← Green Side Up
Loading summary
Transcript166 lines
- [00:05]
A
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 Upkevage.
- [00:47]
B
Well, happy Easter, everybody. I hope you had fun with your family. If you have a family and if you have kids, I hope you found eggs and ate candy and then yelled at them for eating too much candy and then found yourself throwing all of this Chinese plastic away that was in your house. Because that's what we did.
- [01:05]
C
You hoard the plastic or do you throw it away immediately?
- [01:07]
B
Plastic goes away.
- [01:09]
C
Yes.
- [01:09]
B
I don't have a garage to hoard things in, Jason.
- [01:12]
C
Oh, that's true.
- [01:13]
B
It goes everywhere. And it's like out in the open. And then my wife gets mad at me because we're pigs and slobs and look at this mess. Can't even set anything on the counter because there's shit everywhere. And so it goes away.
- [01:28]
C
Not having a garage to hoard things in is a good way to get rid of shit.
- [01:32]
B
So we're coming up with what are we going to talk about? And we did some sales processes that was just an honest sales process for a couple episodes. We banged down TCAA last week, and we were talking about what we're gonna talk about during this week's episode. And I think the most fitting thing that's real and genuine that I want to cover kind of goes in with an Easter theme. How about that? A He has risen Easter theme. And it is spring being April right now, and plants are waking up and leaves are emerging off of trees and plants are flowering. And we did a Mitigro experiment pilot back in January.
- [02:38]
C
We had was this one over Todd
- [02:39]
B
and Todd and Todd and Chad and Max, and I think her name was Anna.
- [02:47]
C
Yes.
- [02:48]
B
Came to Tampa and the four of them met with me at my house and we went over some Mitigro stuff and we went and visited some job sites. And I explained that I wasn't seeing any drastic results that the results that they were claiming to show that I didn't see them. And I learned that the rate I was applying was that of a maintenance rate and not that of a booster rate to resurrect a tree from the brink of death is, is what I learned. So I was looking at the bag and I was following the label. And if you, if you follow the label, you have a window of chemical density that you can use. And I was using the lower rate because I was being frugal. And they said, jordan, if you want to see some crazy results, you need to use this really high rate. So there's a college in Tampa called University of Tampa, and there is a park with a fountain in the center and it's very nicely landscaped. And there are eight oak trees that half of them aren't doing so hot. And we did a soil sample. The ph is Damn near an 8, like 7. 7.8. And it was 7.9 over here. Maybe it was an 8.0 or an 8.1 over there. Crazy high ph. And there's lime rock. And just sue infill, right? Because it was all, it used to be a roadway that went through this big open green space. And they said, we are going to pound these things with mitigro. So in a 200 gallon tank, we added eight bags of mitigro. Eight pounds of mitigro in a 200 gallon tank, and we were installing three gallons of sauce per diameter inch. So if we had a 15 inch tree, we were hitting that tree with 45 gallons of super sauce. And the math works out to 0.64 dry ounces of mitigro per gallon. And then 3 gallons per inch is what the math works out. And so this tree was 16, 17 inches. We put about 50 gallons on it. And it was via drench. So we, we do deep root stuff. But this could be done like, just like a watering can, you know, drench it, let it pool up on the soil surface. And really you're irrigating the tree is what you're doing. Take a 50 gallon drum and you're irrigating the soil and getting all of the soil wet with this concentrated mitigro cocktail. So that was in April. We went back in late March, right before Easter. And Jason, the appearance of the one tree that we tested was night and day different from the trees that we didn't do this test on. It was obnoxiously greener, more full in a way. There was still deadwood. I mean, there was tip die back in the tree. The tree was limping hard. Right. So the deadwood was still there.
- [06:24]
C
Yeah, those are there.
- [06:25]
B
It was already there. It's gonna stay there until it falls out or somebody cuts it out.
- [06:29]
C
Yeah.
- [06:29]
B
But the amount of canopy growth and the color of the growth was obnoxiously stark different. So and, and we didn't charge the client for that service because I needed to prove the Mitigro to myself, if you will. So from that exercise I went back right before Easter last week, looked at it, said holy crap. I called my contact at I said Kim, have you seen this tree? This is ridiculous. You said jordan, I did see that tree. My team and I went to the sixth floor the other week and we looked at it and said holy crap, that one's way better. And I said Kim, I would like to do this Mitigro to these seven other trees that are on your property. And she said I would love you to do that too. So we have just upsold Kim on a Mitre Group booster app to the seven of out of the eight trees because it worked on the one that we did. And I have since sold a fair amount of the Mitigro booster application that is supplementing my 2026 plain healthcare program. So I am finding the trees that are not doing so well and I am very staunchly suggesting we do a booster app to kick off the fertilization application that will come throughout the remainder of 2026. So I'm going to read you what my in single ops what my mitogrow booster application verbiage is. It's auto populated and it says a one time Mitigro application is a booster to the 2026 Plant Healthcare program. Mitigro 0.64 ounces per gallon comma 3 gallon per inch. Note we are going, oh this is a guy named Sterling, he likes to go fish and I thought he would appreciate this. I said note, we are going to pound this tree with 200 gallons of product. Mitigro is a water dispersible broad spectrum biostimulant. The product includes a combination of biologicals, mycorrhizae, cytokinin, bacillus a plus iba which promotes new fibrous root growth to aid nutrient absorption. And I've been selling the piss out of that because I have earned the it has earned the confidence and I can feel good about selling it. Jason. Now that is what is exciting to me.
- [08:46]
C
Well now coming from the colorblind guy, you sent me the picture and it is noticeably different. So now you have that picture which if I can find a way I'll put it on social media, make a post about it or if I can find a way to link a photo in the show, notes might try to do that. But it'll be on our social media by the time this episode airs. And go and take a look. But it is significantly different. So now you have that picture to show as a result. You have a visible result to help your sales process.
- [09:18]
B
Yeah, absolutely.
- [09:20]
C
Great thing to have in your pocket.
- [09:21]
B
0.64 ounces or gallon. 3 gallon per diameter inch. So I was looking at Sterling. The guy likes to go fishing. I said I was in the poundage tree with 200 gallons of sauce. This is a 43 inch live oak. So it would be 129 gallons is what this tree would get. But I'm gonna hit it with 200 gallons of product anyway. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna slam eight pounds of mitigro on this one tree. That's eight bags.
- [10:05]
C
Will you drench that out to the. Out to the drip line? Yes. Close to the trunk.
- [10:12]
B
Yeah. No, drip it out to the drip line as much as feasible. Now this tree's on, like growing out of a seawall on Davis Island. So it's in Davis island doo doo soil. It got. I mean, the seawall was breached with 4ft of water from Hurricane Helene. So we have some saltwater intrusion. Kind of reluctant to fertilize it. Right. Because fertilizer is a salt and it's got nuclear green grass under it from Brothers pest Control. So the grass is like glowing in the dark green. So I'm just guessing that the trees picking up plenty of nitrogen from the surrounding glow in the dark green grass and that there's still some salt in the soil from the seawall getting breached. And then we had a drought last year. So I said, sterling, I really don't even want to fertilize this right now because I think you're getting plenty of NPK from the turf right around here. All I want to do is hit this with a mitigro booster and let's sit back three months and look at it and see what it does. And that. Ethically, Jason, I felt better selling them that than I would have been loading them up with more fertilizers. Yeah. Because then that's some salt too. And I'm just loading it again with salt. So I'm kind of like changing the way I'm doing things in a little bit. And I have other jobs that we did four times a year, deep root. And we're not seeing incredible results. I'm like, you know what, let's step this back to two times a year and do a booster, Mitigro booster and see if we see some results. And I'm having very candid conversation with customers and scheduling. Hey, it's time for renewal. Let's link up before we renew. And maybe we're going to come up with a different plan. And so we're pivoting now.
- [12:10]
C
That's good.
- [12:11]
B
Yeah.
- [12:11]
C
Especially with a better result for the tree.
- [12:13]
B
Makes me feel good. So then I applied it to my grass, Jason, in my backyard.
- [12:20]
C
I think that's one of the best things that you've done so far because
- [12:22]
B
there are some areas that are not doing so well. And I did that like a week ago. So it's too early to see results. But how long did it take you to see results of the boys and girls sports fields?
- [12:35]
C
So we are actually, we are getting 10 loads of sand command mix dumped starting today. So we're fixing to start the grow in process again at the boys and girls Club in top dress. I would say within two weeks.
- [12:53]
B
Really.
- [12:53]
C
I mean, I started seeing rapid results. Of course it's, you know, it's, it's the concoction of all of it. But from what I saw, I mean, anytime that you stimulate with more water and sand, you're going to see growth. But it was the exponential growth that I saw last year compared to the year before when we did the exact same thing. So now I'm going to try to document this process more because the field is maybe a smidge less beat up than it was last year, but it is pretty rough. There are bare areas where grass has to grow in by I think this year. The areas where it's a little thin are going to fill in in a matter of 30 days. But then we've got some areas where, I mean, the grass is going to have to cover feet, you know, grow in. It's like a spread. It's less than when it was spread with the little tufts of graphs that are left from these lacrosse players. So we, I think that'll take, you know, three to four months to grow the field in. But just seeing the results of the fact that there is less damage this year than the prior year means that we're gaining on the process. So if we can keep every year now on this specific field building, this is just the field that takes all the abuse. It's the nice grass next to the announcer's box with the lights. It's regulation football size. For the peewee football kids, they have another field that is, we call it the top field because it's about 4ft in elevation higher. And so they have this other Field where the grass is very established and can withstand much more foot traffic. And then it's never used because it's not the. It's the least convenient field for them to haul their gear to and practice. So we're going to try to encourage them to do some practicing here in the near future on that field.
- [14:38]
B
Can you have. The top field is that's where you practice and the bottom field is where you play the game.
- [14:44]
C
Oh, that's what. There's a lot of different people that use this field. So from peewee football to lacrosse to like club lacrosse to the high school, girls lease out some space. And so they have been at least with proper. And I think it's Gainesville. Heiser beholds lacrosse, the girls team. They've been practicing up on the top field, but then they'll have kids to just use it as their personal practice field. So they go out and they'll be three to four of them, half a dozen of them, and they're just out practicing on their own. And then they practice wherever they want. And with practicing, they haul their little triangle net out and then they have their sticks, then they have some. I guess it's just a net that they throw the ball off of and then catch it. So they're catching. Catching the ball off the net, they're throwing it into the goal. They've got a bucket of balls. But then in this process, they're mimicking what they do in games. And at least me watching them, they're running and they're stopping and they're pivoting extremely hard, which is where the wear and tear on the turf comes in. So I was trying to build up the root zone of the turf, which I think we successfully did last year compared to the year before, as our main goal. So I'm going to. I'm going to increase our MIT GR applications. We already did one. We did one in January. Just kick the process off. I'm going to aerate and do another. Another application. Then we'll do another application probably three to four weeks after we top dress. So one more before we. Or after we aerate and before we top dress, and then I'll do another mitigro application with our. With our fertilizer application, probably three weeks after we top dress.
- [16:27]
B
All right. Did you. You did an application on an Italian cypress, I think.
- [16:35]
C
Did.
- [16:36]
B
Have you seen it?
- [16:37]
C
I need to go back and look at. I want to go back and look at it now. I mean, but I was using the maintenance rate probably. I can go back and See what rate I was using? I was using. Hold on. We can do this math right now. So I use 16 ounces across 11 trees.
- [16:57]
B
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?
- [17:08]
C
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.
- [17:21]
B
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 PE THC 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.
- [17:42]
C
Give Mitigro a shop 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 16 ounces.
- [17:57]
B
That's like a little more than one ounce.
- [18:00]
C
That's 1.45 ounces per tree. I did that in five gallons of water. So 1.45 ounces and five gallons of water as a root drench in a very small space. So.
- [18:15]
B
All right.
- [18:16]
C
I'd say that was probably more. That's more than a maintenance rate.
- [18:20]
B
1.45 divided by 5 is 0.29 ounces per gallon. And I'm doing it at a 0.6464, so that's still my rate.
- [18:32]
C
It's a lower rate.
- [18:33]
B
Okay,
- [18:36]
C
well, I'll go back and I'll go back and do it again. I mean, I'll call the guy again. It's to him as a second application. It's. I mean, the trees are. They need love. Like it's their last. It's their last hope.
- [18:52]
B
Yeah, put that on your to do list to give them a call. And w. I wouldn't put 10 gallons. I would just double the amount of powder that you're putting in the five gallon bucket. So 2.92 ounces. Yeah, no, that'd be one point. That'd be 2.9. That'd be three ounces per five gallons, which is not very much.
- [19:19]
C
Like I said, with these specific trees, I mean, they're. They're nice. They've been there A while. They're nice. They're big. They've got some. They got some issues, Sam.
- [19:28]
B
Well, there's 16 ounces in a pound divided by 3 ounces. So one bag will have you do 5.3 trees.
- [19:36]
C
Yeah, it's a couple bags with the stuff.
- [19:38]
B
And how many trees does he have?
- [19:42]
C
Eleven.
- [19:44]
B
Okay. Yeah. So you're gonna need two pounds of matagrel.
- [19:49]
C
Probably mix it up. Instead of doing the bucket trick, I'll probably just mix it all up in our shrimp tank and drench out of that. So you said. Did you. Do you have a shower? Like a showerhead wand? That's what you said would work the best for drenching?
- [20:00]
B
Yeah. No, we don't have a shower head wand. We have a wand. It's like a fan. Like, if you were to spray a ton of turf grass, we have that. But Richie and Brer manufactured a shower head. So the deep root wand shoots out horizontal in four directions. So 90 degrees per hose. And the volume of liquid that comes out of the deep root probe is a higher volume of liquid than the spray wand. So what they do is they fashion, like, they cut the bottom off of a water bottle and slip the neck over and, like, tape it. So when they push the deep root handle, it squirts in four directions, hits the inside of the bottle, and just comes falling out in a high volume rate. And then they'll put that at the soil surface and pool the liquid at the surface. And then as it's pooling, they'll stop and let it percolate down. But remember the. Well, I don't know if you went there. The idea with the mitre grow application is if you're doing it on the surface like that, you allow it to pool at the surface and drench in.
- [21:41]
C
Yeah.
- [21:43]
B
So that was the faster application rate. Then the tree by the sea wall Brew was doing the application for Sterling the fisherman, and she was concerned about runoff because the seawall's right there. So she did some of that via deep root and actually stabbed it into the ground, which would work.
- [22:06]
C
Yeah.
- [22:07]
B
Yeah.
- [22:08]
C
So we had a. We had a yard back in December, January Customer only has Fert and Kim with us. No other services. So standalone customer, which we don't have a ton of, but we're trying to increase that. Calls her yards mess, I guess. We've been treating fungus in her yard with. Since, I don't know, November. So we've made a couple fungicide applications or standard. Standard applications for our round. But we're trying to stop this grass from declining and it got to a point where anyway, we had identified it as. I think it ended up, it might have had take all root rot.
- [22:52]
B
What's that?
- [22:53]
C
It's like a constant in the soil. Every time the roots try to grow, it's stopping them from growing. So it's taking the roots pretty much.
- [23:03]
B
Is this some hocus pocus called take all root rot?
- [23:07]
C
No, I think that's the name of it. I'm gonna show my lack of. Lack of knowledge of.
- [23:14]
B
Oh, take all T A R R is a serious fungal disease. Grand menace.
- [23:25]
C
Yeah, that one.
- [23:26]
B
Wow. St. Augustine and Bermuda.
- [23:29]
C
So I am not. I'm just bringing this up since we're talking about Mighty Griffin. It's on the top of my head. So as a last, last ditch effort, I mean, the lady's yard was smoked. Like, I mean, and she's still just wanting us to like, she wasn't necessarily mad. But this will get to a point where we're trying to. Trying to figure out what we're doing because we're throwing everything that we have at it. So I just told Ben, I said, man, I said, just have Patrick, I said, mix up around a minor grow. I said, mitigro is, you know, the product is made to build and grow roots. I said, so let's just use common sense here. And if we have a disease that is taking the roots away, let's try to do everything that we can to build up the roots. Instead of spraying fungicide or whatever we're trying to do to, you know, to control the disease, let's try to build the plant's health. And so we went out and made one the two applications, and the customer called Friday and Seder yard looks great.
- [24:29]
B
No way. Really?
- [24:30]
C
Yep. And I have not seen it. And no one has gotten the picture yet. So Patrick gets on his route this week to go service and yeah, I mean, the lady I don't. Like I said, I haven't. I haven't seen it. I haven't seen a picture. I don't have a comparison. I just know that the homeowner called and said her yard looked great. So it went from we have something that we can't control to now the. The homeowners are having.
- [24:55]
B
So were you applying fungicides such as. As
- [25:03]
C
we were doing exoxy strobing? We did perviconazole.
- [25:06]
B
Ah, yes, that's here.
- [25:08]
C
Yep.
- [25:08]
B
Did you also improve cultural practices like reducing lawn stress, improving drainage, lowering pH, increasing sulfur or peat moss, and increasing MO height or you don't Control those.
- [25:19]
C
Those are a lot of fancy words. No, we do not control those in that yard. So we don't do the landscape maintenance.
- [25:25]
B
No joke.
- [25:26]
C
Yep.
- [25:29]
B
Well, I would really like to see photos when. When I. I was your dude goes there and takes pictures and send them to you. Can you send some stuff?
- [25:37]
C
100 did I asked man. Yesterday we were and got back to the office yesterday afternoon, same asset. Do you have a picture of me's yard? Because I'd really like to see it and we have not seen it yet. But just the fact that it's turned it around is, Is phenomenal. I mean, if the lady's calling and saying that it's and it's looking good, then that's a great.
- [25:59]
B
So do you know your application rate for turf off the top of your head? Because I was looking at it in the bag and it seemed very lean. Per thousand square feet,
- [26:13]
C
we are now doing a pound. A pound per 20,000 square feet.
- [26:18]
B
Oh, that's light. One pound per 20,000 square feet dot and then how are you applying that? Well, how many gallons is 20,000 square feet?
- [26:35]
C
3,000 square feet is 100 gallons. So with our one, we have the fan tip one in the truck. Right. So the same one that you've got. And so that's. Anyway we're calibrating it to put out puts out two gallons a minute. We're covering a thousand square feet, 2ish minutes. So we're just calling the, calling the tank 20,000. It'll do between 20,000 and 25,000, depending on how fast you're walking.
- [27:01]
B
Oh, so you're just lightly dusting it.
- [27:04]
C
Yeah, it's not, I mean, it's not a lot of water. And that what blows my mind is when I spray out of the Z sprayer and I'm covering 3 acres and 60 gallons of water. And it's all about the rate. I mean, it's, it's into the, the chemical side of things. It's pretty interesting. So.
- [27:22]
B
But yeah, if you're dusting it that fast, you're not even getting the soil wet. So you do you rely on the irrigation to drip it off of the leaves and get it to the ground?
- [27:31]
C
No, because it's the making. The way Chad explained it is that at least with mitigro, it's. It's getting the, it's just getting the product to the base of the roots or getting it into that zone. So then it's going to bind. But I don't think you want to wash, because I asked him about Running the. On the Boys and Girls Club. If it would help if I ran the irrigation. And he said not necessarily. He's like, it might, might if you ran it just light enough to get it soaked in. But then if you run it too much to wash it through then you're just going to wash it through before it can do its job. So we use a product called Dispatch, which Tim Stiles had to start using this year and it's. There's a little bit of a surfactant.
- [28:16]
B
Who's Tim Stiles?
- [28:18]
C
Tim Stiles used to work at site one. Now he works at Howard Fertilizer.
- [28:22]
B
Ah, okay.
- [28:23]
C
He works at. These are now our fertilizer guy. So he works at Howard Fertilizer and we're buying most of our stuff from him. And he, he's got us using Dispatch, which is. Got a surfactorant capability to it. But then it's also a dispersal agent. So it's taking that, taking that chemical and it's dispersing it across the leaf and driving it down. So it's going to get closer to the root zone. So it's not just going to stick where compared to a regular sticker pressure factor it's going to, you know, kind of stick to the leaf. This dispatch is going to disperse it down into the root zone still while coating the leaf. Leaf of the plant. But it's more for foliar. I made for soil applications of fertilizer and fungicides and things. You're trying to actually get down to the dirt. So I'm going to use that, I'm going to use that now where we have not used it before with Mitigro, we are using this batch to try to get it down, disperse it down into the soil or the base of the base of the turf grass.
- [29:28]
B
Yeah. Then I, I just overdosed my grass with miter grow because I had a dozen hot spots and I used a half a bag.
- [29:35]
C
Yeah, it'll be all right. It's a good thing about it doesn't have any fertilizer in it. Can't burn it.
- [29:40]
B
Right. It can't make it worse.
- [29:44]
C
So if you think, well, if you come up to Gainesville and record this Friday, which will be tomorrow for the listeners, then we're gonna go by the Boys and Girls Club and send you home with some five gallon buckets of sand. Command mix and you can.
- [29:58]
B
Oh yeah. So you said you're getting 10 loads. Does that mean you're getting 10 dump trucks? You're getting 150 yards?
- [30:06]
C
Yes.
- [30:07]
B
Or 180 yards, whatever it is. Yeah, that's a lot.
- [30:12]
C
It is so 200 yards of sand.
- [30:14]
B
So yeah, I'll, I'd like to have about 20 gallons of sand. Can I have 20 gallons of sand, Jason? You can four or five gallon buckets. You can afford to let me pinch that from you.
- [30:26]
C
I can, I think Maddie, for our mitigro experiments that we're doing out there. I think Maddie would be okay with you taking 20 gallons of sand.
- [30:34]
B
Who's Maddie?
- [30:36]
C
She runs a boys club.
- [30:38]
B
Ah, yeah. Just don't tell her.
- [30:40]
C
I'll tell her. Hey, we're running the science fiction. I told her a lot of the. Well, I just told her straight up last year with the Mitigra that hey, like we, I told her we were, I'm running the science experiment. I said listen, I have some new stuff that I'm going to try this year and, and we hope to have good results. And then she asked me, she's like, are you going to use the special, the special stuff you use last year again? I said absolutely. So yeah, she'll be good with a couple, a couple buckets of sand.
- [31:08]
B
Did she buy that material or did you buy that material?
- [31:12]
C
I worked it into our, our existing price. So I move, move some products around from our program.
- [31:22]
B
So you bought it?
- [31:24]
C
Yes.
- [31:25]
B
All right.
- [31:27]
C
I have a amount of money. I charge the voice club that probably is. Our maintenance is probably break even. And then I keep our fertilizer, try to keep our fertilizer and chemical stuff within a, within a budget. So where I could do a lot more, I just try to keep it, keep it right there.
- [31:47]
B
Yeah, well that's cool.
- [31:50]
C
So.
- [31:51]
B
All right. Well that was, that was. Hey listeners, if you were on the fence about mitigro and you're wondering if it's a bunch of snake oil, I wondered the same thing. And I no longer think it's snake oil. I think, I think it works. And I will keep you in tune on these other job sites that we are super blasting it on. And we will. We'll see what happens there. And speaking of snake oil, I have a monthly touchpoint with Intrigue Media tomorrow. So we get to see if how Intrigue Media is performing for us. You have the same thing tomorrow too, right?
- [32:29]
C
No, I think we got off a week somehow. My week is through the renewal process. We, I think we missed an appointment. Sky Frog did.
- [32:42]
B
Yeah, I got one at 1:30 tomorrow.
- [32:45]
C
Ours is next week. So we got pushed off. But we just, I don't know, we just went through our Renewal. We went through a renewal, laid out our plan for 2026 and looking forward to get it put in action.
- [33:00]
B
When is, when did you renew?
- [33:04]
C
A couple weeks ago.
- [33:06]
B
Oh, okay.
- [33:07]
C
Yeah, probably for April 1st. Yeah. Now we got everything laid out. We've got a new. Especially now with Aaron being on board. You know, the educational knowledge is extreme and within our business right now. So we're trying to say that again. I said, now that Aaron. Aaron is on board with our business. I said our educational capabilities and knowledge in our office is extremely strong. Aaron on the team. So we're going through our blog post for the year. We're going to be targeting, obviously still targeting our install work, but more of an emphasis on maintenance, especially on the business development side of things, trying to focus some, some of that content towards commercial maintenance to try to bring that. I mean, a lot of our commercial maintenance is going to be word of mouth and referrals and people that already know us. But if there's new property managers to town or property managers that haven't used Sky Frog before, we want to try to get in front of them in a more organic way. So pushing out some content on our website for them that you'll be related to. And I think we're going to add a page on the website for booking, for speaking for HOAs or events, which she's starting to stack up a lineup of places to go visit and give talks to.
- [34:26]
B
Nice. I did give my first commercial proposal, Virginia Andrew the other day for a community called Deer Creek, not far from my house. But there was 23 oak trees that they needed pruned at the community entry and over the retention pond. And it was a lead from Andrew and I was like, heck yeah, man, let's go do it. So Andrew and I drove the job site. We got a tree count and he was told 23 oak trees near the pond. But there was only 16 trees near the pond. And like, well, where are these other trees that are missing? So we found some other trees that would only make sense to trim across the street that the property manager did a very piss poor job describing to us. So when we wrote the bid, we did the trees by the pond that she asked us about and I took a screenshot of Google Satellite and I circled in red lines the 16 trees. And then I circled and that would be for seven other trees on the right side in yellow that these two also need trimming because it only makes sense. And we would be raising the canopies to 14ft. And the other bid that they got said to raise all the tree canopies to 18ft which would destroy some of the trees on the property there. So in my proposal, Let me see if you know what, Let me see Jason if I can, I'm going to read it to you. Deer Creek, Hoa 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?
- [36:20]
C
Looking for a marketing company is daunting and who knows how to select a marketing company that really works? No business owner wants to spend their hard earned money on empty promises.
- [36:29]
B
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 upto 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.
- [36:52]
C
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 intriguemedia.com if you want to make more money and crush your competitors online, that's intriguemedia.com Here we go.
- [37:07]
B
We saw the estimate we're bidding against. We didn't see the cost, but we saw the verbiage. That said, you saw the scope of work. Yes, 23 oak trees raised canopies to 18ft. Remove deadwood. That's the scope of work. So my scope of work with a map says the purpose of this assignment is to increase clearance over roadways, sidewalk and turf. This pruning will provide adequate clearance for vehicles, pedestrians and maintenance equipment while increasing the aesthetic appearance of the tree canopy. Scope 12 live oaks along the east bank of the pond raised canopies for 14ft of vertical foliage clearance, mainly 2 to 4 inch diameter cuts. Note there are several trees that possess large low branches. These branches will be preserved to retain the character of the subject trees. Our objective is to provide 14ft of clearance between the ground and leaf canopy. Remove dead limbs 2 inches and larger throughout the canopy. Note only the lowest interior sprouts will be removed, preserving the mid level and upper canopy sprouts as this internal canopy is important to retain for tree health and I have pruned three washingtonias for a nine and three appearance. Prune two oaks near the entry call box as described above. Prune the three magnolias near the entry gate for 10ft of clearance and then here is There are an additional three live oaks outside the entry gate and eight live oaks along the east side of Lake Emerald Boulevard inside the gate. It is my recommendation to prune these trees as described in item one to ensure adequate resident and emergency vehicle clearance. The this line item is the additional cost while on site for item one to prune as described. And I have a subsequent map for that. So the total bid comes out to $6,450 which would take eh, two crews in a day would blast that out of the water and I have no idea what I'm bidding against. If Tonto, it's going to trim them for 18ft is going to do it for two grand, I don't know. But my proposal with words and reasoning and sentences and vision and a map and his proposal are night and day. So we'll see. It was either a big scheduling exercise and I'm not going to say a waste of time, an investment in time to hone my estimating skills, or we're going to get it. We'll see what happens.
- [39:43]
C
So what happens? When did you, when did you give the estimate?
- [39:47]
B
The third. So I think that was on Friday and they have. Yes, it was on Friday and they have a board meeting this week. So the property manager will be presenting the bids to the board and the board's going to make a decision and they're either going to say I like this guy, sounds like he knows what he's doing or they're going to say he's way too high and expensive. We're not going with him. It's going to be one of those two.
- [40:14]
C
Yep. Well, I think you're going to have to go through, especially on the commercial side of things, you're going to have a fair amount that you might not win. But I think once you win, win, work there and build their relationship and this is going to be fall right into your recurring business model of taking care of people's trees.
- [40:31]
B
And we've never worked with this property manager before. Her name is Betty. And what I wanted to do is make Betty's life easier instead of calling and complaining and say, betty, I can't find 23 trees. This doesn't make any sense because it didn't when I bid it. But then we created our own scope of work and I think we ended up finding the amount of trees that it needed to be. Yeah, 8 plus 3 is 11 plus 12 is 23. We found the 23 trees with deductive reasoning and then putting putting it together in a map that makes it easy to comprehend, hopefully makes her job easier to Turn the bids over and the bids can speak for themselves. Because it's my assumption that the property managers don't really. I don't know what they do. I don't know if they push for a specific vendor or if they just turn in the bids and let the board members read it. I don't know.
- [41:32]
C
I think it depends on the property manager. I mean, I think some of them will put their input into a valued. If they have a valued vendor, they will make that opinion known. But for the most. For the most part, the decision is up to the board.
- [41:46]
B
And I have heard from property managers say, I don't want them to get mad at me, so I don't recommend anybody. They ask for three bids and I deliver three bids and shut up. But that seems.
- [42:02]
C
Which doesn't seem like they're doing their.
- [42:03]
B
Then that's not a good manager.
- [42:06]
C
No, they're not. I think they're doing a disservice to their customer at that point.
- [42:10]
B
Right. Yeah. Because maybe if the board gets mad at you, you're working for the wrong client.
- [42:20]
C
Yeah. I mean, I know there's. There's property managers that blacklist companies. They'll do everything that they can to
- [42:30]
B
not work with a vendor.
- [42:31]
C
Yeah.
- [42:32]
B
Because of a bad experience.
- [42:35]
C
Yep. Well, and we got some. We've gotten some of those opinions. Hopefully we haven't been on too many of those lists, but, yeah, we've gotten some words. Some of our. Anyway, some of our competitors on this list for some property managers that we're dealing with now. And it is a very good place for us to be. To not be on that list with these property managers, so.
- [42:56]
B
Well, what did they do that blacklisted them? I think it was steal from them or.
- [43:03]
C
I mean, no, I think it's. I think most of it boils down to. I think there were probably some field service issues that then didn't get handled, and then there was no communication after they weren't handling or there wasn't anyone to contact or they had a bad customer service. I think a lot of it boils down to customer service of communication when there's a problem, which we strive to be good at, and that's where we try to differentiate ourselves, is that we're in the landscape world. Yes. In July and August, your landscape is going to have weeds, and we're going to try to control those weeds. Beat Jumanji back the best we can in July and August, and then come September and October, we're going to make your property look the best. It's ever looked when we have a little bit more time and nature stops attacking us. So it could have been a scenario like that where it's the middle of the summer and I don't know, no one can control the weeds.
- [44:02]
B
Now are we talking about weeds and grass or weeds and landscape beds?
- [44:06]
C
Weeds and wherever. It could be any, any scenario. But I mean the weeds in the grass are just kind of seasonal and
- [44:13]
B
you mow them out.
- [44:14]
C
But yeah, but it's July and August when the weeds and the beds are growing crazy. And it's raining and you get rained out on spraying roundup. And it's not a. It's not a sky frog thing. It's not a law enforcement thing, it's not any great view thing. I mean it's just, it's nature of our landscape business. Florida. It's extremely hard to control. So if you enter that into the scenario and you have mad customers. You know, we try to. Well one, we try to just deal with any weeds that get out of control and where any complaints come in. But then, you know, if there's no communication from the business or the account manager or, or anything, they could just. I don't know what the example is how these, some of these companies have pissed off these. But that, that could be one. And then the communication fails. Fails going into the, you know, office of the business. So.
- [45:05]
B
All right, well, what are you. We gotta get going, man. Do you have anything that you're going to conquer the world with today?
- [45:13]
C
I think we are. We have. We have 10 loads of sand coming. So we're going to go.
- [45:17]
B
Coming today.
- [45:18]
C
I think we got five coming today, five coming tomorrow. Top dresser and aerator are coming today. So I'm going to finish scalping. I was scalping the grass down to an inch yesterday just to make sure we weren't going to get down the dirt. So as mo. As low as our hustler Super Z will mow scalping the grass down and we're going to aerate. I'll make a miter grow application. We'll drag the field out and then we'll start spreading. Spreading sand. Besides. Besides that we are, you know, touching on our TCIA single ops webinar that went out last week as an episode, you know, going into springtime and now stress testing all of our processes and processes and things that we have going on. I would say that our scheduling has worked out pretty well. We're needing to hire maybe one to two more people to make it an extremely smooth schedule. Yeah. But now we've stress tested our equipment to some of our equipment that has been sitting around all winter hasn't been used as much anyway. The mechanics have been a little busy the past week or two, so but I think they're. They're keeping. But they're keeping up with it. So we did a lot of preventative maintenance over this past winter and I think that's gonna help us out extremely going into the summer. So we're working through a little bit of our stressors from springtime and we're gonna go do some top dressing.
- [46:41]
B
Heck yeah, man. Well, we are gonna finish some jobs that we didn't finish yesterday because we had quite a bit of rain in the morning and I had two jobs not get completed. A removal over here and a removal over there. So we're going to go back and we are going to finish those. We got some root pruning that's happening. Some normal trimming. Brear is running a plant health care route. Fun fact. Last week, I think I will tell you how much gross revenue got done last week in plant healthcare, which was super cool because I did not have to renew this stuff. Breer went through the client list and we did just over $9,600 last week in PHC. So that was super badass to close out March with. So. All right, man, well, I'm going to get on with my day and work for a living.
- [47:53]
C
Okay, Sounds good, man.
- [47:54]
B
All right, dude, I will. I will see you either Thursday night or Friday morning. And then we have a recording day at Sky Palm Studios.
- [48:06]
C
Yes, Sky Palm Studios. Yep. Got the room, conference room slash podcast room locked off for the day so we can put some episodes in the bank. Have some interviews coming up.
- [48:18]
B
All right, cool, man. I'll see you there.
- [48:20]
C
Awesome. Later.
- [48:21]
B
Bye.
- [48:22]
A
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 so you can play even harder and keep the green side up.
- [49:03]
C
Sa.