Ep 128. Can You Really Take a Vacation When You Own the Business?

Summary

Green Side Up – Ep 128: Can You Really Take a Vacation When You Own the Business?

Date: June 11, 2026
Hosts: Jason Lee & Jordan Upcavage

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Overview:

In this “vacation edition” episode, Jason and Jordan dig into what it truly means to take time off as the owner of a landscaping or tree care business. Through raw anecdotes from their current vacations, they explore the joys, obstacles, and necessary mindset adjustments for actually stepping away from work. The episode delivers a mix of practical wisdom, laugh-out-loud stories, and real talk about balancing entrepreneurship and personal time.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Life on Vacation—What Does a Break Really Look Like?

• Both hosts are taking family vacations while recording: Jason is in the smokey mountains near Pigeon Forge, TN, doing “mountainy things” (Dollywood, caves, baked beans factory), and Jordan is in Florida’s beach panhandle, fishing and crabbing with a big extended family.
• Vacation Logistics:
  • Jordan wrangles kids for late-night crabbing expeditions and early-morning fishing, recounting, “We got nine blue crab and one flounder last night.” (02:22)
  • Jason explores Dollywood, caves, and even the Bush’s Baked Beans factory, marveling at the scale: “They purchase 25% of the country’s bean production... they process a thousand cans a minute.” (07:11, 09:20)

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2. Comparing Note-Taking on Business and Working While Away

• The Myth of Fully Unplugging:
  • Both hosts admit to working while on vacation: “Even though you’re on vacation, you still have to work a little bit. It’s a working vacation. That’s it.” (46:14)
  • Jordan describes a 15-hour fishing/crabbing day, then running back to field business calls at night, illustrating that a clean break is rare.
• Memorable Quote:
  • “As a business owner… you can never clock out. Never can you clock out your brain… It’s constant, but it can be rewarding and fun... call it a working vacation.” – Jordan (47:12)

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3. Looking Back—How the Business Has Evolved to Allow for Vacation

• Recounting Past Struggles:
  • Jason contrasts now with a few years ago when time off meant chaos:

    “I remember leaving on late Thursday night… came back to an ultimate shitshow. But now, current day, things are going pretty good. I’ve gotten a couple of reports—we did break a really expensive window in somebody’s house. But that’s just what happens.” (24:22)

• What Changed?
  • “The people... General morale, general culture, people we were hiring—just getting rid of Mongo was probably the biggest thing… We had guys that weren’t a good fit.” (25:42)
  • They've moved from “hiring fast, firing slow” to “hire slow, fire fast.”
• Staff Turnover:
  • Jason’s long-term office manager just put in notice; he’s cautious about replacing such a key role quickly: “I’m not going to rush into hiring that position because it’s very important.” (28:00)

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4. How Becoming a Better Manager Enables Time Off

• Planning, Delegation, and Culture:
  • They're finding ways to keep things moving without being physically present, but both admit there’s still some anxiety.
  • “You need that second in command, somebody to handle the… car crash, right? But all that other stuff, just get it when you come back… If it’s not there, it wasn’t that important.” (48:07)
• Letting Go Is a Journey:
  • Jason shares:

    “I just have to overcome… emotional damage, scars of leaving and bad things happening. I need to go away more and have less bad things happen so I can overcome that personally. That’s a me problem.” (48:55)

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5. The Perks (and Realities) of Family Vacation as an Entrepreneur

• Camaraderie, Kid Adventures & Lightheartedness:
  • Jordan delights in stories of kids conquering tasks, from fishing to selling raffle tickets at Treece Florida (“Thank you for supporting our future!” (33:35)), injecting levity and a reminder of life outside work.
• Keeping Up with Work from Afar:
  • Business emergencies and random tasks (like troubleshooting a jobsite or running payroll for the first time in a decade) still pop up, but the tone is light and pragmatic.

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6. The Advice from Older Business Owners—Just Unplug (If You Dare)

• Quotes to Remember:
  • “Just turn your damn phone off. It’ll be fine… If it’s not there when you get back, it wasn’t that important.” (48:07)
• But Experience Says It’s Not That Easy:
  • Both hosts agree: it takes practice—and a willingness to let go of control—to ease out of constant oversight.

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Notable moments & Quotes (with Timestamps)

• “We got nine blue crab and one flounder last night.” – Jordan (02:22)
• “They purchase 25% of the country’s bean production… process a thousand cans a minute.” – Jason, on Bush’s Baked Beans (07:11, 09:20)
• “You can never clock out… It’s constant, but it can be rewarding and fun… call it a working vacation.” – Jordan (47:12)
• “If you don’t want to work in our business, I don’t want you to be here… from top to bottom… We’re hire slow, fire fast now.” – Jason (25:42)
• “The relief in his voice when we told him we were going to part ways…” – Ben, on letting an employee go (27:19)
• “My brain thinks differently when I don’t have so many things in the day to day—so I can actually do some strategic thinking and planning.” – Jason (49:49)
• “Just turn your damn phone off. It’ll be fine… If it’s not there, it wasn’t that important.” – Recurring wisdom from seasoned business owners (48:07)
• “I had Sawyer and Axley on stage… I had the kids say thank you for supporting our future.” – Jordan, at Treece Florida (33:35)

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Important Timestamps

• [01:20–03:35] Vacation stories: crabbing, flounder gigging, Gulf adventures
• [03:39–07:02] Jason’s Tennessee vacation: Dollywood, caves, Bush’s Baked Beans tour
• [23:23–29:38] State of the business; lessons from taking (or failing to take) prior vacations
• [33:01–39:40] Treece Florida, kids working raffles, industry community stories
• [46:14–49:15] The reality of working vacations and the challenge of unplugging
• [48:07–49:13] On letting go and what it actually takes to step away
• [51:24–52:19] Dollywood, family, and a nod to bringing joy to spouses

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Wrap-Up

The episode wraps in classic Green Side Up style: good-natured banter, a couple of silly tangents (boat diagnostics by AI, family celebrations with custom t-shirts), and a reaffirmation that for owners in the green industry, vacations are possible—but require intentionality, a strong team, and a willingness to change personal habits.

Key Takeaway:
Taking a real vacation as a business owner is not only possible but essential—however, it requires preparation, trust, and letting go. “Just gotta practice.” (49:13)

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For Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In:

You’ll come away with practical tips, a refreshing dose of honesty, and plenty of laughs about the wild ride that is trying to work less and live more—without letting your business go to seed.

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 hosts, Jason Lee and Jordan Upkevage.

[B]

Are my eyes bloodshot?

[A]

A little bit.

[B]

Damn it, I'm tired. Jason,

[A]

good morning.

[B]

Welcome to the Green side Up podcast.

[A]

Welcome to the Green side Up podcast. Vacation edition.

[B]

Yeah, man, I'm only an hour and a half late. It's not that bad.

[A]

You're only 30. You're only 30 minutes late. We're good.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah. It's 8:36 Eastern Time. Oh, yeah.

[B]

See, Jason, I initially got up 90 minutes ago at 6 o' clock my time. So I'm an hour before you.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

I set my alarms for like 5:45, 5:55, all the panic alarms because I thought I had to be on at six my time. But that would have been five. Your time would have been seven my time. Whatever. I attempted to get up and then I failed and my body shut down because I didn't go to bed till four.

[A]

So

[B]

because I was. I was up, I was harvesting, I was succeeding. I was leading children through the waters of Gulf of America crabbing and flounder gigging.

[A]

Last night, how did you do last night?

[B]

We succeeded. We. We got nine blue crab and one flounder last night.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

But we, we went on the Gulf side, right on the beach. Beach. And we got beat by some waves, but we succeeded. But the night before that or two nights before that, it was the night before that, Sunday night, we. We slammed them in the bay, which was really fun. We hammered them.

[A]

Would you get like six or seven flounder?

[B]

We got seven flounder. I hear an echo. Do you hear an echo?

[A]

I don't hear an echo.

[B]

All right, cool. We got seven flounder and 20 blue crab, but we had two 12 year olds with us and we let them get a lot of the crabs. So we probably missed another 35 crabs. But yeah, we harvested 20. 20 crabs and seven flounder. It was success.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

You're in a dark room.

[A]

I'm in a dark room. I'm in a condo at Club Windham in Sever. Anyway, somewhere near Pigeon Forge. We Were in Tennessee. So we were up in the mountains doing mountainy things.

[B]

What's a mountainy thing?

[A]

Mountainy things? Well, Pigeon Forge in Gatlinburg. It's very much like international drive meets the mountains, it seems like. So I drive meets the mountains. So then you try to stay away from. We being generally trying not to do too touristy of things. Anyway, now we try to avoid the idrive portion, but we went to Dollywood, and we're going back to Dollywood today. Got two day passes, so it was

[B]

good enough to go back.

[A]

Yeah. And whatever tickets we got were two days. And I mean, coming from the guy that doesn't ride amusement park rides. Dollywood has a massive amount of amusement park rides and roller coasters and stuff like that, so. But it's nice going to a theme park where there's mountains and trees and shade and cloud cover. Because we're in the smoky Mountains. It's much better than getting.

[B]

Well, tell me more about Dollywood.

[A]

Sure. Well, obviously, given the name, it's a Dolly Parton's theme park here in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. And it's full of country music history and country music and amusement park rides. And you can dip candles and forge knives and

[B]

really, you can, like, heat up metal and beat it with a hammer.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So is it, like. All right, I know Disney World.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I know. Busch Gardens. Is it like Busch gardens?

[A]

It would be. It would be like Busch Gardens, but country music themed.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Yeah. With shade or trees.

[B]

Shade and roller coasters.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

All right, that's cool.

[A]

So we're going back to the house we went to. And I don't know if. I don't think I've ever been in a cave until yesterday. We went to forbidden caverns, which isn't Too far, about 20 minutes from where we're staying. Went and did a cave tour that was really cool.

[B]

Stalagmites and stalactites.

[A]

We did a little underground river action. It was. It's pretty neat.

[B]

That's cool, man. The boy.

[A]

And yeah, Wilder had a. Wilder had a blast. Yeah, he had a blast in the caves. And then we. We were five minutes away from the Bush's baked bean factory. So we went to the Bush's baked bean factory, which I guess is.

[B]

Anyway, all right, hold on. You go a bush's. You baked bean factory.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

What do you go on a tour and they give you little samples, and then you meet the dog that talks to the guy in the commercials?

[A]

I wish we met the dog. I was hoping that we'd like get to see a tour of the actual factory, but they've got a kind of museum set up. Yeah. A tour area. Walking. Walking you through the history of Bush's baked beans. You start off with some samples.

[B]

So nothing like baked beans in the morning at 10:30.

[A]

So they have 120 different types of beans that they make and can and. Holy crap. And after seeing. Anyway, after watching the videos and walking around the museum, the operation that they have is they purchase 25% of the country's bean production. Holy. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

So what kind of bean is a baked bean?

[A]

There's. That was one of my initial questions yesterday. It's because I had no idea what type of bean is a baked bean, but apparently they use, I think, 10 different types of beans. Navy beans. Navy beans. Yes. So multiple different types of beans, I believe. Depends on what baked bean you get. But I think navy bean is a big one.

[B]

Is navy bean normally white?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So why are baked beans brown?

[A]

That is from the liquid Jordan. After you rehydrate the bean and you blanch the bean, that makes it in a very receptive manner for the coloring of the sauce. So it comes in with the secret recipe that the dog. The dog never got to tell us. Duke. So dog's name Duke.

[B]

So was. It sounds like my questions were similar to your questions then.

[A]

We probably had. We would have had. The way our brains work. We would have had the exact same questions. It's like, well, I want to know

[B]

how bean is it?

[A]

I want to know how. I know. I want. I want to know how you make the beans. I want to know how you get the beans from the truck into whatever you're doing. And then what type of bean is it? So, I mean, and they're. When they make the sauce, they've got one ton totes of tomato paste that they bring in. So, like, they're bringing tomato paste in and 1 ton totes and putting it. And putting it.

[B]

Are they using Dixie crystals?

[A]

No, they use. They make their own brown sugar. So they bring in truckloads of molasses and granular pure cane sugar. And so I guess they're combining that to make their brown sugar. And so they. They bring that in by the truckload. Everything's by the truckload and everything's automated. And it's. They process a thousand cans a minute.

[B]

Holy. Yep.

[A]

Through there. And I don't know if that's all the way through every production, but the. Definitely through the labeling, I believe it was the filling, too. It's like a thousand Cans a minute.

[B]

Damn, that's cool.

[A]

And then they pressure cook them in a nine story tall pressure cooker. And so they put the beans. They put the bean in the can. They put the beans in the can, then they put the sauce and then they put the top on and then they send them through. It looks like a roller coaster ride on an assembly line. So they're shipping them through and it rotates the can like probably two or three turns, it looked like. So they're just mixing the sauce and the beans in the can and then it ships it up to the pressure cooker and they go up, go up nine stories and down nine stories with heat and then get a label shipped on them and then some. Forklift ninja. Now I've. I worked at the fertilizer plant when, I don't know, I think I was 17 when I started. 17 through junior college before I moved to Gainesville. And so we would stack things with the forklift in the fertilizer plant. Mainly fertilizer and. Or horse feed. And I just know from experience when you start stacking pallets above three high and then at four high, things get a little sketchy. Of course, our pal.

[B]

Little wiggly.

[A]

A little wiggly. And our pallets, even though they were very heavy, you know, weren't exactly even. But then the clip on the video that I was watching, they were at least five high. Five high with their stacks of cans. So I would say that their forklift drivers are very skilled.

[B]

Now the cans.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Are made out of what? Metal?

[A]

I don't know. It's recyclable. I know that.

[B]

Is it alum? It's not. You know how you call it a tin can?

[A]

Correct.

[B]

It's probably not tin.

[A]

Probably not. Is it a.

[B]

Is it aluminum?

[A]

I don't think it's aluminum. It might be. I did not ask that question

[B]

or

[A]

I did not have that question in my head. But I know the canning, the can making factory is not too far away, which makes sense.

[B]

Yeah. Maybe a long conveyor belt. So you're in Tennessee.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And you got to Tennessee by driving. Sorry, man. Oh, well, I don't know why I'm yawning so bad. I got four and a half hours of sleep. I shouldn't be yawning so bad, but I did get up and went back to bed 90 minutes ago. So you're in Tennessee, In Pigeon Forge on a family vacation. Correct.

[A]

We left. We left last week. We left the day, two days after. I was at trees. Florida. We left Thursday. I came back from Florida On Wednesday. And then. Yeah, so I came. We left on Thursday afternoon slash evening. Drove to Macon, stayed in Macon, and then drove to Tennessee after that.

[B]

Well, that's cool. I am in the panhandle. I am in. I'm at our annual family beach vacation in a part of town called Seagrove. So you have like, from east to west, you have Panama City, then you have Sea Grove, Seaside, Grayton Beach, Destin. And we are at Sea Grove. So between Panama City and Destin and I. Hold on. Do I. There's construction happening next door. And I wasn't sure if I was hearing construction or if I was hearing a fighter jet. But there is Eglin Air Force Base not too far away. And so there's like F35, F22s, F16s, the Wright brothers. Everyone is flying around, which is pretty cool because you'll just hear like,

[A]

above

[B]

you, and there's some jet that you never see, like way up there. So we're at the beach, man, and we got here on Saturday and we've been playing and hanging out. We went nighttime crabbing on Sunday evening and we slammed them. We had a lot of fun. We went walking around and like, knee deep to waist deep water and with underwater lights. We had two 12 year olds with us. We had my buddy's kid and then my cousin's son and Duncan was. Came with us. He was in a canoe.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

And that is a huge help if there is somebody in a canoe with you because then they can carry your cooler and all this stuff and you don't have to have everything on your back. But walking around with backpacks on and a motorcycle battery with alligator clips on it with an underwater light, walking around looking. And we had a time, man. We. We had a great time on Sunday, and then we played at the beach on Monday and Tuesday was yesterday. And we went out fishing with Duncan. So Duncan lives, I don't know, 25 minutes from this house that we're at here in the beach. And I was talking to him. He goes, man, I haven't had a day off in like six months. Screw this. Let's go fishing. Meet me at the boat ramp Tuesday morning. I was like, hell, yeah. So he said, I have the boat in the water between 5:15 and 5:30. Was like, sick. Said Duncan, all you need to bring is a boat. I'll bring everything else. Bring all the rods. I'll bring all the bait. I'll bring all the food. I'll bring all the beer. I'll bring her all the ice, all of it. So we get loaded up Monday night, everything in the car. We get up at 4 o' clock in the morning. We leave the house here Yesterday morning at 430. And it's me, Shelty, in Austin. So three amigos heading out. Everyone gets up on time, and we had to tom thumb. We get a bunch of ice and we meet at the boat ramp. And Duncan this. We get to the boat ramp at 5:14, and Duncan already has the boat in the water idling. He's all his shit's out of his truck. He's at the helm idling at the boat ramp. I was like, good lord, man. So we get on and load up, and we're in a 215 Wellcraft. So 21 foot 5 Wellcraft with a 225 on it. That thing is. That thing is power. And we go out, man, and we get a bunch of men hating with the cast net. So you head out and you look for like these little bait balls or more or less, and you throw a cast net on them. So we loaded up with those and we head out. And it is american red snapper season right now. American red snapper. And you can get two per person. And there's five of us on this boat, so we can get 10 red snapper. And do you think we caught red snapper, Jason?

[A]

Yes, we did.

[B]

We did catch red snapper, but not one of them were keepers. Oh, nope. They got to be 16 inches. And we caught a bunch of 15 inch red snapper. Now, we didn't go out stupid deep. We're in like 80, 75 to 98ft of water is what we were in. And we caught American red snapper and we released them. We caught some big amberjack. That was a lot of fun. So we caught amberjack on the bottom. We caught amberjack in the column. I caught amberjack on a slow pitch rod. I threw a flat line out with a live men. Hayden on a bobber and caught amberjack on that. But your boy here, Jordy,

[A]

put the

[B]

first fish in the box, which was a big mangrove snapper. So big mango. I didn't measure him, but he was like that. He was probably 18 inches. Yeah, that's a conservative guess. That's an accurate conservative guess. So caught a big mango, Caught another big mango and then caught a lane snapper. That's like yellow and striped and delicious eating. Caught one of them and just had a time, man. I brought blue crab on the boat. We ate blue crab at the sandbar on the boat on the way in. And got back to here, the house about 7:30pm so it was 4:30 to 7:30 yesterday. And then Jason, we didn't have our film. We didn't have our film. So it was about 9:30 last night. I'm looking around, there's kids everywhere. There's all the cousins have kids. There's just a pile of kids in this house. I go, kids, you want to go crabbing? And they go, yeah. So I was like, put your bathing suits on, let's go. So we walk out. We went crabbing again last night, but we went on, on the Gulf here and manic. I got beat up by the waves. We had. It was dandy, man. It was a dandy beautiful.

[A]

When do you guys get back?

[B]

We come back actually a day early. Normally we'd come back Saturday, but we come back on Friday because Johnny the plumber turned 40.

[A]

Oh yeah, Johnny.

[B]

Johnny the Plumber is having a birthday party.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

And Johnny the Plumber has rented a full size Greyhound party bus. Pick everybody up. And Johnny the Plumber picked a country bar on South Tampa, just south of Kennedy. I forget the name of it, it escapes me right now. And Johnny the Plumber wants to ride a bull for his 40th birthday. But I think Samantha said, no, you can ride a mechanical bull. So we're going to a country bar, the whole neighborhood and a Greyhound sized party bus and we're going to go clown around Saturday night for Johnny's birthday, Johnny's birthday party. And Sydney said, you know what, we should make custom shirts, kind of like bachelor party tank tops. And so she said, send me any funny pictures you have of Furlong. So I was going through my phone looking for every picture of Furlong I have with silly faces and doing stupid gestures and what have you. And she found a bunch of them. So we have custom shirts with Johnny's face or body doing whatever Johnny does. And I have a really queer one of them sitting in his golf cart and homemade Daisy Duke cutoffs making some kind of a queer looking face. And that is what is on my chest. And it's a tank top. So I have a tank top. Miles has a tank top. Sydney has a T shirt. Amy has a T shirt. Christie has a T shirt. Cousin Kelly has a T shirt. All different photographs on the chest. And that is what we're going to be wearing on Saturday.

[A]

That sounds like. That sounds like a entertaining night.

[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

R O.com so how's how's Sky Frog landscape holding together with the sheriff out of town?

[A]

Pretty good, man. I was reflecting yesterday. I hit the point of it takes me if we're gone for nine days, it takes me three days to forget what day it is. And then I have three days where my brain is kind of open and free. And then generally before I go back, my brain starts thinking of all the things to do. But I was reflecting on the massive improvements we've made in our business since the timeframe, for example, would be when we were in Siesta Key. We were in Siesta Key Memorial Day, memorial day of 2021, I believe. I think it was the year of the fire and what catastrophic scenario I was in and not really able to take vacation at that point in time. I think you had rented an Airbnb for a week. Yes. And you went and rented it for a week. And I remember Fallon saying, well, we're going for a week. It's like, there's no way I can leave this business for a week. So she's like, well, I'm taking the kid and going down and hanging out with Jordan and Sydney without you, and you can show up if you want to. So she's like, well, and she did. So she went out and went down with you guys and hung out for a couple days. And I think it was like Tuesday to Tuesday. Like I made it down late Thursday night, like got up the courage enough to skip out of work on Friday. And I remember we had so much stuff going on and things were not good with morale and culture and Mongo was waving his wand of toxicity amongst our employees at that point in time of Sky Frog's history. So I remember leaving on late Thursday night came down and then I think we left. I think we left Monday. Maybe you guys stayed till Tuesday. So. But I was gone for like a day and a half and like the world fell apart. It was just a catastrophic thing after another. Just came back to an ultimate shit show. But now current day, and I think things are going pretty good. I think I've gotten a couple of reports we did break a really expensive window in somebody's house. But that's just what.

[B]

What changed between shitshow and everything's hunky dory. The people, other than five years, the

[A]

people, just the general morale, general culture, people that we were hiring. The people that we had running certain positions and sitting in certain seats, that's the biggest thing. Getting rid of Mongo was probably the biggest thing. So that was probably the biggest thing with our culture. And at that point in time, we were still. I mean, we were just trying to hire anybody we could to get the work done. So we had guys that weren't a good fit for our business. You know, not. Not firing fast, hiring fast, and firing slow was the point that we were in. And so now that's flipped 180 degrees. So we're trying to hire, hire slower and fire as fast as it can be. And I just live by the motto of, like, if you genuine, genuinely, if you don't want to work in our business, then I don't want you to be here. Like, whether that's from top to bottom, it I think that it's just a great principle to go by. If you don't want to be out, then I don't want you here. Like, there's not. There's nothing fancy to that. It's just genuine. So, I mean, we've gotten rid of a couple of guys, like field guys, the past week or two. Just like, man, you're just not. You're not the right fit and there's nothing wrong, like, personality wise. Well, one of them was kind of a personality issue, and the other was just, man, I don't think you're cut out to work outside. Like, you know, it's no offense. And we let one kid go, and, I mean, he's probably 18 and was not meant to be outside. And Ben said the relief, the relief in his voice when he told him that we were going to part ways,

[B]

he was happy about it.

[A]

He was actually really happy. So Ben said he sounded. He sounded relieved and he Said he was going to go, maybe go back to school and definitely find a job indoors. So I was like perfect. But the kid was still coming to work every day. It's like obviously he was not enjoying what he was doing, but yet still coming every day, I guess to collect the paycheck.

[B]

But that's commendable.

[A]

Yeah, but at some point. So I don't know. So the things that have changed, I think it's d. All the above. We fixed many different things to get it to a point where help my office manager of almost five years put her two weeks notice in a week and a half ago. So that's going on right now. So that's, that's have me a little nervous. But I.

[B]

So is. Is Jen's last day this Friday?

[A]

Yes. So we. And then I was gone most of last week. So. But I don't know, we're making a plan and getting things in order and I'm not going to rush into hiring that position because it's a very important position.

[B]

So who's going to take the phone?

[A]

Well, we have Lindsay in the office, so I mean, so we, we have another person. So Lindsay's going to be answering the phone. That's.

[B]

How long has Lindsay been there?

[A]

Two months, three months.

[B]

Okay. Yeah. She knows single ops?

[A]

Yes. Yep.

[B]

She.

[A]

And she already. She used single ops at her previous company. So. So yeah, but she knows where it.

[B]

The other company that is the main computer. The main competitor.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

That one. Yeah.

[A]

The one that we're just swapping. Swapping employees with at this point.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's where.

[B]

Not Ben, but the Rainmaker. Rain Man. Rain man came from there. Tammy left you and went there.

[A]

Correct?

[B]

Yeah. And then you pulled Lindsay from them to you.

[A]

She had already. Well, she had already left. So she'd already left their business.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

But yeah, so. But no, she's very familiar with single ops, so scheduling shouldn't be an issue. Handling the phone, you know, I'm going to step back in and do more of the day to day and accounts payable and receivables and I functionally ran payroll yesterday. I haven't submitted payroll in over a decade probably. So I push the buttons. It's not that bad.

[B]

It's not that big of a deal. Yeah, no, I got, I got to do payroll today. Payroll day Wednesday.

[A]

But no, but it's pretty nice. And how we're doing? I don't know. Ben's doing lots of stuff at the shop. We're getting some. Collected a few of the Lego blocks for building bins and now we're getting a couple of loads to truckloads on Friday. So we're using our. We're going to do mulch command and then we're going to have one smaller bin where I'm just going to put all of our. We've got little. Whatever. It's a constant thing where we're trying to clean up our yard, but we've got little hoarder piles of rock. Like I've got a lot of the 1 ton white super sack bags that we're putting extra rock from jobs in. But then still the guys, you know, they've done a halfway decent job and of putting the extras in. But then it should be every job we put the extras in until we have a full bag and then we use the said bag. But they'll dump little quarter piles of a half or quarter yard of rock like all over the place. And so now when we have those little hoarder piles of rock, it's all going to go into one bin and that's going to be our trash rock and we'll use that as sub base on paper jobs. So.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then I think that's a great solution to having a cleaner yard and you know, and if it's extra, it's already been paid for on the job. So. Yeah, then we're saving.

[B]

You're not wasting it.

[A]

We're saving 50, 60 bucks a yard on rock. You know, having rock below our concrete fines is, is a.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah. Is it? Okay, so. But they're taking the pavers from our boneyard and laying them underneath where these bins are going to go. So we're gonna have pavers underneath our bins to keep the command and pine bark out of the lime rock.

[B]

The lime rock ground.

[A]

Yes. Yeah. So our, at our shop, at our shop, it's a mix of lime rock and rock and a little bit of dirt and whatever kind of historical tow yard things. It used to be a tow yard before it moved in. So it's. Yeah. Just trying to keep that stuff clean.

[B]

Yeah. Oh man. Well, that's cool. I'm trying to think. Did. Did we talk about something on one of our last one. On ones that we need to recap. I know I talked about this six figure bid in Orlando with a Cinnabogen.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

With the fancy machine on the road and it is a bust. My client said, I found somebody cheaper than your number. Jordan, I know I don't need you. I said, okay, Dave, no problem. But nonetheless, it was refreshing to know that he did call me when he was in a pinch and know that he needed an answer and it was the right answer that he could call Jordan. And I got him a number that was pretty damn accurate. But I think he found somebody else to do the job for him. So that's an update. That job is a bust. But nonetheless, it was an exercise and it's good for the brain, to keep the brain moving. Is there any other updates that we need to give? Yuck.

[A]

No. I mean, this can just be. This be our vacation episode, you know?

[B]

All right. I don't know. Well, tell me.

[A]

Well, I think the theme. The theme used to be what we were just talking about of like, are you able to take vacation? Like, to the point that we have a theme. I didn't know. Well, all we've been doing is the first 20 minutes. All we've been. I. I guess, I mean, we're making it up as we go. We talked about vacation, what we're doing for 20 minutes.

[B]

I'm sorry, man. I put a cocktail down just like 10 minutes ago. So it seems I'm making this up

[A]

as we go, buddy. Yeah, but I think it's a good theme if we want to wrap out the next 10 or 15 minutes. I mean, having just having the ability to go on vacation.

[B]

Well, speak of vacation, we went to. I went to Treece, Florida, as you know, as you came. And Treece, Florida is the Florida chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture. And that is our annual trade show conference seminar deal. And it travels around from the Tampa, St. Pete Clearwater area down to Cape Coral, Fort Myers area, Southwest Florida, down to Fort Lauderdale and then St. Augustine ish area is where it travels around. And this past year, which was a week ago today, is when it ended, was in Clearwater, which is right next door to my house. And I went up there on Sunday to help stuff all the bags for registration come Monday morning. And then the board members have, like a little dinner gathering on Sunday after the stuffing party, as we call it. And we did a little pizza and chicken wings at the beach, and I brought Sawyer and Axley with me. So it was me and the two kids, and Sydney and Callan were going to link up on Monday evening. So it was just so fun hanging around with the kids, walking around the hotel, going to the beach, the pool, having to meet everybody. Callan and Sydney ended up coming on Tuesday in lieu of Monday because Callan had a little fever and got sick. But so they came in on Tuesday and it was so much Fun watching these kids do the raffle tickets. So they were selling raffle tickets for what's called Canopy Call. And the. The raffle is gift baskets. Call them baskets, gift prizes. Gift packages is a better word. Gift packages put together by our exhibitors. And they were good packages. It wasn't like a fruit basket. It was like a $250 value minimum is what the royal we were shooting for. And so I think we had 12 gift packages to raffle off. And we were selling raffle tickets. You can get 35 tickets for 20 bucks. And we're having the kids sell raffle tickets. And we're all wearing matching yellow T shirts. And I found a helium tank and a bunch of balloons, and I found some ribbon. And so I blew up a bunch of helium balloons and I tied them around the kids waists. And so each kid had a balloon, you know, four feet above their head, walking around the trade show floor selling tickets. And the money goes to what's called Arbor Next. Now, Allie Summersl she's a past president. Ali Summersl and Sarah came up with arbornext. And that program is designed to teach the next generation about arbor culture. What the idea is to build arborists, build tomorrow's arborists, teach the youth about trees, arboriculture, tree climbing, inventory consulting, the growing. The whole, well rounded orb of arboriculture is what we're trying to grow. We're trying to grow our retirements, you know, keep our industry alive. So the money that we make from the canopy, called raffle tickets, goes to the arbornext program to buy ropes and harnesses and fund this arbornext program. And these kids were beating the brakes off of these people walking up to them, ask if they wanted to support Arbor Next, and they would get money, hand them the raffle tickets. And then I had the kids say, thank you for supporting our future was their thank you. Thank you for supporting our future. I heard that a hundred times. Thank you for supporting our future. And when we were doing the raffles, man, it was so much fun. I had Sawyer and Axley on stage, and I'd have them reach into the throw bag. It's like a big bag with your throw line in it. But it was all the raffle tickets. And I cover their eyes, and they'd pull a raffle ticket and say, all right, say the color. Because there was green raffle tickets and pink raffle tickets. It's Pink. What's number 624958. And it was just so much fun watching them do that. In front of kind of a crowd, you know, public speaking.

[A]

I was there at the last for the last raffle draw and no, there was no, there was a crowd that come 2 o' clock or 2:30 or whatever time it was. They. Yeah, I don't know. Everybody came in.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, it was cool man. And I love when it was just me and them like but before Sidney and Callan got there and it was just me and the two kids, oh man, it was just so much fun. And I like hitting all the the highlights. You know, we do the Monday night party, the Tuesday night party, we hit the trade show, skip all the seminars and go clown off at the beach or clown off at the pool all day and then hit all the socially highlights. It's the best way to do trees.

[A]

Florida.

[B]

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

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

if this is the vacation episode, that was a little tinge of kind of a work vacation.

[A]

Work vacations count too.

[B]

Yeah, but man, speaking of vacation, I have not been at my, I have not slept in my house very much in the past couple weeks. I was at Indianapolis for the Indy 500 and I was there for like five nights and then came home and then the next weekend we went to Disney World. We're there for two nights. We come back from Disney World, sleep at the house for one night, then go to Treece, Florida for three nights, then back home for two nights. Now in the panhandle, bam, bam, bam.

[A]

I'm just a rookie vacationer buddy. I'm lucky if I get away a week or two a year for family vacation. I need to start taking lessons from you. The master yeah, the vacation.

[B]

Hold on. I gotta call Chris. I got a missed call from. He said he needs some information. Can you hear this?

[A]

Probably. I can't hear it ringing.

[B]

All right, Well, what's up, Mr. Kid? We just trying to figure out whether or not we're in the right damn place. All right, let me pull up your work order. Are you up in Hudson?

[A]

Yes, sir.

[B]

All right, so there's an address that probably gets you to the general neighborhood that. That was built. It's still under construction. We figured out the new construction over. I figured birds of civil. They do new roads and drainage. Yeah, I know. It had to be a new neighborhood. I think I just found the two removals. There is a new construction house that's not that old behind them. Behind the two removals? Yeah. There's like a little black iron fence here. That's. That terminates. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So you see that paver wall on. Underneath the aluminum iron fence? Yeah. They have to continue that wall further than where it is now. They got to keep going. So those two oak trees, we need to cut them down. And any of the bushes and whiskers and brush in that area, cut it to the ground Just. Just where these two oaks are. Yes. There's that third oak that doesn't have a red X on it. We're not cutting that one down. So just the brushy stuff right where those two trees are to be removed. Okay. They don't have a red X on them either. No, no. On the. On the photograph I mocked up not spray paint. Yeah, that third one leans out. Yeah, we're not going to touch that. Just the two in the photograph with a red X on it. If we like a wood post here. You want us to stop at that wood post? Yeah, I see it in the picture. Stop there. Yes, sir. Okay, so it is. It's like a spot in between two wood posts there. We'll clear all of that out and then the two removals. Y. We should allegedly have permission to go into that backyard if we need to. The Burgess civil was supposed to get permission from that homeowner if we need to go over there to rake, clean up, what have you. But I bid this whole job from a photograph, so I don't know if it's deceiving or there's a bunch of stuff that overhangs there. I'm not sure. But just go for it and make sure we leave that yard nice and tidy. Okay. Now, what about this overhang stuff? Where is that at? Do you know? No idea, dude. All I know is the photograph that I wrote the bid from. I have no idea where that is on the assignment other than either looking at context clues of what's in the background and finding it, or if you look in the notes, it should show maybe not in the notes section, but somewhere at the bottom of the work order should be the contacts. And we have Chandler and Corey. Project manager and superintendent. Yeah, do you have the phone numbers there? Tax, Chandler Burke, Corey Evans. Yeah, Corey is going to be our site contact. He's the guy that's likely there. Chandler's probably in an office and you can give Corey a buzz and he can probably walk you through it. And I'll give you a call back in like 45 minutes or an hour. All right?

[A]

Yes. Yes, sir.

[B]

Okay. Thank you, Chris. Okay, Jason. Sorry about that.

[A]

That's good.

[B]

I'm back.

[A]

Perfect.

[B]

Yeah, you know the old bid stuff from a photo from a job site

[A]

that's an hour away, and then even though you're on vacation, you still have to work a little bit. It's a working vacation. That's it?

[B]

Yeah, man, that's it. It's fun, man. Owning a business, running a business, it can be a lot of fun. It is, as I don't need to tell you this. It's a hell of a lot of work. Damn it. It's a lot of work. It can be fun. It can be rewarding. And I was talking with Sydney about this, Jason, that she. She's, as you know, she's a nurse at the Tampa General Hospital, but she can clock out when she leaves work. She can clock out. She can clock out her time, she can clock out her brain. She doesn't need to do it. Worry about anything until she clocks back in. But you and I can never clock out. No.

[A]

Ever.

[B]

Never can you clock out. You can't clock out. You can't clock out your brain. You can't clock out cell service, hell, I mean, it's constant, but it can be rewarding and fun and you can have a. Call it a working vacation. I mean, hell, I do three and a half hours of emails every day, but you can't clock the brain off unless you shut the business down and go lobster and say, mandatory vacation. No one's doing production. Turn it off.

[A]

It's the same thing.

[B]

You can clock the brain off.

[A]

It's the same thing with Fallon working at the university, but she turned off her, you know, her out of office reply and that's it, you know, and then her emails go to team members and they handle whatever Issues. And yeah, same. Same scenario, Sydney.

[B]

But maybe we just need to do it differently because the more gray hair I get in my beard, Jason, the more people I talk to. And these are usually like men in their late 60s and they go, dude, just turn your damn phone off. It'll be fine. But you need to have that second in command, somebody to handle the. My leg fell off the handle the car crash. Right. But they said, dude, all that other stuff, get it when you come back. Just turn it off. It doesn't matter. It'll be. It'll still be there. And if it's not there, it wasn't that important. That's true.

[A]

That's very true. I just have. I still have to. I have to overcome. I've got some. Some emotional damage, scars of leaving and bad things happening. So I need to go away more and have less bad things happen so I can. I can overcome that personally. And that's a me problem.

[B]

So just gotta practice.

[A]

Just gotta practice. That's it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, and I was thinking about the time I take off. Obviously we take off time to go alligator hunting. And that's literally when the wind is blowing optimally, we go alligator hunting. But man, that's not taking off of work, buddy. That's like going. Just going to work. It's a mental. You know, alligator hunting is a mental battle. So it's not. Not calming your brain down by any means. So. No, I like getting away. And hell, like you said, your brain never shuts off. But I don't know, my brain works in a different way. Like driving for nine hours to Tennessee. It's like, all right, at least six of those nine hours I was thinking about work. But then it's.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

My brain thinks differently when I'm like not have so many things in the day to day, so I can actually do some strategic thinking and planning and anyway, kind of getting the. I've been realigning which way the ship needs to be pointed in my head when I get back. So whenever, Whenever I get back. I've got a list of things that I should probably write down so that I don't forget. But we're going to hit the ground running. Prioritize some things should be good.

[B]

So is that other people awake in your hotel?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Honey's awake.

[A]

Yep. We're gonna be.

[B]

Wilder's awake?

[A]

Yep. All right, we're gonna be leaving for. We're gonna be leaving for Dollywood here in a few minutes. Jordan.

[B]

Well, you sent me some pictures. I don't know what it looks like. And Sydney loves. Loves Dolly Parton.

[A]

Oh, sounds like you. You're gonna be going to. You're gonna be going to Pigeon Force.

[B]

But it's a matter of time, buddy.

[A]

Now we'll come back. We'll come back with you. This place is.

[B]

It's.

[A]

It's fun. Like, I. I very much enjoyed it the other day for theme parks.

[B]

Let's do this. When you get there, FaceTime me.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And we'll have Wilder talk to Sawyer and Axley, and they can do kids stuff and talk about popsicles or whatever kids talk about. And it would be cool with the kids at the beach or at the pool and your kid walking around Dollywood.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then Sydney will be like, oh, Dollywood.

[A]

Ah.

[B]

And it would give her a little bit of joy. So all. Man, I am such a good husband. Jason. All of this that I just said was for the sole reason of bringing my wife joy to see Dollywood. It wasn't all this. This Frou Frou. Have your kid talk to my kid because they'll like it. It was for the soul. I wanted my wife to have a little bit of excitement and see the background of Dollywood. And I'm a good husband.

[A]

Yeah. And if you are a Dolly Parton fan, it would be the place to go. Like, we went through the Dolly Parton experience the other day.

[B]

The.

[A]

The tour, the history of Dolly Parton. They have another portion.

[B]

Broke ass poor growing up, man.

[A]

And then they've got a whole nother place where you go look at all the dresses with the sequins.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This isn't that. And you can tour the tour bus and we might go back and do some of that today.

[B]

Hard Candy Christmas, buddy.

[A]

That's it.

[B]

So, all right, what else are we gonna do? Are we done? We keep doing this. What are we doing?

[A]

I think we're done, man. We need to. Well, we need to talk off air, on air. We got events that's coming into trade show season coming up pretty quick.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm going down to the FMJL convention at the end of the month down in Coral Gables, not Cape Coral. So I was excited when I thought it was in Cape Coral. I'm not as excited now that it's in Coral Gables. Nobody likes.

[B]

It's the other side, right?

[A]

Yeah. So, yeah, anyway, so I'm going down to that and then the landscape show, which Intrigue Media is not attending, but Rob is coming down to speak. So for their podcasting, we've got a lineup of people we can podcast with. And then Rob will be there. I talked to Tony Bass the other day. Tony will be there, but then we start.

[B]

I got to text him back. He texted me. He texted me a video selfie. Hey, Jordan, it's Tony Bass. It's been about six months since you were at Profit Builder and just wanted to check in with you and see how your pricing's going and how any changes that you made from attending the seminar. Profit Builder, hit me up, man. Let me know how you're doing. And I haven't called him back. Video selfie.

[A]

I had a good conversation with Tony the other day about industry business. Yeah, it was good. But then we running. We're going to be running the gauntlet if we're going to attend the Equip Expo again in Kentucky in late October. So that'll be a field trip for us. But then the other other big trade shows being tci, the Tree Care Industry Expo is in Fort Lauderdale, and then the Now Elevate conference is in Tampa. So those would be a little bit more convenient for you and I to go and attend. And I think we have a potential of podcasting from intrigues booth in Tampa at Elevate.

[B]

Heck yeah.

[A]

So yeah. Anyway, so yeah, but we'll keep updates on that and who's going where and when.

[B]

And remind me to tell you about Switchy Live Switch. I did webinar ish teams call Zoom with the Live Switch team members that Hatfield has on staff to talk about my user experience with Switchy. And I told him we named Live Switch Switchy and he really liked the nickname Switchy. But Switchy diagnosed my a boat motor problem.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

It's pretty cool. And you want me to tell you about that next time or tell you about it now?

[A]

Tell me about it now. Keep it under five minutes. All right.

[B]

So I bought a new boat. My other boat broke, so I bought a new boat. And I'm out on the lake and I try to go on plane and the motor kind of revs up and then bogs down. And I see water coming out of the cowling. Like the cowling is the COVID that covers the motor. You know that? Yeah, but water starts coming out of where the cowling sits on the main motor. Y thing. What the hell is this? So I take the cowling out, everything looks fine, and I start to throttle up with the cowling off to look at it, and water starts shooting out of the air intake and dumping on top of the alternator. And I go, this ain't normal. So I videotape it on my phone. I was like, I'm gonna upload this to switchy and see if switchy can tell me why the hell is water coming out of the air intake and dumping on the alternator. So I go back to the house and I open up switchy. I go to Lucky, the black lab, and I make a new AI prompt. And I say, like, boat motor diagnosis. And I told switchy that this is a 2008 Mercury Verado 150. Water seems to come out of the air intake and dumps right on top of the alternator. When I increase RPMs above 1500, diagnose the problem and send it the video, Lucky starts doing his little lucky trot running around. And it comes back and it says, it is likely that there is a leak or a seal missing at the thermostat. Manifold is what Lucky came back with. And so I talked to the mechanic and go, hey, man, I think we might have a seal leak at the thermostat. And I dropped the boat off at the mechanic. Mechanic calls me later that day, goes, hey, Jordan, come get your boat. It's all done. It's like, what was the problem? He goes, man, when we did the service last week, my mechanic forgot to put a seal on on the thermostat housing. Oh. So I had a zero dollar invoice to pay for because it was their screw up. And the accurate problem was exactly what switchy said. It was impressive. It was amazing. So, switchy, thank you for letting me sound like an educated boat owner when I talk to the mechanic instead of a ignoramus talking to the boat mechanic.

[A]

I like it. Yeah.

[B]

So that's my newest switchy story.

[A]

Fantastic.

[B]

So it is 9:30 my time. I think it's 9:30. No, it is 8:30 my time. I am one hour behind. It is 8:30 my time. My cup of coffee is out. My mouth is dry. I am dehydrated because I was abusing myself all last night. So I think I'm gonna make me a nice ice water. And then if my family's not awake, I'm probably just gonna lay on the couch and hide from them under a blanket for a little bit.

[A]

Good for you.

[B]

And you, you're about to put your shoes on. Dollywooding. Yeah, we're gonna roll call wilder over. Let me look at him.

[A]

Wilder, come here. I don't know. Or not.

[B]

Is he pooping?

[A]

He might be. I don't know.

[B]

Yeah, well, all right, man.

[A]

All right, Jordan.

[B]

I will. Did I send you? Did I send you fish pictures yet? No.

[A]

Send them.

[B]

I'll send you fish. Oh, and I got my alligator lottery in for super hunt.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Done.

[A]

I will. I will send you a message as soon as I find out they draw.

[B]

Okay, so that'll be likely in the

[A]

next, probably two, three days, this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon.

[B]

Oh, sweet. All right. We'll know if I have alligator permits after all.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

All right, man. Enjoy Dollywood.

[A]

Later.

[B]

All right, man. See ya.

[A]

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

[B]

Sam.