Ep 123. Partnership Done Right: Luke & Justin's Blueprint for Sky Palm Studios

Summary

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Green Side Up – Ep 123: Partnership Done Right: Luke & Justin's Blueprint for Sky Palm Studios

Date: May 7, 2026
Hosts: Jason Lee & Jordan Upcavage
Guests: Luke Lauer & Justin Short (Sky Palm Studios)
Main Theme:
A deep dive into how entrepreneurs Luke and Justin built a thriving partnership and creative business, Sky Palm Studios, offering candid insights into merging businesses, navigating partnerships, and learning from both industry and family experiences.

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Episode Overview

This episode is an energetic, freewheeling conversation focused on the story behind Sky Palm Studios—how Luke and Justin went from friendly competitors to business partners, fostering growth through transparency, honest collaboration, and intentional structure. The discussion ranges from amusing day-in-the-life anecdotes to detailed partnership dynamics, with recurring themes of trust, faith, and operational wisdom for young entrepreneurs.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: Studio Life, First Impressions, and SEO Mishaps

• 00:47–07:32
  • The hosts arrive at Sky Palm Studios in Gainesville, remarking on the impressive, trendy space ("sound reverberation walls"), and share the comic mix-up of accidentally discovering a nearby pole-dancing studio due to confusing SEO and Apple Maps results.
  • Quote: “...Did you know that if you look on Apple Maps and you search Sky Palm Studios, the first thing that shows up is a pole dancing lesson studio?” – Jordan (04:00)

2. Origins of the Luke & Justin Partnership

• 09:12–11:12
  • Both started separate businesses: Luke’s Media Company (drone photography, industrial drone services) and Short Media Group (video production). They met via Instagram and collaborated on client projects.
  • They discovered strong mutual respect and aligned values.
  • Quote: “We’re not going to work with someone just to make money. We want to work with someone because we genuinely want to have a relationship with them, help them grow…” – Luke (12:32)

3. The “Driveway Wars” & The Merge

• 15:04–20:26
  • By coincidence, Luke moved next door to Justin; their wife’s friendship and business proximity led to more collaboration (“driveway wars” with their company-wrapped vehicles).
  • The realization—after quoting the same client within $45 of each other—that they were operating similarly sparked the first conversation about joining forces.
  • Quote: “If we keep getting the same calls, we should think about merging companies or something like that. ...God really liked that.” – Justin (20:08)
  • Faith and intuition were key throughout, as both described a sense of higher-purpose timing and alignment.

4. Mapping Skillsets & Finding Complementarity

• 25:29–29:41
  • Over drinks and candid conversations, both analyzed their business processes and realized their skillsets were complementary—Justin focused on business operations and scaling; Luke on creativity and client relationships.
  • Memorable moment: Describing how each was over- or under-pricing for services outside their comfort zone, and discovering “the things that I really enjoyed to do were the things that he didn’t really enjoy to do.” – Luke (25:59)

5. Business Model Evolution: From Production House to Retainer Model

• 27:41–32:18
  • Justin recounts burnout from constant one-off video gigs and his desire to move to a retainer business model (monthly recurring work)—something Luke was already building toward through social media and diversified services.
  • Their merger led to a hybrid model: packaged video + social media retainers.
  • Quote: “If you put a good video in a random business’s hand... they’re not going to know what to do with it.” – Luke (69:14)

6. Partnership Nuts & Bolts: Trust, Roles, and Avoiding Pitfalls

• 36:16–48:46
  • They discuss the rarity of successful partnerships and lessons learned from Luke’s father’s experience (physical therapy clinic with a partnership that fell apart).
  • Before merging, they honestly addressed “hard questions,” with “premarital business counseling” from an attorney who helped them anticipate potential conflicts.
  • Thoughtful role delineation: Luke as CEO/Visionary, Justin as COO/Integrator.
  • Quote: “As a business owner, we have to decide where our passions lie... and I think as we were sitting down over beers, we quickly realized we can help each other in those very areas.” – Justin (31:45)

7. The Merge—Technical Details and Legal Setup

• 58:56–76:59
  • Both businesses were dissolved and a new LLC was formed (not a true “merger”).
  • Ownership split is deliberately not 50/50; Luke holds a slim majority for tiebreaker purposes, avoiding the deadlock pitfalls of even splits.
  • No formal written operating agreement—yet, an uncommon but intentional choice, backed by monthly accounting and robust trust/accountability structures.
  • Quote: “If you don’t have that relationship with your business partner, sign that piece of paper. But also, we do have insurance policies against each other...” – Justin (77:07)

8. Personal Life Intertwined: Family, Values, and Balance

• 81:11–84:24
  • The partnership is built on more than business—they’re “family friends,” with children born nine days apart and shared community values.
  • Opens up about burnout, faith, and the decision decisions to focus on strengths and delegate weaknesses.

9. Studio Investment, Vision, and Future Plans

• 51:16–53:11
  • The studio sits in a space formerly owned by Luke’s dad (a symbolic full-circle moment); the commitment to building out the studio reflects belief in their vision and the local creative community.
  • Intentionally invested in the space ("reverberation walls," trendy design, collaborative environment).

10. Advice & Reflections for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

• 43:14–44:03 & throughout episode
  • Don’t avoid partnerships out of fear—but address issues up front, know your partner deeply, and be willing to stay agile as roles evolve.
  • Avoid ego. Value transparent communication, and align on purpose.
  • “You have taken a lot of the steps that a lot of people… haven’t even thought about yet.” – Jason (64:36)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On accidental business chemistry:
  “I was his drone contact and he was my video contact. We just kind of started building a friendship with no intention to merge... And then, we were playing golf one time and I got a call from a real estate management company here in town. ...if we keep getting the same calls, we should think about merging companies.” – Luke & Justin (18:38–20:27)

• On roles:
  “If I step into his lane, I know I’m not the lead dog of that lane... and I understand that, and same opposite way.” – Luke (36:55)

• On launching the partnership:
  “We’re not sitting here like, what my next move has to make me crazy money. ...I want us to feel like we’re genuinely both heading this company.” – Luke (71:40)

• On legal preparation:
  “I watched things crumble with that partnership, and I was able to analyze, like, why is this happening? ...So I was able to talk to Justin and say, hey, what are your thoughts about this? How would you go about it?” – Luke (45:51)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:47–07:32 — Studio impressions, SEO, and pole dancing mix-up
• 09:12–11:12 — Origin stories and first collaboration
• 15:04–20:26 — Becoming neighbors and merging conversations
• 25:29–29:41 — Mapping skills and synergy
• 36:16–48:46 — Partnership challenges and lessons from family business
• 58:56–76:59 — Legal setup, roles, and why they skipped an operating agreement
• 69:01–73:13 — LLC/S-corp mechanics, payroll and distribution structure
• 81:11–84:24 — Family connections, children, and shared values

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Takeaways for Listeners

• A strong business partnership is built on deep personal trust, open dialogue, and complementary skillsets.
• Define roles and responsibilities—but recognize they evolve alongside your business.
• Legal and financial structure matters: Seek outside advice, consider “premarital” counseling for your business, and structure ownership to avoid stalemates.
• Invest in your people and your physical workspace if you want a sustainable and creative enterprise.
• Don’t be afraid to address tough questions early; being proactive saves pain later.
• Relationships—both personal and professional—are core to longevity and success.

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How to Connect with Sky Palm Studios

• Website: skypalmstudios.com
• Phone: [phone] (leave a voicemail if no answer)
• Social: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube [@SkyPalmStudios]
• Locations: Gainesville, FL & Tampa, FL (co-working space)

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Looking Ahead

Next time, the hosts plan to delve deeper into practical marketing tactics and the operational weeds of videography and branding for green industry businesses.

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Summary by Green Side Up Podcast Summarizer

Transcript

[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 host, Jason Lee and Jordan Upkevage.

[B]

What's up, everybody? Starting off the Green side Up podcast, we are here with Sky Palm Studios, which. That's who I am. Me and Justin. Yeah, that's right. That's right. And Jason. Jordan. Thank you.

[C]

And we are here with Jordan. Up. Cabbage. That is who I am.

[B]

That is. That is who I am.

[D]

Well, Luke, thank you very much for letting us take over your studio today and recording this beautiful podcast room.

[B]

We'll come here more often.

[C]

We will set the stage. Jason, where are we at?

[D]

So we are in Gainesville, Florida. You have trekked all the way north for the winter. We're leaving winter. It had have been colder this morning.

[C]

I think the snowbirds. We go north for the summer.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah, you go.

[D]

I was gonna make it.

[C]

I went on a walkabout this morning.

[D]

You went on a walkabout, and I'm sure it was 8 degrees colder here than it was in Tampa when you left, probably. And so we're here in Gainesville, and we were at Sky Palm Studios with Justin Short and Luke Lauer, and they handle our social media for Sky Frog Landscape and do lots of fancy video things for us. So I figured while we were here podcast recording in their studio, it would be proper to have them on and pick their brains about videography and social media and general entrepreneurship and business as they've become partners together.

[C]

Okay, so here's what I. Here's my observation, and then I'll tell you what I'd like to.

[B]

He's digging right in. Yep.

[C]

Well, what am I going to do?

[E]

I'm here.

[C]

He's already asked me not to do my job.

[B]

Too many questions before.

[C]

All right, I show up here in Gainesville 7:10, 7:15 in the morning, and I know that we're going to Sky Palm Studio in proper. Right. But I don't know where it is and I'm not going to ask Daddy. Jason, where are we meeting this morning?

[B]

Is that your normal name?

[E]

Yeah. Is that his contact in your phone?

[C]

That's his pet name.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Yeah. He has another podcast. It's called Call Him Daddy. So I'm googling this and like, I wake up at, I don't know, 4:30, and I still don't. I still never confirmed with Jason.

[B]

What, you Woke up at 4:30 and still got here by 7:15?

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Were you in Tampa this morning?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And you didn't do anything to get ready? You just left?

[C]

I'm a man. I actually made breakfast. I cooked scrambled eggs before I left and took my hot scrambled eggs on a real porcelain plate and a fork and ate those while I drove.

[E]

How many eggs you put in your scrambled eggs, dude?

[C]

So I started working out with a new trainer. Right. An entire cup of egg whites, plus two whole eggs.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

It's a lot of eggs. Yeah. Plus 60 grams of oats that I make overnight. Oats. Wow. And almond milk. And then. Yeah, that was my coffee in with the oats. Yeah.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

It's just like Jason with plus this full of coffee.

[E]

Wow.

[D]

Black.

[E]

You're ready.

[B]

Has Jason told you what he does with his monsters? You haven't told anyone else that secret?

[C]

You don't Stevie nix him, do you?

[B]

No.

[D]

Okay, well, I've been accused of not drinking enough water. So I mix my monster with water and therefore I'm drinking water with my monster.

[E]

That's wild.

[C]

Or you're drinking monster with your water.

[B]

Yeah, same. Same half and half ratio.

[D]

But I'm consuming water that was not. Not in with monster.

[B]

Y' all invite us on and we're derailing your podcast.

[C]

Interdisciplinary studies is what this is. Yeah, well, what I was saying is I show up here early in the morning and I Google Sky Palm Studios. And did you know that if you look on Apple Maps and you search Sky Palm Studios, the first thing that shows up is a pole dancing lesson studio. Are you aware of this?

[B]

This is good to know.

[E]

So were you in Tampa when you looked this up?

[C]

I was on I75 going 84 miles an hour. And then I chameleon one eye looked at my like about us Images is like instructors. All right, Shannon, as my left eye was looking for.

[B]

Okay, okay, let me.

[D]

Let me set.

[B]

I'll set the stage a little bit. We love Apple. We use it for all of our editing computers, all of our, you know, software and stuff here. However, when it comes to Maps, we don't put as much effort into putting Skyphome Studios on Apple because it does not provide any quality or any. Any gain to us having on there. Google, on the other hand, pushes you. We use it as A tool. Apple. You are on their to be on there and we should do it. However, we also recently renovated this place. I haven't changed all that. There's your answer.

[C]

So when I failed to find you on Apple Map, I went to Google map and car played it to the Google mappy and it found you right away.

[B]

So where was this other studio by the way?

[E]

Oh, just curious.

[C]

Yeah, Northeast Gainesville. It's not far away in Gainesville. They have classes open at 16 and

[B]

7:15 today and it's called Sky Palm Studios.

[C]

No, it's a pole dancing store. Here, let's do this now. Let's go.

[E]

They have better SEO than we do apparently on Apple.

[C]

Palms.

[B]

Palm, not Palms.

[C]

Work with me, man. Oh, here. Sky Palm Studio. The Wild Sky Pole Dance studio on Northwest 10th Avenue.

[E]

Okay, so it has sky and studio in the name.

[C]

It's only eight minutes away. We got to wrap this up, boys. I got a class and 15 minutes. Yeah, and then you can look at their website and wait.

[E]

So did you end up going there or you. You corrected it before?

[C]

No, I corrected it, but I definitely researched their website thoroughly to see what it was all about.

[B]

I would.

[C]

And that's.

[B]

I would have loved if he did it second glance at it and he just thought it was the right place and then you just decided to go there and then you walk and knock on the door at 7:15 in the morning.

[C]

I'm here for your. Well, we're going to do this record. We're going to record cameras.

[D]

All right.

[C]

We're here with you, with your guests

[B]

here to record a podcast.

[C]

I'm glad I brought my bathing suit.

[B]

That's right. Okay. But you got here, you got here.

[C]

Oh, what I was saying is I got here early and I said, wow, they have a real business and a storefront. And then Jason and I went and I left and went to a job site and came back. But my observation is this is a really nice place. Jason Lee has always spoke highly of Sky Palm Studio as a whole. I only know you guys from the landscape rodeo.

[E]

Right.

[C]

Limited time. You jumped in a truck with me and did a quick recording and you guys got a coffee bar, black walls, black ceiling, it's clean, trendy looking floor. We got sound reverberation pads on the wall and like fancy lighting. And I was like, man, these guys are like clean and nice.

[E]

That's our testimonial right there.

[B]

I'm gonna put a little, A little plaque that said sound reverberation walls.

[D]

Just.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Is that what they're called.

[B]

That's what you just. That's what you just.

[E]

They're called that now.

[C]

They're now called that sound Reverberation walls.

[B]

Yeah, but I'm saying I'm putting a plaque and that's what they're called.

[D]

This is. This is probably the most legitimate space we've ever recorded a podcast in at 110 episodes.

[B]

But is it more fun than a bar?

[E]

I mean, we have the bar out there.

[D]

You do have a coffee bar.

[B]

We could have recorded it is after. And we 4:15.

[D]

Like, we do have espresso martinis in our hands.

[C]

We did.

[D]

We did.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

You guys know that we have a camera in here too. I saw that security camera.

[C]

Okay. Yeah, I put it away.

[B]

If you decided. If you decide you need to change for some reason and you just flip

[D]

the COVID over it, well, then where's

[C]

the fun in that? I'm going to the pole dance studio later. I'm going to take the COVID off. Right. Make sure I have right form.

[B]

So we just made sure it could be covered because if this isn't podcast studio or conference room and someone's renting the studio space, this is a green room so that people can stage stuff, pull down the curtain. They can use it if they need to change anything.

[C]

Luke or Justin, would you like a bush light?

[E]

I'm okay for now, but I would

[D]

love a bush light.

[C]

Jason Lee.

[D]

Sure.

[E]

I'm still sipping on the martini, so

[C]

I'm going to stop talking for a little bit. But what I'd like to know, guys, we have two young gentlemen, good looking young dudes with not a ton of gray. And you look like you got your act together. And you have a beautiful studio. That must cost money in rent and overhead. And I'm like, wow, this is something real. Can you guys like tell me a little bit about you and Sky Palm Studio? And I saw the name, I saw the Psalms proverb. I'm making some assumptions. I'm like, tell me about yourselves.

[E]

There's a lot to unpack. There's a lot there.

[D]

So I met Luke first at PI.

[E]

Well, you're Luke.

[B]

First meeting was at Paisano's off of 43rd and 53rd.

[C]

That paisanos?

[B]

Yeah. With you this first place, we really sat down.

[E]

And the original.

[C]

The Paisanos.

[D]

Yeah, the paisanos.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

They have Peroni on track.

[D]

Jordan and I used to live Millhopper road in northwest 71st. First place.

[B]

Okay.

[D]

The Fishery Road.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So we lived in a house, second house on the right.

[C]

Oh, really?

[D]

So Pisano's when they first came out, that was our closest restaurant.

[B]

That's so funny.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Too good. Well, the first official sit down. Really get to know each other was that.

[D]

So. But I think we had connected. I think you started following us on Instagram.

[B]

Maybe that is what we did.

[D]

That's. That's. Which is a very, very good tactic.

[E]

Shout out to Cammy.

[D]

Yeah. Because we had had another guy that. His drone skills were pretty good. He's also the one that shot the two Client Corner videos down in Ocala that are on our YouTube channel. But I would say his drone skills were pretty. He was a drone operator that was also dabbling in some sort of video production. But we got what we paid for and it was still good to have. But then after you started following us, we had been working on the Williston project. Brian Weathers house, his patio and backyard, and Stonehenge, similar to yours, Jordan, at your house. And so it's just like, okay, we need to capture this in a more robust manner. So then after I've been following you guys, reached out to Luke. I don't remember if we'd met at Paisanos before or after that.

[B]

I think it was. I think it was after that because that was the. We did that as a one off project. Yep. Yeah.

[D]

So that's how I met Luke.

[C]

Well, why were you both at Paisanos? Did your mother.

[B]

No, we didn't just play, Dan. No, no, no. We were after that. We wanted to sit down.

[D]

I think it was.

[B]

See how we could help.

[D]

It was after. It was after the video shoot at Brian Weathers. And then we started talking more about Sky Frogs.

[C]

Well, who invited Sky Palm to the Brian Weathers house?

[D]

I did. So I hired Luke. So cold.

[E]

That was before the merge.

[D]

So I'll go ahead and. Luke and Justin had separate businesses.

[B]

This is Jordan's. Out of lack of knowledge.

[D]

We're going to flush all this. We're going to flush all this right now.

[C]

Two things happened. Either you told me and I didn't listen or you didn't tell me clearly.

[B]

Answer's a he properly underprepared you. So, yeah, so it's me. It's you.

[C]

Okay. It's not.

[B]

All right, it's not me, it's you.

[D]

I hire Luke's media company to come out and film at Brian Weathers house

[C]

because he started following you and you said, hey, who's this guy?

[D]

Yeah, he's like, okay, I do some research.

[B]

I look him up.

[D]

It's like, oh, he looks more legitimate. Than the previous guy we had.

[C]

And I needed more robust guy.

[E]

So.

[C]

Hey, you who followed me?

[B]

Luke, can you and me and my wife. She was helping me with social media at the time. Before she was full time with the business. She was very good at being obnoxiously. Not in a bad way. Present on people's persistence. Persistent. Persistently obnoxious. And in a good way. I love her for it.

[E]

Via social media.

[B]

Via social media. And so. And we worked really closely on that. And we knew companies and we looked out for companies that we knew we would want to work with because we agreed with the way they did business. Yeah.

[C]

Good values and principles like, I want this. And then you would not hunt the ones you didn't.

[B]

Exactly. And that's the way we've done business before. Obviously, we'll dig more into what me and Justin, how we became a partnership in business. But before all of that, you know, that is the way we always did business is we're not going to work with someone just to make money. We want to work with someone because we genuinely want to have a relationship with them, help them grow and help. Which will help us grow and help us all, you know, in some way, shape or form, help the community, you know.

[D]

So that's post Brian Weathers, maybe at the time of Paisano's meeting. At some point they merged together.

[E]

At some point.

[D]

At some point about the same time.

[B]

We were asteroids at the same stratosphere. Or before.

[D]

I think it was probably before we officially came on as social media clients.

[B]

It was. Yeah, it was before. Yeah, right before.

[D]

Yeah. Because you guys had come to the. And we're not going to be attending the Alachua county home show again as participants. But you had just done your merger. You were there filming April ish, 2024. So we were.

[E]

March April.

[D]

They took the home show, Jordan, that we used to do at the o' Connell Center.

[C]

The home show.

[D]

Yep. We stopped doing it when they revamped the o' Connell center, is when Scott park stopped going there. But they. They brought it back to life at the Alachua county sports center in celebration Point. Okay. They have a big indoor giant track facility. Sports facility. So we went there in 2024, but that's when you guys came by as sky Palms. And it just launched.

[B]

We took some photos of them.

[D]

And then we had. Come on.

[C]

You took some pictures. Little pro bono, little video. And then we sent it to him.

[E]

Hey, look how cool you look. Right, right, right.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, I get that.

[D]

And then I think we came on

[C]

first Hits on me.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Yep.

[D]

Yeah, I think we came on.

[E]

Why are you calling us out, man?

[C]

Buddy, I'm just. I used to sell drugs. I understand the game, so.

[D]

But at the same time that Luke told me, hey, I'm merging with Justin Short, I said, oh, I know that guy. He had SUV that had Short Media on the side of it and Tech Cities, because we're. Wilder. Used school or daycare in Tech City. I used to see your vehicle coming in and out of there whenever I was picking up my son.

[B]

Yep.

[D]

So just point of context.

[C]

So inherent goodwill.

[D]

So I had a reference.

[B]

There you go.

[D]

Oh, I've seen that guy.

[C]

He's a dad.

[E]

That. That's. Now I am.

[B]

It wasn't then I was picking up Wilder. That was. That was.

[D]

He had an officer.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

You had an office.

[E]

I had an office.

[C]

I assumed you were in car.

[B]

That was about three years ago. Three years ago at this point, I had the truck. No kid yet. Yeah.

[C]

Okay.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Yep.

[E]

So, yeah, Luke and I had two different companies before. So we'll go back to the very beginning. So 2018, I started Short Media Group. 2018, 2019, Luke started Luke's media company, Luke's Aerial Photography.

[C]

Back.

[E]

Back then, it was.

[C]

And did y' all know each other?

[E]

We did.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

Okay.

[B]

We. We got to meet each other because I only. I specialize in drone. There's a lot of industrial stuff, orthomosaics, land surveying, stuff like that with drones. Because I was always into aviation, I started my business to fund getting my pilot's license, going to flight school. So I got my private pilot's license. But the business was doing. We're doing well, and I'm a homebody. I don't want to be gone for weeks at a time. So I stuck with the business rather than carrying through getting my commercial license

[C]

to be flying for Delta.

[B]

Yeah, Any commercial airline, anything like that.

[D]

But, yes.

[B]

Sorry, you can continue.

[E]

Yeah. So we knew of each other, we both had separate companies, wouldn't necessarily consider us competition, especially in Gainesville. You know, we do different things, we have different clientele, yada, yada.

[B]

And we weren't. And we really weren't competition because he was doing video production while I was doing just drone services. So it's more of. I was a drone cinematographer while he was a video production company. To where I complimented what he had service.

[E]

And there was a handful of projects that we would have Luke come on and kind of partner together on a certain project. Right. So, yeah, I mean, that. That was, what, 2018, you know, throughout the years, we just kind of knew each other throughout Gainesville as just another media partner, so to speak. I'll fast Forward quickly to 2023, I think is when him and his wife Cammie moved in next door to my wife and I. Michaela. We're in town homes, so they're connecting. So we're literally a couple doors down. Long story short, we pull into the driveway, we share.

[D]

Now your neighbors.

[C]

Wait, hold on. Are we sharing headboard to headboard wall?

[B]

No, no, no.

[E]

There was one unit.

[B]

One unit in between.

[E]

In between.

[C]

So no sex wars, correct?

[B]

No, none of those.

[E]

Fun didn't happen.

[B]

My wife and I, when we got married, a church friend of ours was going to rent out their, their unit to travel nurses. That's what their goal was, like three month rentals or so, whatever. And it was too expensive for my wife and I at the time, so we were trying to find a place we could have much luck. And they ended up telling us that they would, you know, do a certain rent amount. And it was still more than we wanted to pay. But it worked, you know, so we moved in there. And then Justin texted me that the first day we moved in, what are you doing in my neighborhood? And, and it's funny because we both had wrapped vehicles. It was like a driveway war.

[E]

Well, we were the only video companies in Gainesville that had wrapped vehicles. So it was kind of like at

[B]

that point we're like, Gainesville is not a saturated video market.

[C]

Right, right.

[B]

So yeah, so we, we were doing, you know, driveway wars. I had my Luke's media company wrap. He had a short media group wrap. And it was, it was pretty funny.

[E]

But our neighbors were like, what the heck is going on here? Are there two different video companies?

[B]

It's just wild though, because I really didn't know he lived there. And obviously he wasn't expecting me to move in. And then naturally we became friends. You know, my wife and Justin's wife, Cammie and Michaela, they became friends. We'd go hang out at the pool at the community right next door to us and everything. We just started getting to know each other outside of just. I was his drone contact and then he was my radio contact. And we just kind of started building a friendship with no intention to merge or anything like that. And then we, we were playing golf one time and I got a call from a real estate management company here in town that needed some content for a conference or something like that. And, and he kind of overheard that conversation. He's like, wait, did did this company just reach out to you looking for this project? I was like, yeah, I was like, oh, did they reach out to you too? Because I back up a little bit. I. When I started out with just drones, that's what I was doing. But I am someone who likes to work with people. And the drone market, you had, you had to really, to get started, invest a ton of money into it if you were trying to build a drone team and then train people and all that. And I was wanting to build relationships with businesses and people, not just, I show up. No one needs to really attend with me. You know, it's just me by myself. I didn't want to do that. So I went down the route of going and creating and branding myself as a media company doing photography, videography, drone services, social media, social media, all that kind of stuff. So by the time that me and Justin really got to know each other, we were doing similar services. While Justin was in video production primarily, I was doing all the other things, you know, and not specializing in one. Right. And then when, by the time we were on the golf course that day, we were doing very similar stuff. I just had a few other services. Like I said, not specializing in one. But at that point in time, people would still reach out to both of us for the very similar service.

[C]

Was it one of the things where you got the call and you guys look and you hit speakerphone and do one of these?

[B]

No, because we were still gatekeeping a little bit early. Because I'm sitting there on the phone like, oh, man, my competitors here with me, literally. Yeah, not, not with any ill intent. Just, I mean, we had to fend for ourselves.

[C]

I love when you're. When you're like really good friends with your competitor and be like, all right, listen to this.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

Then we're both spoofing on them and then we make a price fixing handshake agreement.

[E]

Yeah, that's hilarious.

[B]

So, but the funny thing about it is, like, we at that point in time. So Justin was like, hey, did. Did they contact you about this too? He's like, I just quoted it last week, they must be getting additional quotes or something like that. And then he made a comment, if we keep getting the same calls, we should think about merging companies or something like that. And I was like, hey. We both laughed it off. You know, it was just a funny joke.

[E]

I think I said something like, join forces.

[B]

Or like, yeah, join forces.

[E]

And it wasn't even a thought that I had before that moment. It was just like over the years and over the time. And especially being that the fact that they moved in and there was a bunch of series of events that happened

[B]

after that, God really liked that.

[E]

And I was about to say God really had to play, you know, play in that. And we saw it firsthand. And it was just one of those moments of, like, I'm saying something that, like, I normally wouldn't say, but I'm going to say it. And I feel like we could do something here. But, like, I was, like, nervous and, like, scared to say that because I don't at the time, I don't know what I was getting myself into. Right.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

But God was doing something in both of our lives, and we could both see it, and I just had to say it, and we both just kind

[B]

of laughed it off. And then you got to think it a seed. If there was a ton of video production companies in Gainesville and this coincidence just happened, that's one thing. But when there's two dominant production companies in Gainesville and they just happen to line up the way they did in the moments that they did, that's like, okay, what's going on here?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. So you couldn't avoid that fact.

[E]

Well, I think our conversation right after that moment when I asked you if that was so and so and you said yes. I think I even asked you what I. Or I. I told you what I quoted them, or I said, let's compare.

[B]

No, it was like, hey, once you quote it, let me know what you do.

[C]

Like, don't salt the water.

[B]

Because he had already.

[C]

Yeah, he had already a huge fan of don't spoil. Like, I want to come up with my own number. Right. Don't tell me.

[E]

Because at that point, we were both being vulnerable with each other and transparent, like, building our friendship. Like, hey, like, I don't care. I'll tell you what. I let them decide.

[B]

We were friends. We knew we were in the same industry, but we weren't talking about the industry because we were just, like, still, like I said, not gatekeeping from each other, but still protecting what was ours, in a sense.

[C]

Yeah. Oh, that's normal.

[B]

Exactly.

[C]

Of course, you're supposed to.

[E]

It's our livelihoods.

[B]

So it was after the fact, where it wasn't like the client was going to be at a disadvantage because we talked about it ahead of time. You know, Justin was like, tell me, once you quote it and we quote it, it was within, like, $45.

[C]

Isn't that amazing?

[E]

Yeah, it was close.

[B]

And it was. It was like, for a. It wasn't like a one hour shoot. It was gonna be like an eight hour coverage of this. It wasn't good.

[E]

Like, there was a lot of questions we both had separately to figure out what are we delivering that didn't come up with a number that was very close.

[B]

And so we, we were, Justin was like, so what did you end up playing on? You know, and I, I told him and it's like, Whoa, it's like a 45 difference. Like that is wild. And it's crazy to see like in our industry how just naturally we both started, you know, with no experience in this, you know, we both created our own businesses from the ground up, not having any necessarily like mentors, especially in this market, to where we both found our way of pricing, our way of going about business. And over the, at that point, five years leading up to it, we ended up landing in the exact same spots, you know, which is pretty crazy.

[C]

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[D]

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[C]

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[D]

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[C]

R O.com I've experienced that on, on bids for commercial or like some tree work, right? We're going to do residential or commercial, whatever. And it might be just, just take a For instance, a $15,000 crane removal where me and my competitor are within a hundred dollars and you just have two dudes like it's gonna be that much and like what? Like the crane line item.

[B]

I wish people had the visual.

[E]

I know, right?

[C]

You know what I mean? Where like the crane line item might be high here and low here, but the stump grinding line items low here. And I hear and then it all averages out to like, it's the same damn number.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Just pick who you liked better.

[E]

Yeah, for sure. It's crazy.

[C]

It's crazy how that works.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

With no formal training, literally, some orb being of how tree production needs to be bid just got some dudes figuring it out.

[E]

Right. I think that even sparked a further conversation. We. I think we broke it down. I think we met at. Where did we meet? It was in barn table. No, it was in your driveway. Save that for later. Yes. No, we. Yeah, I think we met. We went over. We pulled up, like, our numbers. Like, how do we break this down?

[C]

How'd you get.

[B]

Oh, no, that was. That was that World of Beer.

[C]

World of Beer.

[B]

Town center before World of Beer was gone.

[E]

I think that was just kind of like the little spark, and it was just kind of like, all right, well, let's break this down. And. And I think we were both transparent enough to, like, share. How did you get to that number? How did you do this? And I think just over beers, that just turned into, like, well, how do you do this? Well, how do you do that?

[B]

We started asking a lot of questions about how each other operated. And it was wild how obviously, same industry, so there's a lot of things are going to be very similar. You know, what equipment you use, you know, things like that, how you achieve the best quality. But there was a lot of things that. Just general practice of how you go about business that we were very similar on. Yeah. But then also very different on. And the things that we were different on. We weren't different because we wanted to be different is because that wasn't my skillset, and that wasn't his skill set, you know, so the things that were. What I really enjoyed to do were the things that he didn't really enjoy to do.

[C]

So your number might have been lower for that sector and higher for.

[B]

Right. Like in being productive in that area, you know, and then, like, the amount of time it would take me, I might would have to, you know, quote more than he would. That kind of stuff. Exactly.

[E]

Well, I think it also, like, fueled our passions. Like, I got to really understand what drives Luke, and that's more the creative side and working with the clients and individuals and building those relationships. And he got to realize that, like, well, I fuel off of the process and building the team and. And actually providing the service and doing a little bit more of the behind the scenes. Now, granted, I still love capturing. I still love being behind the camera, but I really have a passion for building the system, making sure we can onboard more.

[C]

So who designed this beautiful place?

[D]

Was this both of us?

[C]

We renovated the whole creativity or so

[B]

we just kind of see each other's brains. I know that sounds really weird, but like whenever we were coming into this place, there wasn't any butting heads of ideas and anything like that. It was literally like, this is what I'm thinking. And he's like, oh, that's cool.

[E]

We were driving down to Orlando for a conference like right after we signed the lease or whatever and we were just like the whole two hour drive literally felt like 10 minutes because the whole time we were talking about this, this new studio that we're sitting, we

[C]

need a reverberation wall on the south side of the recording studio room.

[E]

Literally. Yeah, that's exactly what happened. So yeah, long story short, we. Yeah, over. Over a bunch of beers, over a world of beer. We just kind of started planting the seed and kind of going over it and yeah, we decided that hey, like, what would it look like if we actually were to merge our two production companies together? Now granted, like Luke said earlier, I primarily focused on video production beforehand. So that means commercials, brand anchor videos, testimonial videos, marketing material for businesses to help grow their brands. That's what I was, I was very passionate of and that's what I did.

[C]

When you say commercials, like Internet commercials or television commercials?

[E]

Both, Everything. If a business came to us and said, hey, I have an issue with my marketing, they came to us, they knew we did video or if anything we pitched our services, we would come out, capture with our team and our cameras, we would capture a commercial, we'd capture a video testimonial and we would pretty much consult and help them distribute that across our Internet, television, whatever it be. And we just did that. Rinse and repeat constantly. Now the downside to that model is that we didn't have a retainer basis. Right. We tried and we have a couple clients.

[C]

So you're dealing with a pile of one offs. Correct. So you have to constantly get to get that job or you're out of business.

[E]

So I found my. Again, going back to my passion was more on the business side. I was out of the office, constantly networking, trying to grow and like, okay, who's the next content? What's the next video that I can create? And I got to the point where I delegated the team to have videographers, editors and so on and so forth to help provide the service.

[B]

That was one thing that Justin was really good at. He did not have to be on

[E]

site Slightly to my downfall, but yes,

[B]

but it was the capturing of the content. Exactly. So for the capturing of the content, he was in all the backend, getting it to the point to where his team could go out and do it.

[E]

Right. There was a majority of the jobs, I'd say 60, 70% where the team would go, initiate it. And I had a project manager that was there that would represent us really well. That would be the person, the main contact on the day of, with a team of two or three others. And then I would pop in and chat with the client, bring them a gift, bring them food, whatever it be, hey, we good? Hang out for a little bit and then boom, onto the next one and they would, they would run the job. But like I said to my downfall slightly is that I was less hands on with the actual service that we were providing because I was so focused on landing the next client. Of course, which you could look at it both ways. You could look at that. Yeah, that's growing the business.

[B]

I don't think it was a bad, it wasn't a downfall. If in the grand scheme of things, business wise, it would have been hard.

[C]

Didn't say that. I wouldn't believe you.

[E]

Well, it capitalized me to perform best where I was. Right. But again, because we weren't a retainer model business, I got burnt out. I was doing that every single day.

[C]

Go, go, go.

[E]

Literally right. And like there was like tree work.

[B]

He had the right idea behind what he was doing. It was just, you know, it's hard to have the people on the field have an owner mindset, you know, and, and that was where the downfall would probably play is because the people on the field were getting their job done. They weren't necessarily exceeding expectations to an extent. My biggest thing is being very personable with our clients because I genuinely love relationships. I love getting to know people, how their businesses operate. I say it all the time. The best part about what we do is we're in so many industries all at once. Every day we are working with so many different clients that are all doing something different, which is the most beautiful part about what we do, you know. But that was so I enjoyed being on the field, which was my downfall because then I'm not growing a back end when I'm out on the field. I'm not in my emails. So that was like, whenever I'm saying like we would sit down and start talking about what Justin likes to do, what I like to do, it was, it was very clear that the areas that he really Loved to be in were the areas that I don't mind being in. But if. If my team's out on the field, I got to be with them. You know, I'm not going to let them go represent me and my image without me being there. And I understand growing a business, you have to eventually get okay with that, and we do. But whenever you're that young in business, when you're that young in business, you have to control the atmosphere around what you're doing. And that's what I was.

[E]

Both of our names were associated with those previous businesses. Luke's media company, Short Media Group, like it was us. We just got to the point where we had to delegate and we had to hire people.

[D]

And this gets into everything both of you just described is where this is very fitting to our listeners, that businesses. All of this crosses every industry. It's the same for landscaping. It's the same for tree work. The fact that, you know. Well, obviously we have a connection here and we're. We're here with you recording. But what you just described is every business and every pain point. Yeah, it's just a natural. I think it's just a natural course of growth, for sure.

[E]

As a business owner, we have to decide where our passions lie and where that fuels us, where we need to delegate and how that's going to perform for us and not against us. And I think as we were sitting down over beers, we quickly realized that we can help each other in those very areas.

[B]

It wasn't just beers. Pretty good chicken sandwich. Barn table has.

[D]

Where the hell did. What happened to World of Beer? Let's go back to that. I mean, we haven't gone.

[B]

Yeah, we haven't gone there in a while.

[D]

I mean, that's on my side of town. What's there now?

[E]

Western Tavern.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

The hell is. I think it's very similar. We should try. I haven't been there.

[D]

Let's go get beer.

[E]

Let's go there.

[B]

I walk by it. We film a lot of stuff for Tioga.

[E]

That's true. Shout out.

[B]

We just don't go in.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So kind of interesting on earlier today, you guys. I was outside for a minute and I came back and one of you two made a comment that it looked like I walked a mile.

[B]

Yes. You're on the phone. You were like, justin, when Justin's on a phone, I looks like it's the most stressful call.

[C]

Oh, yeah, it was high stress. It's on your phone and I'm walking and I'm grabbing leaves and I'm ripping leaves in half.

[E]

I saw you kneeling down at one point.

[C]

Yeah, I did not see that. I mean, buddy, I might like get on a magic carpet, pray to Mecca, do all of that. You never know. So this was a, this is a difficult. So I have a difficult assignment coming down the pipe next week. And it is a large figure job for a very high profile commercial contractor where we do work for the city of Tampa. Okay. And we have to replace, we have to assist the contractor in replacing water meters and water mains without messing up tree roots. So we have to use this big gun called an air spade and blast dirt out of a trench with compressed air to not hurt tree roots. So they can fit new poly pipe at a depth of 18 inches to the new meter to the new water main in the road. So we have DOT lane closure, excavators ripping up the road, putting in new water mains, and then we got a fish.

[B]

Sounds like you're going to inconvenience a lot of people.

[C]

Well, we got it. Well for their better convenience. So then we got to get the umbilical cord from the main to the meter without hurting the trees because them's the rules in city of Tampa. And so this project has been shifted three times. It's been pushed back. So this past phone call was, can you come Thursday morning and start doing the work? And yeah, we'll be there at 8am but I'm not going to be there at 8am I drop off my kids on Thursday mornings and I'm looking at my Thursday schedule, I can't be there at all. So it's this inherent in my head of, well, I'm going to have Richie and Brier there with the air compressor and airspray doing all this, representing me. I can't be there. And share from the city of Tampa is going to be there. And this is damn near six figures. And it's day one. I'm like, blah, yes, Matt, we'll be there Thursday. I'm like, I can't. I can't be there at all. So I'm gonna have to manage it over the.

[B]

Make a cloning machine that doesn't exist.

[C]

You know, you got Luke.

[B]

Sorry, my bad.

[C]

But anyways. But my point was what you were talking about, Luke, of like being. Wanting to be there. And it's my job and the importance. I get it. I want, I want to do it, but at the same time, yeah, I can't do that. I need somebody else to represent, represent me in the most professional manner to Me. So anyways, it was kind of high stress and it's.

[B]

And I totally get that. And. And, you know, like I said, to my downfall, that was me. I have to be on site. However, you know, there's the point in business where you have your operating handbooks, you have your, you know, your general kind of practice, the way you do things, what makes Sky Palm Studios, or Luke's media company at the time different than the rest. And it was in my head, it wasn't on paper, you know, and so there was that time frame of if I wasn't on site, who was to kind of set that tone, who was to do that? You know, and so Justin was always the operations person to where, you know, that was something that he had covered ahead of time, you know, but then on site, maybe those people didn't necessarily carry out the image of what he wanted as much as he would, you know, so it's one of those things of just going down the line, you know, in a new business, what's most important. And we saw the benefit in joining together, you know, and. And me having that attention to detail on site, him having that attention to detail on the back end. And then we've now created so many. Working together, created so many more systems and. And way of doing things than we ever would have, you know, on our own, or it would have taken twice the amount of time, you know.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

So it's been. It's been really, you know, beautiful to see how it all lined up, how it's worked out. And. And I mean, my. My barber, almost every time I get a haircut, he says, have you had a fight with Justin yet? I haven't told Justin this.

[E]

You just tell him yes. One day.

[B]

I was like. I was like, we really don't have disagreements. You know, it's because we just genuinely respect each other and we respect. He has an opinion of how he wants to do things. I have an opinion how I want to do things. And. And we have level heads to know, like, okay, well, how do we find the middle ground?

[E]

Well, I think it's also because we have our lanes too, to a degree. We have the overlap.

[C]

You make decisions for this lane. You make decisions.

[E]

I wouldn't say completely, but, like, we kind of have, like, capital to skip.

[B]

But then if I step into his lane, I know I'm not the lead dog of that lane, you know, and then. And I understand that. And same opposite way. So it works really well.

[D]

There's so many partnerships and businesses that don't work a Successful partnership in business is a rarity.

[E]

Yes.

[D]

In general.

[B]

No.

[D]

You're saying a fact. Yeah, it's a fact.

[B]

And I. We had a lot of. I mean, I did. Justin probably did too. A lot of people discourage it.

[E]

Oh, yeah. Thousand percent.

[D]

Well, I'll be honest, whenever I mean, while I was talking with you about hiring you, it's like, oh, we're merging with. It's like, oh, I got these two guys. This shit's gonna be like, great.

[B]

Your name's going to be like.

[D]

But, but no but. Because I've seen so many partnerships not work. Yeah, but then you lived one.

[C]

Oh, you lived a fake one.

[D]

Well, I lived the fake partnership.

[C]

Yeah, but on paper it was real.

[D]

Well, on paper it was very real, which I think in 90 days I might be able to tell the whole story legally.

[B]

Really?

[D]

I've been legally bound not to tell.

[B]

Can we be back here in 90 days?

[D]

I'm going to have to. I'm going to have to talk to attorney about that. And that is not a teaser for our listeners. If I can tell it, I'll tell it.

[E]

Well, they don't know what day we film this.

[D]

Not.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Anyway, tomorrow

[C]

XX version of Green side Down comes out.

[D]

Now that might be a Green side down episode. Anyway, but you know my friend Joe JoJo in St. Augustine, he and his partner Ryan Buddy, they're doing 10 million plus in revenue across all their businesses. They do a lot of construction work. They have the most unconventional partnership in the world. But it's like what you described. There's a trust there. They understand each other. When there's an objection or a problem, they just figure it out in a respectful manner and so it works for them. But I think that the way you guys have laid things out and operationally, I mean, I've been observing since I've been working with you guys. So your title is.

[B]

I am the CEO of the company.

[D]

Correct. And you are coo.

[E]

Coo.

[D]

So I made that observation immediately. And the fact that you two have delineated that as young entrepreneurs, you are. Luke, you are old.

[B]

I'm 23.

[D]

And Justin, you are 25. You are extremely young entrepreneurs.

[C]

You're making me sick in my stomach.

[B]

I was going to wait for Jordan to ask.

[E]

I thought you would be the one to ask.

[C]

No.

[B]

Do you know what?

[C]

I know one of you have a gray hair.

[B]

Not.

[C]

Not what?

[B]

He's a gray beard.

[C]

Not a gray hair.

[B]

I was like, I just got a beard, dude.

[C]

Like, you're receding hairline. You don't even have receding hairline. Like, it's to the point where I'm starting to pluck the ones that don't fit anymore and make it worse. Make me sick.

[D]

So this was my observation, and I think you all will be. I mean, the fact that you are at this point in business now, at the age you are like, I'm excited to see where you go as entrepreneurs, but I think the fact that you have kind of picked your lanes and gone through that process. Have you read or listened to the book Traction?

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

Yep.

[D]

So have you studied that in depth? Do you all.

[B]

Not as in depth as we probably should.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Have you done the visionary integrator test?

[E]

Ish. So I would say between the two of us, Luke is more of the visionary. I'm more of the integrator. When we first.

[B]

He's a ho, ho, ho. Let me pull you back down here,

[E]

buddy, a little bit. When we were first going through the process of merging, we really kind of looked at it, the analogy of let's build the house first, let's furnish it, yada, yada, let's get it ready, and then let's move into it. And that was like, that was music to my ears. That was, let's build this thing up. Because Luke was able to sit there and just like, this, this, that, that everything that he wanted in a business that he wasn't able to achieve before, not to his fault, but just I

[B]

didn't have the time. The way my brain worked, I just didn't have the time to do it right.

[E]

And I was just back there just grinding away because I want to build a process. I want to actually, you know, refine that out, build the team, train everybody how that works and, you know, and run with it. And that's truly what happened.

[D]

And I'd encourage you to. I've taken the test. And part of that was when we were working with Foast Creative with our first website, which we've talked about, another local marketing company that we used to do business with. Part of that was they encouraged us to take the test. So I did it. And I'm very much more of the visionary mindset. But you all taking that and learning where you're. And for any of our listeners, also, if you're going into a partnership or just how you manage your own business as a solo entrepreneur, if you go. And as Gino Wickman wrote the book Traction. I don't know the website off the top of my head, but there is a link on their website to take the Visionary, integrator test or some other fancy metric word that they use for it. But it was very interesting for me to see where I was stronger in the category of a visionary, but still very high in the integrator category, where if Jordan and I, which we've never been in an official business until our podcast, even though we live together as competitors for a couple of years and work together, it's pretty much partnership.

[C]

Yeah, it was more like slave labor, unpaid for the mutual goal of, you got stuff that needs to get done, I got stuff that needs to get done, let's just get it done together and not exchange currency.

[D]

So you made a very unconventional relationship. When we were living together and working

[C]

together, it was kind of, I'm gonna work harder than you today. And then it was a no, you're not gonna work harder than I am. And I'm like, yeah, I am. And then like, you wanna get up at 4 o' clock in the morning and up shut sharpen mower blades and then do bench press in the garage?

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

It turned into step brothers, and then we made bunk beds so we could have more room for activities. Yes, that's what happened.

[D]

I think we had two months that we. We didn't speak during the workday. We just communicated with. That's how well we knew each other. And working together hand in hand is that we would just communicate in whistles. For months. For months.

[E]

I was like, what's he doing?

[B]

I'm saying. I was like, I don't know what's going on here.

[C]

We were talking Swahili real quick is what we were doing.

[B]

We had.

[D]

We had two or three months where we communicated in whistles, and then we had two to three months where we only spoken Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[C]

See, the funny thing is, Jason, you told me that before, but I don't remember that.

[D]

You don't remember that?

[C]

No, no.

[D]

We're collecting crawfish, talking like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[C]

Yeah, sure, I believe you. But I just know that if we get. If we have 30 cubic yards of mulch spread, I'm going to fill the wheelbarrow. I don't want to spread it. Give me the shovel. Give me the snow shovel. I'm going to fill the wheelbarrow faster than you can fill the wheelbarrow.

[E]

There you go.

[D]

So the fact that you guys have defined kind of your roles, I think is. Has set you up for phenomenal success in the future. I think that that's because there's so many people, especially in our lawn and landscape side of the business. I don't know about tree guys, but that, you know, that are trying to join forces, are coming together and finding. They're finding that bond and relationship. And at some point you can build your own bridge, but if you can do it with somebody else and have that fire and do it faster.

[C]

Well, Jason, I like the non discouraging of a partnership. Right. I like what you're saying, because this is not an original idea. Just call me a parrot. I will tell you that a partnership is a ship that will never sail. Because somebody told that to me years past, and I've seen partnerships not work out.

[B]

Let me hop on our train. Real. So my dad, for the past 20 years of my life, he ran a physical therapy clinic. And it's actually pretty cool. The location we're in right here. I haven't told y' all this. This was his physical therapy clinic, this building.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

Right.

[B]

I might have told you that we're in right now. This building was his physical therapy clinic for 20 years. And he was in a partnership, and it was good for a very long time. It was someone that came on after a period of time. It wasn't from the start, which I

[E]

think he started it, and then he brought.

[B]

He started and then brought on this person. And it was like over every. Every so many years or something like that, she gained this amount of percentage, yada, yada. So it was an interesting setup. But long story short, near the end of him running his business, you know, it wasn't the reason why his business ended. It was because he was just ready to get past being a business owner and just, you know, work for someone else and finish out his career, that kind of thing. But I. I watched things crumble with that partnership, and I was able to analyze, like, you know, why is this happening? What does this do to the business? You know, when this happens? What does it do to the culture, the people within, to where whenever me and Justin. Because obviously, I mean, I don't know, maybe Justin has seen a business fall apart like that, but whenever I watched that go down, it gave me a lot of questions. And those questions, because that was before we merged, I was like, okay, well, I don't know when I'll use this in life and all that, but why it ended up turning out how it did through small little things that added up. But whenever me and Justin sat down, I was able to talk to Justin and say, hey, what are your thoughts about this? How would you go about a situation like that?

[C]

Kind of ask hard questions, right?

[B]

Ask Hard questions. We had sit downs where I started off with. I feel so, so bad. This was rough. I feel so bad.

[C]

This is like marriage counseling. But it got worse. Like extreme. Catholics have to go.

[E]

Can I set the scene? Can I set the scene?

[D]

Yeah, please.

[E]

Luke invited. Hey, let's go out the world of beer again.

[D]

Great.

[E]

Awesome.

[B]

Stressed. I was so stressed.

[E]

And I could tell he was all stressed. I could tell he was stressed.

[C]

He.

[E]

He's one that if there's anything in his mind that's like. I wouldn't say conflict, but just like the seed of which he's.

[B]

I was very. I was very.

[C]

Oh, you're the.

[B]

Yeah, I get right at it.

[E]

I'm more of like, let me prepare. Let me, like, I'll take a week if I have to. I'll gather my thoughts.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

But Justin does a good job hiding it. I have to go right at it because I want to.

[C]

I'm getting a read on both you now. Okay.

[E]

He addressed his concerns first, I'll say that. And in a meeting of which that he invited. I thought we were just making a logo. I didn't know what we were doing.

[B]

We did talk about it.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

But either way, long story short, at that point in time that was like we said we built the house out ahead of time, you know, we were working on what the processes would look like, business operations, all that kind of stuff. But when it came to, like, are we really going to carry through with this merge? You know, are we really going to make this publicly official? Because at that time, Justin and his wife were talking, do we really want to kind of like change our livelihood, how the business has been operated, what's been providing, you know, me and Kami, the same thing. Are we really going to take a risk? Because at that point in time, like, Luke's media company was doing good, you know, and there was no reason or need to merge unless we wanted to grow, you know, so it wasn't. We have to do this to make things worse, that kind of thing, you know, and that's just speaking from my side of it at least. But I want to continue to build a culture around what we do, you know, improve the Gainesville creative space and all that. So I was like, this is the only way that I saw, you know, to actually achieve that. That goal was to actually merge, be more efficient, you know, have better skill sets. All in one, in one pot. But yeah, no, I with watching my dad run his physical therapy clinic and be successful, have hard times, pull out of it, go back into Them have a business partnership fall through. And after 12 years of being in good standing, you know, there's a lot of things I wanted to address.

[C]

Why did your business, your dad's business, get rocky? Was it when it became 5050 ownership and there was a money quibble? What was the crux of it?

[B]

It wasn't that. It was just people not necessarily understanding like what other people do in the behind the scenes and in the grand scheme of things, if the amount of work that's put in, not even just here at the office, and jealousy of, you know, thinking someone's making more than they are and even you can be as open as.

[C]

And your father being the villain.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Right. That he's a freeloader. He's not doing anything. He's.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So long story short, the hose too hard.

[B]

Long story short, it really branched off during COVID My dad got long Covid pretty bad. He was not able to oper. I mean, my dad's a very athletic person. Like two times a week he'll go

[C]

on to PT facility.

[B]

Two times a week he'll go on an 80 mile bike ride. Like it's nothing.

[C]

He's that guy.

[E]

He's that guy.

[B]

He's insanely fit. He's 55 years old. And when I, when I was younger, I used to bike with him and then he, he would just be gone. I'd be by myself. I'd be by myself. And so I kind of lost the sport until me and Justin rekindled it and we started biking together. But that's the kind of guy he is. And then, and so you know how strong of a person he is just by seeing his lifestyle. You know, he biked to work every day. He had a car, but he biked here every day, took a little sink bath, you know, and cleaned up. And that's just because he loved fitness. And I mean he was always doing marathons and all that when he was younger. But he got Covid long. Covid hit him like a truck. You know, it was pretty much a disability at that point. And so he wasn't able to be here as much, you know. And so the people who felt like they were running it, that they should own it in a sense or not that they did own it, but they should be treat like get given more for that.

[C]

Understood.

[B]

You know, and, and it's, it's hard because I really don't think the person who is business partners with him is a bad person. I really don't. He doesn't either. You know, it's just unfortunately, there's miscommunication and of the lack. The little bit of lack of trust ended up turning into a big gap of misunderstanding, and it ended up crumbling, that. So, long story short, my dad decided to downside after half the staff ended up leaving. You know, during that transition, he downsized, and then from there it was going well. But then he realized, you know, I just feel like this is kind of when I'm supposed to start. I'm down, dwindling it down. So he ended up going to private practice. That's when he moved out of this space. He was trying to sell it, and he went private practice, and now he works for another company in. In Lake City, just being an employee there. And he's. He's enjoying that. He can shut off after he's done with work, you know.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And it's super cool. And this whole office came to us with. He was asking me if I wanted a. A cabinet or something like that. And I was like, I do, but we don't have enough room at our office. He's like, oh, I'm trying to sell the place. Do you want to rent it? And he's giving us a good deal. It's not cheap by any means, you know, because he has to pay his end of the bills and all that, but at the same time, it's very beneficial for us, you know.

[C]

So does Pops own the entire building?

[B]

He owns this unit.

[C]

Unit.

[B]

He used to own the unit next door, but.

[C]

Fathom.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Is that a scuba shop?

[B]

It's a scuba shop, yeah. Charlie, he's super cool guy. He's a really cool guy. Him and his son work over there. They. He used to own unit A, and then he bought unit B from my dad because this used to all be one unit. There was a passageway through and all that. He bought that unit when my dad downsized. And then after that, my dad went to sell this, and then we ended up starting to rent it. And the only reason why we've been able to build this out how we did is because we know our landlord isn't going to sell it out of under us.

[C]

You're not going to lose your capital investment.

[E]

We invested everything.

[C]

Reverberation wall money.

[D]

You guys have put more. Well, more than sweat equity.

[B]

We have got dollars. Plus we have put, you know, seven

[E]

months and a lot of money.

[B]

And a lot of money that realistically, a lot of people would probably say, you're stupid to put that much into it. But we knew what our vision was, and we knew what we wanted to do for the Gainesville community in the of creators, having a space to land, you know, building a business that whenever we have interns or people coming on that want to learn, we don't have to be in the field to learn. We can be here at our space to learn, you know, and that's kind of what our whole vision was behind it. But we were able to put that capital into it because we, first of all, obviously we have a lease agreement, you know, we're not stupid. We didn't protect ourselves. But it's my dad, you know, and I knew he wasn't going to screw us, but it's still.

[E]

And he's proud of being a business, right?

[B]

Exactly. And he's proud of us, you know, and what we're doing. So our two year plans to own the place, but we didn't have to put all of our capital into a down payment to buy the place. We were able to rent it month to month. Well, with, with the lease agreement, but monthly rent. And then put all that extra, you know, capital into actually renovating it to

[C]

know it's not going to get kicked out from home.

[B]

Exactly. And that was our, our hardship, you know, is we had this vision of what we wanted to do, but how are we going to achieve that when the money had to go into a down payment and then it would have to be just, just ah, you know, a business we could operate in.

[D]

But it wasn't.

[E]

We wanted one thing at a time

[C]

piecemeal and not wham.

[B]

Yeah, I mean we, we had a budget set. We had a budget set and as you can tell, our bathroom's the only thing that was left out of that budget because the functions very well. The floor's not done and the baseboards aren't up.

[C]

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

[E]

Volume.

[B]

Volume.

[D]

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.

[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 crash, 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 intriguemedia.com if you want to make more money and crush your competitors online. That's intriguemedia.com and Jordan, you don't know this, but previously to this space, they were in another space that was owned by a legacy person that we know named James Coates.

[E]

Yeah, you know Yellow Hummer.

[B]

Y' all gotta pray for that dude.

[D]

Yellow. Uh oh, Yellow.

[C]

Is he okay?

[B]

He's battling cancer again.

[C]

Oh, no.

[B]

Yeah, Pray for James Coates, guys. Pray for.

[C]

What kind does he have?

[B]

Well, he had colon cancer and then I don't know exactly what it came back as. He's first. Let me hop on this high horse real quick. When you want to think about a guy who's given everything up just to. Just to give to the community, that's that guy. James is that guy. He has Superheroes for Hope, which is a non for profit charity that he pours everything into just to help people with cancer and all that on their final days of life leading up to or getting through it. And then he's battling it himself. And I mean, just look up, look up Superheroes for Hope and all that he's done. And what's hard is as of right now, because we helped him build out the marketing side, the branding of all that. This third time of him battling it, he's giving it up and he's giving it to a friend of his to help him manage because he can't do it himself. But it's. It's just so sad, you know, putting so much time into something for this cause and then for other people and, and he's fighting for. Exactly. And now. And, and I don't know the severity of it. I haven't dug into it very deep. However, it's like, just like. It's crazy, you know, it's so sad, you know, someone with a heart as big as his, too.

[C]

He was a cool dude.

[B]

He is a cool dude.

[C]

I said was like, I'm so. I'm sorry, James. You're listening, James. My bad, bro. You still are a cool dude, dude. You were the only dude. James, where I'm talking to you because I'm gonna talk to you right now. You were the only person that invited me to go climb a tree in the woods with specific directions of bring your sidearm with you. I had to ask my roommate, John Burns, what is a sidearm? And he says, that's a handgun. I said, can I borrow your handgun? And John Burns goes, sure. Here you go. So then I show up up at with James Coats ready to climb a tree with a handgun to go look at a black bear that's running around.

[D]

Dude, that's wild. So I went.

[C]

I hopped a barbed wire fence with James Coates with a handgun on my hip to climb a tree to go look at a black bear.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Because I'm unmarried with no kids, and nothing better to do on a Saturday night than to go watch a black bear run around.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

That was my experience with James Coates.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Good.

[E]

One of a kind.

[B]

He's a visionary.

[C]

He's a firearm guy.

[B]

He's a firearm guy. He had failings was his first business business that he. Well, not first business. He has. He's a business guy. He has that a lot. But failings was one of his most successful ones, which was body armor. Yeah. For special service, things like that. It was so cool. He had a super cool office by the airport where everything was on display. Very cool place to tour. And he would. That's the cool part. Like, he would just bring kids into his place of work and just geek out about it in a way that they could understand it. And he would make people interested in his industry.

[C]

Right.

[B]

You know, it was awesome. It was so cool to see.

[E]

Can I take us back just a little bit? Yeah, yeah, just a little bit. And then we can come back. So you. I think we got off rails when you were talking about the world of beer night before the merge, right before we signed off on it, and you sat me down to really nail down some concerns, which I think a lot of businesses.

[C]

Catholic marriage interview. That's what we're doing.

[B]

Yes.

[E]

Which I think if there's a lot of businesses out there that are thinking

[B]

about partnership, him starting this next conversation, which was a previous conversation, how off the rails we went fair looking. We go sideways. We're intrigued.

[D]

We are sidearms of bears. And now we're back to world of beers.

[E]

I'm an integrator. I know where we're at with it. Okay.

[B]

Justin's a spreadsheet guy. I tend to just forget about what I was thinking.

[E]

It's in his brain. It's in his brain. All right, Pick it up, Luke, please. Where we were? Where are we? So we were talking about partnership. I think there's a lot of businesses out there that might be considering a partnership, but I think there's obviously those concerns. I respect Luke for addressing those concerns before we even, you know, cross the t, dot the I, all that stuff, because here's the thing, we were talking about this in what, October of 2024.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

And January was coming up right around the corner. January 1st, in my brain being just numbers, like, January 1st.

[B]

This is like, for tax reasons. We need to.

[D]

January 1st.

[E]

Imagine if we started the business January 1st, how easy that would be. And he looked at me like, you are crazy.

[B]

No, no, no, no. I started out with. And then. And then I went home and talked to my wife, and she was like, you're going to do what? I was like, yes, I agree.

[E]

It ended up working out in, like, April. But anyways, okay, so.

[B]

So I watched the situation unfold with my parents and my dad. My mom worked with the business as well, so it was both of them together. She homeschooled me and all my brothers for a while, and then she came to work with the business. So I watched the whole situation unfold with the bad business partnership, a good one that went bad. And then the lawyer that they have for that whole situation, she's a very close friend of ours. I brought her in as premarital counseling, and we had a sit down and we went over what caused that to fail, what causes things to fail, and then how can we do it better? And she suggested that we go on a retreat with each other, and we still haven't done that.

[E]

It's been two years and we have yet to go over.

[B]

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

[D]

Time out. Because I've never. I've had all these thoughts in my head about you guys since you've. I've been working with you as a client and watching you, observing as an entrepreneur. And we went out to mothers, and we had beers once, and we talked some general business, but we didn't get into any of the details of how you guys formed.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So you had the attorney come in.

[B]

We went to 43rd Deli, 43rd Street, Delhi.

[D]

But you met with the attorney ahead of time.

[B]

Yeah, before we. Before we pulled the trigger.

[C]

The marriage counseling is between Luke and Justin.

[B]

Well, yeah.

[C]

You brought in a marriage.

[E]

It was for two of you.

[C]

It was.

[E]

Well, hold on. There was the World of Beer meeting, and then there was the meeting with the. With the attorney.

[C]

So I was not awesome. I said marriage counseling.

[B]

I mean, I wouldn't say we actually had her come from marriage counseling.

[D]

No, but you had a.

[B]

It was a business counseling. For the.

[D]

Just for the gist of the podcast, we're using that term, but I mean, you had an attorney present. I think that's phenomenal.

[B]

Well, I think. I think a lot of People died, both of them.

[E]

Can I say something?

[C]

Yeah, please.

[D]

It was Luke's attorney only, so it was time out. So for my.

[B]

It was not skewed by any means.

[E]

I walked into that meeting not feeling attacked in it actually was. It was very respectful that Luke, as a team, him and I were addressing our concerns, like, hey, to the attorney.

[B]

I think that there's the. The best part about it was I was open with Justin of. Listen, I don't know exactly why the whole thing went, how it did with my parents, but I know that's something we got to be cautious of.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And if we got to be cautious of it, and this is the resource I know of someone who's not going to charge us an arm and a leg to sit down and go over legal things. You know, things like. Like that. Let's do it. You know, bring your questions, I'll bring mine, and then let's see where it goes from there.

[E]

We went into that as a team.

[B]

Right? Exactly. So it was before we said, you know, like, we knew that business together was what we wanted to do, but then it was like, okay, what unknowns are we walking into that we should probably know about? So an attorney who sees businesses failing all the time was the best person to talk to, you know, and for example, like, I watched. I listened to a podcast recently that was. I don't know if you ever seen CEO Diaries. It's a YouTube channel podcast. They're great. He brings in a lot of different industries. He had a marriage, a divorce attorney come onto his show, and the divorce attorney was talking about how he loves sharing, how to avoid divorce, you know, for a married couple. And he makes his money through divorces happening, you know, but he doesn't want to see that happen. So it was kind of that same idea, that thought process of how can we take a step ahead for ourselves to make sure that that doesn't end up being the solution. My dad had a business. Someone came into it, and it ended up working out. We had a unique opportunity. I was not as worried about that happening to us because we were starting together. This was a whole new business. This wasn't us.

[E]

Your business didn't lose anything. My business didn't lose anything. It was the businesses coming together.

[C]

It was a dissolution of both businesses.

[E]

That's actually exactly what happened.

[C]

It wasn't a merger. It was a dissolution.

[E]

We say merge.

[B]

Exactly. We say merge. But we won. 100% dissolved.

[E]

We started a brand new company, merged assets bring. It was.

[B]

It was wild. We looked at our Books. We looked at our assets. I mean, our revenue annually was $2,000 off.

[C]

Really? Our assets.

[B]

Our assets were like, literally $900 difference in assets.

[C]

So you guys, 50, 50 owners.

[E]

We're not.

[B]

We're not. We're not, but we're not. We don't have to go into that.

[E]

Well, that was one thing that I. Tiebreaker. So that was one thing that, that I kind of push hard for. And I'll be honest, I'm the minority. No, for less. For less than 50.

[B]

Yeah. Justin sat down with me and he said, just so you know, I've heard it's a good thing to not have it being 50 50.

[E]

So I, I, from my experience, having a 50, 50 partnership will always turn into something going wrong there. There will always be a fight, and there will never be someone to kind of make that final decision. From my experience as an integrator, there's always something in me that, like, yes, I will do the right thing and I'll plan it all out, but I don't have that mindset to be the visionary, to have the correct understanding of, okay, where's this going to take us down the road? And I knew that growing a business together, there was going to be something down the road, potentially not yet, that could get us to that point where we were going to butt heads. And I didn't want that. So I asked him if he would be open to him taking majority ownership. And it's not by much. It's just by a little bit. Bit. So we're just slightly off. So that if it comes to that point, I will let him take lead and I'll be right there by his side as an integrator to help make that decision.

[C]

Well, that kind of makes sense with the, the, the space and the dad.

[B]

And that was before this. Oh, well, we were in a different place for a year and a half.

[E]

Yeah, year and a year and a

[B]

half before coming into the end of this. And that was, yes, a connection of mine that got us into that space, but no means was it the reason why.

[D]

I think that that defines your. You're at the young age of 23 and 25.

[C]

You guys got some wisdom.

[D]

Your wisdom of entrepreneurship so far. You have taken a lot of light years, dude. A lot of the steps that a lot of people have taken, I think

[E]

a lot of people put their ego first.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

And like, yeah, like, I, I, I lived my whole life. Not my whole life, but a lot of my life, like, right out of high school, literally right out of high school, Building a business.

[C]

So did y' all go to college?

[E]

Yeah, I. I went to Santa Fe. We both went to Santa Fe. Santa Fe College here in Gainesville, Florida.

[C]

Two years.

[D]

Four years.

[C]

Two years.

[E]

So that I said, Justin went for production.

[B]

I was going for business, which is so opposite.

[E]

I should have gone for business.

[C]

So you both have associate's degrees.

[E]

Yeah, I said, screw that. Bachelor's. I'm going all in with this business.

[C]

Are going to make more money.

[E]

We went.

[B]

We both said, screw it.

[D]

Bachelor's degrees.

[E]

Yes.

[B]

The problem was I was in college. I was working pretty flexible, but still full time job doing estimates for a roofing company, flying drones, running the business, and in flight school, getting my pilot's license. So I was doing all that at the same time. And it was like, if I go to. Because I was going to do two years at Santa Fe and transfer to UF for business. And I was like, if I do that, I will have no time. And I got to decide what's worth. Worth my time. So I ended up choosing to run with business.

[E]

So I'm assuming you guys have both experienced burnout at some point.

[D]

Nobody is.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Jason's like, you heard my last rant.

[B]

It was kind of rhetorical.

[D]

You weren't here for the last rant when I was dumping content in the back room.

[E]

So that was.

[C]

Was me.

[B]

And I love when Jason comes and dumps content. He just digs in.

[E]

Yeah, he does.

[D]

But he's like, oh, how things going? Oh, do you really want to know?

[E]

Not only are we.

[B]

I've learned that I need to brace myself when I ask the question.

[E]

Yeah. Not only are we the social media provider and video production provider for Sky Sky Frog Landscape.

[C]

You're also the therapist.

[E]

Yes.

[C]

He brings from a physical PT to a mental PT facility is what this is.

[E]

Yes.

[B]

Hold my beer.

[D]

Let me tell you what we got going on.

[E]

Yeah, no, yeah, I. I experienced a lot of burnout, you know, having my own business, but being focused on running the business and not creative and yada yada. And I think everyone has their form in their season of burnout. Right. And it comes in waves sometimes and yada yada. And it just happened to be. I was in a very serious area of. And season of burnout when I met Luke. Not met Luke, but when we started having this conversation and actually got to know Luke and I quickly realized that the burnout I was having and that fire, so to speak, Luke, was to speak the solution of it.

[D]

Right.

[E]

His business and what he has the passion of would have Put the fire out. And that's pretty much what pushed me into that direction. And again, I think that was spiritual. That was God. We're both very strong Christians. Yeah. We both very heavily prayed about this before we even, like, even after that. I think after that golf match, we both went home. We both probably talked to our wives and prayed heavily on it.

[B]

And it was like January was a deadline we were hoping to have started potentially. And we waited till April, you know, to really make it final because we really wanted to sit in it. And. And I think that the way things lined up, even though we were both in business for a very similar amount of time, I was jumping from just being drone to being video photo everything, to being still catering more towards video production, things like that, to where I was shifting enough to where I wasn't hitting that burnout in the same way, you know, to where Justin was. He knew what he wanted to be in, but he had been in it that whole time and he hadn't quite cracked that code.

[E]

I had to step into the other lane that I knew I couldn't do and I didn't want to, but I

[B]

knew I had to retainer, social media, all that kind of stuff.

[E]

Yeah. Which I guess that leads us into. We didn't really touch on it yet, but that led us into deciding, okay, well, if we're going to merge, so to speak, if we're going to dissolve the other companies and start a new company.

[C]

Well put.

[E]

We'll start saving that moving forward. We're going to start a new company. Company. What are we going to do? Right. You did media, you did drone, social media, photo, video. I did video and I have a passion for. How are we going to put these together? And we quickly realized that we need to figure out a retainer model within our industry that we can serve our clients well. So that's when we decided, hey, let's offer a video service that is a tie to social media, that is on a retainer model. So we kind of have two different things.

[C]

So like a monthly, monthly type subscription.

[E]

Correct.

[B]

Subscription to a T. Just to give Justin some credit, he didn't ignore that this was a mock business.

[E]

I did it and I tried it for a while.

[B]

Justin did it, but he did video production. I didn't have the distribution, which was good and a great product. But if you put a good video in a random business's hand, let me say this, they're not going to know what to do.

[E]

I had a retainer.

[C]

Yeah, I. Yes. If you give me a good Video like, well, hold this.

[B]

So that was the downfall of that retainer.

[E]

Listen, I had a client for one whole year, I kid you not, an entire year. I was every single month making them a series of videos. Sometimes three, sometimes five, sometimes one, depending on what they needed. But it was a retainer model. It got to the point that month, six, I remember doing a follow up meeting with this client. Hey, how's it going xyz? Oh yeah, the videos are great. They look great. I'm like, oh yeah, what have we done with them? Because I didn't do distribution. I was just making them the videos. Yeah, they're sitting on my computer, they're on the desktop. We haven't done anything with them. And I'm like, well, why not? I don't know what to do with them. And I'm like, well, I've told you what to do with them. But I wasn't the one actually doing it for them. I was relying on them or their marketing manager, as if I'm talking to the owner to do the actual work that I was consulting on that I knew somewhat how to do, but I wasn't an expert in. And I didn't want to take the time to hire a marketing director on my staff to do that because I was like, no guys, I just want to make videos. And I guess that's kind of what I was tying back to earlier, to my downfall, so to speak. Speak to your lesser strength. Correct, Correct.

[B]

And that's what I hate. He says down. I hate when he says downfall because it's like you were doing everything in like what your gifts are, like what he's really good at. He was doing all those things. It was just the things that he needed help in. You know, he didn't fill those roles with that because he didn't realize that that's what he needed to do.

[E]

I think I realized it wasn't until

[B]

we sat down at bar and table and we would literally went over, this is what Short Media Group's business model is. This is what Luke's media company's business model model is. Why is it working over here in good ways and not in good ways and same vice versa, you know, that we really sat down. We're like, oh yeah.

[E]

I had two routes. I would either restructure my entire business model, which would have been a whole layer of nightmares, or go into business with this, this young lad that was sitting in front of me.

[C]

I believe his name's Luke.

[E]

His name is Luke. And we did such thing. And it has Been the literal best decision of both of our careers. I'm not going to speak for Luke,

[B]

but it has horrible.

[C]

Do you have it all like written out and agreed upon on. On payroll and profit sharings and you don't need to tell me numbers and pretend it's all that ironed out.

[B]

And so. So I will say that my biggest. We're not in this for making boho money. That's not. We really genuinely want to serve our clients and that is what we're in business.

[E]

We'll make money on this when God wants us to make money on this. Right.

[B]

We're not sitting here like what my next move has to make me me crazy money I needed, you know, so. And, and I'm also not the person like whether what. No matter what our ownership is, I don't want to make whatever that percentage more, you know, on top of it. I want us to be as equal as humanly possible in this business to where we genuinely both have the same care for what we're doing and we know we're both getting the same benefit from it, you know. So when it comes to payroll, when it comes to distributions, all that kind of stuff, you know, I just want us to feel like we're genuinely both heading this company.

[E]

Correct. And I agree with everything he's saying and I really appreciate being transparent enough at the early stages to address that. So we're both our accountants. We have them on a subscription basis, monthly basis. They meet with us, they break it down, our numbers. Amazing folks.

[B]

Fiori Accounting Plug.

[E]

They really push hard for us. We started an LLC when we made this new company, they really pushed for us to become an S Corp. So they ran the numbers, they did everything together. They presented it to us, we told them to run with with it. They ran the paperwork, we signed the sign the lines.

[C]

So are you in an incorporation now that files as an S corp?

[E]

We are. So basically yes. But the biggest thing with that within our non 5050 relationship or partnership, so to speak, we're both on a W2 salary. And yes, due to Luke's agreement, we are equal within that. But our owner's distributions that we do have to take each and every year are by our ownerships. Yes, ownership percentage, that is different.

[C]

So that's a tax burden based business. Profit is different based on percent.

[D]

You all are an LLC that files as an escort. What? Same. Same as Sky Frog. So you get the K1 at the end of the year?

[C]

Yeah. Bastards. That government has me so hard on taxes this year. Oh them bastards.

[D]

Because you just make too much money.

[B]

Yeah, quit making so much money, man.

[C]

The damn accountant said. And because of this K1, I was like, what the hell's a K1? I googled a K1.

[E]

Okay, who.

[C]

Yesterday.

[E]

Yes.

[C]

Like, what is this K1 crash talked about?

[D]

Well, that's your problem, because Jerry didn't buy enough for independent tree service.

[E]

You know what I will say, though?

[C]

The first year, I'm paying the government. The first year I'm paying the government.

[E]

We both just bought a house this year. Well, technically, 2025.

[B]

He had a house I was renting when we were neighbors. When we were neighbors.

[C]

Sounds like Sky Studios just bought two houses.

[D]

Correct.

[E]

We used the same mortgage guy. And that guy was like, hey, let me see your K1s. And we were like, huh?

[D]

You're what?

[C]

My what?

[E]

And he goes, well, that's going to determine how much money you made and yada yada. And that's when we realized that, oh,

[D]

but it's no joke. So as a time. But if you are trying to buy a house, and I think that you and I talked about this, Luke, whenever you. You and Camry were trying to buy a house. If you don't show enough money. Yeah, you're never going to buy a house. You have to show that you have income to the government if you want to borrow money and buy.

[B]

I just saw a Tik Tok the other. The other day, and it was literally like trying to show the government I made $0 this year and trying to show my mortgage.

[E]

I made everything. It's so true.

[B]

It's so true.

[D]

Before I bought my house, it would have been circa 2000. It would have been after Jordan and I lived together 2013, when houses were disposably cheap. Yes. And so I bought my house at an excellent time.

[E]

Time.

[D]

But prior to that, I tried to buy a different house, and I went into Florida Credit Union, and I met with the mortgage lady. She laughed at me when I told her how much money I made. And then she says, you have to make more money. I said, well, sure, I can pay myself as much as I want. I own my own business.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I said, but then I'm not going to have any money for my business. And she said, you're the problem with the scenario. And she's just like, I can finance you for $59,000. And she did. She laughed at me.

[B]

Hey, there's some shacks.

[D]

Because I paid myself, like, 24 grand that year. And it's just like. It's like, oh, I need to restructure what I'm doing with my Life. So the K1. The K1 deal with LLCS is real.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

You got to make sure you're covering your base.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, that's the best part about us having our accountants that we do is because they tell us, like, it's like a 60% salary, 40% owner's draw ratio, you know, and so it protects us, showing the W2 income and then still making, you know, what we need and all that.

[D]

So do you guys have a formal operating agreement between the two of you?

[E]

So that's kind of one of the things that stemmed from that original meeting with the attorney. So she. She instructed us to run away and go do a quick little, you know, sabbatical.

[B]

Just a joke at this point.

[E]

Yeah, it is.

[C]

It's like, go to couples retreat where there's Eden.

[B]

We were supposed. We were tasked with creating an opera,

[E]

like, in April of 2024.

[B]

Yeah, in April 2024, we were tasked with going out.

[E]

What are we.

[B]

And making an official agreement.

[C]

April 2020.

[E]

We're in something 24 months later. Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

So the. I. I think that realistically, I. We did the leg work ahead of time.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

To where it wouldn't have been as big of a deal if we were, like, hopping into it and doing things irresponsibly. Yes.

[E]

Well, if we also didn't know our true, like, characteristics, you know, I would have been like, no, dude, sign this. Sign this piece of paper before we start.

[B]

I mean, it could have been down to the details of if something was to go wrong, you know, where would equipment go? How would things be in a trigger clause? Yeah. All those different.

[E]

The one thing. So I'll say this. We do not have any form of paper agreement right now.

[B]

And for the podcast purposes, we're not saying that's the way you should go.

[E]

Correct.

[B]

I would agree.

[E]

Now, if we get an offer tomorrow, Luke and I are going to sign a piece of paper. That's fine. We both understand and we're both honest with each other. We've also built our lives around each other to where our wives are best friends. Like, we're good friends. Not going to do each other wrong. Now, if you don't have that relationship with your business partner, sign that piece of paper. But also, we do have insurance policies against each other with life insurance policy. The. I forget what the actual term is, but, yeah, we have it, so to speak, that if I were to disappear tomorrow, God forbid, you know, my wife's protected. His wife's protected him and his family's protective. Like we do have that as owners of the company to protect ourselves.

[B]

Yeah, we have plenty of safeguards.

[E]

We do not have the formal, like operating.

[D]

And I've got differing opinions on someone that is. Has been in part of multiple operating agreements with multiple businesses at this point, outside of the one that we can't talk about, which is a completely separate

[C]

agreement called Bruno don't talk.

[D]

We don't talk about Bruno the. So we're not going to talk about Bruno the Ncanto bastard.

[C]

The also, AKA Mongo.

[D]

Yeah, we're not going to talk about Mongo for our longtime listeners.

[C]

But for us to pick up that movie reference.

[E]

I'm. I'm standing quiet.

[C]

So you do know the movie reference. Yeah, I didn't think so. Great movie.

[E]

So do you.

[B]

Hey, it might be one of those ones where I just need to see the picture.

[D]

We'll tell you about it afterwards. So. But for a standard operating agreement, I've had it been. I've had scenarios where it's been beneficial to check the checks and balances of the partnership or the organization. And then also it's been beneficial, but then it's been detrimental.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

It just causes problems. You're. You're creating the problems as you're creating this operating agreement.

[E]

You're creating 100%.

[D]

You're. They're creating the problems before they even happen in Astrid.

[B]

I think that that's a key point to why we haven't done it is because if we really felt the need to do it, we would have done it. But our roles from the day we started working together have changed a little bit, you know, and as they should. As they should as a business owner. And we. We haven't settled and we're still settling into what each person does. Like, there's some things back inside that I do that Justin doesn't does. And there's some things on the creative side that Justin does that I don't do, you know, and it's like things that if we were to have defined it under my role, it's something that I should be doing if he.

[E]

If I were to go to him and be like, I don't know, man. That's not my role because we signed this piece of paper. I don't know. It just creates that.

[B]

So we just help each other. We don't. We don't operate off of. This is what we agreed upon. You know, not saying we don't hold

[E]

each other accountable, but it's there, it's present we trust each other. Other.

[D]

It's like originally, the shop that we have that you've been to. Right. So four of us went into partnership in that piece of property originally.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

We had an operating agreement. It worked out very well that that operating agreement was in place for what happened in the future. So we abided by that operating agreement. Anyway, we had some falling outs of businesses. Businesses together.

[E]

Nice.

[D]

Anyway, so we started getting a little distracted.

[B]

Thank you, sir.

[C]

The.

[D]

That came in very handy at a point in time where I was to acquire.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

The piece of property from the other partners.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

So it was already laid out.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

It was very streamlined. It was very clear on a piece of property. But then I've also been in partnerships where we've laid it out and it's become unnecessary in a clog in the wheel. And I think it developed on a real estate transaction level like that. It was beneficial. But in a partnership where you're laying out how you all are operating, I think it is more important on the level of trust and knowing the person compared to laying it out on paper. And I think sometimes that laying it out on paper will cause more of a conflict than it is.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So.

[B]

And I think that's the biggest point is just we. I mean, if that ends up being the detriment, the thing that destroys our business. It wasn't meant to be. It is. What it is is we still wouldn't have gotten to the point that we're at now if we hadn't done this.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, and you guys. But you guys have kids that are seven months apart, so.

[E]

Yeah, we both.

[B]

Nine months. Nine days apart.

[C]

Nine days apart.

[B]

Nine days apart.

[C]

You guys did go on a couple's retreat.

[B]

No, no, no, no, no, no. So Justin and his wife were friends,

[C]

and one gestation period was just 9. 9 moons.

[B]

The women hung out too much, I guess.

[C]

Well, you know, apparently. So how old are the kids?

[E]

My son Callan just turned seven months.

[C]

Hold on. How do you spell your son's name?

[E]

C A L L A N. That's

[C]

my youngest son's name.

[E]

No way. Really?

[C]

Yes.

[E]

So we. We battled with Callan. C A L A N or E N. We didn't.

[B]

Yes. If I. If I voice the text, it automatically does Ian. And I feel so bad whenever I voice a text.

[C]

My mom.

[E]

My mom does that with Cal.

[C]

So our youngest son, we spelled it C A L L E N in the hospital, and the nurse wrote it on the whiteboard board. Then the nurse comes in and goes, you know what I think It'd look better with an A. And she wrote C A, L, L, A, N. And we're like. We like that better.

[D]

Dude, that's awesome.

[C]

And we changed the name, like, before you have to, like, sign the papers.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

And we changed it C, A, L, L. Really?

[B]

They're like brothers now.

[E]

Well, that's the. I mean, that's the first time that I've. I've come across someone that actually had that name because.

[C]

Does he have a mullet?

[E]

No, not yet. Oh, dude. Wait. Is that, like, dirty blonde hair?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Blondish hair? Yeah.

[B]

Dude, are they twins?

[E]

All right. Yeah, kind of. Let me show you.

[B]

Okay.

[E]

Okay.

[C]

And you're the father.

[E]

Dude, that's awesome. That's wild.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

There you go. Let me see if. I'll show you.

[B]

I wish this was a video podcast. It would. It would.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[E]

His hair is very similar, just like me right now.

[C]

All right, what's his middle name?

[E]

Mikayla.

[B]

Are you listening to this episode right now? My wife.

[E]

His middle name is actually Stanley.

[C]

Okay.

[E]

Stanley is my wife's grandpa's name.

[C]

Yeah. So we're Callen. Miles.

[E]

Okay.

[C]

Yeah. Callan. Miles up.

[D]

Cabbage.

[E]

Super cool. Love it.

[C]

And you have Easton. Easton.

[B]

Yep. My grandpa's. Well, my great grandpa's name was Eston. My grandpa's middle name was East Aston as well. And we wanted to change it up a little bit because we named our dog Clyde, which was my grandpa's name.

[E]

No.

[B]

So we didn't want to go the exact same route, and we really liked it, so we went with Easton instead of Nice. We just kind of stuck with family names.

[C]

So two boys.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

His middle name's Luke, though, because we were going to name him Luke Easton Lauer if he looked a lot more like me, but he came out 6.14 ounces. And then three days later, because he was a C section baby, he was 5 pounds flat, super small. And I was like, yeah, it's not a lower boy if he's that small. So he's not loose.

[E]

The lowers are tall.

[B]

I have my. My younger. My oldest brother's six foot six. My second oldest brother, I'm one of five. My second oldest brother is six two. I'm six three. And then my younger brother's six foot seven.

[C]

So my Mennonite comment earlier. Are you guys Mennonites?

[B]

Pretty much, right?

[C]

Really?

[B]

No, not actually. No. Okay.

[C]

You don't have the beards.

[B]

I'm usually not actually.

[C]

I can read room.

[E]

And we.

[C]

We're not like.

[D]

But Easton's made up for that.

[B]

Now Easton has made up for now he's 20, 22 pounds and he's at six months, three weeks now. And he is a little chunk.

[E]

Yeah, he's a big boy.

[B]

He is. He is chubby as all gets and he is strong. So I'm not worried he's going to catch up. So we might change his name to Luke later.

[C]

Yeah. And you know what? If he grows to be a five, nine and three quarter respectable American, that's just okay, right? He can still wear cowboy boots and drive an F250. All right. It's still all right.

[B]

That's too good.

[E]

I love it.

[B]

Make up for the difference.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you just drive a 150 because you're not compensating.

[B]

I got a Ram 1500.

[E]

Yeah, man.

[C]

It doesn't need to.

[B]

Justin has the 150. He's compensating.

[E]

Don't out me.

[C]

Well, Jason, it's an XL350.

[D]

Yeah, I'm making up.

[B]

What do you got to make up for, Jason?

[D]

I don't know.

[C]

Mercy. All right, what do we do from here?

[B]

I think. I think that covered kind of. Yeah. So we moved into our space, we renovated it and it's been two years this month of like literally within 10 days. Two years. Yeah. April 20th.

[C]

I think you guys have a beautiful home. You got under bar lights, you got fancy lighting, a reverberation wall, TVs and paint and I mean it's beautiful. Your bathroom.

[B]

Check out sky.com if you want to see what our actual studio looks like.

[C]

You know, how about this? If. If I am a tree business in Tampa, if I am a landscape business,

[E]

we have an office in Tampa, by the way.

[B]

Virtual office.

[E]

There is a physical address.

[B]

It's a physical address.

[E]

It's a co working space.

[B]

It's a co working space.

[E]

Sorry, continue.

[B]

So if you Google, if you Google not Apple Maps, that's a lot of

[C]

Gen Z words you're throwing at co parent.

[B]

If you googled Sky Palm Studios in Tampa, you would see a location near and dear to you. What I want to know, not Apple Maps.

[C]

If there's a business that has video dronage marketing social needs. How do we get in touch with the two studs, Luke and Justin?

[E]

Oh, thank you so much. I would say all businesses have a need even if they know it or not because that's the biggest, you know, thing with businesses is they don't necessarily know what they need on the marketing side. And every single business needs to push their name out there.

[C]

There.

[E]

Brand awareness is one of those things that's always there.

[D]

We're, we're gonna. Next time Jordan comes to Gainesville and we record in this room, we will need to have a second episode because we haven't. We've only touched on your entrepreneurial journey.

[E]

Let's talk more in the weeds on the next one.

[D]

In business, we need to get 100% in the weeds on marketing. What you all do for businesses, how it benefits business.

[B]

We just covered here for. We've been here for a long time. That's where we haven't even touched that.

[E]

That's where my passion comes in.

[B]

That's why I told you we need. We need to make sure we have a direction of what we're going over here. You need to touch on something.

[D]

Now we've covered for what I expected out of this episode. I wanted to touch on everything and learn more about you guys from after serving and working with you. And I think I, I have. And I'm very proud of you for what you've explained and how you came to this partnership. It makes me feel better that you guys might not implode. You know, as, as your client, we

[B]

put a lot of fail safes.

[E]

Hey, we made you sign a service agreement, though. That's true.

[C]

How do we get in touch with SkyPalm?

[E]

Yes, you could either head to our website, SkyPalmStudios.com, you could fill out a form submission. Our emails are on there. You can call the office. 352-359-0555. Chances are either myself or Luke will answer or no one. Or go. Yeah. Or no one. Leave a voicemail, please. If we don't answer, we're busy. You could also go to our social media, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Sky, Palm Studios and just leave a comment or send us a message and we'll reach out.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Sweet. All right, well, boys, let's go pee. Let's go get some tacos, and then let's record round two in 45 minutes.

[B]

Hey, Las Pasaritas is a really good restaurant right over there.

[C]

Well, Luke and Justin, thank you so much for letting us squat in your beautiful recording studio with the reverberation wall to the south and letting us in a little strip to the north. I appreciate, appreciate that and letting us do what we need to do and thank you for your time today and recording with us. And you are two beautiful bunny flies blossoming in a venture of partnership. And it's fun to hear the story and I wish you guys the most success.

[E]

Thank you sir.

[D]

And thank you guys for everything you do for Sky Frog Landscape. And if you want to see success, Skyfong's work, follow us at Skyfrog Landscape on all the social media channels.

[C]

Also, barefoot Banditos.

[B]

Barefoot Banditos. It'll be out there.

[D]

Event James did James did show you a sneak peek.

[E]

James, our editor of our gator hunting

[D]

videos for barefoot Banditos.

[C]

They're pretty sick.

[D]

That is headshot, headshot, head shot.

[C]

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

[B]

All three cameras.

[E]

Pretty cool. Stay tuned.

[D]

I like it. Stay tuned.

[E]

Cool. Thanks guys.

[C]

Out.

[A]

As you continue your journey toward entrepreneurial success, let Jason and Jordan be your trusted companions on this uphill climb. Don't miss 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.

[E]

Sam.