Ep 131. How to Control: Snails, Fungi, and Administrative Tasks

Summary

Green Side Up: Ep 131

How to Control: Snails, Fungi, and Administrative Tasks

Hosts: Jason Lee & Jordan Upcavage
Air Date: July 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this practical, banter-filled episode, Jason and Jordan dig into the dual weeds of the landscaping and tree care business: pest problems (snails and fungi) and the administrative headaches that come with running a small business. They swap real-world stories from the field, including planting battles, troubleshooting fungal outbreaks in new developments, and the ongoing challenge of finding efficient help—both in person and remotely. Along the way, they trade business advice, product insights, and honest admissions of what’s working and what’s still a work-in-progress in their operations.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Landscape Battles: Weeds, Snails, and Seasonal Work

• [01:56] Jason’s Median Project:
  Jason describes maintaining challenging medians in Alachua where temperature extremes “smoke the plants,” stressing both liriope and society garlic, and creating a “breeding ground for snails in the middle of the road.”
  • Snail problem escalation: First time Jason’s seen snails devastate society garlic; not enough snail bait applied, admits logistical difficulties: “You can only apply snail bait so often, per label, per the bag… it kind of keeps them in check.” (02:28)
  • Plant Replacements: Swapping in drift roses for increased drought tolerance. Noting unpredictability, Jason says:

    “I’m going to roll the dice on drift roses and plant two of the beds … and see how they do.” (03:18)

• [06:39] Scale of Operations:
  Pine straw application timed for July 4th celebration: 300 bales to be spread, aiming to have the crew off by noon Friday.
• [07:10] Operational Hiccups:
  Equipment issues delay sod installation—common in high-turnover, hot summer work.

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2. Winning (and Losing) Tree Service Projects

• [08:09] Jordan’s Remote Bidding Story:
  Jordan shares a success bidding a tree removal from Google Maps, winning a road project without a site visit. His crew finished in less time than expected thanks to a “kick-ass team and a little luck.”

  “You know how you look at a project—like, if everything goes right, they’re going to smoke this, but if something doesn’t… I’ll get kicked in the shorts here.” (09:40)

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3. Plant Healthcare in Large Developments: Diagnosing and Prescribing

• [12:43] Problem Diagnosis in a Mega-Development:
  Jordan details a bid for plant health care in a new residential community—malfunctioning irrigation, standing water, and tough clay soils lead to declining oak trees.
  • Multiple causes: over/under watering, reclaimed water shortages, herbicide “mystery stress,” Phytophthora fungus, and mulch volcanoes.
  • Data-driven solutions:

    “We put together a plan… a three-page deal explains the problems and the theory of how we’re going to have to apply our prescription in a strategized sequence of events.” (18:03)

• [23:27] Specific Product Regimen:
  • Hydrotain (granular): Wetting agent for moisture regulation.
  • Lesco CrossCheck (Bifenthrin): Insecticide for ant control.
  • Qualified F (Mono and Dipotassium Salts of Phosphorous Acid): Fungicide for soil-borne diseases.
  • Mitigro (mycorrhizae/bacteria/vitamins/hormone blend): Post-fungicide root/soil improvement.
    • “Each tree would get five quarts of fungicide solution… 0.8 pounds of product.” (25:02)
• Strategic Bid Structuring:
  Minimum of 40 trees per phase to match tank capacity and minimize inefficiencies.
• Documentation and Administrative Delegation:
  Jordan guides his team through math, bidding, and contingency planning. Praises his staff’s autonomy:

  “It was so fun that I didn’t do this task—that I was able to push it on to Brer… really fun to assist somebody in learning how to do [complex proposals].” (32:08)

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4. Mangrove Management & Urban Jobs

• [37:16] Mangrove Trimming Logistics:
  Strict environmental regulations shape workflow. Creative solutions needed:

  “MK was dangling down off his climbing line with shears… trimming the top of the mangrove glorified hedge from a rope and saddle from an overhead aerial lift basket.” (39:00)

• [40:46] City Permitting Hassle for Urban Projects:
  Right-of-way, road closures, multiple overlapping jurisdictions, and ballooning costs:

  “It’s added about $30,000 to the project—just in right of way stuff… and I’m not making a ton of money on the markup. It’s not worth it anyway with how much effort I’ve had to put in.” (40:46)

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5. Administrative Struggles: Check Fraud and Hiring Virtual Assistants

• [45:50] Office Transitions and Check Fraud:
  Jason’s office manager leaves; check fraud forces a bank account switch, triggering a huge admin headache:

  “It’s every day there’s a new form… every day there’s a payment that didn’t go through… just know that you’re going to have a little pain and suffering.” (46:20)

• [48:50] Hiring Virtual Assistants (VAs):
  Two part-time VAs hired via Stamp Staff—a test in offshoring admin work.
  • Early tasks: bookkeeping, call handling, sales process support, and reporting.
  • Structured onboarding: daily start/end-of-day reports, SingleOps software and process training.
  • Security and Trust Concerns:
    Insight into risk management for VAs with sensitive financial access.

    “We are still operating in a factor of trying to cover our ass. … We have put measures in place to try and mitigate that risk.” (59:01)

• [57:13] Cost Advantage:
  Two part-timers cost “one third the cost of the (original) position”; potential to increase hours as KPIs and tasks expand.

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6. Tech & Efficiency in the Business

• [52:24] AI and Automation:
  Using Leanscaper’s AI for idea generation and communication, plus GS Track Me for tracking field crew behavior and inefficiencies.
• [62:03] Chasing Inefficiencies:
  Tracking crew stops at stores and gas stations to tighten up operations, planning to use VAs for daily inefficiency tracking.

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7. Camaraderie, Humor, and Real Talk

• Notable Lighthearted Moments:
  • “Fuzzies”: Jason can’t recall Jordan’s “professional” term for new growth (“Is it a real term? No, it’s a word you made up.” (35:19))
  • Robot mower mishaps: “I think it ran over a rope or something my kids left in the backyard… now it’s chewing away and there’s spinach all over the backyard.” (54:00)
  • Gator Tag Lottery Laments: Annual disappointment over not being drawn for prime alligator tags.

    “10 years… you’d think I’d get something!” (64:14)

• Mutual Encouragement:
  • “Godspeed on that, man. I hope you have intensive success.” (60:06)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Snail Control Innovations:
  “This is the first time I’ve ever had snails eat society garlic… they cover them.” – Jason Lee (02:50)

• On Trialing New Plant Solutions:
  “I’m going to roll the dice on drift roses and plant two of the beds and see how they do.” – Jason Lee (03:18)

• On Winning with Preparation (and Luck):
  “...if everything goes right, they're going to smoke this, but if something doesn't go right, I'm going to get kicked in the shorts here.” – Jordan Upcavage (09:40)

• Plant Health Care Program Structure:
  “Her narration was beautiful… Phase one is site prep. That’s them getting their irrigation and the overburden and mulch figured out. Phase two is environmental stabilization… Phase three, soil rehabilitation and reinforcement… Phase four… monitoring and evaluation.” – Jordan Upcavage (31:08)

• On Administrative Struggle:
  “It’s every day there’s a new form… a new payment that didn’t go through. Just know you’re going to have a little pain and suffering.” – Jason Lee (46:20)

• On Bringing in VAs:
  “This experiment of having VAs in our business—I’ve wanted to do for the past three or four years, and our office manager fought me on the idea… I’m very confident it’s going to get done. All the things we’ve talked about.” – Jason Lee (55:13 & 56:02)

• On Risk with Remote Hires:
  “We have put measures in place to try to mitigate that risk.” – Jason Lee (59:01)

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Important Timestamps

• [02:47] Snail outbreak and society garlic being decimated
• [04:22] Drift roses for drought tolerance debate
• [08:09] Tree removal job—from bid to successful completion
• [12:43] Massive development with struggling oaks: irrigation and clay soil woes
• [23:27] Stepwise care plan: hydrotain, insecticide, fungicide, mitigro
• [25:02] Per-tree math for chemical applications
• [40:46] $30K permitting headache for a downtown urban removal
• [45:50] Check fraud and the domino effect on admin
• [48:50] Onboarding virtual assistants; daily structure and reporting
• [54:00] Robot mower chew-out: home DIY drama
• [57:13] Cost of VAs vs. in-house admin
• [62:03] Plans to monitor and curb crew time-wasting

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Wrap-up & Next Steps

• Upcoming Check-ins:

  • One-week update on VA experiment at Sky Frog
  • Follow-up on plant healthcare bid outcome
  • Jordan to report how the invasive vegetation removal bid goes

• Teaser for Next Time:

  • More on tightening crew efficiency in the mornings and reducing lost time
  • Updates on social media content plans for Green Side Up
  • Gator hunting season stories ahead

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Tone: Down-to-earth, candid, supportive, and peppered with humor—these hosts don’t shy away from the messy realities of the green industry, and they deliver lessons learned, not pre-packaged success.

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Good for:

• Landscape & tree care business owners
• Field managers troubleshooting pests, soil, and plant healthcare
• Entrepreneurs seeking practical admin hacks
• Anyone craving real talk about the unpredictable, “never a dull moment” grind of the green industries

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Listen for:
Hands-on approaches to “controlling” not just snails and fungi, but the ever-tricky administrative weeds of running a small business.

Transcript

[Narrator]

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.

[Jason Lee]

Welcome back to this week's episode of the Green side Up podcast. Jordan.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Good morning, Jason Lee. How are you, sir?

[Jason Lee]

I'm doing good, man. I'm doing grand.

[Jordan Upkavage]

The day is early.

[Jason Lee]

The sun is not up. No.

[Jordan Upkavage]

The night's over, though.

[Jason Lee]

Oh, yeah.

[Jordan Upkavage]

And it is time to. Well, it's almost time to, like, fizzle down the work week because I don't know about you over there in Gainesville.

[Jason Lee]

Oh, let me guess. Hold on. Wait, let me guess. You precious tree guys are going to take off on Friday for the 4th of July.

[Jordan Upkavage]

It's America's 250th birthday.

[Jason Lee]

It's we got to do. But we're landscapers. Okay.

[Jordan Upkavage]

This Saturday in Hillsborough county, it's America's birthday. It's called Independence Day. Some call it the Fourth of July. So, yeah, we got some, we got some celebrating to do this weekend.

[Jason Lee]

I had the. The city of Alachua. I don't know if you're familiar with the median job we did in 441. Probably not.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Is that where you planted a bunch of coontie and you were bitching about weeds?

[Jason Lee]

Yes. So we have habitually fought weeds and the crew that's maintaining it now is doing a much better job keeping up with said weeds. But the medians get hammered from the heat in the summer and then it gets extremely cold in Alachua. And I don't know what the cold does when it settles in the highs and the lows of the road there, but it smokes the plants. Like it smokes the coontie down to the ground. Smokes the liriope. I mean. Well, yeah, the liriope and the society garlic. So, like, we've got a fair amount of society garlic that comes back and then we have some that doesn't. And then we have a breeding ground for snails in the middle of the road and the snails eat the society garlic.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Oh, okay.

[Jason Lee]

So this is the first time I've ever had snails eat society garlic. But they are just, I mean, I'll try to take some pictures and send it to you, but they cover them. And then. We have not been that diligent with snail bait. But anyway, the city of Alachua. Every year, we always time our pine straw application for maintenance around the fourth of July because they have a giant celebration for the nation's birthday, as you said. And so we are. They approved some plant replacements to replace some dead material. And then I'm going to be adding.

[Jordan Upkavage]

And that's not your fault the plant dies. It's not your fault.

[Jason Lee]

No, I mean, this is just survival of the fittest. Like, it's not. Yeah, we're doing everything we can. We fertilize and irrigate and then nature does. It's. Does whatever it's doing. I mean, we could be that. I didn't catch this, the snail thing. I don't. But then again, I don't know how to manage that. You can only apply snail bait so often, per label, per the bag. So. And it kind of keeps them in check. But anyway, so we're gonna. We're fixing to do that. We're gonna do spend the next two days. They just approved the proposal yesterday. We're gonna be adding in some drift roses because in my opinion, drift roses can be extremely drought tolerant and hardy as I plant them in unirrigated areas in full sun, and after they're established, they do wonderful. But then again, sometimes we plant them in areas that are irrigated and they should do great. And then they struggle. So I don't. I don't know what the answer is, but I'm going to roll the dice on drift roses and Plant 2. Two of the beds and drift roses and see how they do.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah. There are drift roses in front of my house to the right of my front door, and there's irrigation there, but I don't run it. I haven't run that zone and. Eight months.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah.

[Jordan Upkavage]

And they. They look surprisingly fine.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah. Yeah. The ones, the ones back by my pool, I mean, they've been in there for eight, nine years or more and unirrigated look great. The only problem is I used to whack them every, like twice a year. Just whack them back and then they'd flush out and be great. Well, I kind of skipped a couple years of pruning and then last year I whacked the snot out of them and I mean, cut them back hard, but I cut them back to like really hard wood and then that kind of made them a little angry. They didn't come back. They didn't come back as great as they could, but now they are. Now they are. It just. It put a little shock in their life. So anyway, so if they have a big.

[Jordan Upkavage]

You have like two days to do that.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah. Yeah. So. Yes.

[Jordan Upkavage]

You're doing it today?

[Jason Lee]

We are. Yesterday, once we got approval, was calling the nursery. Hey, can you. I need a delivery Thursday morning, first thing. Can you do that? Yes. Okay. I'm gonna go out and spot the plants. So we're gonna paint out the. Paint out where the plants are going and then get everything ready. The guys will come drill holes. So we'll prep the day.

[Jordan Upkavage]

How many plants?

[Jason Lee]

I don't know, like 283 gallon and 401 gallon plants.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Okay, what are the ones?

[Jason Lee]

Lirapi and a couple society garlic. We're going to be condensing the society garlic beds down because they kind of alter through the medians. That's going to go drift roses. Liriope coontie. Liriope coonti. Anyway, alternating plant types. So. But we're going to be eliminating two society garlic beds and condensing them into the others. So we're going to transplant some of that material.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Oh, well, that's cool, man. So you're gonna do that today and tomorrow?

[Jason Lee]

Yep. Friday, if your scout will be fine. We'll be pine. So Friday.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Okay. Well, how many pine straw bales?

[Jason Lee]

Probably 300.

[Jordan Upkavage]

That's a lot.

[Jason Lee]

So we'll. My goal is to have everybody off by noon on Friday.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah, that's nice. Yeah. Now we are working Thursday. We are not working on Friday. So I blocked that out in the schedule two months ago when I saw it coming down the pipe and said, why not? That's what makes sense. Here's the paid holiday. I really don't want to work on Friday either, so.

[Jason Lee]

Oh, I don't want to work on Friday. It's just. Life is also in Warner Farms, one of their firefly sod cutters is down. So sod is delayed. Yeah, we got a lot of sod. We're supposed to be laying today and I don't think it's coming.

[Jordan Upkavage]

So residential, Commercial.

[Jason Lee]

Residential. Bunch of small. Small. I don't know, two to six pallet jobs.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Oh, residential. Little deep dudes. Do you order a semi truck of it?

[Jason Lee]

Way more of a pain in the ass. I don't know how Ben broke out the logistics. I think we ordered it through Thompson. It's better to pay their markup. And I mean, as long as the grass is coming from as Long as the grass is coming from Warner, the that's all that matters. So pay Thompson their markup and let him broker it and work out the logistics for us, then who cares?

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah. Oh, man. Well, that's all right. Independent tree service. We're doing all right, man. I have, Let me see, kind of did an exciting project, so. Oh, well, it did. I'm gonna find this exciting. There's a. Remember I talked about doing a Cinnabogan job, 100 something miles or whatever of road tree removal. And I bid it. It was very mechanized. I ended up not winning the work because my contact found somebody else to do it for a cheaper price. But that guy was named Dave and he used to work for a site contractor, civil contractor, and that original business that he worked for called me and they have a project up in San Antonio. It's like an hour and change north of Tampa. And they had trees that needed to be cut down along a roadway because they're putting in a turn lane or something. And I bid the whole job from Google Satellite and photographs and Google Street View and won the job. And it was a two day removal for several trees Monday and Tuesday. So I sent Chris Kidd up there with the Nifty 64. He had a giant with him. Sent Terry in the big grapple truck, but Richie there with the stump grinder. We were able to cut and drop trees and do a cow field. You know how you have like country road, two lane road, then you have 10 foot of right of way and then you have barbed wire fence, then you have cow pasture. That's what it was. So I had the contractor remove the chain link or the barbed wire fence. We had permission to drop branches in the cow field. We had permission to drive in the cow field. So the 64 sat on the side of the road dumping the stuff into the cow field. The grapple truck was grabbing it to it. We had to grind the stumps and haul the stump. Grinding chips. And I bid it for two days is what I thought it would take to do. But I charged a rate of two and a half days for like pain in the ass factor, risk mileage. And I got a call at 11:30 yesterday morning and Chris was done with it. So they did it arguably in a day and a half with. We're like, you know how you look at a project? Like if everything goes right, they're going to smoke this, but if something doesn't go right, I'm going to get kicked in the, in the shorts here. But it was a project where Everything went right. Um, and I never went there. I did have my operations manager, John, go there and meet with the contractors and just make sure that I didn't miss a power line that I couldn't see. But it was a big success for that job. So thank you, Chris and team, for smoking it. So that was kind of cool.

[Narrator]

And.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Oh, I don't think I've had anything crazy, but we did. We are working on a cool bid. Well, we're not working on it. We've submitted it there. It's a plant health care bid in Wesley Chapel, Zephyr Hills. That gets kind of muddy between the delineation line of what's Wesley Chapel and what's Zephyr Hills. What?

[Jason Lee]

But Zephyr Hill is south of Wesley Chapel, right? Or east?

[Jordan Upkavage]

North?

[Jason Lee]

North. Okay,

[Jordan Upkavage]

well, let's Google it, because Wesley Chapel's huge.

[Jason Lee]

I just know Wesley Chapel from Ann Lisa's house, and I define Aunt Lisa's house as Wesley Chapel proper. But I might not. That might not be accurate. Yes.

[Jordan Upkavage]

So then it would. Zephyr Hills would be east of Wesley Chapel.

[Jason Lee]

Okay.

[Jordan Upkavage]

But Wesley Chapel will also go very, very east of where Aunt Lisa is, because she's west of the interstate. Right.

[Jason Lee]

Quail Hollow is how it used to be defined.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah. So this area is. Yeah, Eastern Wesley Chapel or western Zephyr Hills is where this is. Anyways, there is a new development that they're slamming in hundreds of houses. You know, you have roads and roundabouts and I mean, maybe it's thousands of houses. It is a massive planned community where there's the pool and the clubhouse and the. I mean, it's gigantic. And there are oak trees that are planted in the right of way, common areas that are going to be sodded and irrigated and the whole bit. And these oak trees, good quality trees. They're grown by a grower. Part of the Roots plus Growers.

[Jason Lee]

Which nursery?

[Jordan Upkavage]

It starts with a Taylor.

[Jason Lee]

No,

[Jordan Upkavage]

Let me see if I still have it open here. 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?

[Jason Lee]

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.

[Jordan Upkavage]

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.

[Jason Lee]

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

[Jordan Upkavage]

Find it here. I'm going to have to search Max from Mitigro because Max was involved with this. The grower tree trends.

[Jason Lee]

Okay.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Do you know of them?

[Jason Lee]

Not really.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Okay. They're part of Roots Plus Growers. Badass looking trees. They were all BNB, probably 6 inch caliper, you know, decent sized trees. And then. Do you know Suggs?

[Jason Lee]

No.

[Jordan Upkavage]

They did the install. Whoever, whoever they are. So these trees are crapping out. Some look okay. Some look God awful, terrible. And Max from Mitigro introduced us to the landscape provider that is in charge of maintaining the landscape in this community. There are a big national brand that's maintaining this and we're trying to figure out what the problem is because these trees have only been in the ground for weeks, weeks to several months. And they are sucking. They're sucking, dude. Like they don't look good. And some of them that have been there a little bit longer, more tip die back like brown leaves. Like they don't look good. So Max invited us to meet the landscape provider to help solve the problem. And we get up there and meet with them and we find that some root balls are way too dry, that there's just insufficient irrigation. You got one bubbler on or then others have two bubblers on it. And then we find out from meeting with the landscape provider that it's all on reclaimed water. But they're having a reclaimed water shortage. So the valves turned on, but no water flowed in the pipe because the municipality turned it off uphill. So they can't water these trees. And then we go down to several other trees and those are swimming in standing water. Absolutely swimming in standing water. So I have trees that are dying of drought. I have other trees that are swimming in water. And then we go down to where a tree's going to be planted. I looked at the hole and it is straight clay. It is a straight clay cereal bowl hole. And one of them is wet and it is modeling clay from art class.

[Jason Lee]

Yep.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Another hole is dry, hard as concrete. So you know how it in that area Like New Tampa or that area, there's clay pockets. So they dug retention ponds. They smeared all the stuff up on the thing and graded it out.

[Jason Lee]

Sounds like Oakmont here.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah, yeah. So it's just God awful. So we put together a plan for them. Oh, and they sent tissue samples to the lab. So they had UF extension, they had Rainbow there, they had Mitigro there, they had all sorts of stuff. There was a theory that maybe somebody spread on mark herbicide around the oak trees for weed control, that maybe it could have been a herbicide stress. So samples came back that there was Phytophthora in many of the oak trees and several of the pine trees that were there. And some of the trees had too much dirt put on top of them and mulch volcanoes. So we put together a plan and when I say we rear put together a plan, she requested that. My Siri keeps turning on. It's blowing me, bothering me. Little spinny circle thing keeps lighting up. My mentor Ken Miller, who is how we have our pesticide license, I suggested that she invite Ken Miller to the site to get a set of eyes that has historical wisdom to look at this as well. And you know of Ken, Jason, I don't think you've ever met him, but used to run a fert and chem business and owned a tree farm and is an arborist and has been in the green industry for decades. So Ken went there, met with Breer and it was awesome because I played a very hands off role on this outside the initial meeting. So Brer and Ken reviewed the job site and came up with a game plan. And Breer put together the proposal of what we're going to do. She did all of the math, all of the writing of the proposal and then she put together some supplemental documents that explain the problems. You know, three page deal explains the problems and the theory of how we're going to have to apply our prescription in a strategized sequence of events. So step one, before we can assume a role, you as the landscaper need to remove the overburden of soil on top of however many of these root balls. And you as the landscaper need to remove these trees with mulch volcanoes. If that can be done. Then you as the landscaper need to figure out your irrigation. You need to change the one bubbler to four or five overhead spray emitters. We need to get more water over surface area instead of just a bubbler just drooling off because there's a clay pocket there. Right. So we want overhead sprays and we need to get it figured out. If you can do those three things, then we can take an assignment. So step one on our assignment is a lot of these have ants all over the place. Okay. So we're going to do an insecticide for the ants. Then we're going to do a humectant wetting agent to help regulate some water flow. Okay. Then we're going to do a fungicidal soil drench to control the phytophthora. So those three action items happen in the first visit.

[Jason Lee]

What are you drenching? What are you drenching for? Fungicide.

[Jordan Upkavage]

What? Name of the fungicide.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah.

[Jordan Upkavage]

I don't know. Breer and Ken did all this. See it. You're keeping me honest.

[Jason Lee]

I think our listeners would want to know, especially those that are invested in plain healthcare in the savings in the saving of trees and or shrubs.

[Jordan Upkavage]

I'll tell you the secrets. Proposal review. Yeah, because it's like scientific, man.

[Jason Lee]

Because I got to come up with the concoction that we were talking about for these Italian cypress and pitch. Pitch. Our client here in Gainesville, I think we've gone through. And I did a massive mitre grow drench on some big oak trees and a pecan tree that is destined for death after they surrounded this root zone with synol and concrete finds. But the fungicide, alternating fungicide concoctions that we were talking about before on Italian cypress. I really don't want to do it, but I have to give some sort of prescription. Yeah. And proposal. So. But a systemic fungicide sounds better than foliar.

[Jordan Upkavage]

I gotta find it. June 23rd. No, that is a plant food order. We're doing the humectant wedding agent is Hydrotain. Okay, I know that. Oh, no. Damn it. Well, give me a minute. I will.

[Jason Lee]

I used to hydrotain. I used to hydrotain when we. We did the 8th Avenue extension. We had a small median that we had landscaped with no irrigation. And I had to have supplemental water to make it survive. And I use Hydrotain and I think it definitely helped the cause. Yep.

[Jordan Upkavage]

So here we go. It's a. A hydrotain. And the cool thing on the Hydrotain, it's granular.

[Jason Lee]

Yep.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Okay, so we can. And this is pretty fast. We can apply this via surface. Okay. Then the insecticide that we're using, it's Lesco Cross check. It's by Fenthrin Granular Damp Aid.

[Jason Lee]

Okay.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Okay. And then the fungicide is called qualified. F. Familiar with qualified.

[Jason Lee]

What's the active ingredient?

[Jordan Upkavage]

I mean, that's A great question.

[Jason Lee]

I'm not an expert with the fungicide names.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Let me google it. Qualified F. Where's the label? Don't want to sign up and save. Active ingredient mono and dipotassium salts of phosphor phosphorus acid, targeted pests, Phytophthora pythium and downy mildew.

[Jason Lee]

Okay.

[Jordan Upkavage]

For use in golf courses, residential turf grass and landscapes, trees, nursery and greenhouses. All right, so using qualified F as the fungicide there, and then after three weeks of doing that, then we're going to reinoculate with mitigro. And as you know, Jason, we have back bacteria, fungi, vitamins, root hormone that's in there and that is round one. After that we have to observe and see what the trees want us to do. So when putting all this together, Breer figured out how much hydrotain is needed per tree, how much cross check is needed per tree, how much qualified F fungicide is needed per tree, how much mitre grow is needed per tree. So each tree would get five quarts of fungicide solution. Okay, so we were able to do tank math on, you know, our tank holds 200 gallons. Each tree gets 1.25 gallons. We were able to do tank math on that mitigro. Each tree would get 0.8 pounds of product. So almost a whole bag.

[Jason Lee]

Holy crap.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah, 0.8 pounds per tree. And it was super cool doing the math on, you know, we have a hundred and we have a 200 gallon tank. We can get through this many trees. Each tree gets 20 gallons and then we can go to the fire hydrant here and fill up. So how many minutes per tree does it take? How many minutes, how many work minutes are in a day? It's going to take us an hour to drive there. We have to build in 30 minutes of screw off time, you know, to get ready, how many minutes to go to the hydrant, how many minutes to fill up. And we just broke down our math and what's realistic to do. Uh, there was a 120 trees identified that needed something. 120 trees and they wanted a per tree unit price on how much it costs per tree. And it was fun structuring this bid because I got to walk Breer through our chemical cost. Do we have to add in tax? We have to add in some markup on the product. We had our labor rates of what we wanted, labor wise. Then we had to add in contingency. And I had to tell her about, you know, the Tony Bass fudge factor, you know, of. Well, what if we get rained out in a day and it screws half a day, then we lose. If we bid it that it's going to get done in for four days and it takes five because of a rain out or 4, 4.75, we're screwed. So we, I built in markup of product. I explained labor rates that that includes fuel labor rates includes equipment built in contingency into the process. And then I said look, we also have to do this where if they pick a crazy number of trees and it doesn't make sense for tank math, then we're going to have some weird tank math that we have to do. If we have to do out of the 120, we have to do 87 of the trees, then it's, it's weird math. So the way we presented the proposal is lump sum or all of them. And they said minimum order, you're not going to buy six trees for us to do. We're not doing it. So I said a minimum order let's do is 40 trees. And it just so works out that the tank math works out really well at 40 trees. And then I said, well, how many

[Jason Lee]

trees are there total?

[Jordan Upkavage]

Only 120. Okay, okay. But the tank math works really well at 40. So I said what we're going to do is if they want to, their minimum is to buy is 40. And they're only allowed to buy them in packages of 40. You can't buy 20 because it doesn't work. So you can buy 40, 80 or 120. And that is the way that we presented our bid, with a narration of site conditions explaining how we need to attack the problem. And it was pretty cool.

[Jason Lee]

Installing trees and clay's a, like it's not a, for any, anybody out there planting in clay. Like just know ahead of time that it's, it's not going to be easy, especially big trees like that. We had 6 inch trees from Fish Branch to be planted in Oakmont and they're still struggling. They struggled afterwards. And then we planted them into exactly what you were talking about, that it was either a clay bowl, we either had to bust lime rock to get out, or they had smeared whatever concoction of mixed soil in the roadway or side of the road and compacted the hell out of it. Like it was brutal. And there were six inch boardwalks. You know, we were, we were trying to navigate all of the factors that you just described, you know, make sure we had the right irrigation. And on a lot of it they'd only spec it. I Think they'd only spec one bubbler so that we went back and put two bubblers on. But putting pop ups on root balls now I think I'm a fan of it. We've started doing it on some big trees instead of bubblers. Just putting little 4 inch pop up sprays and letting them roll.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Makes. Makes more sense.

[Jason Lee]

No it does.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Her narration was beautiful. It starts there's some support documents that went with the bid. It was the. The phases. Phase one is site prep. That's them getting their irrigation and the overburden and mulch figured out. Phase two is environmental stabilization. So that's the moisture regulation, insect colony suppression, Phytophthora fungus intervention. And then phase three soil rehabilitation and reinforcement. And we went over the restore and reinforce which is the role Mitigro would play. And then phase four is discussion pertaining to monitoring, evaluation and long term management. And it goes over continued soil rehab or biostimulant, supplemental fertilization, pest or disease, irrigation adjustments and then transitioning the canopies into structural pruning moving forward. So I can tell AI played a role in helping flow some of this but this girl worked all damn day in the office putting this together for probably two days. And I'll let you know if we get it. It'll be a fun one. But as the call it visionary or like a bird's thigh view. It was so fun that I didn't do this task and that I was able to push it on to Brer and let her champion it and do all the mathematics and the chemical and how much volume we need and to figure it out. It really fun to assist somebody in learning how to do that.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah.

[Jordan Upkavage]

So that's what's the news on the block down here.

[Jason Lee]

So we went back out. We. I've been applying Mitigro on grass. We've now been drenching some trees and I don't know how at what duration we should be monitoring like the results. But we went back probably five weeks after we drenched the. The trees out in Cedar Key. It was a cluster of live oaks, two different cedars and then one cedar that if it revives this tree then it will truly be miracle juice. But one tree is definitely. It's. It's gonna. It has one. One leader left out of three that has any foliage. So unfortunately I think it's destined for removal. But man we went. It was five weeks after we applied four to five weeks we go back out to do a plant count for landscape design because now we've done a cleanup of the yard. We've treated the trees, we've replaced all the irrigation valves. We're just going through the process for this property of getting it ready for a new landscape. So we were walking the yard with the client, going over plant palette ideas, figuring out what she doesn't like, what she likes in man. I don't know if it. If the miter grove just unleashed the potential of this tree since it had been. It had flushed out in the spring with leaves. So it's not like the tree didn't flush. It lost its leaves. It flushed out with new leaves. But four to five weeks after this mitigra application, the tree is busting. The oak trees are busting out with new growth, like 4 to 6 inches of new growth all over the trees. The cedars were. They were kind of sad and had also set seed, so maybe they were stalled, but now they've got new growth coming out. So I don't know how to measure the results and success with mitigro treatments, But I know that this tree that has been stressed is booming with foliage. And then I think by the time we go back out, it'll be at like the eight week mark. So I'll be able to make some more observations. But I don't know if it got into. I can't remember the term that you use that really professional term for your tree. The. For the new growth on the tips, the fuzzies. Was it fuzzies? I don't remember.

[Jordan Upkavage]

It might have been the. Might have been the fuzzies.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah, I don't, I don't remember, but there's a whole bunch of growth I need to. I think I did take some pictures. I'll send them to you because I wanted to know if it's like, all right, is this pushing the same type of growth that you had on your tree at the University of Tampa, or. I can't remember the professional term that I need to remember when I take the arborist test.

[Jordan Upkavage]

But when you say professional term, is it a word I made up?

[Jason Lee]

Yeah. Is it a real term? No, it's a word you made up. Oh, I don't know.

[Jordan Upkavage]

I don't know, dude.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah.

[Jordan Upkavage]

You know, just do a radial over here.

[Jason Lee]

That's right. So anyway, it was cool to see the trail. I mean, the tree's booming now. I mean, so it's. It's good to see. And then we were treating. We treated some trees that are outside of a dog park that have been in. One of the trees is covered with concrete, Finds an astroturf and it's a pecan and I don't, I, I don't see any long term success with that. But then there are a few live oaks that were in the wash zone for said Astroturf. So the urine and dog matter were washing.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Ah, that job.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah, that job. And I think they had some root damage from a septic they put in for a bathroom. So I don't know, I think those trees might, might show some results, but they're pretty stressed. So.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah, some. I'm curious, I'd like to see the cedar key trees because you, you or Aaron, we like FaceTimed or live switched or something. I saw some video.

[Narrator]

Right.

[Jason Lee]

I don't think it was just still pictures.

[Jordan Upkavage]

I think it was video and we were trying to like it was calculate how much mitigro we needed because it

[Jason Lee]

was a cluster, it was a cluster of trees, not just one grove. Yeah, it's like four and it could be all the same. I mean it's, you know, four to five different live oaks in a cluster and then one cedar next to it. So we were doing like square footage of root zone that I had the treat meth. So yeah, we'll see how it goes. Interesting.

[Jordan Upkavage]

All right, well what else we got here? What else is current in business? Doing some manGroves next in two weeks doing some mangrove trimming. And there's a lot of rules with that.

[Jason Lee]

And what was the picture, what was the picture that you sent me? Richie was hanging from a basket in the.

[Jordan Upkavage]

MK was hanging from a basket. So that was trimming mangroves. A few weeks ago we were in St. Pete and there's a lot of rules with mangroves and we had to take like 18 inches off of these mangroves, 18 to 24 inches off of the mangroves. But they're really, it's beyond a seawall and it's really dense. So like getting an, a frame ladder inside and popping up is difficult and then like climbing them is difficult because you're going to break them. So we had to shorten this, I don't know, 40 foot deep hedge ish of mangroves by 18 inches to 2ft. So one of the ideas the guys had is what if we put sheets of plywood on top and then we can walk on the plywood on top of the. That was an idea. But what they went with is they took the nifty lift boom and you, you can operate the controls from the basket. You can also operate the controls from the pedestal and MK tied into the basket in his rope and Climbing harness. And then they boomed the nifty lift basket over the mangroves. And MK was dangling down off his climbing line with shears.

[Jason Lee]

That's brilliant.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Shearing the vibr. Or maybe there was bigger woody stems so he had to use a power pruner. But I. The video I sent you is holding shears. And he was shearing the top of the mangrove glorified hedge from a rope and saddle from an overhead aerial lift basket. And then Sergio is at the pedestal, driving him around like the claw came.

[Jason Lee]

Hey, I think that's brilliant. Problem?

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah, it was. It was pretty cool. So I got another manger of one coming up, and that one is super strict because there was a previous violation years ago at the one that I have coming up. I trimmed it last year, made it perfect to the T. I met with PASCO or Pinellas County Environmental Protection people, got their permission for everything. And everything is like two to the inch on what we're doing, height wise. And what we'll do is we'll. We'll boom the nifty 64 out and have the bottom of the basket at the height. And then Chris Kidd will like lay on his stomach and clip and reduce to the bottom of the platform basket that we can rotate at a fixed height and know exactly what we're doing. So I got that man and got some big gnarly removals. And I have my water street project, you know, my nighttime job in downtown Tampa. I do every July.

[Jason Lee]

Did you get a parking permanent?

[Jordan Upkavage]

Where I got spanked by right of way by not having a right of way permit.

[Jason Lee]

Did you get a permit?

[Jordan Upkavage]

So I am in process of getting the permit. I have a MOT right of way consultant doing it, and it has added about $30,000 to the project. Just in right of way stuff, because we have to close roads, we have to close sidewalks. We have to close part of thea, which is the Expressway authority, because Riverwalk, which is a major walkie walk, part of that goes, a part that not many people use, runs through there. But it's governed by thea, which is a different governing entity than City of Tampa Right of way. We have to get FIA permission and it's just a. Oh, and I have to buy parking spaces, closed lanes, close sidewalks and cafe tables in the whole bit, do detours, the whole ball of wax. It's going to be a giant pain in the ass. And I'm not making a ton of money on the markup. And it's not worth it anyway with how much discussion and effort I'VE had to put in, in meetings with my people, with the MOT consultant down there and perpetual drawings being at the mercy City of Tampa for timing and approval. But I said I'm not doing this at night anymore. If I'm jumping through $30,000 mot right of way hoops, I'm doing this during the day. I'm not going to do it at night. And so we're going to do it during the day. And allegedly we're going to start on Monday the 13th if the city approves my permit. And I have to have a permit per building and I have six different buildings, so I have six different permits and they have to be approved and go in sequential order. And then I have to perform the work in the order that I tell them I'm going to do the work, which screws me for any contingency of this is a day and a half. This is a day and a half because it needs to be done in a day. And if I have a rain out, I'm really under the gun. So it's, it's a tight schedule and I'm at the mercy of City of Tampa approving it and then I got to stick to it. It's just not ideal. But that's the way it's happening this time.

[Jason Lee]

That doesn't sound fun.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Other than that, that's all I got, man. Normal tree work. We have a little bit of work on the, we have a little more work on the books than we have historically. I got like two weeks on the books but I'm not at this time. I should be like pulling my hair out where I. I'm more than a month booked and I'm sitting on a two weeks right now.

[Jason Lee]

Two weeks is better than two days, sir.

[Jordan Upkavage]

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[Jason Lee]

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[Jordan Upkavage]

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[Jason Lee]

Intrigue Media is fast tracking lead volume for both Sky Frog Landscape and independent tree service. You should give them a try. For your business. Visit intriguemedia.com if you want to make more money and crush your competitors online. That's intriguemedia.com we're pretty busy man. Like we're pretty busy. The we're still getting lead flow like even like normally it falls off when school gets out. People go on vacation and this is just me keeping a pulse pulse on the leads. Normally it falls off when school gets out and so we're still booking appointments out full schedules for like the following week. We have not, I don't think we've booked out next week fully. What's today? Wednesday. So today's Wednesday. So we have not booked out next week fully. And then I think a lot of people are traveling anyway. It's, it's a, I would say yesterday Lindsay had a hard time getting ahold of people that had put in web form submissions. So I think just with the 4th of July coming up this week might be a little bit off. But we're still banging, banging with leads which is good. I think we've got enough leads now that have come through the sales cycle. It'll get us through through the summer with work that we're going to sell. So that's positive. That's good.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Tell me about your Filipinos.

[Jason Lee]

So we don't have enough, I don't have enough data and we don't have enough time to go fully into it. But for our listeners if they haven't been keeping up with our stories. My office manager left. She put her two weeks in around a month ago. So her last two weeks were when I was at Trees Florida with you and then went on vacation. So that crossover was not convenient. I think I was in the office one or one and a half days during her two week time was transitioning that position as is delicate and also in that time I don't think we have talked about, we got checks stolen again from our outbound mail and we had check fraud. So for our listeners, I don't know if we have talked about that. So we suffered check fraud again and then that resulted in and I think the first time I just refused to do it or didn't do it but close our bank account and get a new bank account number. But holy shit. Like the fiasco of that. It's, it's every payment that we have tied into it, every automatic payment, every equipment payment, every this, it's a disaster. I mean it's, it's, I'm probably only halfway through it it's every day. It's every day there's a new form, there's a payment that didn't go through, there's a. And it's just going to take. Well, I would guess after a month cycle in theory, yes, all the. It'll shake out. Theoretically it should all shake out. So I'm probably you know, half or three quarters of the way through it. So I'm trying to be proactive. But at some point now, after I was trying to be proactive, it's like, you know what, screw it. I said just whenever they come, I'll just fill out the forms. And you know, none of it's hard. It's just filling out new ACH forms or send an avoided check or you know, whatever the scenario is. But so that's a kick in the pants. So if anybody gets check fraud, just know that you're going to have a little bit of pain and suffering with. And me also trying to figure out what bills because I mean, I haven't done our accounts payable and years, you know, I pay some bills but for 90% of our bills I haven't been charged in charge of the account payable. So now I'm trying to get in to navigate all this stuff with the bank account while trying to figure out passwords and logins and all that fun stuff. So that's. Anyway, it's been a little bit stressful but in the meantime we have hired through a company called Stamp Staff and by the time we record again, well before we record an episode next week, I'll have more info. But we've hired two part time virtual assistants. One is going to act more as an executive assistant and help out with some bookkeeping and QuickBooks online with accounts payables and receivables. And the other is going to fill more of a customer service representative role and kind of help manage some of our sales processes. So she'll be back up on the phone. We're going to start using Ring Central as a platform to enable Wylene is her name to be a backup for Lindsay. If she's on the phone and we get another phone call, which doesn't happen often, especially this time of year, I mean springtime when the phone's ringing off the hook, that's one thing. But Lindsey said it might just be like one or two times a day where she's on the phone and another call comes through at this point.

[Jordan Upkavage]

So she'll be all right, well, that's cool. So then Lindsay can't pick up Then your other gal does.

[Jason Lee]

Yep. And so then if we get, you know, she's also. She's shadowing Lindsay on some calls, pretty much on her callbacks for web form submissions. They started yesterday. They're going to shadow her. Just going through our sales script and process.

[Jordan Upkavage]

How do you shadow somebody between game.

[Jason Lee]

So we were using Google Meet and. Or Chat. I'm unfamiliar with Google Chat, but we are using Google Chat now as a communication feature just to keep everybody in the loop. And it's kind of like using WhatsApp. Yeah, with Google Chat. But Lindsay put them into a Google Chat meeting and then put the office phone on speakerphone. So they were just listening, listening in.

[Jordan Upkavage]

But anyway, I think it's video too, where you're looking at each other.

[Jason Lee]

I don't know, it could be, I think it could be video or non video. So anyway. But we're getting them in anyway onboarded this week so I'd wanted to push it back a week. So we were a little bit more prepared on our end but we decided to just move forward and we're figuring it out as we go. So there's a laundry list of things for them to do and it's just getting them introduced to our business kind of systems. What is not documented in written SOPs, we are, we will be documenting so that we can streamline what they're doing and keeping track of everything. But I think they are very motivated to work and they seem very knowledgeable and are already giving suggestions on the way we can improve some of the things we're doing. So.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Man, that's great.

[Jason Lee]

That is great.

[Jordan Upkavage]

I wish you ultimate success. And you said that we were talking yesterday that you were in the onboarding process and you didn't have a ton of time and so you had the idea of mastering single ops would be beneficial. So single Ops had a. They got a pile of resources on pile of videos.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah. And so then naturally they just, you know, and every day they're sending a start of day report and an end of day report just to kind of set what they're going to do for the day. If we have any changes to that, we can get with them and let them know. End of the day they give a report of what they accomplished, what they did, you know, and then what they plan on doing moving forward. But with the single ops videos, you know, Cindy is going to be handling the QuickBooks online. You know, in her first end of day report she's watching more of the payment features, QuickBooks online features, anything to do with Invoicing. So I think there's some great training videos there by Single Ops which at some point it's like, you know, let's go. Well, we didn't have, well, Lindsay Lindsey in the office now she came from a company that operated Single Ops so she's pretty well versed in Single Ops. But like, you know, probably should have had everybody that started before they started using Single Ops watch their tutorial videos.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Lee]

But then, yes, and also yesterday, you know, we're still using, we're still dabbling with leanscaper, you know, using their AI features to, to do some things. So we introduced them.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Is that something where it takes discipline to use it and it's easy to forget about it and get caught in the day to day tornado of doom?

[Jason Lee]

I mean we're just using it, we're just using leanscaper as a, as a landscaper. ChatGPT we're only really using it for its AI feature and coming up with some ideas. They are 100% built. We might end up joining up and going all in on it because they are, they're building an operating system for landscape businesses. I mean for crews to operate out of, to keep track of all of your daily worksheets, meetings, huddles, communication efforts. I mean they're building a ton of stuff. So even from the last time when I went to the meeting in Cape Coral, it's, I was talking with Christian Padgett who's with the Baldwin Group of Tampa FNGLA FMGLA Christian. I was talking to him and you know, he was telling me some things even from the, from when we were in Cape Coral that they're launching and it's, it's pretty impressive.

[Jordan Upkavage]

What I'm listening. I pop my head up, my, my robot is going off and mowing and there's like clumps of grass everywhere because it didn't mow for like four days.

[Jason Lee]

Okay.

[Jordan Upkavage]

And now it's chewing away and there's spinach all over the backyard.

[Jason Lee]

Okay.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Because it's probably taken a half an inch off.

[Jason Lee]

Okay. Why didn't, that's all. Why didn't it mow?

[Jordan Upkavage]

I think it ran over a rope or something that my kids left in the backyard. And then I didn't reset it properly. I turned it on, turned it back off and then I had to manually shove it into the charger and then it didn't touch the prawns the right way. And then last night I reset it all over again. But I think there's something screwed with the Time. It's supposed to start at 10am and it's like halfway done mowing right now. So I don't know. I gotta talk to Husqvarna Steve, because my settings tell it to go to 10 o'. Clock. I just don't think the machine knows what time it is. I can't figure out how to adjust that.

[Jason Lee]

Interesting.

[Jordan Upkavage]

That's all. That's what caught my eye.

[Jason Lee]

I saw you pop up like a prairie dog on the screen. I was wondering what it was.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah. Now this poor robot, you know how like you like chew into the grass and go back up? That's what he's trying to do now. Yeah, he's. He's eating spinach.

[Jason Lee]

Nice. So anyway, hopefully by the next episode then this experiment of having VAs in our business I've wanted to do for the past three or four years and our office manager fought me on the idea. But I think streamlining any task that can be done not here is phenomenal. So yeah, that's brilliant.

[Jordan Upkavage]

And it's only costing you $98,000 per person.

[Jason Lee]

It is one. It is one third the cost of the position that I had. So for two people. Yes, two part time people. So it'd be one full time person they recommended. They recommended two part time people just because of the list of tasks we were doing. Anyway, that's what, that was their recommendation and I agreed with it and we, and we might bump them up the full time once we get going. And I just voted. She's like, well, they're also available full time. Like this Indian Wylene that we hired. It's like, well, I don't know if we're going to have that much work, but if we can just keep adding all the things that we haven't been doing in business, all the things to track numbers and KPIs and all this stuff that everyone talks about never gets done. It's like, that's it. We're going to start stacking on to come up with the scorecard and tracking data. It's like with Wylene it's like, hey, this is what you're going to track every week. Like. And now I'm very confident it's going to get done. All the things we've talked about doing and haven't gotten done or implemented. I think by having these two people in the seats, whether it's more on the finance side or tracking sales or labor, you know, in their, in their various tasks they're going to be doing, I'm very confident that it'll get done every day. If this is what you're supposed to start your day with. I think they're going to start their day with it every day and do it. It's going to be phenomenal.

[Jordan Upkavage]

So are they up at like whatever time it is over there? It's 1:30 in the morning and they're working.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah, whatever. And with Stamp Staff, one of the things. And you know, and you can go on. When we hired the VA for the landscape rodeo, Mikey, you know, she, we hired her through upwork. And so Stamp staff comes with a little bit more of a cost. But I'm very, I'm very happy with it because they are, they are finding the candidates, they are pre interviewing them, they are training them. They do bimonthly or twice a month training with their. All of their VAs on AI and anything up to date with technology. And so we might be paying like 20 or 30% more, but I'm very. Anyway, so far dealing with Stamp staff has been pretty, pretty easy.

[Jordan Upkavage]

What do you have concerns about? Like if, if you said Darlene is one of her names.

[Jason Lee]

Wylene.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Wylene. If she's doing quickbooks, like stealing your stuff and commuting fraud. If they have like your logins and stuff, they're like, here's my single ops login and they start screwing with you.

[Jason Lee]

I mean, we've got, we've got insurance to cover that at this point, but I mean, I'm definitely going to watch.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Is that through Stamp Staff?

[Jason Lee]

No, no, that's just through our GL company. Epli. Epdli. Whatever policy. I mean, that covers that would follow. Follow under that.

[Jordan Upkavage]

So committing Internet bank fraud is under your general liability insurance.

[Jason Lee]

It'd be employee dishonesty, something insurance. Okay, I don't remember.

[Jordan Upkavage]

And there's no clause of.

[Jason Lee]

I should go back. I should go back and make sure that that's out of country. I should make sure that. I mean, they're not going to have. I mean, yes, you could. The level. I mean, we're, we are divvying up tasks. I still, we are still operating in a factor of trying to cover our ass. From Ben Bezelman as after Cassie left our business from embezzling from her previous company many years ago when she was here, we have put measures in place to try to mitigate that risk.

[Jordan Upkavage]

So obviously able to do accounts payable. Are they paying bills?

[Jason Lee]

I don't think. I mean, long term, maybe, but I'm going to keep payables. Like they're not going to have access to our bank account. So, yes, if you do something through QuickBooks and manipulate. Also, we don't write checks out of QuickBooks, so I mean, it's pretty. I'll be handling all of the payables to start with. Unless it's them setting up, you know, something automated just by signing forms. Anyway, I'm not. I'm not that worried about it. Cool. Definitely a concern.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Well, Godspeed on that, man. I hope you have intensive success.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I think it's. It's going to streamline. And like I told Lindsay in the office, I said any tasks that you. I'm. I want you to focus on answering the phone, solving customers problems, and then anything that needs to be hands on here with the crews or the guys or any tasks, like for anything that would help her day to day so that she can do more here. You know, let's. Let's figure it out. And you know, they're here to. Here to help everybody, so. Sales process, following up on sales calls. Any of it. We can just see where the. Yeah. See where the world takes us, so. Well, that's.

[Jordan Upkavage]

That's fantastic. So when can we follow up on. On this?

[Jason Lee]

Probably next week. Every day we're. Every day we're doing something new.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah, I'd like to get a. A one week check in on. On that. And I'd like to tell you if I win this plan healthcare bid, it's a fair amount of money, which would be sick. And then next Thursday on the 9th, have a mandatory bid meeting for city of Tampa invasive vegetation removal bid. It's out. So there's herbaceous and woody stem stuff. So that's what I'll be doing next Thursday morning. But yeah, man, I will. I'll talk to you next week. Well, I will talk to you before next week, but yeah, we'll do a Filipino office admin update and plan healthcare bid update. And we'll just relish in what we're doing for the fourth of July or what we did for the fourth of July.

[Jason Lee]

And we're also. We're going to be streamlining our morning operations at Skyfrog and eliminating some stops by the gas stations and stores. So that'll be more stories for next week or our next episode.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah, we talked about that yesterday. And you were a little spicy there, Jason.

[Jason Lee]

Pretty fired up about it, bud. Not gonna lie about you guys going

[Jordan Upkavage]

to the gas station.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah.

[Jordan Upkavage]

How many minutes?

[Jason Lee]

I started adding up the minutes and for Tony Bass, I hit the. My stomach Started getting queasy number when I at adding in minutes. So. Yeah, so we can talk about that later.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Well, with GS Track me and some outsourced talent, they can track you where your crews go.

[Jason Lee]

Cindy and Wylene are going to have that added to their daily tasks and we're going to start tracking our inefficiencies every day by the minutes. Compliments of GS Track me. Thank you for that technology.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Thank you, Jake. Not from State Farm.

[Jason Lee]

Not from State Farm.

[Jordan Upkavage]

All right, dude, you got any crazy housekeeping? Any updates? Have you done anything whack on the Internet that's fun to watch with an insta face?

[Jason Lee]

I haven't, dude. I've been slacking. One of the. One of Cindy's duties is going to be to also help us chop up some of our videos for some social media for Green side Up podcast.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Okay.

[Jason Lee]

Because I've been slacking in that duties, but I haven't had time to do anything for. I mean, obviously Sky Palms, we're working every day capturing content, putting videos out and stuff for Sky Frog. But yeah, I haven't done anything crazy. Gator season's coming up, so I'm going to start cranking out some gator videos if I have time.

[Jordan Upkavage]

But did you get drawn for tags?

[Jason Lee]

Yeah.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Did you get a super tag?

[Jason Lee]

No.

[Jordan Upkavage]

No. Is that a yes or no?

[Jason Lee]

No, no super tag.

[Jordan Upkavage]

No super tag. I didn't get nothing. Not drawn again. No super tag. I don't know who. If it was you telling me this or. Or somebody was telling me this. I haven't gotten drawn in 10 years, Jason.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah, because we only put you in for the best of the best areas. Because we know that your time on the boat might be limited, but for

[Jordan Upkavage]

10 years, you'd think I'd get something.

[Jason Lee]

One would think.

[Jordan Upkavage]

And then for Super Hunt. Are they. Is the state going? You know what if I award out of state people, I make more money as the state.

[Narrator]

I don't.

[Jason Lee]

I don't think so. I think it's a straight lottery. I mean, I think it's.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Yeah, but.

[Jason Lee]

Yeah, it's. But cousin Kelly has like a Kotobi tags, so I think that would be a prime time for you to come get her hunting. And I talked to Rob from Intrigue Media. He might have a week in September, late September to come down. So he is not coming to the landscape show. He will be at Jeffrey Scott's summer growth summit, which if you have not checked out, we did an episode with Jeffrey dropped three or four weeks ago. Go back and listen to that, but. So Rob will be in Detroit at Ivan and Troy Clogg's facilities during the landscape show, but Vanessa is going to be down with intrigue at the landscape show in August, so. But late September, Rob might have a week where he can break away. And I think we should all go to Lake Okeechobee and just have a dandy of a time. Okay.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Catch it. I think it's catch and release down there from my past experience.

[Jason Lee]

It is. There's just too many. Just too many.

[Jordan Upkavage]

All right, man.

[Jason Lee]

All right.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Let's go to work and do something productive.

[Jason Lee]

All right, sounds good.

[Narrator]

Later, 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.

[Jordan Upkavage]

Sam.