Ep 129. Selling Knowledge, Not Just Tree Work with Marti Machado

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Green Side Up – Ep 129 "Selling Knowledge, Not Just Tree Work" with Marti Machado

Date: June 18, 2026
Hosts: Jason Lee & Jordan Upcavage
Guest: Marti Machado, Certified Arborist, Independent Tree Service

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Episode Overview

This episode of Green Side Up explores the theme of "Selling Knowledge, Not Just Tree Work," diving deep into the entrepreneurial journey of Marti Machado. The hosts and Marti cover the evolution from chasing paychecks with a chainsaw to building a relationship- and knowledge-driven tree care business. Along the way, they discuss practical sales advice, company culture, memorable customer experiences, and the importance of education in the green industry. The conversation is rich with stories from the field, practical business insights, and a good dose of the hosts' characteristic humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Marti's Journey: From Teenage Chops to Certified Arborist

• Early Hustle:
  Marti began in the business at 15, running a lawn service out of a '72 Toyota Dually, eventually moving into tree work.

  "15 years old, no driver's license, doing lawn service out of a 1972 Toyota Dually." – Marti [04:46]

• Learning the Ropes:
  His big break came from an unexpected mentor:

  "Richard Bailey... drove by, saw me and he said, 'Hey, you just do that?' ... He gave me a business card and we communicated and started down a different path." – Marti [06:09]

• Sales Came Naturally:
  Marti found his edge in connecting with people rather than climbing trees.

  "I can talk to people. I can kind of read them a little bit, and it's... asking a lot of questions... you get a lot more feedback." – Marti [09:51]

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2. Selling Knowledge Over Labor

• Both the hosts and Marti emphasize the growing shift from purely transactional tree care to an educational, knowledge-based approach that delivers long-term value to clients.
• Notable Quote:

  "I get off when somebody actually gives a damn about the value of the information I'm going to tell them. I'm not giving them a price to cut branches off. I'm selling them information." – Jordan [14:31]
  "Knowledge." – Marti [14:37]

• Marti shared practical advice on listening:

  "Ask more questions. Ask more than you speak... listen to the customer, and they’ll kind of give you what you need." – Marti [45:28]

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3. Company Culture & Team Excellence

• Marti and the hosts highlight how the people behind the work are the real differentiator.

  "Our guys are the best selling point we have. All of our reviews mention... our crew leader's name on it. They just make us shine." – Marti [21:26]

• The importance of crew culture, hiring standards, and letting go of toxic influences is discussed:

  "The simpleness of having a driver's license cuts out the turd of a human... I know all of our staff is of high quality." – Jordan [22:51]
  "If we let positivity shine through, that's infectious too. Just the same way that the negative stuff is." – Marti [23:28]

• Ownership and no excuses:

  "Never pass the buck on the guys. If the mistake happened on the job, nip it in the bud right here." – Marti [25:07]

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4. Memorable Stories & Humorous Moments

• Customer Eccentricities:
  Marti describes a client who was a "Raiki master" with unusual décor:

  "They're sculptures of male genitalia... And why are you in his house?... Getting paid." – Marti & Jordan [11:47-11:53]

• Neighborhood Competitions:
  Marti recaps a neighborhood guacamole/margarita contest, the infamous rhino head trophy, and acquiring odd yard trophies from some “Leatherface” types on Craigslist:

  "The loser gets this 18 inch stuffed red fox squirrel with the big set of balls and brown teeth... for the guacamole, it's a big paper mache rhinoceros head." – Marti [30:11; 30:52]

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5. Sales Tips and Tricks

• Showcasing crews in action boosts customer trust:

  "Pick up the phone and call my office... ask where my crews are working. I guarantee somebody's within a 15 minute drive of you. Go see my guys work. That's the best selling point we have." – Marti [21:26]

• Always dig for the customer’s true needs:

  "So many times you walk up, I'll own somebody, they say, 'I want to cut that branch off.'... I own them right there. Why? Tell me why. What are you trying to achieve?" – Marti [46:19]

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6. Navigating Business Ups and Downs

• Discussion of industry seasonality, hurricane prep, and adapting during slow times.

  "I've seen this roller coaster ride a few times... it'll be there." – Marti [16:53]

• Exploring new services like plant healthcare and finding winter work (holiday lights, etc.)

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7. Personal Life & Work-Life Balance

• Marti talks about his daughter Addie’s volleyball success, coaching, and the investment of time, money, and heart in her athletic journey.

  "We're still fingers crossed. We want to keep her local." – Marti [26:12]

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Notable Quotes & Moments With Timestamps

• On shifting to knowledge-based sales:
  "I'm not giving them a price to cut branches off. I'm selling them information." – Jordan [14:31]
• On learning from mistakes:
  "You go back to that tree that you cut off those two 12 inch branches and you are pricing removing that tree because of those wounds that you caused." – Marti [08:09]
• On business ownership:
  "Ownership, you know, that's a big thing. We're about ownership... never pass the buck." – Marti [25:07]
• On crew culture:
  "Our guys are the best selling point we have." – Marti [21:26]
• On sales advice:
  "Ask more questions. Ask more than you speak." – Marti [45:28]
• On building new service lines:
  "We didn't sell the first bit of fertilizer until we sold it." – Marti [55:42]
• Running joke: Marti’s guacamole defeat and the prized rhino head trophy [30:52]

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Important Timestamps for Key Topics

| Segment | Topic | Timestamp | |---------|-------|-----------| | Marti's Origin Story | Early years, first job | 04:36–08:09 | | Transition to Sales | Choosing sales over climbing | 09:36–10:02 | | Selling Knowledge | Value vs. price, education | 14:31–14:48 | | Plant Health Care Evolution | Service diversification | 19:13–20:57 | | Culture and Crew | Building trust, reviews | 21:26 | | Ownership Attitude | No excuses leadership | 25:07 | | Family & Work Life | Addie and volleyball | 25:51–28:03 | | Guacamole Contest | Neighborhood fun | 29:04–33:43 | | Sales Tricks | ‘Go see my crew at work’ | 21:26, 45:04–45:13 | | Asking the Right Questions | Listening and needs discovery | 45:28–46:47 | | Trying New Business Ideas | Risk and adaptation | 54:44–56:18 |

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Final Thoughts

This episode celebrates the transformation from simply getting the job done to building a tree care business centered around relationships, trust, and expert knowledge. Marti’s stories and advice emphasize the importance of listening to clients, building strong crews, owning your mistakes, and never stopping the search for better ways to serve customers. With a blend of humor, honesty, and real-world experience, this is a must-listen for anyone navigating the wild terrain of the green industry.

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Contact for Marti:
For questions or to connect with Marti Machado, email Jason at [e-mail]

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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]

Buenos taros, cor amigos. Mi llamo Jordan y mi partner esta.

[C]

Mi llamo Jason

[B]

y senor El sells a lot to Cortale Arbor.

[D]

Mi team member, Marti Machado.

[B]

What's up, Marti? Welcome to Green side Up podcast.

[D]

I'm happy to be here. Thank you guys for letting me be here.

[C]

Marti, every time I hear your name. Now, Jordan might not be a stand up comedian fan, but I love stand up comedy. And every time Jordan says your name, all I hear is Gabriel Iglesias.

[D]

Marty.

[B]

Is that the big guy? Yeah. Okay.

[C]

Anyway, that's it.

[D]

So all I just wanted Martin to know that before we get good. I met Martin. They were in concert in Tampa. I met him. Hella guy.

[C]

Is it Martin or Martin?

[D]

Martin. Oh, he's Martin. I'm Marti. Yeah, completely different.

[C]

My bad.

[B]

You're more martini without the eenie.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, you got it.

[B]

Well, Marti, you got a very good compliment yesterday. I was with a customer in Ser Juanita Stefan, and she lives off of Old Hillsborough, right across the street from the IFAS extension office. And she is like third. What is it, six degrees of Kevin Bacon? Whatever. Anyways, I originally got her referral from Norm. Easy. Okay, the people that used to work for the ISA was Norm, his wife Jan, and then Patty would work for Treece Florida. Patty lives across the street from Norm in Sarasota. This is Patty's mother's house. Okay, so when Norm would teach track, they would go to Patty's mother's house across the street, all these big ass live oaks, and they'd do risk assessment. Okay, so that was the original way in there, like 10 years ago. And I met with Ms. Stefan yesterday, and she goes, jordan, you had this nicest young man out here last time. And I said, was he on the crew or was he doing the sales? I was like, oh, he was doing the sales. He was just the nicest young man, just the friendliest, had the biggest smile. And his men that came out that did the work. They were happy. They were having fun. They weren't yelling at each other and cursing at each other. It's like they were in the trees having fun. And that man that you had here was just the nicest young man. I said that was Mr. Marti Machado. And she had nothing but praise about you and your team that came out to service her trees last time.

[D]

I do what I can. I do what I can. She was unique. She had very mature trees. She's at a point in life, you know, certain point in life when you're not worried about keeping up with the Joneses, just making sure your roof doesn't fall on your head. So she didn't want to spend a lot of money, but so we figured out how we could keep her safe, and that was it. And she told me, last time we were there, it was kind of soggy, and we caused some issues, and we avoided it this time by avoiding rain and avoiding a lot of things and bringing in some plywood and stuff and mats to keep her safe.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

And she was happy with that.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

They went the extra mile.

[B]

So, Marti, you're a certified arborist.

[D]

Yes, sir.

[B]

You are a renowned certified arborist in Hillsborough county, state of Florida. I get that you've been doing this for a while. So tell me the. Tell me the story. I want to know as if. This is Joe Dirt. Joe Dierte on the show where we're coming in and we're listening to the saga of Joe Dirt, of when your dad stuck a wig on your head and it stayed there so long, your skull grafted into it. I want to know about young Marti Machado running around barefoot in town and country.

[D]

Oh.

[C]

I mean, did you start out with they just handed you a chainsaw at like 9 or.

[D]

We were without a driver's license. 15 years old.

[B]

There we go.

[D]

15 years old, no driver's license, doing lawn service out of a 1972 Toyota Dually.

[B]

Yeah, Toyota Dually.

[D]

Toyota Dually. They were one ton dualies, man.

[B]

Toyota made Dually pickup trucks.

[D]

It's a little Dually. They're warriors. They're called Warriors. They have travel like a little rv. Anyway, okay. Anyway, so this thing was beefy. It was awesome. It was an ice truck that was converted that the reefer unit didn't work, so it had a box on it. It's cool, man. You had to add a quart of oil every day, whether you ran it or not.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

And anyway. But ladies like, hey, trim my palm trees. And I said, okay, give Me two weeks. I'll. I can't get you to two weeks. Drove around fine looking for somebody that trimmed palm trees. And the drunkest rednecks that you ever seen, we saw, sat down and watched them. And then we stole my dad's anchor line, bought a ladder, bought a saddle chainsaw, foot. First time I use a chainsaw. 30ft up Queen palm with an anchor

[B]

line from a boat.

[D]

That's the story. That is.

[B]

This is a lot. How this is a lot like Jerry's story.

[D]

Legend is. And the same Customer, same lady. Three years later, I cut off like, I don't know, two 12 inch diameter Laurel oak branches. Yeah, you know, like that. Stripped it. Lion tail. This thing out as clean as a whistle.

[B]

Oh, let the wind blow through.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Clean as a whistle. Gentleman, I don't know if I can name drop. Richard Bailey. Yeah. Drove by, saw me and he said, hey, you just do that? And I was real proud.

[B]

Yes, I did.

[D]

In my umbro soccer shorts and tennis shoes and the saddle on. And he goes, you need a book? And it touched. And I got his business card and we communicated and started down a different path.

[B]

This is when you're in your whole late teenager.

[D]

I was, I was probably 18 at that time.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Went a different way.

[C]

So did you keep doing lawn care too, or did you just start cutting trees?

[D]

I hated lawn care. Hated it. Couldn't stand.

[C]

Understand.

[D]

Same place every, every week. It was kind of.

[B]

No, you got a taste of the good drugs of tree work.

[D]

Yeah, that was fun. That was me and my brother. It was love. It was fun. It was happy.

[B]

So you were a money making guy. You were, you were rolling around high

[D]

school with a wad. Chase the chicks, man.

[B]

Yeah. You're the richest 17 year old that existed.

[D]

I was okay. I was comfortable.

[B]

Well, tell me about. Would you go knocking on doors? You, you drop out of school?

[D]

If I had a job. One job. It was Saturday morning, 8 o'. Clock. Yeah, it was Saturday morning, 8 o' clock because everybody's home. They'd come out.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

They'd yell at me and then say, how much to do this? How much would you charge me to do this?

[B]

So you just case town and country knocking on doors.

[D]

Oh, yeah. We had ton of country lockdown. Bay Crest, Twelve Oaks, locked down. Yeah, we did good. So giving away tree work, what was your stick? There was none.

[B]

Hey, there was a Martin.

[D]

There was none.

[B]

You got any tree trimming you want to cut?

[D]

I cut it.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I didn't care about the why. I just knew my why. Was check, paycheck.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Didn't have a clue. Didn't think about.

[B]

Run the chainsaw, get money.

[D]

Didn't think about it. But then, you know, as you. You don't want to cause harm. You know, you don't want to be that guy. You don't want to leave somebody stranded. And then as you've been doing it for a while, you go back to that tree that you cut off those two 12 inch branches and you are pricing, removing that tree because of those rooms that you caused.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[D]

And you won that bid, too. And. But still, never say anything about it.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Who cut those branches for a new homeowner? What are you going to do?

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So I want to be that guy.

[B]

You've done a lot of things.

[D]

You.

[B]

You've been arborist for a while. But. And I want to know about Eminem, I want to know about Mike, I want to know about the sandwich named after yourself.

[C]

So now Richard Bailey gives you the book, the ISA book.

[D]

He gave me a business card or business card.

[C]

Okay, so he didn't give. He didn't give you a Bible.

[D]

No, and understood. Sent me down a path. And he was. But he was very influential. And he was.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I could call him this moment and he'd pick up the phone for me and talk to me. He's a great guy.

[B]

Great guy.

[D]

I think he was the first Florida chapter president. Joe Samnick was When it became a chapter.

[B]

Yeah. But he was one of the.

[D]

One of the few.

[B]

He was maybe the first BCMA in the state. Certified master arborist. Something along those lines. Yeah. So why'd you get in? So you got involved for a paycheck in high school.

[D]

Yeah, that was it.

[B]

Okay. 100 and then now what do we do? We graduate high school. Hooray.

[D]

It's just. It was cool, man. You playing with my brother in trees.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Brother's a hell of guy. He's still out there. He's still out there trucking around. He's great guy. He's. He's done very well. Really intelligent guy. Does well for himself.

[B]

So what'd you do that was your specialty? Were you the climber? Were you the sales guy? Were you the money guy? Were you collecting?

[D]

What was the build? I am not the climber.

[B]

Well, you said you were climbing with an anchor line, which is intriguing. I mean, we've all done it.

[D]

That's different. I'm just not the type. I'm not the body type.

[B]

So what did you find that you succeeded passively in? I mean, I know the answer. I know you pretty well.

[D]

I, I, I can talk to people. Yeah. I can talk to people. I can kind of read them a little bit, and it's, and asking a lot of questions. You get a lot more feedback, and you can build on that.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

And see what they want, what they need, see where they are in life. Like we talked about Juanita, she was at a point in life where she didn't want to fertilizer trees. She was more, just don't drop, let it hit me in the head.

[C]

Right.

[D]

And she's not worried about her kids playing underneath the canopy of those trees. So we're just not going to let it hit her in the head. Yeah, that's it.

[B]

Yeah, totally.

[D]

That's it.

[B]

So what do you like doing, you know, for the, you know, I know you from a sales and crew management standpoint of arbor culture, but what do you like about it? What do you like about the tree industry?

[D]

I'm non functional in an office. That's number one. That's number one. I like being outside. It's part of me, you know, I'm just outside. I can, I'd rather eat lunch under a tree than in, in a restaurant, that kind of thing. So that just is freeing to me. But I enjoy talking to customers. I, I enjoy it and finding out what they need. And most of the stories I tell you are interactions with clients.

[B]

You got some good ones, too. If there's a story that's going to be animated and I don't have time to hear it at work, I will make time to hear it because I'm going to be smiling. I don't know if it's Mr. Rocket that's going to make me smile. You don't, you don't want me to go there.

[C]

Whatever.

[D]

I don't know. I don't know. You dropped the name, man.

[B]

I didn't drop the first name, but tell me about the guy with dildos in his house.

[D]

Marti, they weren't, it was art. There's sculptures.

[B]

Okay, and what were they sculptures of?

[D]

Genitalia. Of male genitalia.

[B]

Oh, right.

[D]

Yeah. And there's a lot of them.

[B]

And, and why are you in his house?

[D]

Getting paid.

[B]

Okay.

[D]

Getting paid. Picking up cash and.

[B]

Okay, hold on.

[C]

Is this, is this recent in history or is this way back?

[D]

Because Two years.

[C]

Okay, so it's independent street, independent tree era, and.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

And this guy's a phenomenal guy. I mean, what a great guy to talk to. Really wonderful, calm guy to talk to. Warm, welcoming. He actually does Raiki. He's a Raiki master and does massage, and my wife loves a massage. So I sent my wife over there.

[B]

He'll reset your root chakra.

[D]

Great, dude. He was a cool. He's a cool guy. A very cool guy. I like him.

[B]

Yeah. There's still those all over his house.

[D]

I can't judge somebody.

[B]

No. I'm not judging them, but next thing I know, you, you call me. Go. Yeah. Guess what, Jordan? This guy dicks everywhere, and I'm scheduled for a massage with us.

[D]

Yeah, I'm booking a massage.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

I'm not. I wasn't knocking him. It's just like. It's cool, man.

[B]

No, you. Of course you were not knocking them.

[D]

Cool.

[C]

Right.

[B]

But you see, most of my.

[D]

Most of my decorations are booze bottles, you know? Yeah, yeah.

[B]

But those massages hurt worse. Yeah.

[C]

Good Lord.

[D]

Yeah. That guy was a great individual. I like that guy. Yeah, it was cool. All the neighbors spoke highly of every wonderful mouthpiece. Everybody in the street used us. Oh, yeah. Because of that guy. We even helped out his neighbors. His neighbors were up and comers, didn't have a lot of money. They invested in the house and had some overly mature trees. And our client was interested in dropping, you know, a couple thousand dollars just to prune them back to help himself out of trouble. And I said, why don't you open dialogue with your neighbor and maybe you can kick that money toward them toward the removal of the tree, and you're done with it. And instead of reinvesting two grand every couple of years, and they did that, and they actually removed the trees. So that was what helped them out.

[B]

That's cool.

[D]

That's what I like doing. Figuring it out. Yeah, that's cool.

[B]

What I like is when someone gives a damn about the information, I have to tell them. The nerds. Right? So if you are in the education system, whether you're a professor or a teacher or some sort of science background or medical background, you're a nurse or a doctor, it tends to be an easier conversation when we're talking about symptoms versus causation of symptom in the tree, you know, and they can approach it from a educational standpoint versus somebody that just wants branches cut off of their tree. So I get off. When somebody actually gives a damn about the value of the information I'm going to tell them. And I'm not giving them a price to cut branches off. I'm selling them information. Yep.

[D]

Knowledge.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Love it.

[C]

So, Marti, how did you get. From you and your brother Wiping the floor with your competition in town and country to selling tree work.

[D]

It's natural progression. I. I got a little bit at a point in life, I wanted to be more at home, wanted to spend more time with the family. So running around, running, it eats up a lot of time, you know, and this is less time. I can sleep at night. I don't lay awake at night. Did I take care of those 75 different things? Because tomorrow I have 250 things I got to deal with. You know, that's. It's just different. And this is comfortable. And I don't think I'd be doing this for anybody else in this industry besides independent tree service. I don't think I would.

[C]

So you've been. You've been five years.

[D]

No, no. Three and a half.

[B]

Three and a half. Four.

[D]

Yeah, almost four. Dang.

[B]

I tell you, we got some good. Some good leads coming out of this thing.

[D]

Getting my skin itching.

[B]

We got volleyball throw. I'll just underhand now. There's some turds out there.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

But man, when we were. We quit charging for estimates when it got like, ghostly. It was. Buddy, it was scary. I didn't sleep a whole lot from November through March. It was. It was a little scary on my end.

[D]

The. Yeah, again, that's part of it. You know, this guy's looking at. It cost a lot of money. Be Jordan up cabbage. And you know, I've seen this stuff. I've seen waves. We. We actually spoke of this. What is the future going to look like? While we were in that hurricane cleanup mode, we spoke of this and we're. Nobody knew. Your dad didn't. Jerry didn't know where we were going, where it was going to go. And I kind of had this feeling there was going to be a lot of stuff done. And then we instantly go into a drought. So adverse change into a hard time for the. For growing. But we're going to. That's going to turn around real fast. Everybody loses their mind when they say June 1st, go cut your trees because the hurricane's coming. But it's okay to neglect them the whole year.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

The phone's going to just. We know it.

[B]

I think it's going to be pretty damn busy this summer. Once it starts raining, it's going to be hard to keep up.

[D]

Trees are going to lay down.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

But that's it. But I've seen this roller coaster ride a few times and it's. It'll be there. It'll be there. We're not. We're Not. Hey, man, you got one of those things over there?

[B]

Oh, penis. Yeah. This is from Jamaica.

[D]

Yeah, There you go.

[B]

Jamaica, right here.

[D]

Here in the Green side Up studios.

[C]

Yeah. And we'll.

[D]

Have you.

[B]

Have you seen this one?

[D]

There you go. That's a heavy hitter.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Manny gave this to me. This is a eucalyptus from Eddie DeBartolo's house in Avila. He took down this big ass eucalyptus and Manny climbed it out. And I'm there and he comes walking up to me and he goes, you know how he, like, walks with the moringa? And he hands this to me and I'm holding it, I'm looking at it, and he's just like about to blow up, smiling.

[D]

He goes, it's a dick.

[B]

And he was just so happy.

[D]

That's his accent.

[B]

To present that to me, I was

[D]

like, I'm pretty cool, man. We keep this calloused over. There's no decay. Up or down.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Interesting.

[D]

Pretty sweet.

[B]

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

[C]

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

[B]

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

[C]

Give Mitigro a shot for yourself. Their product is easy to apply and no special licenses are needed. Visit mytogrowpro.com to learn more. That's M I T O G R O W P R O dot com.

[B]

You did work, you and your brother. Eminem Tree Service. You've sold some work for a tree service in South Tampa. For. For a friend of mine, mutual friend, Jim Weaver.

[D]

Great guy.

[B]

Sold his work for ONeills Tree Service. Apollo.

[D]

Yep.

[B]

Brilliant guy, good friend, great guy. I want to ask you, you've been here at Independent for three and a half, four years, and since you walked in, we did a lot of cutting, pruning, removals, lightning protection, cabling and bracing. We had that on lock pretty good. Got that figured out. Air spading, root printing. That whole Bag of tricks. But I'm pretty sure you got to see the beginning of plan healthcare. From nothing. From nothing.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

To. Okay. We're working with Ken Miller and we're scheduling with Ken, using his stuff to the purchasing of his stuff to the obtainment of a pest control license and owning our own gear to what we're doing with Breer and putting her in a more predominant role, like constructively how. And. And you know, like the marketing stuff. Right. So when we were like super slow October through March, we got with Intrigue Media, we had them do email campaigns to all of our clientele. So I've, like, in my brain, I've liquidated almost everything that I could think of. What do you see for independent tree service? Having seen many other businesses, what do you see that could make us more successful? An experiment that we need to try or what's something that we may be able to adapt that was very successful for other businesses that you got to partner in.

[D]

That's a good one, man. That's a good one.

[B]

I know. I'm throwing you, putting you on the light here.

[D]

Good one. I think you guys are great. We're. We're centrally located and everybody knows where our yard is. They know our trucks. I can't tell you how many times a day I drive down the street and blowing the horn. One of the guys are blowing the horn at me. You know, I didn't even see them coming. And then I'm, hey, there goes my guy. Right down the street. I'm. I'm looking. Doing a consult on the street where we're doing three jobs that day. And I had no clue.

[B]

Isn't that super cool? We were like, no joke. There goes Curtis.

[D]

That's. And our guys are the best selling point we have. All of our reviews mention. They every probably 5 out of 6 reviews has our crew leader's name on it. Yeah. And they're giving praise, those guys. So they just make a shine. So if I see my guys working, I want my customer to see them. My guys are right down the street. Go check them out. That's. That's the number one thing to help me close a job. If I hear them client drops another tree services name, I always tell them, pick up the phone and call my office. You're gonna drop a few thousand dollars with me, call my office, ask where my crews are working. I guarantee somebody's within a 15 minute drive of you. Go see my guys work. And because that's the best selling point we have. I love it.

[B]

I've Never used that one.

[D]

Some. Some of these tree services have some really intelligent guys, smooth talkers, know how to make things happen. But what's behind them is not as clean as what we have. They're just not as. Just not the crew that we have. And there's very, very few crews out there that look like ours.

[C]

And that's how you've ended up with now 745 star reviews. As I just.

[B]

Look, are we at 740 now?

[C]

740 now.

[D]

I've got a couple today.

[B]

Hot damn. Yeah. No, I think it's, you know, the. The culture stuff is important, man. And I think the whole.

[C]

The.

[B]

So I talk about it all the time, but the simpleness of having a driver's license cuts out the turd of a human that's gonna be the person rifling through your bag or broken promise or can't show up for whatever. I think, you know, I know all of our staff is of high quality, and we. You've been through this, Marti, where we had to make some hard decisions and let people go.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Whether it was smoking weed, whether it was alcohol, whether it was some other type of personality traits. And I lean on you, man. I asked you. I was like, marti, I gotta. Here's what I'm thinking. What do you.

[D]

And you're with me. Stuff is infectious, you know, and if. If we let positivity shine through, that's infectious too. Just the same way that the negative stuff is. Yeah.

[C]

So.

[D]

So. And it's who you want to work with me. If I'm. If I'm out there and I'm supporting my family and I'm making my house payment and I'm here to put in my. My 40 hour a week job, maybe get some overtime. I don't want to be next to a guy that's smoking pot. I don't want to be near that, you know, so that's. That's a different way. It affects, you know, so I'd rather have positivity around me just. Just like that. And the guys love it. The guys. The guys love it. Our guys are great.

[B]

Yeah. How's Carrie doing? Like, how does it work?

[D]

You.

[B]

Because my Sydney knows everything. I'll eat dinner in silence. And she goes, what's up?

[D]

What are you thinking about? She's like, you thinking about work?

[B]

I guess I'm thinking about work. So what carries over to the household where you're like, addie May, listen to this. Is it. Is there anything that comes back of. That's humorous or A resounding theme of look at Jordan wouldn't shut up today again, on a soapbox.

[D]

What's a.

[B]

What's the thing that you can goof on routinely?

[D]

No. Easiest mess to clean is one you didn't make.

[B]

That's.

[D]

That's like. That's once a day. I say that once a day. That's. What's a day. Anyway, I just told you guys. When she forgot, though, she got the wrong volleyball jersey.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

One thing you had to do today was get dressed, and you effed that up.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

And that was my parenting parade. That was all. I stopped there and went and got her other jersey.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Just put my head down and walked

[B]

it off, you know?

[D]

But no, it's. I don't know.

[B]

You don't know. What's the.

[D]

I don't know.

[B]

There's something.

[D]

Ownership, you know, that's a big thing. We're. We're about ownership. You know, Never pass the buck. Never pass the buck on the guys. If the mistake happened on the job, nip it in the butt right here. If you can't work with me, I say, oh, I failed to communicate that or I didn't relay that to the guys. I should have wrote it down. Shut it down right there. Because if I say, oh, my guy had a bad day. He showed up late. Then the crew showed up late. They had to get something to eat at the gas station. Then it just carries over, and the customers then questioning the client of the crew, the quality of the crew, Then it goes on and on. So I just try to shut it down there. If they can't work with me, then we're. We're good. I can. I can accept that. Yeah, you know, that's. That's a big thing, and I. I try to get that at home, too. So Addie takes ownership and.

[B]

He's your daughter?

[D]

Yeah, Addie's my daughter.

[B]

She's a volleyball star.

[D]

She's awesome. Great kid.

[B]

Oh, she's a setter. Yep.

[D]

Setter captain. She does it all. Yeah, she does it all.

[B]

And she's. She's finishing her junior year.

[D]

She's finishing her junior year, and she's going to be doing dual enrollment. She's getting a lot of colleges interested in her to play volleyball.

[C]

You think she'll go play somewhere?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

She's getting offers, right?

[D]

Offers.

[C]

Nice.

[D]

So it's cool, but we're still fingers crossed. We want to keep her local.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Where you were you hoping?

[D]

I would love University of Tampa, but I don't know if that One's going to work out. They just, they, they have a setter that's set for this, for this timing. You know, they need it every a

[B]

couple years, two or three year.

[D]

Yeah, but, but looking around. Flagler. Yeah. Universe.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Flagler University. St. Augustine.

[B]

St. Augustine. Oh, and Flagler. That makes sense.

[D]

Yeah, that was pretty cool. She, she likes that one. And some places are really excited for her to come visit. We have, we have. Who won a. Her club won a national bid.

[B]

Dynamite.

[D]

It's New. New Waves. New New Waves. And she was with Dynamite.

[B]

That was cool.

[D]

That's.

[B]

See I listen when you talk and tell me about Addie. May I listen?

[D]

It's awesome. You remember that. But New Waves is their club now. They're 15th in the state out of like I don't know how many pile of them. Yeah, 700. And so they're, they're doing good. But, but it's exciting to see this stuff, man. It's exciting. But these schools, they, they wanted her to come and visit. It's exciting. I mean, I'm happy for her. You see the fruits of her labor. The kids been doing this for so long and I'm like $800,000 in. That's the one. That's, that's something I tell Jordan all the time with his kids. I said if somebody walks in your house and says travel volleyball, you have the right to hit them right in the mouth.

[B]

Travel volleyball. Travel hockey.

[D]

Hit them.

[B]

Travel cheer.

[D]

I got a buddy that his kids are in Denmark, in Norway playing travel. I think the kid's 12 years old. Travel hockey.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

I'm not doing this.

[B]

No. And we'll go to Cheval and rent a horse for an hour. That'll be cheaper.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. But, but I've, I've invested into this volleyball career, into my volleyball education, so

[B]

she better love you.

[C]

If she's going into her senior year, then that's going into her senior year

[D]

or going into June, going into senior year.

[C]

That's the, this is it decision time.

[B]

So she driving?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

So she's driving on her own?

[D]

Yeah, she's good now. She's self sustained. Kids got a job. She does. She coaches at the volleyball club, the younger kids and she's in her club.

[B]

She does really good with that GPS tracking on her. Yeah, yeah. Damn right. All right.

[D]

The truck, the phone, all that stuff. Yeah.

[B]

She's driving the blue truck.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

All right.

[D]

Tundra.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Kid driving a tundra.

[B]

Damn.

[D]

She's. She's doing better than I did.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

72 Toyota dually kid.

[B]

Oh, man.

[D]

I'll take that to work to school, man.

[B]

Yeah. I want to hear a fun story about Marti. I want to hear about the guacamole contest. I want to hear about this stuffed elephant or whatever the hell's on the wall. Tell me about the guacamole. You didn't you get usurped or the margarita contest. I want to throw some. Throw some Cuba at me, Martin.

[D]

Okay. No, we were sitting around. It was like Labor Day is like a three day weekend. What are we going to do? The next weekend's Labor Day weekend kind of thing. What we're gonna do for Labor Day. Nobody had any plans. My cul de sac, we live on Rocky Creek. Okay. The. The cul de sac's name is rcdc, The Rocky Creek Drinking Club.

[B]

And you're all on, like, salt water, Right? So you guys have boats behind your house?

[D]

Yeah, yeah. And we have a good time and we like to drink and entertain.

[B]

You're like one step away from a swingers community.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Okay.

[D]

Yeah. Pants on. Pants on. But I've been known to take my shirt off from time to time. The. The. But we're out. What are you going to do next weekend?

[B]

I don't know.

[D]

And I. Let's have a competition. We'll make margaritas and guacamole. We'll call it the guacamole margarita showdown and blah, blah. Then it evolved like we're inviting people over. And then I got some spoof gifts. You know, the winner, whoever wins the best margarita gets a little bell. It's painted, and there's the best guacamole. You get a little bell. But the loser, for the margaritas, who

[B]

has the crappiest margarita?

[D]

Yeah. The loser gets this 18 inch stuffed red fox squirrel with the big set of balls and brown teeth. And you have to display it at the entry. So when somebody walks into your house, that's the focal point. And then for the guacamole, it's a big paper mache. It's. When I say big, it is 30 inches high, 28 inches wide, and has a depth of about 24 inches. So this thing's substantial and it's paper mache, but it's fallen down a few times, so it's like missing stuff. So you see like the stucco, wires sticking through it, and it's gray. It's. It's pretty impressive.

[B]

What is it, an elephant?

[D]

It's a rhinoceros head. Okay. It's. It's. It's. It's funny. It's a good one.

[B]

Where did it come from?

[D]

I. The Craigslist looking up for. Looking up some statues. And I said, I got to find this. So I drove around, and these guys. These guys were in Safety harbor, and it was kind of scary. It was like. It's like Leatherface kind of house. Okay. I'm not even kidding. And I took my wife there. And these guys are kooky. They wanted like, 700 a piece for this paper mache.

[B]

I know.

[D]

And I said, I'll give you $35, kid you not. And they talked me up to 50, starting at 700. 1400. And I walked out for 50 bucks. I took two items for 50 bucks.

[B]

Did you get the squirrel from him too?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The same house you got two for 50?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

25 bucks a piece.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

Okay.

[D]

And the house that had the squirrel and the rhino, that's the house we went into. I'm telling. It was like Leatherface, man.

[B]

It puts the lotion on the skin.

[D]

Took my pretty wife into this house anyway.

[B]

And you walked out with a massage. No, in the rhino.

[D]

The massage. Yet different parts of the hood.

[C]

The.

[D]

But that was. But that was good. But the guacamole margarita showdown. It's every Labor Day weekend. That's when avocados are rocking and rolling. Margaritas are good. And that's it. So we go there, and it's. It's a great day not to have to drive anywhere because it's on a cul de sac.

[B]

Now, do you harbor this rat, squirrel, or rhino in your house right now? Are you the token loser for this year?

[D]

I lost guacamole. So I have this rhino head. Okay, Here's. I like to cook. That's my. That's my free time. That's what I like to do is cook. Anyway, I got a whole bunch of white people judging my guacamole. Okay, I'm not racist, but I'll stereotype the out of you. Anyway. So they don't like my guacamole too

[B]

much cilantro because it tastes like soap.

[D]

No, man, no.

[B]

It's too chunky. Not chunky enough.

[D]

I don't know. Maybe it's not bland enough.

[B]

Yeah, for my husky ass.

[D]

Jesus.

[C]

Adam Martin's gonna have to green go up green go up his guacamole next year so he can win.

[D]

Just. You just don't want to lose.

[B]

What you got to do is you got to go to Publix and you get the. That's already made. And you peel the cellophane off and dump it in There. That's what these white people really like, right?

[D]

Here's a funny confession, though. Here's. Here's. This. My wife loves this freaking rhino head and it looks great at our place. So she took claim to it and she found another. Another thing. It is this 24 inch tall

[C]

gorilla

[D]

that's skin is out of leather and it's falling apart. And that's the new trophy for the guacamole because we're keeping the rhino.

[B]

Because your wife likes the rhino.

[D]

Yeah, she loves this rhino. It's got a lot of character.

[B]

Will you do me a favor? Will you text me a picture of this rhino when you go home?

[C]

Yeah, absolutely.

[B]

I would love to see.

[C]

Absolutely.

[D]

Absolutely. The. I can probably find a picture.

[B]

So. So what do you see when you walk into your house? Oh, a bayonet from my hero. War hero father. Veteran. What about you? Paper mache rhino from some tweakers in Palm Harbor.

[D]

Yeah, those guys are funny. But the. But it's. It's got a lot of character. This thing's got soul, man. And it's always a good. It's a good. It makes you feel good when you see it because you know what it is.

[B]

But how'd you score on the margarita? Was your margarita good?

[D]

Top notch. All right. Top notch. I don't feel.

[B]

Oh, how do you make a margarita? Because that's why people don't know we got to go to like Taco Bell and order the margarita.

[D]

No, I. I'm real simple. Real simple. Margarita or Margaret tequila, lime juice, soda water, splash of simple syrup.

[B]

All right, that's it.

[D]

You don't need to be fancy.

[B]

Do we salt the rim?

[D]

I don't. I don't. That's me.

[B]

Okay.

[D]

My. I bought my wife a ninja slush.

[B]

Do you have one of these things?

[D]

Yeah, but I got those professional. It's got four bottles. Four bottles of wine. Capacity for slushies.

[B]

Oh, dang.

[D]

Yeah, I'm not going small.

[B]

Damn.

[D]

What are you gonna do?

[B]

Feel like a jit over?

[D]

Okay, it works great. Mine's still in the box.

[C]

Yeah, Honey, you're making frozen margaritas.

[D]

That. My wife was dropping that. She spoke that this week. She said, I'm gonna make frozen margaritas. Knock yourself out, man.

[B]

Well, now you got something you can. You can take that thing out of the box today.

[D]

It's worth practicing.

[C]

Sydney told me earlier that frozen espresso martinis were delicious.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

She does like frozen sangria. And we have this ninja because the listening people aren't have it there's no camera here. We have this, like, Ninja slushy machine with this big, you know, like the slushies you get at the gas station. Like a homeowner1 by Mr. Ninja and she does, like, frozen sand Korea and espresso martinis.

[D]

That's awesome. That's awesome. That's practical, but that's. Marti here. I get the four bottle banger.

[B]

Well, yeah, I like it. Marti, the four bottle banger.

[D]

I got it. I have to put that thing in the pantry. I can't leave it out. Yeah, it doesn't fit underneath the cabinets.

[B]

So we're having. Yeah. I didn't feel very good the past couple of days. Marti and I woke up feeling like a big bag of dicks. This morning, to be honest with you, didn't feel so hot. But I hope I feel well, tomorrow. We are supposed to have a party tomorrow. A music festival. You've heard of Coachella or Stagecoach or Burning Man? Well, out there, out that window, Marti, is our LAKE that is 50% gone because of the drought. And behind the boat that's on land, you see that green, pretty looking stuff that's normally under about 4 to 5ft of water? Well, it was about three weeks ago. We went out there in the afternoon, all the parents and my neighbors would come over, and my kids found, like 45 golf balls in the lake. Cause the water's so low. So I drag a grill out there. I drag a cooler. We're grilling burgers, dogs. I got the outdoor audio screaming at 100%, playing music. And we called it our Coachella music festival, and we actually rebranded it Mudnecker. So the kids are playing in the mud. We have all these golf balls and a pitch and wedge. And the kids would be, I don't know, 80ft away from us. Look at us. And we'd hit the golf balls at our kids. They'd run around and not get hit. And then pick up the golf balls and bring them back over. We ended up having a big pallet fire. Everyone's dancing around, having a time out there in our own desert of a music festival. So we are scheduled to have Coachella 2.0 tomorrow. And I have, remember, had around Halloween, had like a bunch of skeletons in my front yard.

[D]

Yep.

[B]

Well, I have, like, black lights that shine up on the skeletons and make them all, like, glowy in the darky. So I'm gonna bring my black lights out there to Coachella tomorrow for, like, bonfire. What have you. And I ordered a couple hundred glow sticks I ordered UV light body paint for our kids to like, paint themselves. And then you. You know the movie Encanto?

[D]

Yep.

[B]

You know, at the end when the two sisters get along, they're singing the song and they're flying around and like they're flinging the powdery shit of all the air, all the different colors. Yeah, Well, I bought a big bag of that crap. So we're going to have Coachella music festival, and the kids are going to have a color powder fight and we're going to paint ourselves and glow in the dark stuff and dancing around in our underwear in the middle of our lake tomorrow.

[D]

Yeah. And. And I get. I got called swing around the Cul de sac. Okay.

[B]

Would you like to. Would you like to make guacamole for us?

[D]

That'd be wonderful. We have a. We have a plan. It's. My wife's lifelong friend is having her 50th birthday celebration.

[B]

All right.

[D]

And so we're gonna spend time with her and be happy.

[B]

Is it up in Caliente or.

[D]

No, toward the beach. Toward. In Pinellas County. Okay. Not there, but that's where my wife grew up. Out there. And. But that's it. But that sounds like a good time. That's the redneck kind of stuff.

[B]

The kids have a mud fight and they run around. You hit golf balls at them. And we would do like the balloon

[D]

launcher stuff for the kids. Abuse alcohol, knuckleball balloons.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

Take a kid's decleet. A kid, you know, shoulder blades hitting the ground first.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. So we're gonna. That's what we're supposed to be doing tomorrow.

[D]

That's awesome. That's a good time.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

All right, well, tell me something about Arboriculture. What's your least like thing that you do? 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?

[C]

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

[B]

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

[C]

Intrigue Media is fast tracking lead volume for both Skyfrog, 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.

[B]

what's your least like character trait about independent tree service?

[D]

Wait a minute. There you go. About independent tree service.

[B]

About Jordan, up cabbage.

[D]

No, you're. You're good.

[B]

He puts me on the spot on my.

[C]

What made.

[D]

All right, so that doesn't. That doesn't.

[C]

So I've lived this train with Jordan, right, Since he's come to work at independent tree Service. From the time we left Gainesville, we've been each other's business consultants and HR consultants and all this stuff. And at the point in time in history where Jordan's finally ready to hire a salesperson, he puts an ad down. Out. You put an ad out on Indeed.

[B]

During a webinar. I was in a Jeffrey Scott peer group webinar during a breakout session, and I was talking to some schmo in some other state talking about a salesperson and that it was a fantasy and I didn't know how to do it or how to attract somebody. And he goes, well, have you done Indeed? I said, no. I thought about it. He goes, well, do it right now. So as I'm in a breakout session of a peer group during a webinar, I fill out the Indeed app.

[C]

Okay. And so then Marti. How soon was it before Marti, you applied on Indeed?

[D]

I think I picked up.

[B]

Picked up the phone call. Yeah, that. That piece of cut bait soaked for three days or less.

[D]

It was just. Just the way things worked. We were. I was with a different tree service and Pinellas, and those guys are superstars. They're great. They're great people. No complaint with them. I live in Tampa. I was, you know, hoping we would do more in Tampa area, and they told me it was going to kind of work out where I was going to be more focused. And that's. That's the way I interpreted it. And it just wasn't really happening for me. It was a lot of driving around. It was for me. And at that time, younger kid that needed a lot more attention. So I. So I need. I couldn't really stay that far away that, that long. It was kind of.

[B]

Addie Mae was a younger kid, and

[D]

it was wearing on me. The. The time, the travel time, nothing. No knock on the other company at all. And it just. This has just been really nice because I'm close to home and these guys are so easy to work with. I don't even tell these guys when I'm taking off. I just schedule it off. And as long as there's work, they don't. They don't bust my chops.

[B]

So what made you put blue on the calendar, man? Put blue on the calendar.

[C]

So were you. Were you already familiar with independent tree service?

[D]

Yeah, yeah, familiar, familiar. You know, I met Jordan a couple times. Just bumping into him, and the only

[B]

time I recall was at Dave Riley's retirement party.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah. And. And then another time we were in Ybor City.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Competing against each other.

[B]

Competing on a bid.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And. But. But that was it. And I had. I had my own thoughts about. I was expecting Jordan to be. Is his dad set him up well, and he's gonna be, you know, kind of an a hole.

[B]

That's. Silver spoon, buddy.

[D]

That's where I was.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Honest. And you know what? Jordan's a hustler. Jordan's a hustler. You know, he's not the first guy to develop a plant health care division, but he's going to work harder than everybody else, and he's going to make it happen. And that's. That's pretty awesome, you know, so I like that about him and talking with him. He's got great ideas. I've learned a lot from Jordan, and I'm. I'm way older than Jordan, and I learned a lot from him. So he's an impressive guy.

[B]

Yeah. You only got me about 10 years.

[D]

I don't know. This month is my birthday. I turned 50, man.

[B]

50 in May.

[D]

May 25th.

[B]

I'm gonna have to write. Okay, now I gotta get you.

[D]

Memorial Day is my birthday.

[B]

May 29, by Marti. Store bought. Got it.

[D]

The Memorial Day is always my birthday. It's always a party. It's always a good time. Yeah, it's a good time. I barely remember any of them then.

[B]

That. That's the problem. So sometimes there's a lot of college and we were talking with Zach Pitchford earlier today, buddy. I don't remember a lot of working with Zach. You know, I'm sure we had some really good projects, but I don't. I'm sure we were there. That's it. All right. What do we do from here? Are we done? We got anything else we want to talk about?

[C]

Let's get to Marty's. Got more wisdom in there. We got to pull him out. I think the trick about telling. Calling the office and having them, you know, find out where a jump site is and go and drive by. Then Washing the crew is a phenomenal piece of advice. That's a great thing to. A great card to pull out of your head.

[D]

It is. That is. It works. I don't. I don't know how many times, how

[B]

many, but it's like they. It's almost like you're bluffing, but you're not bluffing. They're like, oh, damn.

[D]

Call me out.

[B]

All right. I instantly trust you. Yeah.

[C]

How many people have you had go and do it?

[D]

I don't know. I don't know. I just call my office. Christie would be a better answer. Would have a better answer. But what other.

[C]

What other sales tips and tricks do you have up your sleeve?

[D]

I don't know necessarily. My. My biggest trick, my biggest tip, if I told. If somebody wanted to do it, is ask more questions. Ask more than you speak. Because just you can hear if somebody say, she's been a great tree to me, but this other guy said, I got to cut her down.

[B]

How come they're always female?

[D]

I'm curious. You there.

[B]

It's always a she.

[D]

Chicks are crazy. Dudes are. You know how it goes. It's just the way it goes. No, but. But just listen to the customer, and they'll kind of give you what you need. But you need to ask a lot of questions because you don't know, you know, don't talk about aesthetics, because I like blue eyes. They like green eyes, whatever. So don't talk about aesthetics with them. But to ask a lot of questions. What are they trying to do?

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Like, there's so many times you walk up, I'll own somebody, they say, I want to cut that branch off. And cut that branch off. I own them right there. Why? Tell me why. What are you trying to achieve? I know that. I know that seven out of eight tree service said, okay, I'll cut that branch off. Yep. And I said, you're going to take another 3,000 pounds of weight off of that tree, and in the end, you're going to cause damage.

[A]

Why?

[D]

I can achieve the same exact goal by cutting off £150 off the end of that branch, and I win.

[B]

Would you like a Miller Light?

[D]

Who doesn't like a Miller Light?

[B]

Jason, Would you like a Miller Light, a High noon, or a tea drink?

[C]

Tea drink?

[B]

Lemonade or pink lemonade?

[D]

Give him a pink lemonade.

[B]

Well, he is a ginger.

[D]

Give him the pink lemonade. I had to explain myself at the. At the liquor store the other day. I was buying my wife a box of Truly's. Okay. And I was Wearing. I was wearing a teal green. A teal blue shirt with pink lettering. And the. The guy at the liquor store looked at me and I was like, dude, I'm not gay. I'm married.

[B]

Hey.

[C]

What?

[B]

I'm gonna go get something I want to show you,

[D]

but I was doing yard work all last weekend, and I was hitting the Truly's hard. I don't know how I was tripping over those things in the back of the truck.

[C]

Yeah, it's refreshing.

[D]

They are. I didn't know about. I didn't know about them. We were on the boat and we had come back from the boat. My wife was drinking and they were in the cooler and I'm washing the boat and I'm sweating. So let's get it. I'm drinking these things. I'm crushing cans like Popeye does spinach. And half hour later, ten of them in. It was hard to get off that boat.

[B]

I missed the story.

[C]

That's all right.

[B]

We don't need a rehash it. I wanted to get something. You know how we got trees? Florida coming up June 1st, 2nd, and 3rd last year. I went and I brought my kids, Sawyer and Axley. We dicked off at the beach, did the social stuff, skipped all the seminars. I'm gonna practice that quite a bit. Bringing Sawyer and Axley with me on Sunday. And then when Honey gets off work on Monday, she and Callan are gonna come spend Monday night and Tuesday night. So I got these for Sawyer, Axley and Callan so they could be all branded with me. I love it. And I thought that would look cool with my posse of kids with their black Columbias, same as I wear with embroidered independent tree service on the chest.

[D]

I love it. That's cool.

[B]

You know who made this hat? You know who made this possible?

[D]

Who's that?

[B]

Brear.

[D]

Really?

[C]

Yep.

[B]

I said brear. Here's some shirts. I need this done. Can you handle it? And voila.

[C]

Does Brier have an embroidery machine in her pocket?

[B]

I told her to go to Mr. Stitches and the mall that did this shirt.

[C]

Nice.

[B]

And the company that does our screen printing couldn't do these small shirts and resize it because it's too difficult for them and couldn't give me the artwork for independent tree service. So Mr. Stitches figured it out and made their own. And it was a piece of cake for him. So she handled it. That was super nice.

[D]

But it's not exactly like the one that the other guy does.

[B]

Right.

[D]

It's just a little different.

[B]

It is not red exactly.

[D]

It Is not definitely not exactly the same as the ones we wear regular basis. Close.

[B]

Way to. Way to throw salt in it, but close enough. Yeah, close enough.

[C]

Well, let's talk trees, Florida for a minute.

[B]

All right.

[C]

Okay, so you've. It's the first through the third.

[B]

It is June 1st, 2nd and 3rd. That is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

[C]

What day do I need to come?

[B]

Not Sunday, the first or the second. Everyone goes home on the third. The fun family deal is Monday night. The pub crawl is Monday night. So you can go pub crawling Monday. You could do fun family deal Monday. And then the social media that is themed yacht rock is on Tuesday.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Are you going socialize?

[D]

Yeah, just to socialize.

[B]

Oh, you're going.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Did you register?

[D]

Oh, okay.

[B]

Do you have a hotel?

[D]

No.

[B]

Do you want a hotel?

[D]

No. Oh, no, I'm just gonna show up. Me and my wife will show up out there.

[C]

I need to get the hotel room and register.

[D]

I did not. But I. But I love to see those guys. My wife, I always tell her stories about tree guys and, and anyway, she's. She's seen a couple of tree guys that I used to work with and she sees Jordan, she says, man, these tree guys are all good looking. They look nothing like you tell them.

[B]

So you go into seminars or you just showing up?

[D]

Just gonna show up to socialize. Just to say hello. Put have my shirt on just to say hello to everyone.

[B]

Oh, cool.

[D]

That's. That's all from.

[B]

You're. So you're gonna go like from 4:30 to 9?

[D]

Sure.

[B]

All right, sure.

[D]

My wife and I got married out there.

[B]

San Key.

[D]

San Key.

[B]

Really?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

It was beautiful. You know, come to find out, Allie from Orlando, who is like in charge of the exhibitor, said if anyone can reach out to exhibitors, we need more exhibitors. So I called Bob with Rental X said, bob, we ain't got a nifty lift dealer. Do you want to come be an exhibitor? And he said, he asked where it was. I said, Sheridan Sankey goes. Oh yeah, that's the same trade show event. Hold that. We do our rental Y things at. I know exactly where it's at. So Bob with Rental X is going to be exhibiting there. He's here.

[D]

He's gonna do okay.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

Because.

[B]

Yeah, they haven't seen Nifty Lift at one of those yet.

[D]

You're gonna pimp his product too?

[B]

I mean, no, there's no. Well, maybe I'll get cut. We always get cut to the front of the line for service. Yeah. So. Yeah. Well, if you're outside of my service area. I'll pimp your product if you're in my service area. It's dog. You don't want it, I'll hook you up, bro.

[D]

4ths, commish.

[B]

4ths, commish. That's great. Yeah. So hook you up.

[C]

So you buy your, you buy the nifty list from.

[B]

Okay, Yep. We buy them and then we will purchase new and then sell our old ones. So like the agreement we have is Bob, we're going to buy them from you, but you need to sell them for us. So Bob will handle the sales and then once he makes the sales, he gives us the money. But that way he's constantly selling new machines to us.

[D]

It's like drinking beer. You rent it.

[B]

Yeah. So.

[D]

No, but that's awesome that you're not. You're not an equipment sales guy.

[B]

No, I don't have time.

[D]

I've got time to mess.

[B]

Yeah, he knows the people.

[D]

Yeah, it's good. And all of our stuff, our. Our worst piece of equipment looks better than most people's brand new.

[B]

I would agree with that.

[D]

We don't have time. We have no downtime. We can't have downtime.

[B]

We got really good looking stuff. We got really good looking equipment. Marti, I'm bidden. I don't know if I told you this. I tell you about the job in Kissimmee, Mile long roadway. I tell you about trying to get a Cinnebogan to do it.

[D]

That sounds awesome.

[B]

So I found, I called Cinnebogen in North Carolina or wherever and I can't rent one. They don't have any to rent and a month's too short anyways. If they did, there's a guy in Odessa at Hutchison and North Mobley that has a Cinnabogan Joe's, whatever, whatever tree service. I've never seen it before. And I googled him. Young kid, if this is the same guy. And he says that Ramo moves it around on a lowboy with a tractor trailer. And I said, well, how often do you use it? He says, every day. But I've never seen it. I've never seen it down the road. I've never seen it on a job site. So I'm a little puzzled. Then there's another guy outside of Orlando that owns one. So I have a meeting with my client not next week, but the following week to drive it and look at it all. But maybe subbing it to somebody that owns this machine to then put just a grapple truck out there. I don't know. I would like to self perform it though.

[D]

It's.

[B]

I don't know.

[D]

That's tough. I don't know the job. I don't know the job. But that's a fun piece of equipment to play with there.

[B]

I found a used one. They're only like 500 grand.

[D]

Sit. Piece of cake.

[B]

Only and then, then I was thinking about it. Okay. We come off 500 grand. Do you think we would use one enough to own one? Would it be smarter to own a crane?

[D]

We would have to start, you know, build it. They will come buy it. Then you'll find work for it. You know, we'll have to start hunting more municipalities municipal work because it's got to be close to the right of ways to where we can. And we'll have to hunt that product that hunt those jobs and buy a

[B]

tractor trailer and buy a low boy cdls driver.

[D]

Cdls this maze.

[B]

Yeah. Seems like a big pain in the ass. Until it works. Until it works.

[D]

Yeah. But build it. They will come, man.

[B]

We'll see how this one goes.

[D]

We didn't sell the first bit of fertilizer until we sold it.

[C]

That's a good point.

[B]

Yeah. I didn't do my first lightning protection system until I sold it. Like, oh, damn it. Now I gotta do it.

[D]

We gotta raise the rates.

[B]

Yep. That is the truth.

[D]

Well, that's how it is, man. You learn. That's. That's what's funny about these guys. There's, there's, it's all from the hip. If it works, it works. And we'll keep rolling. We'll keep rolling the dice. If it's worth refining, we can refine it. But no science behind it. No science.

[B]

Ain't nobody got time for that. Let's see if it hit. If it hits, it hits.

[D]

Ouch.

[C]

Educated hypothes the way.

[B]

Ouch. We haven't really like gotten screwed by anything.

[D]

We're not knuckleheads. No, we know what we're doing.

[B]

Take educated shots.

[D]

We know what we're doing. We, we've been down some roads. We know how we know. We can see things going sideways.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

If I can avoid that sideways slide, I'm good.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

No, really, the only thing is like putting people in positions that they're not the best at. But we haven't like. I don't know. I thought about doing Christmas lights, but we've never done it. I thought about it, had John do a lot of research on it. But we haven't like screwed anything up or had to like stop doing something.

[D]

No, we're good.

[B]

Yeah, Pretty good.

[C]

Christmas, I think, can still be filling the wintertime. Filling a wintertime void.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I've seen some elaborate houses, man, where they wrapping columns inside the house and all this stuff. And the guy's like, I make a phone call January 1st and they come pick it up the next day. Okay. It's crazy.

[B]

Sounds like a great.

[D]

It sounds like it sounds great.

[C]

My buddy Arnie up in. He's outside. Outside of Boston. He's got a. He's now gotten rid of his landscape maintenance business, but he's got a weed man franchise doing lawn applications.

[B]

Is that. Is weed man a fert and chem deal?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Okay. And then he's got a holiday light franchise, Christmas decor. And man, they start. And it works out for him because he's able to utilize a lot of the. I mean, similar to you guys, if you're slowing down in the winter or us, we slow down the winter. He does all these lawn applications and about the time the applications stop, they start hanging lights. And then after New Year's they start taking lights down. And springtime, when everything starts growing, he needs to fertilize again then. I mean, he does have to hire some other people for lights, but a lot of his guys working around because of it. So

[D]

I don't know. I don't know. Clients will ask me to do some oddball stuff like take down a fence. I'm like, we can take down the fence, but I can only guarantee we'll put it back. Is the best that any tree guy is going to put it back.

[B]

I tell people I'm not a fence contractor. It's like the hardest part is making it level and that the latch is going to close.

[D]

Yeah. So I told I. I give them an option. This is what I will charge you to do it for. And I put on there to the best of tree service, tree crew will ability. Okay. It's. It's comical that I write that, but I hope that works. I hope that covers our butt.

[B]

Or what are we gonna mess with it for an hour and a half with a whole crew dicking with a fence?

[D]

I know what a crew cost.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I know what. I know what I need for my crew hour.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

That's what I'm putting on it. You know, why not?

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Or you call it professional. So it's done and I don't want to mess with it.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, one thing that you started doing that stings less is disposing of Stump grinding chips. You just throw a line on it.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Now I just always throw a line item on it. And if you want me to haul it away. It used to be a giant pain in the ass in my head. Now it's not. It's a billable thing. If we got to haul it away, great, we'll haul it away. It's this much money.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And I just bid it on the front end and take it or leave it.

[D]

Yeah, I just leave it as an option.

[B]

No, it's no big deal.

[D]

I charge money to for line clearance. You know, we were never charging for it because it was just like, phone calls. It was a headache and a hassle. But one of these jobs, you know, four months down the road that we've been putting off a customer for, and I've made 25 phone calls to Tampa Electric. I put a charge on there. Yes. I'm putting in hours for this, and it's always a stress and pressure. So I started charging for it.

[B]

You get any pushback?

[D]

No, never. Never once. And I've done it dozens of times. I just had one. South Tampa, they're burying all the lines.

[B]

Yep.

[D]

I put a charge in, called Tampa Electric to do line clearance, and the client called me. Hey, they just pulled the lines down. The lines are gone.

[B]

Perfect.

[D]

Home run. You're on the schedule next week.

[B]

Yeah, actually in double that charge because I got your lines gone. Yeah, I did that favor for you.

[D]

Tampa, like, just does not care.

[B]

God, they suck. I called in an SOS I told a little white lie that there was tree branches touching a power line causing a fire today. Today. I did this.

[D]

I did it last week.

[B]

A lot of fire. Trees are dry, bubba.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

It hasn't rained, man. Do I call the fire department or you guys? Who do I call first?

[B]

Yeah. So I got Tico to cut it away from the line. Sergio was there yesterday, and he goes, jordan, I can't cut the tree. It's in the. It's in the lines. I go, son of a bitch. I missed that. And then I was busy yesterday. I had a dentist appointment, blah, blah, blah. Didn't call it in. Steve calls me, goes, hey, how's my job going? So I called Tico this morning. They cut the trees today. And I think Breer is there now finishing the removal.

[D]

Awesome. Yeah, awesome. She did great today running crews. Yeah, she did great. Yeah, she did great, man. You see, she's our plant healthcare tech, and we threw because of some guys needed to schedule off for whatever we had to throw her out. On the truck and she did great, man. She did great. Yeah, she was a little. She was a little. A little curveball for her today as opposed to filling up her tanks and getting every scheduling her day out by herself, managing herself. She had to manage a crew. She was a little flustered this morning, but I. I went and appeared on the first job of the day, and she was cool as a cucumber dude.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Knocked it out the client. The client was ecstatic. Walked out of there with a check everything and a five star review.

[B]

Read the work order. It's all there.

[C]

Does she. Does she fill up at your shop with water and normally doesn't run out during the day?

[B]

No, she'll. She'll run out during the day and then fill at a client's house that she runs out at.

[D]

Yeah, it's a 200 gallons. Yeah, 200 gallon sink.

[C]

Got it.

[D]

It's not that bad.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, you got a better mousetrap, like filling on a hydrant.

[C]

I will be.

[B]

Yeah, I will be.

[C]

I will be. After seeing how efficient it is after we played the fire sprinkler game the other day, it's like, oh, I'm 100% just going to fill up our spray truck and our water tank. Yes. Yes. Thank you for leaving the fire hydrant key in the grass in front of the shop with the building burn down. Whoops. I was walking around the next morning and I said, oh, this is going to come in handy.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So fast.

[D]

Local landscape professional got busted felony for water fraud. That's why your whole neighborhood burnt down. Low water pressure because of this guy.

[B]

That's why dad named you Joe Dirt,

[C]

So.

[B]

All right, I'm tired of talking for today. Are you tired of talking, Marti? You done getting grilled?

[D]

It was a pleasure talking with you guys today, man. Thanks for inviting me, Marti.

[B]

It was a pleasure. I love working with you, buddy. And I can't wait to see a picture of this rhino when you get home. I want to see it, and then I'll send you a picture of our swingers party at Coachella tomorrow. I'll be wearing some short shorts, always with neon paint all over my thighs.

[D]

Yeah, that was Jordan. Jordan told me that. He said I need to get shorter shorts so I could sell more work.

[B]

Yeah, you guys.

[D]

That's right. That's the evolution now.

[B]

Yeah, man, you gotta show some leg.

[D]

Yeah, but I'm 50. I gotta watch it. These things are sweaty.

[B]

You gotta wear a jock strap because things are dragging, your ears are getting longer, and your balls are hitting your knees. And on that note, if you would like to get in touch with Marti, email jasonkyfroglandscape.com all right, listeners, appreciate it. See ya.

[D]

Bye.

[A]

As you continue your journey toward entrepreneurial success. 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.

[D]

Sam.