Loading summary
Transcript63 lines
- [00:05]
A
Here we go.
- [00:22]
B
Welcome back to the LCR Media podcast where we get to know the pros. I'm your host, LCR Nailer Talia Farrow. In today's episode, I want to share a clip. You know, as you know, if you've listened long enough, you know that when I, when I am interviewed on another podcast, I do my best to get a portion of that. So that, or a snippet, if you will, of that episode so that you can benefit as well and from, you know, from the conversation, but also to hopefully go check out the full conversation with the podcast. So it's a way for me to help, you know, spread awareness to another podcast, another podcaster, to those of you listening that may not know that podcasts exist. So it's value for you, it's value for the podcaster to get new listeners potentially, as well as its value to me because it's another episode that I can have to put out on my podcast that provides value for all of you listening. So, and my goal is to always try and find a portion of the episode that is going to bring you value no matter what, like whether you let go, listen to the whole episode or not, which hopefully you end up doing every time that I do this. But so I say all that because this is yet another one of those examples. And I think I mentioned this in some previous episodes, kind of like recapping my trip in Vegas, California and Vegas, and I went to Justin White with K and D Landscaping. You may or may not have heard of him or about him or know about him. He has been a KRESS advocate for a few years. He's been introducing the keynote speaker for the last couple of years at Equip Expo for cres's behalf, because he is, he has converted his whole, his whole fleet, his whole, all of his equipment is converted to Cress. And he's been doing, he's been using Crest for years now. He's got a big, I believe, 20 million plus revenue a year business, and that's over in California. So he's obviously knowledgeable about the industry and the business and he's doing a lot of great things. But this was his podcast that I was on. So this isn't about him as much as it's about getting me on his podcast and kind of picking my brain and giving value to his audience, to his listeners on his podcast, because he also has a podcast. So I just was going to Vegas. So I figured instead of doing a virtual podcast, which he asked me to do, like, why not Just stop by. And he was supposed to have, he's working on a studio but that wasn't ready yet. So we met at his house which was. I don't know what a studio is going to look like, but it was pretty amazing being at his house. He just had his backyard renovated so it looks amazing. Pool, patio, everything like that. And we were out there and he had a full blown studio setup outside, you know, lights, cameras, video monitors, everything, you know, professional equipment. So it sounded great, it looked great. I'll have some more clips on, on social media, so follow me on Instagram and YouTube and, and you'll, you'll see some more clips, like visual clips, video clips of our conversation as well. So you can see what I'm talking about. But we had a great conversation. I think we spoke for almost two hours and I believe he's splitting that into two different episodes and that's coming out soon, depending on when you, when you listen to this, but in real time that's coming out probably in a week or two, those episodes, depending on when they officially decide to drop it. But I just wanted to get this portion out. So the portion that I'm taking from this conversation, this two hour conversation, it's I believe it's like a 20, 20 minute portion here. And it's when we, we talked about branding and how important that is for your business. And I wanted to kind of get this out early. Even though you can't immediately go and listen to the full episode right from listening to this one. I wanted to get this out because we are into the spring season, at least, you know, some of us here, I guess depending on where you are in the country, me here in central Virginia. So the further south you go, right. The more the season is starting up. So spring rush is either here or right around the corner. And I wanted to get this, this out as, as soon as possible so that you can maybe benefit from any of the things that we spoke about, about branding and the importance and maybe it'll spark some ideas for you or re. Enforce some ideas and behaviors and systems that you use in your business already to kind of step it up a little bit or just kind of remind you and so on. So anyway, it's important now going into the spring to make sure that your branding is dialed in and that you're advertising your business and you overall, you have a marketing strategy which includes branding as well as advertising, you know, to get new leads, social media, print media, all the things. So we talked about several different things focused on branding. And like I said, it was almost a two hour conversation. So we, it was, it was one of the most epic conversations I've ever had on someone else's podcast. Like, I've definitely had some epic conversations on this podcast that I've. When I've interviewed some folks. But not being, being on someone else's podcast, this is definitely the top, I believe. And we talked for almost two hours, like I said. And I just think, you know, Justin and I have a really good, a good energy. You know, he's a really cool guy just in general. And we've known each other for a little while now and we, we have
- [05:43]
C
different experiences in life and business, but
- [05:45]
B
we were really, it was like the whole expression of iron sharpening iron that, you know, a lot of us have said in the past. And it really felt like that, like we were just feeding off of each other's energy. Like he would say something epic, then I would now get me fired up say something epic, or I'd say something epic and then get him fired up to say something epic. And we were just going back and forth, just literally fueling each other's fire and passion about this industry and all the different topics we talked about. So look forward to that. I might actually put out another snippet because he gave me, you know, the, the files for, for everything, video and audio, so that I could clip it up because it was such great value. And it's also, you know, bringing awareness to his podcast as well and bringing value in that way. So I might do another snippet later on down the road. You know, when the episode does come out, I'll definitely put some more social media posts up when that, when the episode is live to promote that. Like, hey, if you want the full episode, it's, it's live now on his podcast, you know, and so on. But I will put a link in the episode description here for his podcast so that you can check it out. Click follow so that when, when a new episode does come out, you get notified, including the one that we, that, that we were on together. But without further ado, here is our conversation about branding.
- [07:04]
A
We talked about the brand, but, but really this, this the benefit of building a brand within your company. I talked to a lot of people out there who are struggling with marketing in their landscape business. They're not getting enough clients, they're struggling to grow. They're, they're not really getting the traction on, on recruitment that they'd like to see. And so I just give a quick peek at social And I see they post, you know, once a month or maybe they haven't posted for six months. And what is your take on that? You know, just, just this idea of social media and marketing in general, branding in general, having your logos on your trucks. Obviously you've, you've done a lot of this on your personal brand, but I wanted to talk a little bit about that for the land, for the company, side trades, company, whatever company, you know, what's your take on that as far as social media playing a part in marketing?
- [07:55]
C
Yeah, I've always been big in branding. Like my lawn care business, like I'm, I brand it very specifically, right? Like I've got a big white trailer with gigantic green logo on the sides. No contact information on the side, just huge logo. All the contact information is on the back with the logo. Because people are going to be behind you. If they're going to actually write stuff down or read stuff when they're driving by you, they're not going to see all of the stuff that you put on there. No shade. I'm just saying, like, this is how I thought, like they're not gonna focus on that when they're driving by, but they'll see the logo. And now that's in their brain constantly. And now they can look you up or, you know, they can stop and check it out, you know, talk to you if they see you, you know, so if you're parked in front of a house, then yeah, they can stop and they can see. But I've gotten so many people that are behind me at a red light or following me out of a neighborhood and they see my content. They call me, literally, I'm behind you. And they, they call me for a quote. I've got commercial properties that way because I was, they lived in the neighborhood that I was in and they had a property, you know, down the street. And so, so anyway, so I'm all about branding and strategically and like, you know, then there's like all my, all of my mailers look just like my truck. Like, you know, one side's bit white with the, you know, big green logo and the other side has all the information for them to read. You know, my business cards look exactly the same. Our shirts have the look the same. They're not white, but you know, they're, they're actually.
- [09:16]
A
Yeah, that would've worked.
- [09:16]
C
That would be bad. They're charcoal gray with the bright green logo. You know, like, not, nothing crazy, but it's just very specific with branding and, and, and being intentional and Strategic, without overthinking it. But also, ultimately, I think it's important going forward more than ever to separate ourselves from the noise. That's what branding does. Like, branding is more than, put it. Yeah. It separates you from the noise. Branding is telling a story like the best branding tells a story. So what story do you want to tell about yourself or your business?
- [09:50]
B
Your brand?
- [09:51]
C
And that's what people remember. Right. There's a lot. There's a lot of athletic peril clothes out there, but everyone knows Nike. Right. But there's a gazillion of them out there and they're all in the mix, making some money. But no one's making money like Nike.
- [10:06]
A
No.
- [10:06]
C
Right. I mean, they're the top bill.
- [10:09]
A
Nike built something special.
- [10:10]
C
Right. So there, there's, so there's, there's just. I mean, that's just one extreme example. But you can think of all kinds of Under Armour and, and, and Pepsi and Coca Cola and all the, you know, there's a lot of, you know, McDonald's. There's a lot of huge brands out there and little brands that become big brands. But my, My point is they all tell a story and they separate themselves from their competition, from the noise, from everything else. And it's all about the story. Your brand is a story.
- [10:34]
B
So what kind of story are you going to tell?
- [10:36]
C
And there's a lot of people mowing lawns and doing landscaping. And it's really easy to honestly separate yourself with some branding.
- [10:44]
A
Yeah.
- [10:44]
C
You know, find some. Find a nice, clean logo if you don't already have one. Not something that everyone else has that you just found online, you know, with the, the cartoon dude and the mower and all these, like, you know, original.
- [10:55]
A
Yeah.
- [10:55]
C
I mean, with AI, you can literally do that now. Like, it's not like that big of a deal anymore. No offense to the, you know, all the designers out there. But you can literally, again, this is why we're going into connection, because AI can do so many things now, so it's like, it's going to be challenging to stay connected above and beyond that. But so you can easily just have AI design a nice logo for you and you can get that put up on your shirts and your trailer or your truck, if you have an open trailer, it's harder.
- [11:23]
B
So you can just have your truck
- [11:24]
C
logoed up and, and, and just separate yourself. I see so many people driving through the neighborhoods and they got nothing on anything. And I'm like, are they chucking the trucks? Are they the weekend warriors? Do they not Care. Do they not want more B. They're good where they are. How can you be good where you are? You should always be whether you want to. I'm not saying everyone needs to be a $20 million business, and not everyone, you know, needs to be a solo owner, operator. There's something in between for everyone. But my point is, you always should be rotating, you know, your customers, and you should always keep the flow going, because people. Your best customer is not always going to be your best customer. Right. Just like your best employee is not always going to be your best employee. Things happen now, all of a sudden, they're your worst customer, or they just fall off, they drop off, they cancel. Maybe they don't like you anymore, you made a mistake, and it's just one and done with them. No three strikes, you know, or their son's taken over the law, which happens plenty of times for me, whatever it is. Right? But if you don't have a steady flow of leads, then you're. You're. You're going to be stuck like Chuck in a truck. You know, you're just going to be like, oh, man, you're just working all day every day thinking that's the answer. But if you just had a little bit of branding to separate yourself, that's going to attract more leads just in and of itself. But then. And then you can. Once you have that branding, then you can take it on. Social media doesn't have to be crazy. Have a Facebook business page or website, any combination of that. If you just want a free Facebook business page, you can start there, right? Instagram, start there, it's free, and just put some posts up there and some videos of yourself doing the work and before and afters and the branding so that you get in front of people's minds so that they can remember you. And so I think branding solves a lot of problems. And really getting leads is one of the biggest problems because you also want good leads. You might be getting the wrong leads because you don't have branding either. That's a whole nother story for another day.
- [13:22]
A
Yeah, that's scary, though, when people seek out the low. Like if you're getting calls because people want to want your. Your business and you don't have logos, they're going to almost assume you're the cheap guy.
- [13:34]
C
Correct.
- [13:34]
A
But if you have a nice truck with a nice logo and you get a phone call because they saw it, they're going to expect to pay a little more.
- [13:39]
C
Correct.
- [13:40]
A
I heard this recently that every human wants to Inherently, like improve by 10% a year. Just, just whether it's financially or, or in a, in a, in a way of skill sets, you just kind of want to grow 10% a year. And I think it's the same thing for businesses. And when I think about how expensive things are getting in, in our world and, and, and inflation, it's kind of crazy. If you aren't growing 10% a year, I don't know if you actually are even staying stable. You may be losing ground. I think 10% a year growth is the new break even. That's where you just can be able to give everyone a nice raise and you're paying all your bills that are going up and your utilities that are going up and your truck bills that are going up and gas prices are going up. Everything's going up. So if you're not growing 10% a year by adding clients or increasing pricing or new leads, I think you're kind of falling behind. And so I think when people just try to stay where they are, two, three, four years goes by and they're not in a good place, and then it's really hard to invest in branding and it's really hard to get out and go get new leads when you're in a bad spot, right.
- [14:56]
C
You end up just spinning your wheels and ending up in a vicious cycle. And the only way to break out of that is to, if you're in that, unfortunately, the only way to break out of that is to make some sacrifices like, okay, well, I'm going to have to bite the bullet with, you know, budget wise and you know, I'm not going to be able to do this or that. I'm going to have to use some money to get out of this hole a little bit, you know, invest in some branding or invest in a website or, you know, whatever. The thing is that you're, that you're lacking or missing, you know, or invest in a, in a coaching group or mentorship program, whatever, so that you can get out of the hole that you, or out of the cycle that you're stuck in because you'll just keep running around. That's how you get burned out. And that's why it's sad when I hear these stories and, and it's like it's always easier from the outside looking in, right? Of course. Because you can easily. And that. Yet another reason why getting around other people, you know, getting in different environments, just getting around someone other than your
- [15:51]
B
inner circle, you know, you're a little
- [15:54]
C
bubble some they can just Kind of help identify things that maybe you're over because you have your head down, you're working hard, you're trying to get it done, you're doing this for your family. I, I get it, but follow nature's framework. I don't want to go down another rabbit hole, but this is.
- [16:10]
A
I like it.
- [16:11]
C
It's something else that we believe in this. It's something else that I talk about in the LCR summit and I'll talk about again. Profit accelerator, live too. But nature's framework, there's seasons, right? You don't hustle and grind your life away. Nature doesn't hustle and grind all day, every day, 365 days. There's seasons of hustle and grind. We're coming up on spring. It's called the spring rush for a reason. Because nature explodes in the spring all. It spends all of its energy or most of its energy in the spring to grow, but it doesn't sustain that, right? Then it goes into summer and it's in maintenance mode to maintain what it's grown. And then fall. Now we're collecting the harvest from everything that we grew. And then winter, it rests and prepares for the process to start all over again in the spring. So there's a whole framework there that I also went into a lot of deep research and figured out how, you know, we work in the seasons, right? We have to work with nature seasons. But there's, there's actually systems there that we can follow for nature's framework. And I call it the time to go system. Like, how do you have a time, a four season time management system following nature's framework every season. You manage your time differently based on that. And also the money flow system, where you can manage your money differently four seasons so that you can be profitable all year long. And it's just following nature's framework. Like, why work against the number one, you know, productive production system in the world? It is the world.
- [17:39]
A
It is, it is literally the world, right?
- [17:42]
C
It's undefeated. So let's just, let's help it a little bit, right? Let's not, you know, defeat it and, but let's also use the framework that nature already has. Expand your offerings with as little as one new attachment, but plus save up to $150 in the process. LCR Media podcast sponsor Toro is offering just that. Up to $150 off or special financing on Grandstand or Grandstand multiforce attachments. Transform your current machine into an aerator, leaf blower, snow blower, and more.
- [18:16]
B
Click the link in the episode description
- [18:18]
C
or stop by your local Toro dealer and save now through May 31st. Join us on June 26th and 27th in Richmond, Virginia for the Profit Accelerator live 90 people only. And I need to be honest with you about something. I could have made this a 300 person conference and make way more money. I didn't because I want to make way more impact at big conferences. It's easy to sit in the back, take notes, leave inspired and nothing changes. That's not what this is. I want to know your name, your business, your specific roadblocks. We're building your business framework together with over two days. Not teaching theory executing. Every day you wait, your competition leaps ahead.
- [19:01]
B
Click the link in the episode description
- [19:02]
C
to save your seat.
- [19:04]
A
I love that. I think there's so many patterns in nature, whether it's wild animals or plants or just the forest ecosystem that we can look at and learn from how the forest works together to help each other. And I tie that back to community, right? Some of the trees are way at the top trying to get all the sun and then, you know, it blocks some sun, but it actually protects the plants below and feeds them nutrients through the root system and the micro hazy and, and all of that geeky stuff that we could get into. But it's really cool to be in the landscape industry because it just is. It makes sense to tie back to your business. And when you talk about winter, winter is a time to restore, a time to save energy and save money. We've been on this kick of like in our business, it's really hard to not lose money in the winter. It's almost impossible. And we've started to structure things to where we do have the spring ramp up. And winter is much more of a slower investment period. But we're not investing money, we're investing time. And I think that's a different, different way to look at things. And it's just, it's, it's done well for us.
- [20:18]
B
Yeah.
- [20:18]
C
And something else too. A little tweak. Something else I discovered when you look at farmers, what they follow nature's framework because they're on farm. They're on the farm, like that's, that's their life. But so what, what farmers do is they actually collect their harvest in the fall like you're supposed to, and they actually save a certain part of their harvest for the winter. So that in the winter what they're doing is they're literally sharpening their axes, they're sharpening their tools, they're Replacing their equipment with the harvest from the fall that they saved for the winter to prepare for the spring. Usually we wait till the spring to do all that because our cash flow is increasing, but that's because we didn't take our harvest, our profits from the fall.
- [21:05]
A
Yes.
- [21:05]
C
And take some of the. Because there's a huge influx in the fall for most of us.
- [21:09]
B
Right.
- [21:09]
C
Because everything's going on. I don't know about you, but I'm doing all of my service services except maybe mulch in the fall. Right. Like it's everything. Spring is most, but fall is every. I'm aerating a seed and cleaning leaves, mowing, fertilizing. You know, you're doing all these things, except I don't do mulch in the fall, but so you're doing a whole lot more. And you think, wow, look at all this money. Now I can invest it in this or spend it here or do that or put in savings and. Yes, but you need to also have part of that savings. Should be what I call winter savings. And that's part of my, you know, money flow system is have a winter savings which is taking some of your profits throughout the year to have for winter so that you can replace that trimmer or upgrade that mower or get a new this or that or what. Get. Finally get that truck fixed. That's been a pain in the neck or whatever it is in the winter when you think, oh, I don't have any money, it's slow and. But if you had that money saved aside, now you can do the work. You can have the guys stain trailers, fix this and that, pay them for it, pay for the supplies. And then in the spring you're ready to go. You're not now scrambling to do that in the spring, and then you get crushed by the spring rush.
- [22:15]
A
I love that. That, that makes a ton of sense. And probably in the winter you're going to get the best pricing if you're up. Correct.
- [22:24]
C
Because everything's slow. People are desperate. They're looking for some.
- [22:27]
A
Take this, take this.
- [22:28]
C
I drop all my equipment off in the winter because they're bored, they got nothing else to do. So they, they do all my stuff. It gets done immediately ready to go. I don't have to scramble in the spring. Everything's broken. I'm like, ah, yeah, it's a totally different mentality. We're used to just running a certain way. But when you really start studying certain things, like in nature, you start to really think like, wow, what have I been doing all this Time, you know, and then some of it was intuitive for me, but some of it became more intentional as I really started studying this more. And like, there's got to be a better way to do some of this stuff. So. And just different things throughout the last decade of me being in business and figuring this out and reading books and taking this from that and that from this and just really combining what works and sharing it with others. Hey, work for them too. Look at that.
- [23:14]
B
You know, and it.
- [23:14]
A
Yeah, there it is.
- [23:15]
C
There it is.
- [23:16]
A
I also think part of this is a multi year approach too, right? Because you're always going to have a drought or a recession or something else. And a farmer actually told me this. He said whenever we have a, a bumper year, just like through the roof, way more than we expected in harvest and things are going great, money's everywhere. We always take a good chunk of that and put it away because we know in the next five years we're going to have a really bad year. No one's going to hit their bonus. We're not going to have time overtime to pay the team in the field. And we're going to have this, you know, little 10, 20% of our really good year set aside that we can dig into and pay everybody for their hard work. Because farming's a hard one no matter how hard you work. The profits are mostly determined on external factors. Whether, how's the ground, what's the market, right. For like lettuce or grapes or blueberries, whatever you're selling, you know, it could be 3 to 4x normal or it could be a lot less depending on the quality and the supply and demand. And I think that's good for us to remember is like there's always going to be a drought every five to 10 years. And if you're not saving up every year a little bit, that, that could really hurt. That could really hurt.
- [24:34]
C
And it also all starts with the seeds, the quality of the seed that
- [24:39]
B
you plant in the soil.
- [24:40]
C
So what quality seeds are you planting in your soil in yourself? What kind of mental information you're. Yeah, information, the mind, like what words are you listening to from others? Those are seeds, right? What food are you putting in your body? That's seeds. Nutrition, right? What kind of physical activities to strengthen the outside of your body? Those are seeds.
- [25:05]
A
What thoughts are you giving?
- [25:06]
C
What thoughts are you thinking about yourself and others? Or seeds? Those are all seeds that you're consuming and you're planting into your soil. You are the garden. So like what, it all starts just like A farmer. Yes, there are external environments, but it's all about the seeds. To start having the healthy crop. If you have bad seeds, then you're just gonna have a bad crop. Right. So sow the right seeds. Sow good quality seeds into yourself.
- [25:35]
A
Wow. And, and, and same with the soil. Right? So if you can think of your brain as a little bit of like the soil and the seeds information you're taking in, what are, where are you getting the bulk of your information from? And if you're looking at Instagram and in any kind of short form, content I think is dangerous because, man, it's just, it's context switching. Like, boom, boom, boom. You're going to like every 30 seconds it's a completely new thing. Like, that's a cool car. Wow, that's a good idea about business. Wow, that's a nice golf shot. Like, it's just crazy, like how your brains like, dude, what the.
- [26:17]
C
Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, it's, it's, it's overwhelmed because they want you to just stay fixated on it and you're just hooked and you're just going down the scroll. Yeah, the rabbit hole of stuff. But yeah, all that, all that seeds, you know, so like, be intentional with your time. Be intentional with the content that you're consuming. Be intentional with the people you're surrounding yourself with. Be intention with how you're spending your money. Are you spending your money? Are you investing your money? Yeah, right. Like, are you investing your money on yourself or are you just spending money on others and other things and your business? Don't forget about yourself. Invest in nutrition, invest in education, invest in experiences. That's a huge one.
- [27:01]
A
You know, like that's bucket list. I love bucket list stuff.
- [27:06]
B
All right, well, I hope that was insightful and like I said, hopefully it either gave you some new ideas or reinforced some existing ideas for branding so that you can really have the best successful start and finish for the spring rush, the spring season. That's where we can get, that's where we automatically get the most leads. But how can we get higher quality leads? Branding definitely helps. How can we increase our leads overall? Branding definitely helps. So hopefully that was helpful like I said. And be on the lookout for the upcoming episodes for of the full conversation between myself and Justin White again, link is in the episode description for you to go to his podcast. He's got a lot of other great interviews there. He's very knowledgeable and he interviews high level, knowledgeable folks as well. And then if you click follow where wherever you're wherever you are listening to, there should be some sort of follow or subscribe or something so that you can get notified when new episodes come out so you don't miss when the one with Two of Us comes out. So but again, also be on the lookout social media, my social media. I will be posting more video clips about it and letting you all know when it's live as well. So there you go. Thank you for listening. And thank you to Turo Company for sponsoring the LCR Media podcast. Until the next episode, this is Naylor Tyler Ferrell.
- [28:33]
C
This has been an lcr media and Mr. Producer production.