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- [00:02]
Naylor Taliaferro
Are you mowing lawns, running crews, and still wondering where all the money went? You're not alone. Naylor Taliaferro of LCR Media has been there. And that's exactly why he created Profit Accelerator Live. Join Naylor and expert speakers John Pajak and Eric Triplett for two powerful days of hands on workshops designed specifically for lawn care and landscaping business owners in Richmond, Virginia, June 26th and 27th. This isn't a conference where you'll sit in the back and take notes. You'll leave with an actual business plan in hand, knowing exactly what to charge, how to manage your time, and how to attract better customers. Tickets are just $299, but right now you can bring a partner or a fellow business owner free with our two for one special. Tickets are just $299, but right now you can bring a partner or fellow business owner free with our 2 for 1 special. Only 75 spots are available and they will fil fast. Use the link in the show description or go to profitacceleratorlive.com to secure your spot today. Put more money in the bank and more time in your schedule with Profit Accelerator Live. Here we go.
- [01:36]
Welcome back to the episode of the LCR Media podcast where we get to know the pros. I'm your host, LCR Neil or Talia Farrow. And on today's episode, we have none other than Joey Koberly from the Landscaping Bookkeeper, the Lawn Care Launch podcast formerly known as the Joey Coblerly show, and and much more to unpack. So welcome. Joey. How's it going, dude?
- [01:57]
Joey Koberly
Thanks, man. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate the, you know, I hadn't seen you, really hadn't talked to you much since quip. I was on your show then, but yeah, what's going on, man? Doing good?
- [02:05]
Naylor Taliaferro
Yeah, for sure. I feel like it's definitely been a little while. You know, we, we've kind of known each other for, man, I don't even know how many years, but I feel like time flies, but I feel like we do. We have known each other for several years now and I've seen an evolution like the first time I met you or I guess saw you like in person was at, you know, Jason Creel's event, you know, down there in Alabama. And you guys were down there, you had a table, you got on stage, I think for the first time or may, maybe that was a different the next year, I don't know. But regardless, I feel like I've. I've seen a tran. A transition with you as well. Like, you know, you guys were the landscaping bookkeeper was what I knew. And now you have so many other things going on. So let's. Let's get the listeners caught up to speed, because I can't even remember if I've had you on my podcast yet, to be honest. It's been five years.
- [02:54]
Joey Koberly
That's what I was saying at a quip. We. We did one at Pod Row.
- [02:56]
Naylor Taliaferro
That's right.
- [02:57]
Joey Koberly
Yeah. Kevin and everything.
- [02:59]
Naylor Taliaferro
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that. But, yeah, so let. That.
- [03:02]
Podcast Announcer
That.
- [03:02]
Naylor Taliaferro
I feel like that's like light years away compared to so many. Or ago compared to so many things that. That we've done. But let's. I don't think we really unpacked as much there because it was like a. You know, there's three of us. It was kind of like trying to divide and conquer and everything. But I wanted to kind of really focus more on you and your story and your wife, your family and the landscape and bookkeeper, like, how that started because. And go from there because I really. One of the things that most landscapers, as you probably are well aware, are not the best at. Bookkeeping. You know, we're just not by default bookkeepers or numbers. Money. We know how to make the money, but we don't necessarily know where to place the money and how to manage the money effectively. So bookkeeping is definitely something that is very needed, and I think you saw that and. And really leaned into that. But so. So just. Just kind of get us caught up. Like, where that all started. Like, how did you get introduced to the industry? What did you. Where.
- [04:05]
Joey Koberly
Where.
- [04:05]
Naylor Taliaferro
I don't even think you weren't even really a part of the landscaping Bookkeeper really as much in the very, very beginning.
- [04:10]
Joey Koberly
No, no.
- [04:11]
Naylor Taliaferro
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let. Let's. Let. Let's. Let's just start there and then. And then unpack that and go from there.
- [04:17]
Joey Koberly
That's a lot to unpack. I was like, my whole journey into, like, even caring about small business. I didn't even come from this. I don't come from a family of entrepreneurs or anything. Like, I. Megan and I got married in 2017. I went to college, got a degree in business management. I was gonna go work at, like, I wanted to work in kind of banking or, like, investment banking or, you know, eventually I kind of wanted to be like, a hedge fund manager. Like, that was kind of what I wanted to do. And I didn't really know much about small business. I taught. I learned everything from, like, corporate and, like, analysis and everything's. Like financy and you know, Megan and I, I just landed a job, like entry level position. I did through college. I did blue collar work. So I, I drove the truck and trailer. I worked for like a window and door installation company. I did deck building, I did tiling. I've done manufacturing. I did a whole bunch of stuff through college because I drug out my college experience. And always, I think it took me like eight years to get through because I took three years off. And anyway, my path was I wanted to be an analyst. Like, that's kind of ish where I was headed. You know, I didn't think I really had any kind of like identity yet, but like, that's kind of. My brain is like analytical. And Megan and I got married and we quickly. She was a teacher, I was working at the bank. And we quickly find out that we didn't have like a lot of time for communication at the end of the day. So we're newlyweds, we're coming home, we're too exhausted to do anything. And I was like, you know, I was never really like sold out on what I wanted to be and neither was she. We just kind of got kind of not forced into it, but kind of corralled into it just from, you know, college and then work and just the whole experience of like that generation pushing our generation into that field, you know. And she approached me one day and said, why don't we just start a business and you know, something we can do from home that doesn't have like a lot of startup costs. And she kind of found this bookkeeping course on Penny hoarders in like 2017. That's when we, this time we, we started talking about it and it was, I don't know, it. She kind of pitched me like every. Ever since then, I've pitched her on a lot of different stuff. She pitched me and she was like, let's just quit our jobs and start this business because we're not happy. And so I was like, all right, let's do it. So I quit. I went back into like doing tiling or something because I didn't want to have like a career. I was like, I'm just going to make enough until we have enough to like actually like provide for ourselves. So she started it. I was doing like odd in jobs and stuff, like quit. My job had no benefits. I was ubering late at night. Sometimes I did a bunch of random stuff, like I would Uber till 4am I would just keep. I provided while we started. And so she Wasn't making any money for like the first two years. But then she eventually, after. After we met Paul in 2020 at Jason Creel's event, it really was a. Like a. A changer for us. And we started to get a lot of leads and we started to understand the industry well and we started to. We want. We knew we want to position ourselves as kind of an authority. So we picked a niche and we went with lawn care because we, like, we're in Florida. I got lots of good old boys, aunts and uncles and things like that, you know. And so, like, I come from the country. I'm not your typical profile for finance. Like, I grew up in, you know, lower Alabama on 400 acres like that. That was mine. I grew up in a town with no red lights. It was just like, you know, country. Like, it's weird, I'm going a little too fast. But anyway, I'm not your typical finance profile, but that's my brain.
- [07:40]
Naylor Taliaferro
Yeah.
- [07:41]
Joey Koberly
So anyway, that's what we wanted to work with because that was my family. I related to it a lot. We did have one lawn care client at the time, and I really liked him. He was really down to earth. Family oriented, which we were. Family oriented. And so anyway, yeah, we dove into that. When did Jason Krill's event? Paul kind of blew us up on his podcast. We started getting a lot of leads and I don't know, it just kind of grew from there. And eventually she brought me home in 20, I don't know, 20, 21. And by then, she. She was kind of the organizational guru, you know. So you got to think about it this way. When you start a business as a lawn care owner, a lot of it's like, hard work, strenuous activity. My business was kind of like the female brain, like organization folders and things like that. And I'm like, I don't know how to do any of that. I stuck on front of a computer. I don't know how to find files or anything, but I did have a lot of background in investing in business, and so I knew how to bring things to the table that she couldn't see. Like, I knew how to read the statements. I knew how to tell the story of a business. I knew how to judge if something was a good business, if it was an investable business, things like that. And she couldn't see that. She just know how to organize. So when she brought me home, I brought that whole, like, different dynamic to it, which was, you know, let's help these guys build an investment vehicle rather than just organizing for them. And so that's kind of where I started fitting in. And then we had kids and it got all crazy and we're like, half the time I'm doing the meeting, she's doing the meeting. We're just trying to stay afloat in 2021. You know, that was wild. And so we just started tag teaming it. Like I would be back here someday, she would be back here some days. And I don't know, it just grew. And what was fun about it was like we started getting really passionate about helping guys create a wealth generator for their families. It wasn't about bookkeeping. And I would say probably 2023, 2024. After all the meetings that we did inside of bookkeeping, we realized that we couldn't really like, affect the amount of change that we wanted. Like, we would look at bookkeeping, for example, as like very retrospective. So it's a lot of back data, not a lot of forward looking. You can forecast a little bit with it. But we, we guys would stress out about our numbers, we'd interpret it for them. But it wasn't really affecting any like change in their life. Right. Like, it was, I feel organized. But you know, we kind of wanted to be a mentor and, and teach things because we, I'd say we don't really live very traditionally. Like, I'm back here some days, she's back here some days. We're all together all the time. We raise our kids together. We can just go on a walk at noon, you know, together down the neighborhood. I'll go to the gym whenever I want, she'll go to the gym whenever she wants. And we just kind of like work together like that. And we're like, what if we taught people to do that and like hang out more with their families and build together. And so that's kind of where lawn care launch came from, was I want to help people build sustainable lives where they're together with their families. Like, strong, strong family bonds is kind of what I repeat. And so we couldn't really do that with landscaping bookkeeper. So I was like, we need another vehicle to help families create strong family bonds. Because I want to help them make a profitable business that therefore buys back their time so they can do what we did. Because we quickly had a profitable business that we had stepped out of. We had systems. We basically retired a couple of years ago and we just decided to go back in on our next business venture because we liked helping people and we like, we're passionate about families Being brought together and what we had built for ourselves, we're like, this is really cool. We can just kind of do whatever we want and. And we have passive income, and we can work with our money and create new things. And anyway, yeah, that's kind of where Lawn Care Launch was born, was we want to help people and families create strong bonds through profitability, which creates passive income, which means that you don't have to work until you die, if that makes sense. You're kind of making money while you sleep, because that's. That's what we do. We just kind of have passive income, and we can create valuable products for people, and we can lead by example, in a sense. And so that's kind of where Lawn Care Launch came from.
- [11:38]
Naylor Taliaferro
Yeah. Nice.
- [11:39]
Joey Koberly
I got to take a break. I'm talking too fast. It's all good.
- [11:44]
Naylor Taliaferro
Yeah, well, we'll get back to passive income. But I thought it was important for you to share that story because it helps, you know, everyone listening know, like, where you came from and where you are at your core and. And where your heart is and. And how it helps everyone connect a little bit more. Like, oh, you're not just, like some fancy finance guy that, you know, came out of wherever and you just felt like, wow, well, we'll start doing bookkeeping for this industry now. You know, like, sometimes there's. There's different images, you know, that go along with that. You know, like, guy in a suit and a cubicle in an office, and he's doing my bookkeeping. I don't know about all that, but it's like, you know, you. When. When you have this backstory that you have, it's. It. It makes you more relatable, essentially. Right? And then people can kind of connect with you more and. And feel more comfortable, essentially, you know, talking to you about their numbers and. And listening to what you're saying as well, like, receiving information from you about their numbers. Because, I mean, let's be honest, that's. I think, a big reason why a lot of landscapers don't really dabble into a bookkeeper is because maybe they're a little embarrassed. Like, should I just put that out? Let's put that out there. You know, like, they're not 100 sure if they're doing good with their numbers, and they kind of. It's a touchy subject, and they kind of feel like, man, this person I don't even know, they're looking at my numbers, and are they going to judge me and they're going to tell me What I can't do. And you know, they just have all these negative. They focus on the negative aspects of the fact. Which, the fact is when you control your numbers, when you manage your numbers, when you understand your numbers, then you, you have more options of what you can do with your business. You know, like, people think a budget is a bad thing, for example, like, no, a budget is just a fact of creating, creating a number that you want to spend or can spend for X, Y and Z. And now you have freedom within there. It's like creating a boundary to give yourself freedom within that boundary. Like, okay, my, my budget for this is this amount. So whatever I want to do with that, I can do with that. But I know that I have a budget, I have a cap. So people tend to, tend to focus on the negative aspects of the fact instead of the positive aspects. Like, wow, if I have a budget, I have all that freedom and now I can do this and I can do that, and if I don't use it all, maybe I can roll some of that into this that I need instead. And, you know, and a lot of people can't just figure that out on their own, though. And that's where a bookkeeper or someone with bookkeeping knowledge is really helpful. So with that being said, my question to you is, what are some of the, what are some of the challenges that you found that landscapers have when you started doing all their bookkeeping? Like, like, what are some challenges, issues that they have that you help them address? Like, okay, here's a problem here. You need to fix this. Or like, how did you attack that?
- [14:37]
Joey Koberly
I'd say two things. Number one is they don't really separate their business and their personal. And if you've ever talked to, like, my buddy Jim Parker, the lawn care business broker, he said that's the number one thing why you can't sell your business. And so you need to separate that as early as possible. And we teach them to do that. And then I'd say the second way,
- [14:57]
Naylor Taliaferro
what, what, what is a way that they like that they can separate their business? Like, what do you mean? Specifically for people that have no idea
- [15:04]
Joey Koberly
when you start off, a lot of times you'll have like a truck that you use personally and you use it for business. And then, I mean, you can start off that way, but you eventually got to separate it out at least. And then, you know, just drawing money all the time for random stuff like going to Walmart using the business card. And then as a bookkeeper, I'm just like, you know, what is, what's this transaction for? Is this a business expense? Because if it's a personal expense, then we just need to leave it out. And you need to be on, like, draws where you can spend your money anyway. We just get these big lump sums. You know, one month they're drawing 10,000, the next month they're drawing 2,000. It's just random all over the place. They don't really know their value in the business because they're just randomly drawing money. Like, how much are you actually working? How much is your, how much should you be paying yourself? So conversations like that. And the key to, I mean, this is important because the key to unlocking your business valuation and profitability is knowing how much you work and how much you're worth in the business. Because guess who you got to replace one day when you scale yourself? Guess who needs to know how much money needs to be allotted for that? You, by you tracking your hours and knowing how much that you're actually spending in the field. Because early on it'll look like you're really profitable, but really you're just not paying yourself as much as you could. And your income statement looks great because this might be getting too technical on a podcast, but you'll. On your profit and loss, it won't have your draws on there. If you're an llc, you're not on salary. And so all of your draws will come from the cash flow, from the profits. And I think you should know this. You're an accountant or your wife's an accountant, right? So, so, yeah, I mean, that's the biggest thing is like, yeah, an LLC does not show owner salary on there. You at least need to know what you're worth because it's not going to be on your statement. So if I look at your statement, it's going to say you're 60. Profitable. Well, guess what? You worked 80 hours this whole year each week, and you probably underpaid yourself. And you might actually be at negative five and you don't even know it.
- [16:50]
Podcast Announcer
Right.
- [16:51]
Naylor Taliaferro
A lot of people don't even pay themselves to begin with. They don't even have a paycheck. That's like step one swipe at Walmart. Yeah, right. They just use the business for whatever. I mean, clearly they're using, they're paying their bills somehow.
- [17:01]
Right?
- [17:01]
But it's not, it's not the, the, the correct way where you can actually see how much money you're making and then make adjustments accordingly. And then obviously from a tax perspective and all of that. But I mean, just, we're just talking. I'm focusing on like for you to be, for, for the listeners, you, the listeners to be better at your business, like to have more money. Like so many people end up having the lowest paying job they've ever had and working more hours than they ever have. You know, like instead of actually being a business owner because you're not focusing on some of these things like paying yourself. And then you. I'm maybe I need to lower my expenses and I need to, you know, it's not just about increasing my sales. It's like it's lowering your, your, your, your expenses and being more efficient in some other places, you know, like how you can increase that so that you can have that margin increase as well and then you can pay yourself more and maybe. How do I, how can I afford employees? Well, if you maybe fix some of these things and you'll realize where you're maybe leaking some money here and there and you can actually get some money, you make more money or have more money essentially in your account that you can pay an employee and these different things.
- [18:08]
Joey Koberly
So I would say a lot of that is downstream from like having a plan too. So for example, if I'm doing like analysis on somebody's business, the number one problem question we would have when somebody signed with Landscaping Bookkeeper was they look at the statements and then after we've gone over it for the first month or whatever that they've been with us, they'd say, is that good or bad? And I'm like, I don't know, dude. It depends on the context. Like what are you trying to do? For example, if you are trying to scale a big business, oftentimes you can actually have really high expenses because you're trying to get yourself to the next phase. So you have high expenses. And it doesn't mean you need to cut expenses. It means you need to increase your revenue to make your expenses. It's called leveraging overhead. Like a lot of big businesses do it. But maybe you're not trying to grow. Maybe you're trying to run an efficient operation that you already have. Maybe you should go through your expenses, like with a fine tooth combination, cut all these unnecessary costs. And so your context is you need to give me what you're trying to do and then I can interpret your statements for you because otherwise I'm just going to. I don't know, I. There's nothing I can say. It's just, it's good or bad depending on the context of what you're trying to do. And so that's one thing that we try to bring to the table is like, let's, let's make a plan and let's execute the plan. And your statements are going to look in accordance to what the plan is.
- [19:24]
Naylor Taliaferro
Yeah. Nice. What, what, what are some false beliefs that people have about bookkeeping?
- [19:31]
Joey Koberly
That it's going to solve all their problems and they can abdicate responsibility of their finances. Like, for example, for example, they'll, they'll look at their bookkeeping and the numbers are all like, I think I told you this all fair. They're all retrospective. They're on the past. So, you know, maybe you're changing the future. Maybe you don't want it to look like the past. So you need to. A lot of times what the big businesses do, well, they'll track a lot of their daily numbers. And that's totally separate from bookkeeping. The tracking and the discipline of the day to day interoperations will make your bookkeeping look good. You're not just going to look at your bookkeeping and fix all your problems because you yourself need some consistency and discipline. That's actually what's going to make your bookkeeping look good. It's not just me coming to you and telling you. It's like a lot of times it's like a me problem. I like your hat. Right? Like me 2.0. You need to create me 2.0 to create the person that's going to make your books look good. Because I can tell you all the problems in the world. All right? But now we need to have an execution of how we're going to make the problems better. And they think that just by knowing a problem is actually going to fix the problem. It's like, no, that's totally different. Like, it's like reading a book and not even taking any action on the book. You know, you know, it's, you know what to do, maybe, but you're not doing it. So I'd say that's probably the biggest misconception. And then also I can just have a bookkeeper manage this and I never need to look at it and you know, perfect, because I don't want. Ignorance is bliss. Right? So that's, that's the two things. It's just like they don't really understand what the purpose of it is, you know?
- [20:59]
Podcast Announcer
LCR Media Podcast is proudly sponsored by Toro and they're giving listeners a powerful tool to run a smarter, more profitable business. Horizon360 helps you schedule jobs, track crews monitor equipment and understand what work is really paying off. LCR listeners get an exclusive 7 month free trial with promo code LCR. Claim yours today.
- [21:21]
Naylor Taliaferro
Click the link in the episode Description
- [21:23]
Podcast Announcer
the Lawn and Landscape Technology Conference is going to be this July 22nd through the 24th in Scottsdale, Arizona. I for one have never been to Arizona at all and I've heard a lot about Scottsdale, Arizona specifically. So I'm really excited to go check out another part of the country. One of the reasons why I enjoy traveling for different industry and community events, whether they're ones that I host or trade shows that I'm a part of or speak at. Like I was at Vegas recently for the Con Expo. Had a great time networking there and checking out that show as well as that part of the country. You know, there's different parts of Vegas, you know, for better or for worse. And you know where, where Con Expo was, was, was a different perspective and it was, it was pretty nice. So um, I'm, I'm excited to check out Scottsdale, Arizona. Last year I was at the Lawn Landscape Conference Technology conference and it was amazing. It was, it was focused on the technology in your business. Of course there's the, the automations like robotic mowers and battery operated equipment, but they also have a lot of training as well to help you grow your business through those automations and technology. But also just being on the forefront of the ideas and the future of the industry and what are some things that you can put potentially adopt into your own business regardless of what size it is and how you feel about the future and technology and automations, ultimately that's going to help you streamline your business and work less and make more. So I'm going to be there. John Pak from the Profits with Pak podcast is going to be there. Air trip with the Pond Digger from the Deep end Podcast is going to be there. You got Cornell Mack on the Attack with Mac podcast going to be there. And you have Mike and Larry with the Side Hots, side Hustle Squads, Side Hustle Squad podcast. There you go. Also going to be there. And we're going to have a great time at Pod Row yet again at the Long Landscape Technology Conference. So if you're going to be there, definitely stop by. Say say what's up? Get on a podcast, share your story or just meet up with whoever we have on podcast. Going to be interviewing all kinds of leaders. Like last year we're interviewed Mark Bradley from Element and leanscaper and so many other high level entrepreneurs and business owners that stopped by Pod Row. So you could even just, you know, stop by and listen. Listen to their story first, perspective. And then shake their hand and talk to them after the fact, as well as, you know, getting on a podcast and sharing your story. So a lot of bonuses, a lot of great things to come out to. The Law and Landscape Technology Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, July 22, 2020 4th. Check out the link in the episode description if you want to register.
- [24:01]
Naylor Taliaferro
Hope to see you there. So what's involved with that process? When if people are like listening to this and you're like, man, you know, I've really been considering a bookkeeper, but I don't even know where to start or what I should be looking for or what, what that, what does that even look like? Do what do I have to do a lot of work? Like, I don't know anything about this. Like, what's the process look like for people that want to start, you know, bookkeeping or like, can, you know, having a bookkeeper other than themselves?
- [24:29]
Joey Koberly
Yeah. So for us, our process is you schedule a call with the landscaping bookkeeper atthe landscaping bookkeeper.com. it's a 15 minute phone call. And then Megan will talk to you and she'll gather all your information, like your assets and your debt and how many transactions you do a month, and then we'll send you a proposal. And really, it's a lot of you just coming to the monthly meetings and letting us know is, is this all in the right place? Because if you don't have any communication, we're gonna have to guess on some stuff. Maybe you didn't provide a receipt. We're just gonna make stuff up. It's not gonna be as accurate as you want it to be. And then just get in the process of keeping track of what you spend in the business. You can upload it to us so you can have a scanner that you can have uploaded to QuickBooks real quick and just make it part of your weekly routine. Just upload receipts on a weekly basis. It's how much, what you put in is what you're gonna get out of it. So if you don't want to do anything, it's gonna be sloppy and we're gonna guess on a lot of stuff. It'll be ish, but if you want it, like really, you know, dialed in, you got to be a little active in it, which is fine. There's a lot of things that you could think of it as kind of working on your business rather than in your business a little bit There's a lot of things that you need to start creating in terms of your daily routine that's going to fit inside of just going out there and cutting the grass. And you're, what you're doing is developing systems to pass on to somebody else. You don't have to upload receipts forever. When you get the business to a certain level, just delegate it, you know, delegate. You want to get to the pinnacle of where you're trying to get, which, you know, for some guys that might be staying out in the field, maybe that's fine. Maybe you want to get into a sales position or step out of the business entirely and sell it. I don't know. It just depends on where you want to go. And I'm really passionate about helping guys get to their dream life. And it looks different for so many different people. Some guys don't want to grow a big company and sell it like it's just not something that's even on the table. Although at your event I'm going to be talking about selling why you should build as a sellable business, even if you don't plan on selling it because it's just good habits and it'll make your business valuable. It'll make you a lot really stress free if you build it that way. It's stressful running a business that isn't sellable. And it's not sellable because nobody wants to carry that stress right.
- [26:30]
Naylor Taliaferro
100%. And so tying back into passive income, is that one of the things that you're referring to? Is that going to help also create a sellable business?
- [26:42]
Joey Koberly
Yeah. So anything that's valuable to the open market would be something that's, that does have profits coming off of because that has something that the some an owner can buy it and have instant ability to make money passively. And what I mean by passively is passive income is money generated on assets. And then anything that's not profit, which would be your salary, would be money for work performed. So you need to. When? Anytime. I'm talking about profits, I'm talking about passive income. Because profit is derived from assets that you earn as the owner of those assets. And the assets, it could be accumulation of your trucks, your trailers, your systems, your routes that you've optimated, optimized. Like that's all one system that has the ability to have profits coming off of it. And so you, you, you literally built a business, you built something. What does that mean? It means that you've compiled a bunch of different materials, you've organized them into a profitable system. And so that's an asset that can be sold because it is profitable, and that's what gives it value.
- [27:41]
Naylor Taliaferro
Nice. 100. Thank you for the clarification on, on the passive income. Yeah. Because some of these terms, you know, that they're, they are. I forgot what, what I've heard someone say recently. But, you know, we, we all have, we all have a different, a different dictionary, you know, to, to define these words. You know, like, we might have the same vocabulary, but different dictionary or whatever. So, like, these words might mean different things to different people. So thank you for defining that because, you know, when I, I mean, I think of, like, passive income, I think a lot of people probably think of, like, oh, you know, I, I, I, I sell. I write a book once, and then I sell it for eternity. And that's passive income, you know, Like, I mean, that, that, that is technically passive income, but it's like, well, then people, well, how does that relate to lawn care and landscaping? So that's where breaking that down is, is where that really comes into play. And, you know, you had mentioned my event coming up, so Profit Accelerator live, that is this June 26th and 27th, right here in Richmond, Virginia, at the Omni Hotel, downtown Richmond. It's a beautiful place, especially in the summer. It's a great time, you know, before it gets too hot and before you get, you know, if you do take vacations, you know, before, hopefully you do that. But it's after the spring rush, so you can really kind of reflect and see where you're at. Like, were you profitable? Could, could you have been more profitable? You know, like, what, what, what does the rest of your year look like? What is it gonna look like? You know, what can we do to, you know, for two days to really help you figure that out and focus on a lot of the things that Joey's talking about and that. Myself, John Pajak, Air Triplett, talk about to really help you dial that in so that you can have more money in your bank account and more time in your schedule. Like, those are the two big things that I think a lot of us landscapers struggle with. We're working all day, every day. We're working our guts out, and we're just getting burned out. We're not even, not even making enough money to even show for it. Like, it's one thing to work your guts out, but you got a ton of money, and you're like, yeah, but it's a whole nother thing to work your guts out, and you're like still struggling to pay your bills and you're like, what is going on right now? It's because you have the lowest paying, you've created the worst job for yourself. The lowest paying job working you to death. You're working overtime and not even getting paid for it. It's craziness. And I mean there's a season for that right when you first start, you know, startups hustle and grind, you got to do what you got to do to get it going. But that, that's not sustainable. You know, you have to, you have to shift, you know, and, and make sure you're building your business in such a way so that you're profitable and you're continuously being profitable and, and you're not, you don't have a job, essentially a terrible job.
- [30:13]
Joey Koberly
So.
- [30:13]
Naylor Taliaferro
But yeah, so I mean, what are, what are you kind of touched on a little bit, but what are, what are some of the things that we can look forward to you talking about at Profit Accelerator Live?
- [30:21]
Joey Koberly
Yeah, so I've been really trying to dial my message in the last like three or four years because I was talking to Pay Jack at Equip and he was kind of thinking that we did the same thing. And I'm like, not really like, you know, you're kind of a spreadsheet. I'm not a spreadsheet guy at all. Like, I do a lot of things from my gut, just my understanding. I think of like investments. Like I've spent most of my life in investments and like analyzing stocks and reading 10k annual reports and all that boring crap. It's like what I'm really passionate about, what gives something value and why are like the American people feeling so burnt out and I'll feel so broke and never have time with their families. And it's all tied to profit and ownership. And so like that's what I'm trying to bring to the equation is I want people to not only own things, but create their form of ownership. So when we talk about building a business, like I was saying, you're building something, you're creating something and now you own it. Well, that is what's actually going to unlock freedom for you. Because if you have a job, you're going to go out and sure, you might make a lot of money. I think a lot of us think of salaries like, man, I would kill to make 150 or 200,000. That's not what you want, man, trust me. Like, you want to make a lot of money all passively and then you have that's what unlocks the freedom. It's, you know, I know people that make 200, 250,000 a year and they're never home with anyone and their families are distanced. And to me that's not really. Maybe it's winning for them. That's not winning for me. Like, I want to provide for my community, my family, but I want to do it so while I'm still present and I can still use my creative powers. Because if you're just out there working all the time, you're not getting to be. It's almost like you're not being able to be fully human. Because I think that we're all meant to be kind of a co creator. Like, I think that's what the economy is moving into is like a creation type of thing. I think that's what humans do better than AI is like creating things that can, that can build through, like communities with other people. You're leveraging other people's talents. It's not all about you. And when you start creating things, you realize that you have to build something with other people. And that's what makes it fun. You can't, it's not fun to build something by yourself. And that's what so many people do. And they get burnt out and they end up working themselves to death. And you know, half the time it ends in divorce and the kids are distant. Like, I don't want that. Like it's, I have no desire for that. So I'm all about helping you visualize what you want to create. Creating it and then having the ability to step out of it. And it provides for you and it can provide for so much more than just you and your family. It's unbelievable. Seen it happen through many of the people that I know, and it's just amazing. But that's not to say that you're just going to stop working, like create something else. Creation is what drives wealth. So if you can learn to create, you create wealth for people. And we don't have to have this conversation about spreading the wealth out or whatever. Like everybody can create their own wealth. Just the, the resources are unlimited. So that, that's what I'm gonna be touching on. But I'm gonna bring it through a profit type of discussion because everything is downstream of that, right?
- [33:15]
Naylor Taliaferro
100%. And most people think profit is what's left at the end of, at the end of the year, at the end of the day, like after everything is subtracted. And what's the left is profit and whether you think that that's it or not. Most of the time, you don't even have anything left anyway. So it's like you got to really dial. You got to really shift this focus here. So, I mean, I know I'm going to be talking about different things, you know, like the money flow system, which is similar to profit first plan, and. And talking about scheduling your priorities instead of prioritizing your schedule and creating boundaries and just really helping you dial your time in so that you can be more efficient and make more money, but also have time to do stuff you want to do, you know, like now. Like, you don't have to wait until you're. Until you sell your company to. To travel or do whatever. Like, there's. There's still ways you can live your life accordingly with everything going. I have tons of things going on, but, you know, I manage my schedule in such a way that I can do what I got to do and still enjoy, you know, life while I'm doing it. Right.
- [34:14]
Joey Koberly
Right. Yeah. No, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak, because I was. Man, I'm not a speaker. Like, I have so many things that I was telling Megan. Like, I have so many things I want to tell people about that. I've just gone through my own experience and coming from a weird perspective of, like, wanting to be a hedge fund manager. And now I like small business. Like, that's so opposite. I just. I see the world a little bit differently than a lot of people on how I'm talking. And I was like, I want to bring this to, like, small business because it's going to unlock so much freedom for them. I was like, I don't know how to do it. And then you contacted me about speaking. I was like, I don't know anything about speaking. And I was talking to. Also simultaneously, I was meeting up with Michael Thompson, I think, who you met at Equip, maybe Stephanie's husband. He went to Equip with us, and he's big into public speaking. He's a pastor. He gets on stage, he studies it like an art form. And I was like, dude, this is, like, really cool stuff. Like, this is, like, the number one way to get a message out. And I never even thought about it before. I was like, how do you get a message out? And we're just kind of talking to the gym, and he's like, well, you got to learn how to speak. I was like, but I'm terrified. I suck at it. Like, I was up there at Jason Krill's event. I was about to wet my pants up there. It was just like mortifying. And I just remember stammering through and I went up there totally unprepared, like, because I didn't know I was even presenting. I didn't have anything. And so, you know, I talk too fast. So I've been, I've been studying hardcore since we had that conversation. I'm reading books, I'm practicing like my tempo, my audience. Like it's, it's been a lot of fun and it's unlocked a whole new probably trajectory for me just from you have. Just from you contacting me. So thank you.
- [35:46]
Naylor Taliaferro
Oh, wow. Well, you're welcome. That's. That's great news. And I think it's something. I think communications in general is something that everyone should, Ben, should focus on because we can all benefit from it. Like sales and communication, like those two kind of go hand in hand, but they're two slightly different things. But just, you know, a lot of us are introverted. A lot of us landscapers, you know, I see a lot of us. Yeah, I'm one of them too. But you know, we kind of have to get out of our shell to speak to people, to sell jobs and do the work. You know, we can't just ignore everyone all the time. It's not an online sales business that we have. We're out there on people's property doing stuff. So we're going to interact with humans. So no matter how introverted we are, we have to find a way to communicate and the better we get. And we don't have to be like story epic storytellers, you know, and be like keynote speakers. But if we just learn some of the basics of communication, we'll actually increase our sales and our customer service just.
- [36:39]
Joey Koberly
And your leadership within your own company as well.
- [36:42]
Naylor Taliaferro
Right. 100. You know, like whether. So if you're wanting, if you do have employees or you want to have employees, that's definitely a huge skill to have as communication because that is a huge part of leadership is how to communicate the message. How to communicate during the good times and the bad times. You know, how to pick people up, how to hold them accountable so much. So yeah, communication is key. So I'm glad I was able to, to. To give you another little spark there to increase your communication. It's definitely a Learn a learning process.
- [37:12]
Joey Koberly
I'm sure you can attest this, but business has done so much for me in terms of just personal growth. Like it really rounds you out and everything. I used to suck at so many things. I like one thing I was good at, you know, and like, that's kind of the way school teaches you, I feel, is just like get good at like one thing, like what do you want to study? And then everything's just kind of isolated outside of that. But like, man, the amount of like personal growth that it just forces you to, it's not, it's like if you want something bad enough, it forces you to become that. And it's really, really cool. And it's done wonders just because Megan and I are fortunate enough to be building together. And so it's forcing both of us simultaneously to go through the change and you realize that, you know, I think taking. Me and Kevin just talked about this, but like taking the first step to get away from something that's scary. So like going from the job to business mindset is a very scary concept. Like you, you feel like you just start your job or your landscaping company half the time just to get away from like corporate or like some job that you hate. And then it becomes a trap. And then you realize that the only way out is to face your fear. It's. It's to kind of build the business that's the most guys journey. I'm not saying everybody, but it's like taking that first step. But then once you do it, it gets easier and easier because once you start deciding to build the business, you have to. There's so many things that you have to look in the eye. Like, just unbelievable how much fear that you have to conquer. But it's the best personal development development class there is. Like, it's, it's unparalleled 100%.
- [38:35]
Naylor Taliaferro
So as we wrap up the episode here, I didn't, didn't want to leave out the, the Lawn Care launch podcast. What are, what, what is. Well, for one thing, you rebranded the podcast. Right. Used to be the Joey Koberly show, I believe, and now it's the Lawn Care launch podcast. So share a little bit about that like the, the rebrand and, and what you guys are focusing on now on the podcast in case the listeners want to go check it out.
- [38:57]
Joey Koberly
Yeah, so I did a lot of interviews there for a while and it was getting to me kind of with the. I was kind of get tired of the scheduling, which I like still having people on, but I got tired of kind of all the scheduling stuff. It was just kind of a distraction and I had other things I was trying to work on and Kevin has always done a weekly podcast with me and he was on there so much. I'm like, dude, I'm just taking all the thunder and this feels wrong. And so I was like, what if we just rebranded? And then simultaneously, it would also tie into, like, all the business that we're building together. So not only it's not my show, it's our show. And then it. It brands with everything. So it just made the most sense. And yeah, it's. It's all about building strong family bonds and everything that's downstream of that. So building a profitable business, you know, passive income, any kind of topic that we can touch inside of whatever's going to help you become the man you want to be or woman, and then help you build a strong bond with your family. Like, and I think business can play a huge role in that. So a lot of it is business topics, but some of it is, you know, what me and Kevin or workout routine were doing or whatever, you know, just to help us. I don't know. I just. That. I mean, that's what. I'm not passionate about business. I like business. It's. It's a vehicle for strong families. Like, that's the way I view it. And so business is downstream. That. But that's. That's basically. I'd say it's a business show, but, like, the heart of it is, like, we want you to have a strong family bond.
- [40:14]
Naylor Taliaferro
That's. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Because I have known far too many folks along the last 12 years that I've been in this industry that have, unfortunately, their families and lives have been destroyed or broken apart. You know, I know a couple of people, you know, that have been divorced or that have gotten divorced, you know, like, in recent years. And. And it's. It's whatever the reasons are. I'm not saying it's. It's necessarily because of landscaping or because of this or because of that. But a fact is, if you have your business, what I can say is, if you have your business running well and smooth, right, and it's not creating added stress to whatever else you have going on in your life, then that's just going to be a win, you know, that's going to be one less thing to worry about. But when your business is like a hot mess or you feel burned out, like, that will most likely contribute to whatever stress you have going on anywhere else in your life, whether that be with family, spouse, all the above, health issues, someone else's health issues that you can't. I mean, it just makes everything worse, you know, when you have the Money figured out, it makes everything else easier to deal with. You know, it's just one less major thing that you have to worry about. So when you get that dialed in, you can really then focus on your family instead of maybe being distracted by a business that might be failing or just really taking way too much of your time.
- [41:33]
Joey Koberly
Yeah.
- [41:33]
Naylor Taliaferro
So that. To your point, I 100% agree.
- [41:36]
Joey Koberly
And I. I'm still working on, like, communicating my message, but, like, I've really come to. To feel it, like, as more of just. It's so much more than money, too. It's like, I know business owners that take their kids to work with them. You know, it's like you're building, like a family legacy almost. And like, you can. If you. If you want to, you can. I mean, since Megan and I build together, like, we just go out to eat and talk about business or whatever we're doing next. Like, there's no. Just staring down at our phones and kind of being distant. We're kind of building together. And I'm not saying that you have to build with your spouse, but at least, like, cue them in on what you're doing so that they can push back against it. Because you get so much good perspective. If you trust me, your spouse is very interested in what you're doing. You just have to be a good communicator. And if they're feeling like they're getting left behind or it's too complicated for them, you just need to work on your communication a little better, because why wouldn't they be interested? And it affects them, you know, so at least let. We encourage a lot of our guys just to bring their wives so that they can know what's going on and understand business. Because I'd like to teach business to both of them at the same time. Like, what is a business? What's passive income, what's profitable? And if they can understand the concept. It's not that complex. It's just. It gets muddled down from all the talk, you know, all the businessy talk. It's. It's a. It's a nature concept as you talk about all the time. It's. It's the same thing as nature way it works. But if you can bring your spouse in and then your kids are seeing you guys collaborate together on things, That's. It's. I think I heard somebody say, like, the best thing you can give your kids is a good marriage, and you can have a good marriage through the communication inside of your business. So I don't know, it's just so much more intertwined than just like money stuff. Right?
- [43:12]
Naylor Taliaferro
100%. Like, like I said at Jason's event, like Lamont Hairston says, it's deeper than grass.
- [43:18]
Joey Koberly
It is deeper than grass.
- [43:19]
Naylor Taliaferro
Yeah, it is. There's a lot more to it. So where, where can anyone, where can everyone find you, find you or, or more learn more about you if they want to?
- [43:30]
Joey Koberly
So if you're interested in doing a lot of planning and workshops and visionary type of stuff and tracking numbers hardcore on a daily day basis and building and consistency in your day, you can go to lawn care launch.com and join our five day think and act like a CEO challenge for $197. If you do all the steps within it, we give all your money back so there's no risk on your half. And then we do have products inside of that, if you like that we have things that you can get on a monthly basis. And then on the landscaping Bookkeeper side, if you're interested in just organization, maybe you feel like you have organizational chaos going on in your business, which many guys do the landscaping bookkeeper.com schedule a 15 minute call with Megan and she'll set you up. And then we also have, like I said, the Lawn Care launch podcast. You can check us on Spotify, Apple, and it's me and Kevin Salters just co hosting every week, having a good time, hanging out. Try to bring some light heartedness to it. But yeah, that's our, that's our three mediums.
- [44:28]
Naylor Taliaferro
Nice. All right, well, we'll put those links in the episode description for those of you that haven't already typed it on your phone while you're listening, you can just go in the episode description there AK show notes and click the link so you can get there fast. So thank you, Joey. I appreciate you being on the show. We leaving anything out here or do you think we covered everything?
- [44:49]
Joey Koberly
I think that's it, man. I really appreciate your time having me on. It's always good chatting with you.
- [44:54]
Naylor Taliaferro
Yeah. And I look forward to seeing you in June hosting you here in Richmond and I can't wait for the value that you're going to bring. So again, those of you listening, if you're interested, the link for that is also in the episode description for Prop Accelerator Live. And hopefully we'll see you there. And until the next episode, this is Naylor, Talia Farrow and Joey Coperly signing off.
- [45:19]
This has been an lcr media and Mr. Producer production.