use the grapple to help crane remove this thing. So I don't have giant logs falling in the crater. So anyways, that, that project starts today, which is kind of fun. Man. I really like challenges and like things to figure out. And I hate cutting trees down, but this is, in a way, kind of fun because it's unique. I don't get to see water explosions under trees every day.

[D]

Yeah, that's impressive.

[C]

So that was kind of cool. I do have some fun news that was brought to my attention. I got an email from Live Switch and you guys have heard me and Jason talk about the software called Live Switch that Jason and I both use to record job site content. Have I pump it into a work order, take a tree inventory, do a bunch of AI wizardry, and Live Switch has very much made my customer walkthroughs, customer communication and crew member communication a hell of a lot easier. And I got a message from Life Switch says, hey, Jordan, thank you so much. I was like, thank you for what? Well, there is a tree company in Mashpee, Massachusetts, and I'm going to try to pronounce this. Alphiri Alfieri Tree Care in Mashpee, Massachusetts has signed up with Live Switch. So folks, thank you for listening. You must have heard about us through Greenside up and I don't know Al Furi Tree Care, but I have looked at your website and you service the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts. And you guys look like you got it going on. You have a beautiful website. I like your color scheme. I can see that you're a certified arborist. You got good branded equipment. You do plant health care. You look like you guys got it going on. So if you'd ever like to connect with me, you can shoot me an email. Greensideuppodcastmail.com you can reach out to me directly. If you ever want to shoot the breeze or if you're in, you're going to Disney World or going to Clearwater beach on vacation, you want to crush a beer and a fish sandwich, shoot me an email. Jordanindependenttreeservice.com or give me a text or a call. 813-245-1566 so thanks for taking a thanks for investing in your business and going down the Live Switch rabbit hole. I think you guys are going to absolutely love the monetary investment. Every month is arguably disposable. It is so low it doesn't matter compared to what people are paying for CRMs or other sorts of software out there. And what I've done is I did a competitive bid on a large mansion that's going to be on the beach, a Godzilla mansion that's on the beach. And I was bidding against a competitor of mine who I am good friends with, but I did a full Live Switch video walkthrough on all of the minutia that has to happen. The house has to be demolished. We got to put a crane on the concrete pad. Then we have to, you know, build a ramp to get the crane to a lower elevation. I mean, this is a grade change beach slopey thing. It's crazy, but I recorded everything in Live Switch, had Lucky the Labrador ride it all for me. And I think my bid presentation was more professional, easier to understand, and was just sexier. And I think Live Switch played a pretty damn well.

[D]

Yeah, because you and the competitor that I'm pretty sure I know who it is, both use the same. Both use the same CRM.

[C]

We do.

[D]

So yours is sexier. Yours is sexier because you got a sexy video.

[C]

Yes, we have the exact same CRM. So our proposals look the same. The color scheme, the format, everything's the same. But I got video links and I got things you can click and then it's crystal clear on what is going to happen and how it's going to happen. And then Lucky the Labrador has mastered the English language and can write things that make sense and flow instead of me and numb Fingers over here. Stress writing in a hurry between appointments. Lucky the Labrador does it when I'm driving between appointments. And then I just cut and paste the stuff. So. Alfieri Alferi Tree Care in Massachusetts. Thank you for going on that venture and I think you're gonna love it. Let me know your feedback and let me know if you like what I suggest you guys do. Okay, I can cross that off my list. I got that done. We have, I have an appointment with Intrigue Media on Thursday. Listening day. Launch day of this episode is Thursday. So you probably have your monthly touch.

[D]

I think we, I think we do feel like we haven't had one in a while. I'm really, I'm usually right after you.

[C]

I have mine at 10:30.

[D]

I don't know how the hell we got off. We are scheduled for next week. Oh, I don't know.

[C]

Yeah, I'm at 10:30. Tomorrow is my monthly touch point with Intrigue Media and I think it's an hour. And what we do every month is we look at how the own the SERP search engine, whatever a P is. I don't know what own the SERP means, but I pay them money and they do blog posts and emails and newsletters and they do Internet jerk offing, Google, all of that for SEO. And we look every month to see how we are performing and we compare that to how much money I am paying them to get a return on investment and if it's working. So we got that scheduled for on Thursday. I, I tasked Intrigue Media with a promotional campaign I wanted them to do do for me. Everybody heard me crying poor in November, maybe December when I had to lay six people off and kill a crew. It was miserable, but I didn't want to not, I didn't want to do nothing about it and just bitch about things. So we have stayed very consistent on our workflow. I'm not three weeks booked by any means. I'm not even a week booked out. But what I can tell you is I got work for Wednesday, I got work for Thursday, I got some work for Friday and I got a little bit of work for next week. So hey, maybe I'm sitting two and a half to three and a half days booked with work and in February, I'll take that. And that was not because we just hoped and prayed and lordy, lordy, make it rain. Have those phone calls come in? No, we went out and we started turning over rocks. So I pulled my email client list from Single Ops and I did this towards the end of December and at the end of December, I had 10,035 email addresses that we had harvested and collected via single ops. And I asked Intrigue Media to send a promotion to every customer to invite them to take advantage of a discount, if you will. And they said, well, Jordan, we normally don't do promotions like this, but we love you so much. For $500, we'll do a promotion like this. And I said, okay, 10,000 divided by $500 or $500 divided by 10,000. This is a nickel and email. Perfect. You do it. So I wrote With ChatGPT at my side, I wrote a little ditty and it says, start the year strong, protect your trees and save 10%. As we kick off the new year, we want to thank you for your past business and help you start and Hope you start 2026 with a healthy, resilient landscape. This is the ideal time for tree pruning. As trees are entering dormancy, make it the safest and most effective season to prepare them for the upcoming storms and rainy months. New year special save 10% compared to our summer rates offer, valid for jobs purchased and scheduled between January 5th through February 28th, 2026. To help you plan with confidence, we're also offering a complimentary tree inspection to ensure your trees are in great shape for the year ahead. To schedule, simply call the office, email the office, or reach out directly to your preferred arborist, Jordan Dependent Tree Marti, at. And then my dad's email address. Availability is limited and this time of the year offer. Availability is limited, and this time of year offers the best opportunity to protect your investment before spring arrives. We'd love to help you start the year off right. And then there's a save now button. And then attached right below that is our, like, winter time newsletter with a bunch of information about wintertime pruning and structure and all of that. So that worked, man. It freaking worked. People bit and it was people that we had relationships with. It was all of our repeat business. And they're like, oh, well, damn, I'm gonna hire independent tree service anyway. All right? They say to do it now, and I'm gonna save 10%.

[D]

Done.

[C]

And so that made our phone ring. And that gave me sales opportunity. My dad, Jerry Marti, it fricking worked. And the way I would do the bid is, you know, I don't. I don't like flim, flaminess and secrets, right? So if I'm going to give a 10% discount, well, I'm really going to mark it up to mark it down, right? That's weird, man. So the way I said we're going to do this is like, all right, whatever. My normal rate is going to bid you a damn normal rate and pick a number. Let's say it's three grand, whatever, $1,000, whatever, for your labor. That's going to be my normal rate. I'm going to take 10% off of my labor, but the permit fee doesn't change, the debris disposal fee doesn't change, and I'm discounting my labor rate by 10%. And then it's real. And they're like, oh, well, damn, you guys charged me 2800 last year for labor plus all the other stuff. Oh, there's 2, 800 minus 280 bucks for the 10%. All right. It's legitimate and real. And it's not all flim flammy, right? Because if I discount everything by 10%, I can't really do that. I don't. I can't. I can't do that on stump grinding, root pruning, air spading, debris hauling. I can't take off 10% for that. So it made it very real. Just discount the labor. And then they're like, all right. Well, they're not marking it up to mark it down because it's all in line with the historical data that we had, you know, with the client. So that worked out so well. Intrigue Media would drip, I don't know, however many hundred a day. So every 30 minutes they would pump out 150 emails or however the drip worked. And so that campaign goes over several days until we've liquidated 10,035 emails.

[D]

So do you, do you have any statistics of, like, look at how many people opened it? What, the return of.

[C]

Yeah. Yes. But I forgot what it was. I'm going to learn a lot more of it on Thursday. But it was good. Like, I was talking with Lauren or Alex and they're like, holy shit, these metrics are incredible. We had a however many percentage clicky rate and a whatever rate. I'm like, all right, nerds. But like, no, this is excellent. I'm like, sweet. You know? So it worked out so well that I've asked them to do it again. I said, send a second blast to all my customers. But here's the list of people that we did work for from November to right now. Cut that people out of it. Here's a list of people that are on the, on the schedule for the future. Cut them out. Here's the people that are on for an estimate, cut them out. And that way it's only going to the people that haven't contacted us since. So we're not looking desperate to people that we earn their business. But it's like the theme is last call before February's here. Last call, get it in. And that way I can get by my Howard Dean scream of February shot out here.

[D]

Nice. Yeah, I had, I had my buddy, a buddy of mine from the peer group called and he. Anyway, he called for a reference for Intrigue and he is, he was actually looking at the previous marketing company that I was with in Intrigue. And he's like, hey, Mark told me that they signed up with Intrigue and that you guys use Intrigue. I said, yep. And we went through the whole deal of past marketing companies which, which he. And being in the peer group with him, you know, living in the, in the historical times, you know, he lived part of that and used some of the same previous companies. But I told him, I said, man, he's like, well, what do you think? I said, well, I said, I said, I made a move for a reason. And I said, and I'm seeing more results, you know, from that move. And we went through the whole deal from top to bottom. And then we. Yesterday I talked to him again and he was, he's in his final decision making of who he's going to go with. And he's just like, well, what about the numbers? He's like, what's the return? I said, man, I said, I'll be honest with you. I said, I don't remember exactly what the previous company. When we did the ROI calculation at the end of the year, I said, but it was 2% or under of or 2x not 2%, 2x return or under like 1.8 on return of our, of our marketing dollars to gross revenue. And I told him, I said right now I said we're somewhere between seven and eight with Intrigue. And I said, and if I improve, improve my close ratio with at the rate that we plan on improving it this year, I said, man, I said this going to make automatically. And that's with any company not, not just Intrigue on what we're doing now. But I said, yeah, I said, I think we'll be above 10x return on our, on our marketing dollars. So. And I said, looking at the numbers, I said there's my recommendation. I said, if you want to solely bank a, make a business decision based on data points, that's what we're doing in our business, in our market. Of course everybody's businesses and markets are different but no, I'm looking forward to see what happens in springtime when we can actually go through a season in the landscape world. Obviously your tree guy season is different but you know, for us we didn't. We started with Intrigue in April and then you have to do the months of figuring out Google and setting up all the ads because we hadn't run Google Ads for like a year before starting with Intrigue. So we were getting back into Google and you know, I've told Alex, I said, well listen, I said we still haven't even gone like if we're comparing a 12 month cycle, which is what I would like to do and really look at it, you know, from spring, spring through winter. I said we're just getting into that cycle now. So we're gonna have one 12 month cycle to look at now. But still isn't accurate because we were kicking off in the middle of our season. So that's in the next 12 month cycle. The second year is really where the data is going to be coming in. We can start track some things seasonality. So anyway, I'm looking forward to that just for trying to wrap my head around some sort of wrap my head around the seasonal seasonality so that we can predictably make decisions of how we operate our business around it.

[C]

So, so I get this is what I don't understand and maybe you can explain it, mansplain it to me. So if you hire a marketing company, they want to look at the return on investment of look at your money well spent. You gave us $1,000 and we brought you $7,000. So something like that, right? You know, some ROI. Now how do you or do you even separate what that marketing company did for you versus what you were already doing yourself? If you, if you don't separate it and just look at gross revenue, okay, it's there on the battleship with you. It's part of the deal and we're just going to look at everything's going to be attributed to the marketing company because that's just, it's now in our DNA. But how do you really know?

[D]

Well no, no, we're looking at the gross revenue dollars that's brought in specifically through what they're tracking through. But how ads through the.

[B]

Right.

[C]

But how do you know if that client wouldn't have found you on Google anyway?

[D]

You don't.

[C]

So then you just attribute all of your Google Internet thing to them even though that you might have had it anyway. That's the Thing you'll never know.

[D]

I don't know if Google. I don't know. That'd be a question in one of our meetings to see if the. See if we're accounting for organic Google, which I don't think. I don't think organic Google is counted in it. I don't know. That's a good question.

[C]

So like I love Intrigue. I pay them lots of money. They're friends. But I was already doing pretty damn good before I hired him. Right. I already already blowing the door down. So now I'm spending tons of money. How do we measure what I was doing before versus what we're doing now?

[D]

You got to look at it. You got to. Well, you can't look at. It's very difficult to look at. I mean it had to be your. You'd have to be tracking what you were doing before already. And then you get the data from what you're doing. Now what I compare the two.

[C]

So in single ops we had a custom deal built in called lead source where when you're creating a a lead for to go out for estimate when you're creating that lead, you can't save it until you've clicked the lead source. How did the customer hear about you? So we have Google saw the trucks next door app referral from a whatever. Like we have all these lead sources. So I can in single ops have them tally up the lead source. They'll spit out a spreadsheet and I can have how many dollars per fiscal year was strictly Google and I can figure out how many dollars were repeat how many dollars were referral by another tree service saw your trucks. So I could go 20 starting in 2018. I think I signed up November 2017, but I could go 2018, 19, 20 all the way up to 2024. Because I think we started with intrigue November 2024 and have a Google bucket of dollars. And then I can look at, you know, all of 2025 was with intrigue and look at $2025, know that there's momentum that has to get built. And then I think 2026 might be the best real measurer of is it working? And I can compare 2025 and 2026 Google dollars with 2022 and 2023. Is that how I do it?

[D]

Maybe. But then you got seasonality in there too. And now you've got a vacuum of work that happened at the end of last year. Yes, your rain, rain making hurricane year. So that could throw off statistics drastically one way or the other. I Don't know. So I don't know. But that would be the way you should look at it. And just if you see anomalies, especially with the hurricane, it's just like, oh, this is really weird. And just have that in your head of. There's been some, some oddities.

[C]

And here's I, I'm not saying this to stroke intrigue, but it is kind of some assurance to know that I have some people, like, I want to do this email blast. Well, if I try to do it myself, Google's going to shut me down. Then I got to go to mailchimp or Constant Contact and deal with that. Like, look, I just asked them to do it and they're doing it. And there's this sense of security

[D]

where

[C]

I don't have a sense of FOMO if I don't have a marketing company. You hear all the people hear you talking about it. I'm like, oh shit, I'm missing out

[D]

on this ball game, you know?

[C]

And then I'm like in my head on am I the only that isn't smart enough to have all this going on?

[D]

So like I told, well, I told Pete, it's like once you get it, once you start doing this, then you have a fear of stopping. It's like, well, what's going to happen if I don't do it? And like I told Pete, I stopped running Google Ads because I was so fed up with the amount of Google Ads we were paying and the people that were running it weren't doing a good job. And I said, and I paid an astronomical amount of money for pay for clicking all these ads. And I said, without a plan other than we're just going to spend more money and that's, that's how it's going to work. And said, and it didn't work. But yeah, once you have it, then it's. And it's the most common topic. I mean, just like I told, I told Pete, I said, I said when we were in the peer group, I said every meeting, I said, we'd all start out with our topics. And I said, and then it would just derail and we'd start talking about marketing and how to get more work and how to do whatever. So I said it's the most, you know, it's the most talked about thing that no one understands and that no one can, you know, no one knows what the return should be because it worth it. Is it not worth it? Like it's. And it's okay not to know, but if you're spending a bunch of money and you don't feel like you're getting a return, then don't do it. I mean, for us, I'm pleased with the amount of leads that we have coming in in January. I mean, I won't know till next week what we attribute to. To intrigue or not, but it's. It's a. For January. We are. I'm very pleased with the amount of leads. I mean, it's not a overwhelming amount, but it's. It's good.

[C]

Yeah, it's still hard for. Like, there's. In Hillsborough county, not many people want tree work because we're in that vacuum, right? It's winter. We're in that vacuum. So the consumer demand isn't there. It's just the number of people searching for any damn tree service. It's just not there. That's why, like, the whole turning over rocks deal and reaching out and doing this promotional thing has been so successful is we had that trust and we had that rapport with the client. So where we. It was a vehicle to directly message our people that now is the time to do it. I can't. Other than mailing something to somebody's house who doesn't know who the hell I am. Like, now's the time to your trees. Who the hell is this schmo? Right? We had the report, which was huge. So I don't know, man. I think it is going to work. But, you know, the intrigue thing. But I also think that, you know, this year might tell what our real ROI is because you have a whole year of momentum building. And now we're doing this whole own the SERP and we got posts and goes out in the ether and blogs and all that. That's part of the deal. But I'm glad I'm doing it and not sitting on the bench waiting for the sun to rise.

[D]

Man. My. Oh, did you meet Matt? You didn't meet Matt Heiner, right? Matt Heiner. Water feature guy, Colorado.

[C]

Is that the guy that we went to Volt lighting with?

[D]

No, that's Mark. Michigan. Mark.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Anyway, Matt smiling.

[C]

Why are you smiling, Jason?

[D]

Matt's. Matt's from Colorado. And so Matt's been down a couple times gator hunting. And, you know, when I first met him, it was at a peer group meeting in Cape Cod, and we shared an Uber together. And it's like, man, it's like I. He's asking me how business was. I said, things are pretty slow. Like, we're a couple weeks out on install this and that he's like, man, he's like, I don't have anything for my guys to do next week. And I don't think he would mind me sharing this, but it's like, I'll have anything for my guys to do next week. I said, holy crap. So we just started talking shop just like we do and, and talking about different ideas and different things. And then things started to pick up for him a little bit. And then when I saw him, it must have been when he came down, gator hunt. And I said, man, how's business? And it was only, I mean, it wasn't that, that I don't, I don't know the time, duration, six months, eight months, Sales, business. He's like, oh, we're killing it. I said, really? He's like, oh yeah. He's like, we're crushing it. He's then, you know, and just started telling me all the things he's doing. I said, well, what happened? He's like, man, he's like, you know, my marketing company told me things would take time and he's like to click. He's just like. And he's like. And I don't know what happened, but they clicked. He's like, and everything's working. He's like, the whole plan, you know, the plan we laid out. He's like, so now we're getting the, you know, leads are coming in. This is happening xyz. And it's just like, that's awesome. So I think some of the stuff, you know, on the Internet as people that know what they're doing, some of the stuff takes time to put in motion. Yeah.

[C]

Do you want your office phone to ring more and increase service requests to your inbox? Want to push the gas pedal on your lead volume?

[D]

Looking for a marketing company is daunting. And who knows how to select a marketing company that really works? No business owner will have to spend their hard earned money on empty promises.

[C]

Intrigue Media is your solution. Both Jason and I have partnered with Intrigue to help grow our businesses by simply making our phone ring more. Intrigue will build you an up to date website in record time. They had my website live on the Internet start to finish in under seven days. Intrigue will crank up SEO for your business, increase your organic Google ranking and even handle your paid Google Ads.

[D]

Intrigue Media is fast tracking lead volume for both Sky Frog landscape and independent tree service. You should give them a try for your business. Visit intrigue media.com if you want to make more money and crush your competitors. Online, That's Intrigue media dot com.

[C]

Tom, thank you for listening. I appreciate the text messages that you send me. And Tom does a really good job of giving me honest feedback that's more than just two sentences. Like, you'll. You'll write me a paragraph of honest feedback, and sometimes it's very constructively critical, which I like. You know, Jordan, you talk too much. It's not the Jordan show. It's the Jordan and Jason, so. Oh, all right, Tom, thanks. I'll. I need to hear that. But then you tell me that we kicked ass in January, that we had some awesome episodes, that you wanted to hear more. You wanted to hear more about Andrew Fucarino from last week, coming on as the independent tree service business development manager and buddy. Tom, we're moving and shaking, man. This is a. This is a. A rocket ship that has left the silo and we're going places. I don't know. We've already been going for 45 minutes. Jason. I don't know if we have time to. To talk about that. Let's talk about the rodeo. If that last three minutes, then I'll tell you about Andrew.

[D]

Okay. Well, before that, I need to go back to losing work. So we were talking about what we're doing in strategy to get more work and get in front of people, but we are bidding a very large property that we're definitely in the running for. I don't know if we'll get it. If we get that, then it offsets me losing. I'm pretty sure it's my largest landscape maintenance contract currently that we have. So. And then we have had. So and for our listeners. And I don't really. I don't think I normally say property names and I probably won't, but we had lost an hoa. Not the big POA that we had with the crazy lady property manager that we got terminated from, but we had lost an HOA a year and a half ago. There had definitely during podcast anyway history. And we'd lost that property to a. I guess they're probably a regional now I can say the company's name. So we lost the property to United Land Services and United Land Services doesn't necessarily do that good of work in

[C]

our like a US Lawns equivalent, though

[D]

they were a big company in Jacksonville for a long time. Did a lot of then still do a lot of. They were known for being like the new home construction install company. That's what they did. They jam plants in the ground and they're really good at it. So they got acquired by a company and they made them the platform. The platform. So they made. United Land Services is going to be the company. And so they've been acquiring companies I think all over the state or country or I don't know. But they're big now. And so now they've entered our market and they're gobbling up maintenance properties which they historically haven't done much landscape maintenance. So they're gobbling up properties. Not doing a great job for my eyeballs. And with the property that we'd lost, seven months later, we had to call back, which is always good because whenever we lose an HOA or any property, we try to leave it in the best condition that we can improve. Any deficiencies, if there are deficiencies. In that case it was only price based they were making decision on. So seven months later, when the property goes to shit, we get a phone call, hey, are you ready to come back? I got a good relationship with the, you know, the guy that runs the neighborhood. And you know, he just told me, he's like, man, I got outvoted. He's like, I think they're making a bad choice. I said, well, I said to him, I said, just make sure that I'm the first phone call, please. You know, I said, and we'll be ready to come back. And so we did. Anyway, I'm hoping we're entering in another scenario of that because we're losing probably 100 and I don't know, it's between 100 and 150 grand a year with all services combined. I don't know. Off the top of my head, wait,

[C]

Sky Frog landscape is losing $150,000 a year?

[D]

Yeah, yeah. It's a kick in the pants as we're trying to grow our budget, you know, grow by a million plus. Yes. I'm losing 10% off the top of my, my growth plan. So now I got to make up for that project. Gets into the same. Same thing. The president of the HOA talked to her, she's like, listen, I got outvoted. We've been maintaining the place for 12 years. So a 12 year relationship is now gone. And I don't know if that is solely on. I know some of it is on price. The irrigation in the neighborhood is a natural born catastrophe. The property manager that had been running the neighborhood, you know, we survived probably six to eight turns of property managers.

[C]

Damn.

[D]

And probably six to eight turns of property management companies. So to do that for 12 years is a great accomplishment and it's a real Kick in the pants. And anyway, this type of loss hurts our feelings because we have so much vested into this. But the property manager that had been running it sold his business, got fired because he wasn't just doing. He really wasn't that good at his job and was known for that. And so I think that some of that animosity towards the property management, property manager and property management company is now falling on us. So my goal now is to set the timer and see if we can get this contract back within the next 24 months. So that's my goal right now, is to finish out our month because we got noticed last week. So yeah, we'll be finishing out through February.

[C]

At least they were nice enough to let you have November, December, January, February, then shit, cannon, you. And you know, September, wouldn't it suck? You get canned in October and you're like, well, I did all the hard work. At least you got to write it through the winter. So now do you know who got the. Oh, United got it right?

[D]

No, no, no. I don't know. I don't believe so. I think I know. I. I don't know. I think I know. Mr. Gooseneck trailer. No, it's a newer company in town. They're spin off from company that is known for not doing good work. They took over. They took over Kelston Lane and Kelston Lane is not happy at all. They don't do a good job in Kelsey Lane.

[C]

It's not the guy with the. This, the law and.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, the sheriff's department badge.

[D]

Yeah, a spin off from him. The guy, I think the. I think the guy that's getting the contract. And since people in our market listen well, I should probably just start talking names. I don't give a shit. But it's. Anyway, so the current person that I think is getting it anyway has picked up another HOA from us. They hate them. I saw Ms. Dalwick at Santa Fe college basketball game last year.

[C]

Brenda.

[D]

Yeah, she pays us to come into the. She still pays us to come in. She pays us to come into Kelson Lane and the little 11 house cul de sac neighborhood and do her yard because the people aren't any good. And it's a difference of like 200 bucks a month, 250 bucks a month.

[C]

Oh my God.

[D]

Like with. And the property manager, he's just like, oh, you're so expensive. It's like, buddy, I'm not that expensive. I said, this guy's doing half the work that we did for 200 less a month for the Price. Like I'm not lowering my price to meet this guy. I'm sorry, we don't have to come into the neighborhood. And it drives me INSANE Driving down 43rd street in Gainesville, Florida and seeing the creeping fig wall overgrown and non maintained where you and I used to go out there and we trimmed it and it was the most beautiful thing in the world to the wall. It's, it's two feet off the wall right now. Oh, two feet off. Yep.

[C]

You got to get that extra foliage off. Come on.

[D]

Anyway, so. But I'm hoping with losing this contract I. There's, I was of course going into can we save it mode and I think it's past that point, but now it's, you know, how soon can we get it back mode.

[C]

Well, when is it, when is it going to start sucking? It's going to get May, June, July.

[D]

So. So the neighborhoods, the neighborhood doesn't have many. We just got through leaf season there because they have Bradford bears. So the neighborhood's full of Bradford pears. So we've done the leaf leaf season for the year. So they're not going to have a spring, a big spring leaf drop. It's going to suck when the viburnum start growing. I got $5,000 in trim tech sitting on a pallet over here that was destined for that neighborhood this year that I ordered on the EOP program through Mike Deamer. And now I don't have an HOA to spray that shit in. So we're going to have a whole bunch of properties that we're going to play with trim tech on instead of trying to maintain the Viburna motor artisimum in that neighborhood. But when the viburnum starts growing, they don't even have an idea of what is coming for them.

[C]

It's oh, you wanna, can you vigilante fertilize all the.

[D]

We are doing an application out there this week.

[C]

Is that, is there like 180 day fert that you can put down that's more than the 90 and hit it with like ammonium nitrate up. Dude, hit him with like a 3200 and just.

[D]

I mean I think by midsummer, I think by midsummer it's whatever it might be a test or the company might do a great job. And the neighborhoods, you know, got a lower cost quality provider. But I think they're going to have a rude awakening. And the amount, the amount of crazy people that live in H ways is it's got to be at least 10%, right?

[C]

Really?

[D]

At 10, 10% of crazy people. There's 180 people. You think that. Yeah. Well, you don't maintain landscapes. Yes. So at least 10% of them are crazy in some fashion. And 5% of that crazy don't want you to touch their yard. So we have 10 to 15 houses in there, probably 10, maybe not 15, that don't want us doing things on their property in different manners and fashions. Maybe one they don't want you to edge. They don't want you to mow. They don't want you to. They don't want you to edge your mobile. Trim my bushes or don't trim my bushes, but cut my grass.

[C]

So you have 10 or 15 change orders and special. Special order omelets that you have to juggle.

[D]

So we've got 12 years of learning those. How to make those omelets and then now a new company doesn't know how to make those omelets. And good luck, buddy. A different hoa. We had a lady call the cops on us the other day. We have a psychopath in an HOA that is ready to get letter from the property management. Like a cease and assist. She calls and harasses the office. She bought a house unseen, moved here from Texas. Sydney's Sydney, spoken of your shoulder.

[C]

Hey, honey. Yeah, she's taking the kids to school and asked if she could leave Alan sleeping.

[D]

So. So yeah. So this lady moved in, I don't know, a couple months ago and sight unseen. And it's just been wreaking havoc in the hoa. We came through and did a lawn application in the HOA and we sprayed her lawn with all the, the other, with all of the other lawns.

[C]

This is one of the chemicals within 150 foot radius things or something.

[D]

No, not yet. And I don't need her to learn about that. So. No, no, not yet. But there's a couple of houses in this HOA and it's the one that we had lost to United and got back. There's a couple houses that had in that process of United being there and contracted with their own pest control company, which I believe that we're just now letting them do that. And we're not doing it, but we're contracted to do fertilizer and pest control on all lawns in this HOA. 110 houses. And they're small houses, postage stamp yards. I mean, less than a thousand square feet per front yard. And anyway, but she calls up just losing her ever loving your. You put cancer in my yard. You put anybody. Just went off the Rails all the crazy things you could talk about. It's like, okay, ma', am, it's no problem. We'll make sure we don't spray your yard again. Well, you're spraying it across the neighborhood. Well, yes, ma'. Am. We're contracted with your HOA to provide this service and it's illegal and you're spraying cancer. And buddy, she's not laying up on

[C]

it

[D]

anytime we're in the neighborhood. And now I've had. I'm having to go back and check FDX and make sure that we're. She's calling us out on some stuff and I'm. I got to make sure that we're following the law. Like she's making all these claims. And my guy in the neighborhood calls me up, he's like, hey, is this like, what's the deal with this? So now I got to go back and look it up. It's like, well, you got to give 48 hours notice before you spray. It's like, well, do we. And I go back and look it up. And even with the crazy, the crazy people thing you're talking about, that's still not. There's no, there is nothing that says there's. The only thing, if you're on that specialist that you're talking about that I can look up and read from my research, looking through all the law books with the pest control license is that if you're on that list, you have to provide them with 24 hour notice before you come and spray within a certain area from that address. So if it's a quarter mile, then, you know, then you gotta, if you're spraying along within that quarter mile range, you gotta give them 24 hour notice, let them know where you're doing it. She's not on that list. So. And she says that we need to be putting signage in every yard in the hoa.

[C]

Not.

[D]

I'm going back and looking that up. No, I think it's lined up. I think it's line of sight.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

So generally, and that's what we do, we put our little signs, little sky frog signs at one entrance and one entrance. And then we'll put them every, I don't know, 20 houses, every 15 houses. Everyone knows when we're spraying. So you see the signs, you see the truck. It is not a large neighborhood. It is two streets. So she, I guess called the police on Monday. We were in doing tree trimming, so we were raising the canopies on some street trees and I guess proceeded to call the cops for that. So the cops were in the neighborhood, and. Which nobody called me, by the way. No one in my business called me to tell me that the police got called on one of my maintenance crews and that they were lingering and spending way too much time, I guess, just driving back and forth and stopping and watching my guys work after the lady called. So I would have gladly seized the opportunity to go over there and have a discussion and stop that. But, yeah, so we blocked her phone. She called two weeks ago into the office, and, like, Michelle was very upset because the ladies just goes off the rail. And I told her, so just block her phone. So then she calls from a different phone number. And so I told Steve, I said, we need to do something legally. Like, I said, I can't have this lady call my office. And so then he's just like, well, maybe you just don't do the fertilizer. I said, well, Steve, somebody's gonna have to do the fertilizer, and the lady's not gonna stop. I said, so then I said, I might as well do it, because I don't want anybody else in the neighborhood.

[C]

She should have done her. Dude, let's have a little bit of, like, extreme. Extreme ownership here. She should have bought a different property.

[D]

Yeah. Any. I mean, yes. She brought a sight unseen. And I guess there's other things she's. There's other things she's being crazy about. This is the only one that just directs. Directly affects us. So it's real, man. It's real. So going back to the other property we're losing, there's no one in that neighborhood that is at that level of crazy. But there's some. There's some people that have thoughts and opinions. We'll see how it goes. All right. So for the sake of time, Talking about the landscape radio, the landscape radio is coming up next Friday, February 20th. If you are thinking about coming to the landscape radio, come join us. It is shaping up to be quite the event. Hustler turf has come on as a sponsor. Title sponsor with us. Yep. So Hustler is joining Mr. Tony Bass and super long trucks as a title sponsor, and they are bringing. I think they're going to end up doing three of the mower competitions. And then gravely, who is a platinum sponsor and brought their mowers up for media day for us to shoot some content. They're going to have the other two mower competitions. So we will be competing with hustler and gravely mowers. We had a contractors in fngla, Justin Walsh, who's down in Naples, I believe, like somewhere down there. Sexy on the water. He's got a big business down there and they're bringing some guys up. But he was giving me some flack about having takahoochee machines that were joystick controlled. I guess they still run foot controlled bobcats. So I told him, I said well, it's just going to be a test for your guys and they're going to have to learn we don't run those PlayStation controllers. And I said, well, I said, well man, I said that's why it's a, you know, it's a, it's a competition, man. You guys are going to have to try new things. We're trying to be fair to everybody. And I started thinking about it. It's like, well, you know what? We need to get Bobcat to bring out a bobcat machine so that everybody else can. It'll be a challenge for everybody. So I think we're.

[C]

If he's that, I mean, each NASCAR driver brings their own car to the racetrack. Have him bring his own damn skid steer.

[D]

We can't do that. Well, we talked about that and at some point if we had a bigger venue, we might. To run what? You'd run competition of some sort. But it's, we started doing the math on that. It's like, oh no, there'd be way the amount of trucks and trailers. Yeah, it's. That'd be too much of a liability. But, but no, we, we are currently selling tickets. Selling tickets to competitions just for spectator tickets. Got people buying tickets to the VIP dinner which you will be hosting. A low country boil. Yeah, crawfish.

[C]

We did some, some easy, rough ballparky math and we're gonna feed over 100 people on Friday night. So I gotta, it's brass tax time. I got eight days until I gotta have an airplane full of crawfish touched down near Jacksonville.

[D]

But if you, but if you are listening and you are coming to the radio or you're debating on coming to the radio, you 100 just need to come and have a great time with us. But it would be very helpful if you can go online and register for your competitions so we can get our swag bags organized for Friday competition. And then also if you're coming to the VIP dinner, definitely register. Preferably before Saturday of this week.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

Or register as soon as you are listening to this. Get on your phone as you're listening to Greenside podcast. Register for the VIP dinner because you and I have to put a food order together. And figure out how much stuff so. And how many crawfish need to fly here from Louisiana.

[C]

Yeah, precisely. I gotta figure out if it is £80 or £800 of crawfish is what I need to figure out.

[D]

I think £80 probably pretty good but. And if you are. So we're doing for prizes we've got anyway we've got some sponsors that are kicking in swag and different things. Wrangler Western Wear has been seeing some of our videos on social media and wants to come up and shoot some content. So they gave me a bunch of coupons for I think some free jeans that they're mailing. Hustlers doing swag bags. We've got belt buckles. But then we're doing the landscape decathlon which is going to be across your the lowest average ranking score across 10 events. So if you're going to come for $5 an event, I would recommend signing up for at least 10 events and throwing your name in the hat to win a thousand dollar cash prize for the winter of the landscape decaf. So and going through the tickets yesterday we've got. Trying to filter through the ticketing platform is a little interesting but I saw like at least three or four people that have signed up for over 10 events. So I think a lot of them

[C]

with my intrigue math that's 20 times return on investment if you 10 events and so then you can't get that in the casino and that's all on chance and not really your skill in your.

[D]

And if you are coming and we have a bunch of people that have only signed up for a handful of events. So we're also trying to mitigate a registration disaster at the event of people once they come and sign up for one or two things and then don't realize, you know, don't fully understand what's going on that they're going to be wanting to sign up for more. So if you haven't signed up yet or if you have signed up and you've only signed up for a couple of events, feel free to sign up as many as you want because we will be there all day and. And there are a lot of them that are going to be a lot of fun. So if you're signing up, sign up for as many as you want because we're trying not to have a cluster at 9 o' clock in the morning on Friday. Boom.

[C]

All right, so next week I'll bring you up to speed on Andrew Fucarino. Well maybe we might be podcasting this thing.

[D]

I don't know what. I don't know what the hell we're doing next week. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

And I will have some more information, but, yeah, Andrew's on a, he's on a course and he's, he's, he's going that course. So we'll have another couple days of new information developed between now and then. Okay. So the landscaperadio.com get your stuff registered. You have, like, fun Instagram things.

[D]

Yeah, we're on Instagram. We are currently on Instagram, Tick tock, Facebook and YouTube with the landscape radio.

[C]

So check that out. And if you want to reach out to me, GreenSideUp podcast, Gmail.com and Jason, it is it. Sun's up.

[D]

It's time to go to work.

[C]

It's time to run our real businesses now.

[D]

Yep.

[C]

All right, man. I'll see you later.

[B]

As you continue your journey toward entrepreneurial success, let Jason and Jordan be your trusted companions on this uphill climb. Don't miss out on future episodes of the Green side Up podcast. Make sure to hit that follow button to stay updated. For more ways to connect with the guys, check out the podcast description. Thank you for tuning in. And remember, keep working hard. Keep so you can play even harder and keep the green side up.