The GROW! Show

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #190: In this episode of The GROW! Show, Marty Grunder checks in with three past GROW! hosts: Gene Freeman from Dallas, Texas, Jason Cromley from Columbus, Ohio, and Annette McCarthy from Des Moines, Iowa. Marty asks each of them the same five questions to find out what they’re seeing in the market, what’s working in their businesses, and what they’ve learned along the way. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Gene Freeman (Complete Landsculpture, Dallas) The 5/10 Rule for Communication. Any communication received before 5:00 PM gets responded to the same day. Anything after 5:00 PM gets responded to by 10:00 AM the next business day. Shared with clients, subs, and vendors as the standard they can hold you to. Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan. On Monday you shouldn’t be asking “What are we gonna do this week?” That happened Wednesday last week to get it lined up for Thursday and Friday. Relationships Matter at All Levels. Vince and Marty give Gene credit for this one. From smaller operators to peer group heavy hitters, Gene asks questions because the smaller guys are closer to where the tire hits the road. Referrals Are the Number One Lead. A happy client is your best salesperson. Intentionally ask satisfied customers for Google reviews to strengthen trust and brand. No Return Visits Protect Profit. Return visits kill profits and erode trust. Incentivize safety and precision because broken windows and dropped margins come straight off the bottom line. Standardize Your Plant Palette. 111 degree heat index in July, freezes in winter. Spec plants that work in your market. Fewer SKUs, fewer parts, fewer tires, consistent fleet. Educate the Client, Then Void the Warranty. If a client insists on a plant that won’t survive, put it in after educating them, document that it’s not warrantied, and move on. You’re not saying no, you’re giving them value. Jason Cromley (Hidden Creek, Columbus) A Director of Revenue Takes the Pressure Off. When you miss your sales goal three years in a row and you’re the one in charge, it’s time to hire someone who sits beside the sales team daily and holds them accountable. Culture Is Your Brand. Brand isn’t a logo on the truck. It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Do What You Say, On Time, With Quality. Clients are simple. Let them know when you’re doing it, when it’s done, and that it’s right. Everything else is noise. Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:34) - Welcome to The Grow Show! (00:02:19) - Introducing Gene Freeman (00:04:40) - Humility and the Power of Peer Groups (00:06:32) - Humility and Learning Mindset (00:08:33) - Gene’s Economic Outlook (00:11:32) - Portecting the Culture at CLS (00:13:18) - The 5/10 Rule (00:14:21) - Referrals and Social Proof (00:16:07) - Cutting Costs: No Return Visits (00:18:17) - Standardizing Plants and Sales Training (00:20:42) - Fun Plans and Wrap Up (00:22:12) - Thank You to Aspire! (00:22:52) - Introducing Jason Cromley (00:23:18) - Jason’s Family Update (00:26:24) - Jason’s Economic Outlook (00:27:52) - Hiring a Director of Revenue (00:28:45) - Culture Is Your Brand (00:31:46) - Warranty as Marketing (00:34:36) - Project Kickoff and CD Sign-Off (00:38:24) - Jason’s Fun Between Now and Christmas (00:41:00) - Meet Annette McCarthy (00:42:40) - RJ Landscape and the 2027 Outlook (00:45:57) - Beautiful Spaces for Clients and Team (00:49:06) - Word of Mouth and a New Marketing Hire (00:51:00) - The Credit Card Reset and AI Audit (00:54:22) - Annette’s Fun Between Now and Christmas (00:55:42) - Episode Wrap Up

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #189: Setting a sales goal is easy. Building a plan to actually achieve it? That’s where the real work begins. In this bonus episode of The GROW! Show, Marty Grunder breaks down how landscape professionals can build a realistic, actionable sales plan for 2027, and why simply hoping for more revenue isn’t a strategy. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Hope Is Not a Sales Plan. “We want to grow 10% next year” and “we want to do $8 million” aren’t plans. They’re wishes. Every number needs a compelling reason behind it. Start With the Financial Plan. More sales don’t automatically mean more profit. You can grow yourself broke. Decide what kind of company you want to build first, then back into the revenue. Break the Big Number Down. A $5 million target isn’t one giant number. It’s recurring maintenance, renewals, enhancements, backlog, snow, and only then truly new business. Make the number smaller, visible, and someone’s responsibility. Retention Is Sales. If you lose $300K of maintenance contracts, your sales team is starting in a $300K hole. Every recurring account needs an owner, a renewal date, a strategy, and a next action. Go Where You Already Have Trust. Your existing client list is the most valuable sales tool you own. Walk the properties, look for opportunities, follow up on that outdoor kitchen conversation from three years ago. Revive Unsold Proposals. Somebody who said no six months ago might say yes now with a follow-up. Pick up the phone. Not an automated email. A call. Your Schedule Is a Sales Scorecard. If you need $400K for March and you’ve only sold $175K, you have a problem, and you need to know it in October. Where the schedule is empty, it’s too late to start selling. A Filing Cabinet Isn’t a Pipeline. Open proposals with no follow-up and no next action aren’t opportunities. They’re paperwork. Every Sale Needs a Next Action. A call Tuesday, a site visit Friday, a revision Wednesday. No next action means you’re not managing the opportunity, you’re hoping. Order Makers, Not Order Takers. Good salespeople create activity, follow up, ask questions, find opportunities, and ask for referrals. They don’t sit around waiting for leads. Turn the Yearly Plan Into a Weekly Plan. A $2M annual goal is a monthly number, a weekly number, an appointment count, and a follow-up count. Manage the activities, not the end-of-month pressure. Sales... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:04) - Welcoming NALP as a New Sponsor (00:01:49) - Start With the Financial Plan (00:02:53) - Break the Big Number Down (00:04:03) - Retention Is Sales (00:05:40) - Go Where You Already Have Trust (00:07:11) - Your Schedule Is a Sales Scorecard (00:08:32) - Every Sale Needs a Next Action (00:10:30) - Sales and Operations Must Talk (00:11:44) - Protect Your Margins (00:12:31) - The 8-Point Sales Checklist (00:13:51) - Action Beats Planning

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #188: In this episode of The GROW! Show, Marty Grunder catches up with Gene and Chris from Complete Landsculpture, hosts of GROW! 2026 in Dallas, to see how the goals and initiatives they shared with attendees have played out over the past year. Gene and Chris talk candidly about their push to grow maintenance, the impact of losing major accounts, and why strong client relationships remain one of the most important pieces of their strategy. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Flat Numbers Don't Mean Flat Progress. Despite nearly $2M in new contracts sold, two key losses early in the year kept maintenance numbers flat. The team used the year to build systems that will pay off for years. Managing, Not Mowing. Account managers walk every property and record videos for clients, noting enhancements and ownership. "Anybody can mow grass. One weed can get you canceled." SharePoint as the Central Hub. All communication, schedules, and visibility across business units in one place. A real operational win in 2026. The Platinum Rule. Don't just do unto others what you'd want. Do unto others what they expect. This filter catches the quality gaps that technical execution alone misses. "She Didn't Feel Loved." Chris met with an unhappy client who confirmed CLS had done everything they promised. The problem wasn't the work. It was that she didn't feel cared for. Hard to Fire a Friend. Account managers taking clients to lunch isn't a soft skill, it's a strategic moat. Relationships are what survive competitive bids and board changes. Live Video Property Walks. Account managers walk the property with their face on camera, personalizing with details about the client's family or weekend. Removes the "can't reach them" excuse entirely. Back Porch Parties as a Trust Indicator. When clients and vendors take time away from their work and personal lives to show up at your office, that's a sign the relationships are real. Purchasing Discipline. Two team members bought the same thing on company credit cards with a 65% price variance. Centralize purchasing, share information, don't buy the T-shirt twice. Humility Compounds. Frank Mariani sat in on Grow at CLS 11 years ago doing $50 to $60M and asked more questions than anyone in the room. There's no neutral in this business. AI as Connective Tissue for 2027. The Asset Include Go platform launch plus AI integration will connect data streams that currently d... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:29) - Welcome to The Grow Show (00:01:02) - Bobyard Spotlight (00:01:57) - Life Updates With Gene and Chris (00:03:55) - The Maintenance Growth Update (00:06:55) - Staying on Their Radar (00:08:35) - Training the Relationship Side (00:10:43) - Managing, Not Mowing (00:13:09) - The Platinum Rule in Action (00:17:24) - Wear the T-Shirt Moments (00:23:16) - Looking Ahead to 2027 (00:30:39) - Revenue Follows Relationships (00:31:45) - Early Bird Pricing for Grow 2027!

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #187: In this bonus episode of The GROW! Show Marty Grunder breaks down how landscape professionals should be planning their equipment needs for 2027, and why that plan should always start with the business plan. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Equipment Plan Follows Business Plan. Don't start with what equipment you want. Start with the work you're going to do next year and back into what you need. Start With the 2027 Sales Plan. Revenue target, service mix, crews added or cut. Everything downstream depends on it. Inventory Everything You Own. Trucks, trailers, mowers, skid steers, snow equipment. Age, hours, reliability, cost to maintain. Decide what stays and what goes. The Smartest Purchase Is Sometimes a Sale. Get rid of what's breaking down or no longer fits. You're in the landscaping business, not the equipment business. Talk to Your Crews. Group leaders and crew leaders know what breaks, what you rented too much of, and what one more unit would save in labor. Listen to what they need, not everything they want. Buy Labor Savings, Not Price Tags. Don't ask what it costs. Ask what it lets you accomplish. One Boss sidewalk machine replaces four guys with shovels. Repair, Replace, Rent, or Buy. Four questions on every major purchase. If you use the machine six days a year, don't own it. If you're renting the same thing every week, maybe you should. Utilization Decides Ownership. A machine sitting in your yard isn't making you money. Build the Budget in Three Categories. Must-have, should-have, nice-to-have. Forces discipline when every shiny truck looks tempting. Order Early With a Plan B. Supply chains don't care about your production schedule. Know the lead times, and have a contingency if the truck doesn't show up until June. Reflection Questions Does your current equipment list actually match the work you're planning to sell in 2027? What should you be selling before you buy anything new? What are you still owning that you'd be smarter off renting? Additional Resources: BOBYARD Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:28) - Welcome to the Grow Show (00:01:28) - The Reactive Equipment Trap (00:02:10) - Start With Your 2027 Sales Plan (00:02:56) - Inventory Everything You Own (00:04:34) - Talk to Your Crews (00:05:42) - Sign Up for Grow 2027! (00:06:07) - Buy Labor Savings, Not Price Tags (00:07:27) - Repair, Replace, Rent, or Buy (00:08:20) - Build the Budget: Must, Should, Nice (00:09:41) - Order Early With a Plan B (00:10:38) - Scrambling Is Expensive, Planning Is Profitable

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #186: In this episode of The GROW! Show, Marty Grunder sits down with GROW! 2027 hosts Rob and Jessie Shrieve of Coastal Shores Landscape to talk about their journey from starting small to building a thriving company centered around great people, strong leadership, and premium service. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings From Indiana to the Lowcountry. Rob and Jessie moved from Muncie, Indiana to the South Carolina Lowcountry in 2002 with one little girl, no job, and no landscape experience. The business started with Rob cutting grass on five properties Jessie managed. Doing What You Say You Will Do Is Still a Competitive Advantage. In the early days, clients were shocked when Rob showed up on time and delivered a quote he promised. That alone built the business before he knew much about landscaping. Premium Starts With Your Team. Coastal Shores applies premium to how they care for their team first: high benefits, high training, high respect. That trust earns the right to hold the team to a higher standard for clients. Core Values Need Measuring Sticks. Posters on the wall are not enough. Every value needs tangible, measurable behaviors behind it or the team drifts without knowing why. SALT Training Reinforces Culture Weekly. Spiritual, Attitude, Life, Teamwork. The third Wednesday is Life skills, where team members have learned direct deposit, financial literacy, and even how to change a diaper. Help People at Home and They Work Better. Mama J's philosophy is that personal life and work life always intersect. Smoothing one smooths the other. Not a Culture of Flattery. Build enough trust and care first. When hard conversations come, people are receptive because the deposits in their emotional bank account are already made. From Doing to Coaching. Rob's biggest shift as an owner was moving from knowing every detail of every job to coaching, mentoring, and looking for root causes. He described himself as "a blanket on the team, holding them back." A Healthy Sign of Scale. When the owners find out about a big job neither of them knew was happening, it means the team is actually running the business. Define Your Ideal Client Narrowly. Coastal Shores asks what community you live in before anything else and will decline work outside their footprint. Specialization Enables Scale. Middle management and divided roles are not optional at scale. Delaying those decisions costs profit and bur... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:28) - Welcome to the GROW Show (00:01:39) - Meet Rob and Jessie Shrieve (00:04:27) - Doing What You Say You’ll Do (00:06:32) - Jessie on the Early Survival Years (00:09:52) - What Premium Really Means (00:11:58) - Building Systems to Scale Premium (00:14:37) - Defining the Ideal Client (00:17:51) - Core Values With Measuring Sticks (00:24:48) - Not a Culture of Flattery (00:27:13) - Thank You to Bobyard AI! (00:27:47) - From Doing to Coaching (00:31:43) - The Hardest Parts of Growth (00:33:39) - When Roles Must Split (00:35:01) - Letting Go as Owners (00:35:46) - Married and Running the Business (00:40:00) - Choosing the Right Technology (00:40:43) - The Aspire Commitment (00:45:26) - AI, Claude, and Smarter Data (00:49:10) - GROW 2027! Early Bird Pricing NOW! (00:49:37) - Why They’re Hosting GROW 2027 (00:52:00) - Inside the SALT Program (00:55:29) - Rapid Fire With Rob and Jessie (00:57:48) - Come See It in Savannah (00:59:28) - Please Share this Episode with a Friend!

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #185: In this bonus episode of The GROW! Show, Vince Torchia walks through the fundamentals of financial planning for the year ahead. He breaks down how to set a realistic revenue target using historical performance, determine the right mix of services, evaluate your sales and production capacity, and plan for margins, overhead, profit, and cash flow. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings A solid 2027 plan starts with a revenue number grounded in historicals from 2025 and 2026, not what you hope to sell 10% growth is the baseline for any company on the planning journey. 20 to 40% is aggressive and requires a specific driver (new market, acquisition, big contract) Revenue is only useful when broken into the right mix: construction, maintenance, lawn care, snow, seasonal services, and enhancements Every revenue target needs a compelling why on both the sales side and the production side. Can we sell it? Can we produce it? Sales teams are increasingly specialized. The old unicorn who sold, designed, estimated, and project managed is giving way to focused roles Industry benchmark margins: 50% on construction, 40% on maintenance, with enhancements pulling maintenance margins up toward construction levels Recurring services are the gift to the industry, the mailbox money that stabilizes cash flow Overhead is everything below the line that gets paid whether work sells or not. The ACE benchmark is 30% of revenue Investing in people early can spike overhead in the short term, but revenue growth should bring overhead as a percentage of revenue back down over time Know your renewal windows, your sell seasons, and your production seasons. Historicals tell you when the cake gets baked Jennifer Murray's framework: every month is either a burn month (losing cash) or a build month (gaining cash) Cash planning is a separate exercise from revenue, margin, and overhead planning. Debt payments, equipment, taxes, bonuses, and distributions all pull from cash A financial plan boils down to four categories: revenue, direct costs, overhead, profit. Everything else is a line item Every number you present to your team needs a compelling reason. Don't make it a hope. Don't make it a dream Reflection Questions What is your compelling reason for the revenue target you're setting in 2027? Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:33) - Welcome to the October Series (00:01:04) - Start With a Revenue Target (00:02:26) - Service Mix and Capacity (00:04:43) - Sales Structure Done Right (00:06:32) - Margin and Pricing Basics (00:07:40) - GROW 2027! Early Bird Pricing NOW! (00:08:27) - Overhead and the P&L (00:11:42) - Renewals and Key Dates (00:13:47) - Burn Months vs Build Months (00:15:38) - Final Takeaway for 2027

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #184: In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder sits down with Bill Rosell, Director of Production Operations at Grunder Landscaping Co., to break down what an effective production meeting actually looks like. They share how the GLC team uses weekly meetings to improve communication, plan ahead, coordinate crews and equipment, address safety and scheduling issues, and catch problems before they reach the jobsite. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! GLC Production Meeting Agenda Meeting Template Key Learnings The Purpose Is to Make Production Run Better: Not to have a meeting. Not to get everyone in a room. If people leave without knowing where they're going, what equipment they need, or what problems are coming, you had a gathering, not a meeting. Different Meetings Have Different Purposes: Don't try to accomplish everything in one big meeting. You'll end up with 25 people listening to a conversation that applies to three of them. Start With the Mission Statement: Every GLC production meeting begins with the mission statement. It anchors the room in why we're here before we get into what we're doing. Have the Right People in the Room, Only While You Need Them: Zach (fleet assistant) presents his fleet updates first so he can leave and start his day. He doesn't need to sit through personnel discussions that don't involve him. Meetings Should End in Laughter: Bill's number one sign of a great meeting is when it ends in laughter. Direction and clarity are the two must-haves, but laughter is what tells you people leave energized. Team Leaders Look at Today and Tomorrow. Group Leaders Look 2 Weeks Out: Great group leaders are not walking in every morning asking "what do I need to do today?" They knew last night. Bill wants group leaders looking two weeks out on equipment and materials. Sales and Production Cannot Live on an Island: Bill attends the first 20 minutes of every sales meeting. If production has a hole, sales needs to know. If sales has a monster project coming, production needs to know. Bill's job is to help sales know: whatever you sell, we can get it done. Break Big Projects Into Small Ones: A 3,000-hour job is overwhelming until you break it into phases. Then it becomes a series of 50-60 hour jobs. Team members can see progress and see the end in sight. Know What Stresses Your People: Bill knows what stresses Gaston, so he takes those things off his plate. On big projects, Bill stays the main point of communication early on to protect his group leader from being overwhelmed. One-on-Ones Every Other Week: Bill sche... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:28) - Welcome to the GROW Show (00:01:51) - Why Production Meetings Matter (00:02:34) - Meet Bill Rosell (00:03:37) - Meeting Cadence and Who Attends (00:05:09) - The Agenda Starts With Fleet (00:06:18) - Safety First, Every Week (00:08:18) - Building the Two Week Schedule (00:10:09) - Aligning Production and Sales (00:13:08) - Check out Proven Winners! (00:14:24) - Navigating Complex Projects (00:16:03) - Coaching Leaders Through Pressure (00:17:23) - Running Effective One on Ones (00:18:03) - Why Face to Face Wins (00:19:27) - How Meetings Save Time (00:20:03) - Two Weeks Out on Equipment (00:22:31) - Renting Smarter, Not More (00:23:11) - Communicating With Team Leads (00:24:39) - Boards Set by Four O’Clock (00:26:19) - Sign Up for a GLC Field Trip! (00:26:49) - What a Great Meeting Delivers (00:28:51) - The Production Meeting Checklist (00:31:04) - Keep It Simple: Final Takeaway

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #183: In this episode of The Grow Show, Emily Lindley shares how Grunder Landscaping Company evaluates its marketing channels, which efforts are worth the investment, and which ones need to be cut. The goal isn't to market everywhere. It's to give every channel a clear job and build a plan that supports where your company is headed. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Every Channel Needs One Clear Job: Ask what specific job that channel does for your business. Design build leads? Lawn care leads? Residential maintenance? If the job isn't clear anymore, cut it or shrink it. Balance the Jobs Across Your Marketing Mix: Make sure you have enough coverage for every line of business, and that no one service line is eating all the attention. Residential Design Build Drives Broadcast Marketing: It's easier to drive inbound leads for design build than for commercial or maintenance. The strategy at Grunder: capture a design build client, then convert them into a maintenance client. Postcards Still Work (When Timed Right): Start with an aggressive spring push. Every other week for design build, every other week for lawn care, alternating so mailing list recipients get a card weekly for 6-8 weeks. Capture spring demand or you won't make it up later in the year. Email Is the Best Marketing Channel Right Now: Grunder is seeing 40% open rates. Marketing Pro integrates with Aspire, so lists stay current with actual maintenance and lawn care route data. Every other week, March through November, with rotating seasonal messaging. Skip the Rigid Newsletter Template: Templates feel stale and restrict what you can say. Instead, rotate messaging by season: design build in spring, mosquito fogging in summer, aeration/overseeding in fall. Small Add-Ons Add Up: Mosquito fogging is a great example. Techs are already on the property. No extra drive time. It's profitable per stop and adds real value for the client. Small services stack up over the year. Time Add-On Emails to the Application Route: Send the mosquito fogging pitch BEFORE the tech goes out for the round, not mid-round. Otherwise you're asking your team to backtrack. Social Media Is About Consistency, Not Perfection: Post consistently so prospects can verify you're a real, polished company when they Google you. Paid social gets zip code targeted and overlaid on postcard drop zones. That's reinforcement, not redundancy. Door Hangers Work in Neighborhoods You Already Serve: Neighbors of active jobs, HOAs where you maintain the common areas, streets with existing maintenance stops. Brand reinforcement is the win here. ... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:32) - The Framework: Give Every Channel One Clear Job (00:03:03) - Why Residential Drives Broadcast Marketing (00:04:25) - Postcards: The Aggressive Spring Push (00:07:32) - Email: The 40% Open Rate Playbook (00:14:13) - Social Media: Consistency and Zip Code Targeting (00:15:14) - Door Hangers: Working the Neighborhoods You Serve (00:17:38) - SEO: The Sleeper Channel for Commercial Leads (00:18:57) - Sign Up for a GLC Field Trip! (00:19:17) - Adjusting the Budget as You Grow (00:22:20) - What Emily Is Considering for 2027 (00:25:45) - Final Takeaway

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #182: It's easy to feel good about business when the crews are busy and the schedule is full, but what does your schedule look like 30, 60, or 90 days from now? This week on The Grow Show, Marty Grunder talks about the importance of staying ahead of your workload and continuing to sell even when business is busy. He shares where your team should be looking for opportunities, how to make the most of the clients and proposals you already have, and why now is the time to start thinking about next spring. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Your Schedule Is a Sales Scorecard: Do not look at your sales pipeline. Look at your production schedule board. What is actually sold and on the calendar 30, 60, 90, and 120 days out? A pipeline filled with proposals nobody's going to buy isn't a pipeline. It's a filing cabinet. Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Something: No sales, no work for production, no invoices for accounting, no gross profit, no reinvestment. Spring conditions your team to become order takers. Fall reveals whether you have order takers or order makers. Order Takers Wait. Order Makers Create: When leads slow down, the order taker asks when marketing is going to do more. The order maker asks what proposals to revisit, what properties need enhancements, and what phase two or phase three opportunities exist. Start With People Who Already Know You: It is far easier to sell to someone who has done business with you than to create something new. Do not just call and ask if they need anything. Walk the property, take pictures, and send unsolicited quotes with recommendations. A Good Doctor Doesn't Ask What Procedure You Want: They diagnose and recommend. A professional landscape salesperson does the same. Your clients hired you because you know more about landscaping than they do, so act like it. Revisit Every Proposal You Did Not Sell: A no six months ago is not a no today. Timing changes. Do not send a "just checking in" email. Give them a specific reason to respond - a scheduling opening, a seasonal window, a follow-up on the exact conversation you had. Sell the Season You're In: Your clients don't live and breathe landscaping. They don't know what makes sense in October, November, and December. That's your job. Build a fall campaign around 2-3 specific services you want to sell. Break the Number Down: A $2M goal sounds intimidating. Break it into weekly targets per salesperson. $10K per week per salesperson is believable and manageable. Small numbers compound. $5K in enhancement work per week for 50 weeks is $250K. Hunt Where You Already Work: Route density matters. Tr... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:37) - Why Busy Today Can Fool You (00:02:40) - Point 1: Your Schedule Is the Real Scorecard (00:04:12) - Point 2: Order Makers vs Order Takers (00:05:54) - Point 3: Start With the Clients Who Already Know You (00:08:06) - Point 4: Revisit Every Proposal You Didn’t Sell (00:09:44) - BobYard AI (00:10:18) - Point 5: Sell the Season You’re In (00:11:19) - Point 6: Break the Big Number Into Weekly Goals (00:12:37) - Point 7: Hunt Where You Already Work (00:14:19) - Point 8: Ask for Referrals the Right Way (00:15:12) - Point 9: Sell Spring Before Winter Hits (00:16:37) - Sign up for GROW Snow 2026! (00:17:07) - Point 10: Run a Sales Meeting That Actually Manages Sales (00:18:16) - Point 11: Don’t Destroy Your Margins to Stay Busy (00:19:21) - The Fall Sales Playbook (8 Actions) (00:20:52) - Final Takeaway (00:21:51) - Register for GROW! 2027

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #181: Spring may feel far away, but the best landscaping companies are preparing for it right now. In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder shares how landscape professionals can use the fall season to strengthen their teams, improve performance, and build a training program that sets them up to hit the ground running next spring. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Spring Training Starts in the Fall: If you wait until January or February to start training, you're not building a program. You're panicking. Right now you have the most valuable thing possible: evidence of what your team knows and what they don't. Train What You See Right Now: Training doesn't need a classroom, a PowerPoint, or a four-course breakfast. When you see a mistake, don't just fix it. Teach it. The habit every leader should build is saying "I saw something today we can teach from." Keep a Running List of What Went Wrong: Start a note on your phone called "What We Need to Train On." Every mistake, every near miss, every cringe moment. By the end of the year you'll have 20 to 30 items. That's your training calendar. Do Not Confuse Telling With Training: Telling is one-way. Training is two-way. The framework is Tell Me, Show Me, Let Me Do It, Check Me. Most managers stop at "I told him." That's why the same mistakes keep happening. Use Your Best People as Trainers: The person who loads a truck perfectly, prunes correctly, or closes out jobs well should be teaching others. Two big wins: you multiply your trainers, and the person teaching gets sharper too. Capture Your Best People Before Winter: Your best team leaders have knowledge that isn't written down anywhere. Get your phone out. Ask them to show you how they do it. Record five-minute videos. Do two a week and you'll have 20 videos before winter. Train on the Things That Make or Lose Money: Team members often don't understand how the company actually makes money. Teach productivity. Teach why forgetting a tool and driving 20 minutes back to the shop costs three man-hours. Those little lessons change behavior. Train Your Leaders Differently: When someone becomes a crew leader, their job changes. Now they're leading people. Teach them how to start the morning, correct someone properly, coach the slowest person, handle a conflict, and close out a job. You can't promote someone Friday and expect them to lead on Monday. Finish This Year by Getting Better: Take the last 6 to 10 weeks of the season and pick one skill each Monday. Fifteen minutes. Reinforce it during the week. You'll be better at Christmas than you are today. Build Your Wint... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:34) - Why Your 2027 Training Starts Right Now (00:02:59) - Train What You See in the Field (00:04:42) - Start Your Running List of Training Topics (00:06:00) - Why Telling Is Not Training (00:07:45) - Thank You Aspire! (00:08:26) - Use Your Best People as Trainers (00:10:08) - Capture Your Best People As Trainers (00:11:21) - Train on What Actually Makes or Loses Money (00:12:41) - Sign Up for GROW Snow! (00:13:10) - Why Your Leaders Need Trained Differently (00:14:00) - Finish This Year Stronger Than You Started (00:15:22) - Build Your Winter Training Calendar Now (00:16:21) - Do Not Wait Until Spring to Build Orientation (00:17:41) - Inspect What You Expect and Build the Culture (00:19:11) - Marty’s 5-Part Fall Training Challenge (00:19:56) - Final Takeaways

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #180: What would happen if you let another landscaping company owner run your company? We launched this new part of our ACE Peer Group Program earlier this year with the ownership of Coastal Greenery switching places with ownership of Malone's Landscaping. In this episode, the group that swapped places talks about what they learned from getting fresh eyes on their company and also spending a week running another landscaping company. They talk about all the hot button issues: managing teams, technology, branding, overhead costs, and much more. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Guests: Jim Cali - Founding Principal at McFarlin Stanford , ACE Peer Group Facilitator, Grow Group Strategic Partner Jeffrey Johns - Owner, Coastal Greenery (Brunswick, GA) Jacob Johns - Controller, Coastal Greenery Jim Malone - Founder, Malone's (Seattle, WA) Ryan Malone - President, Malone's Jake Malone - Branch Manager, Malone's Resources Mentioned: Coastal Greenery (Brunswick, GA) Malone's Landscape (Seattle, WA) ACE Peer Groups (via The Grow Group ) McFarlin Stanford Clancy's Restaurant , New Orleans Key Learnings You Cannot See Your Own Business Clearly From Inside Your Own Business: No matter how sharp you are, you walk past things every day. An outside set of eyes will see in 15 minutes what you have missed for years. Peer-to-Peer Learning Beats Zoom Every Time: The value of the CEO Swap wasn't in the ideas exchanged, it was in the one-on-one meetings with each other's team members. There's no hiding, no deferring, and no shortcut when you're on site. Sense of Urgency Is Often the... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:30) - Introduction (00:02:09) - The CEO Swap: What It Is and Why It Worked (00:03:47) - Meet Coastal Greenery (Brunswick, GA) (00:08:11) - Meet Malone’s (Seattle, WA) (00:11:34) - Where the CEO Swap Idea Came From (00:14:21) - Why On-Site Beats Zoom Every Time (00:16:10) - How the Swap Was Structured (And the Surprises) (00:19:17) - Why Vulnerability Makes Feedback Land (00:24:26) - Coastal Greenery Takeaway #1: Account Manager Churn (00:29:31) - Coastal Greenery Takeaway #2: Sales and Estimating (00:32:58) - Coastal Greenery Takeaway #3: Labor Shortage Reality Check (00:34:35) - What Coastal Greenery Is Doing Exceptionally Well (00:36:28) - Clear Career Paths Change Everything (00:37:06) - Why Microculture Moments Matter So Much (00:39:03) - Our Partner, Bobyard (00:40:00) - Malone’s Takeaway #1: Small Standards Reveal the Real Standards (00:43:41) - Malone’s Takeaway #2: The Org Structure Inflection Point (00:46:15) - Malone’s Takeaway #3: Knowing Every Account Number (00:47:16) - The Tech Spaghetti Confession (00:49:04) - Malone’s Culture: Happy Crews in the Seattle Rain (00:51:33) - Clean Trucks Equal Clean Work (00:53:28) - The Real Power of Peer Group Accountability (00:55:53) - What Each Company Is Prioritizing for 2027 (01:01:18) - Why Execution Beats Ideas (01:02:51) - Join Us at ACE Discovery (01:04:09) - A Note on Family Business (01:05:11) - Please Like, Share and Subscribe!

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #179: Marty Grunder breaks down the $2 million trap, the point where the hustle that built your company stops working. He walks through six areas where landscape businesses commonly get stuck as they grow, from broken systems and wrong hires to weak delegation, unclear structure, loose finances, and too few developed leaders. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings What Got You Here Will Not Get You There: Getting to two million is about hustle. Growing beyond it is building a company. The Owner Becomes the Bottleneck: Too many clients, jobs, and decisions eventually flow back to one overwhelmed person. Your Systems Break First: If something happens only because someone remembers to do it, it needs a system. You Make the Wrong Hires: Your best salesperson is not automatically your best sales manager. Leadership is different. Three Reasons People Fall Short: They were not trained, they lack capacity, or they carry a bad attitude. The Owner Will Not Delegate: Doing it yourself today signals you do not trust your team to grow. Delegation Is Not Abdication: Give clear responsibilities, clear expectations, and the authority to make real decisions. Structure Always Follows Strategy: A good org chart answers one question. Who owns what? Financial Discipline Becomes Critical: Sales are vanity if there is no profit left at the end. You Cannot Scale Yourself, Only Leaders: Develop managers who can think, decide, and solve problems without you. Reflection Questions What happens in your company today only because someone remembers to do it? What still has to go through you that someone else could own six months from now? Who on your team could become a stronger leader in the next twelve months if you gave them room? This Week's Homework Write down everything that still has to go through you. That is your bottleneck list. Identify one system living inside someone's head, document it, and build a system for it. Identify one person who could become a stronger leader in the next twelve months and start developing them now. Additional Resources: BOBYARD Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:05) - The Importance of Taking Time Off (00:02:01) - The Two Million Trap (00:04:55) - When Your Systems Break (00:07:22) - Stop Making Bad Hires (00:11:15) - The Owner Bottleneck (00:13:49) - Who Owns What (00:15:01) - Sales Are Vanity, Profit Is Sanity (00:15:49) - You Can’t Grow Your Way Out of Bad Finances (00:16:51) - You Cannot Scale Yourself (00:20:24) - Your Homework This Week (00:21:42) - How We Can Help (00:23:09) - Please Share & Subscribe!

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #178: In this short, tactical episode of The Grow Show, Vince Torchia shares the three things every landscape leader should be focused on right now: access, awareness, and action. With a month and a quarter left in 2026, Vince gives you a quick filter to run your business through so you can finish the year strong and set yourself up for a great 2027. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Access: What did you not have access to earlier this year that would have made your life easier now? Missing reports, vendor portals, margin data, or client information. Identify the gaps and put a plan in place to fix them. Leaders Often Lose Access as Companies Grow: As businesses scale and add team members, CEOs and senior leaders sometimes lose access to information they used to have at their fingertips. Get it back. The Thursday Night Test: If you're laying in bed on Thursday night wondering if Mrs. Jones has paid, you should not have to text someone to find out. Access the data yourself in real time. Awareness: Are the key people in your organization aware of everything they need to be aware of? Team members, peers, clients, vendors. If it's a maybe for you, it's a no for them. We All Think We Communicate More Than We Actually Do: Take that as an opportunity to get better, not a criticism. Zoom out. Put things in writing. Make people aware. Good News, Bad News, It's Just News: Do not sit on information because you're worried about how it will land. Get over the hump, have confidence in what you're doing, and make people aware. Action: With a month and a quarter left, there's still time to make real progress. Meetings, emails, texts, huddles. Whatever gets it moving. Action Begets Action: Momentum is real. Crossing something off the list feels good. Building momentum with your team feels even better. Reflection Questions What is one piece of information you wish you had access to right now that would make your job easier? Who on your team is not aware of something important, and what is stopping you from telling them today? What is one action you could take this week that would create momentum going into the final quarter of the year? Additional Resources: BOBYARD Chapters (00:00:00) - BOBYARD AI (00:02:06) - A #1: Access - Where Did You Miss It This Year? (00:03:27) - Why Leaders Lose Visibility As They Grow (00:04:24) - A #2: Awareness - Is Your Team in the Loop? (00:05:19) - Document, Communicate, Repeat (00:06:52) - A #3: Action - The Final Quarter Sprint (00:07:46) - Procrastination Is the Language of the Poor (00:08:28) - Final Takeaway

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #177: In this episode, Marty Grunder sits down with Katie Roell, Senior Marketing Manager at Boss Snowplow, to talk about why the best snow contractors are already preparing for winter right now. Recorded in the middle of August, Katie shares how successful contractors use July and August to optimize their equipment mix, evaluate their data, train their people, and get ready for whatever the winter brings. They cover forecasting, worst-case scenario planning, sidewalk automation, insurance challenges, and why the future of snow depends on people just as much as machines. Plus a preview of what to expect at Grow Snow 2026 in Dayton, OH this September. Resources Mentioned: Boss Snowplow Boss Weekly Snow Forecast Email (sign up through Boss) Spiro's (Iron Mountain, MI - Katie's favorite spot) BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Stop Asking What Winter Will Bring. Start Asking How Prepared You Are: No one truly knows what the winter looks like. Great contractors don't gamble on forecasts. They gamble on preparation. Whether it's a banger year or a light year, the ones who prepare in July and August win. Dealer Schedules Are Filling Up Right Now: You can't wait until October or November to get your truck in for service. Get your preventative maintenance scheduled now. If you can't run because your equipment is down, you lose. Your Data Is Your Playbook: You own the data. You are the coach. Go back and look at where you fell down last year. What lots gave you trouble? What routes need optimization? Where did downtime cost you the most? Buy Equipment for the Contracts You're Winning, Not for the Sake of Buying: Start with one contract you want. Look at the acreage, the services, the ideal equipment mix. Get that tight. Then build the rest of your fleet around that model. Plan for Worst Case, Not Just Best Case: The worst case scenario isn't a 12-inch storm. It's zero snow with equipment payments still coming due. Or a downed truck mid-storm with no backup. Build your plan around the scenarios you can't control. Snow Doesn't Give You Downtime Flexibility: In landscaping, if a mower breaks you can fix it in four hours. In snow, if your equipment breaks, you can't tell a client "we'll be back later." Reliability is not optional. Your Team Is the Biggest Risk in Your Own Head:<... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:22) - Meet Katie and Boss Snowplow (00:03:54) - The Real Question About Winter Prep (00:06:05) - Prep Mistakes to Avoid Right Now (00:08:21) - Why You Should Debrief and Look at Your Route Data (00:10:47) - Scenario Planning and Building Backup Plans (00:15:19) - Getting Data Out of Your Head and Into a System (00:18:31) - Buying Equipment for the Contracts You Actually Want (00:21:08) - Cold Front Technology and the Future of Automation (00:26:53) - Labor Shortages, Insurance, and the Industry Shifts Ahead (00:30:33) - Why the Best Contractors Are Constant Learners (00:34:22) - Lightning Round and Final Takeaways

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - August 5-6, 2026 and More Dates!) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #176: Finding great team leaders is one of the biggest challenges in the landscaping industry, but what if you're asking the wrong question? In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder shares why the best team leaders aren't found - they're developed. Drawing from decades of experience at Grunder Landscaping Co., Marty walks through the systems, habits, and leadership principles that have helped build high-performing crews and future leaders from within. Resources Mentioned: Episode 162: Jimmy Hendricks on The First Steps You Should Take on Every Installation Dayton Foodbank Aspire Exmark Bobyard BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Great Team Leaders Are Made, Not Found: Stop asking where to find them. Start asking how to build them. The best crew leaders come from within your own company, developed with intention. Great Days Start the Day Before: The biggest mistake team leaders make is arriving in the morning to start figuring things out. That's 12 to 15 hours too late. Great days start at 3 PM the day before. Ask Where Your Weakest Link Is Tomorrow: Before the day starts, ask what could stop you and where the weakest link is. Then get ready for it. The weather, a missing crew member, a picky client. Anticipate. A Team Leader Should Never Say "Nobody Told Me": The information is there. Read the notes. Study the prints. Know the plan. Ownership starts with reading what's in front of you. Group Leaders Are the Ones Training Team Leaders: Mowing group leaders can handle 10 crews. Construction group leaders max out at 5 because the work is more detailed. Land keeping group leaders handle about 6. The group leader's job is to mentor and empower, not to give every answer. Own the Morning by Prepping the Night Before: Show up at 6:45. Truck is fueled. Trailer is checked. Tools are staged. Notes are reviewed. The morning is about executing, not figuring things out. Every Crew Member Has a Job: The number two (team tech / team leader in training) reads the tablet on the way to the site. The number three loads supplies, fills seed, fills fuel cans. Chaos in the morning means chaos all day. Organization creates profit. Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:00) - Generosity to Dayton Food Bank (00:03:16) - Why Team Leaders Matter (00:03:58) - Preparation Beats Firefighting (00:06:01) - Point 1: A Great Day Starts the Day Before (00:10:26) - Point 2: Own the Morning (00:14:02) - Point 3: Safety Before Production (00:15:53) - Point 4: Lead People, Not Just Jobs (00:17:00) - Point 5: Think Like an Owner (00:17:58) - Point 6: Finish the Job Professionally (00:19:10) - Jimmy’s Three Habits: Pre-Plan, Coach, Review (00:20:35) - Why Your Crews Are Your Reputation (00:22:07) - Create Your Team Leaders

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - August 5-6, 2026 and More Dates!) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #175: In this episode, Marty Grunder sits down with Lex Mason, the new CEO of Weathermatic, for an honest, wide-ranging conversation about what it actually takes to succeed your father, build a company culture people want to join, and reinvent the irrigation business. Lex opens up about growing up testing sprinklers in a hot Dallas warehouse, dropping out of college for two months to help save the family business, being sent to Houston with an expense card and a quota, and eventually taking over from his father Mike. Along the way, he shares practical wisdom on succession, mentorship, sales, and why the irrigation division might be the last untapped profit center in your landscape company. Resources Mentioned: Weathermatic SmartLink by Weathermatic BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Succession Actually Starts Day One: Lex's dad read him the Wall Street Journal at Starbucks as a baby. The "dinner table MBA" started at 11. Whether you are preparing your kids to succeed you at your company or somewhere else, you are always preparing them to succeed you at something. Bring the Next Leader In Early, With No Voice at First: Mike put Lex in the leadership meetings early, but not as a decision-maker. He had to earn a seat at the table by first earning ears at the table. Then gradually, "What do you think about that?" started getting asked. Give the Dog Enough Rope to Get in Trouble: Mike sent Lex to Houston with an expense card, a quota, and a $2 million product sitting on a shelf. That test built the Partner Program that now has 400+ clients. If you cannot let the leash out, you will never know how they handle no leash. How You Talk About Your Kids in Public Matters: Founders who flippantly say "That's not Johnny's thing" or "He's really struggling with that" destroy their kid's brand equity with the team. If you want the org to accept your successor in five years, start building them up positively today. Fill What You Are Best At, Not What They Were Best At: Mike is the guy who runs through walls once a year. Lex's job is to figure out how to do that 52 times a year at scale. The successor's job is not to be a copy of the founder. It is to bring the next chapter. Have a Strong Leadership Team So It Is Not Just You vs. the Founder: When Mike and Lex disagree, the leadership team steps in. Ben on sales, Bill on technology, Brodie on customer success. That takes the pressure off the family dynamic. ... Chapters (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:57) - Meet Lex Mason (00:03:30) - Growing Up in the Test Center (00:04:33) - Choosing the Family Business (00:09:14) - Earning It Beyond the Last Name (00:12:03) - Working With Dad as Chairman (00:15:20) - The Hardest Part of Succession (00:17:43) - Mike Mason's Origin Story (00:21:25) - What Mike Did Right in Succession (00:24:11) - How Founders Destroy Succession (00:27:12) - When Succession Really Starts (00:28:53) - Giving Enough Rope (00:30:52) - Sent to Houston to Figure It Out (00:32:36) - The Vince Torchia Parallel (00:35:25) - What Lex Would Thank Dad For (00:36:44) - Perseverance Stories From Sports (00:38:27) - Bringing EOS to WeatherMatic (00:40:32) - Remembering Brodie Bruner (00:44:14) - Irrigation Is a Profit Center (00:46:41) - Inside the SmartLink System (00:49:51) - How to Build an Irrigation Division (00:51:21) - AI, Labor, and the Next 5 Years (00:53:01) - Lightning Round

Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!) Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #174: In Part 2 of Marty's conversation with Phil Harwood of Snowfighters Institute, they dig into the people, process, and preparation that separate great snow companies from average ones. Phil shares how to recruit and retain drivers, why subcontractors should be treated more like employees, what a great snow team looks like before the first event, and how to run your operation like a well-trained military unit. Plus more details on GROW! Snow 2026 in Dayton, OH this September. Resources Mentioned: Snowfighters Institute SIMA - Snow and Ice Management Association BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Preparing to Recruit Is Half the Battle: Before you post a single job, scrub your job descriptions, clarify weekend and holiday expectations, and rebuild your compensation and incentive plans. Bring people on before you are ready and you set them up to be disappointed. Job Postings Are Not Classified Ads Anymore: You are not paying per letter. Use the space to talk about mission, culture, and why. Most postings are terrible because they read like a task list. Great postings sell the opportunity. Speed of Response Is a Snow Pro Advantage: When someone answers your ad, get back to them in 15-20 minutes by text. Nobody wants a phone call anymore. Automate this if you can. Build Real Pipelines, Not One-Off Hires: Vocational schools, homeschool networks, sports parent groups, recovery community programs, laid-off seasonal workers from painting or carpentry crews. If you can pluck one or two out of a community, they will bring more. Treat Your Drivers Like Franchise Players: Every event, even a light dusting, give them the hours. Buy them Carhartts and boots. Hook them up. The best contractors treat their drivers like gold because they are. Don't Be Afraid to Train Your Subs: If your sub is a legitimate business with their own EIN, trucks, shop, and insurance, you can absolutely bring them in for onboarding, training, or hot chocolate. The employee-vs-contractor issue is about control, not communication. Meet with Subs in the Off-Season: Walk their shop in July. Ask about their sweet spot, their backup equipment, their quality assurance. Be their consultant. You are investing in a relationship that pays off in a storm. A Great Snow Team I... Chapters (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:07) - The Sam's Club Service Lesson (00:05:08) - The Preseason Recruiting Checklist (00:10:00) - Building Real Hiring Pipelines (00:12:53) - Treat Drivers Like Franchise Players (00:13:23) - Getting Your Team Ready for Snow (00:15:16) - Safety Training and Liability (00:17:53) - The Mental Demands of Snow Fighting (00:23:06) - The Subcontractor Myth (00:26:20) - Off-Season Check-Ins With Subs (00:27:42) - Integrated vs Remote Subs (00:28:39) - What a Great Team Looks Like (00:30:40) - Operator Tools and Site Prep (00:34:26) - Tabletop Storm Simulations (00:35:31) - The Weakest Link Question (00:36:48) - What to Expect at GROW! Snow 2026 (00:38:59) - Storm Flow and Documentation (00:41:57) - Debriefs and Recognition Done Right (00:43:44) - Running Snow Like the Military (00:46:58) - The Two Biggest Contractor Mistakes (00:48:06) - 5 Moves to Make Before Labor Day (00:50:55) - Final Takeaway

Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!) Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #173 In this episode, Phil Harwood joins Marty to talk about snow and ice services as a profit center, the challenges snowfighters face, and what resources are available for companies to run better snow operations. They talk about the difference between companies who make money in snow and those that don't, the systems that reduce chaos, and how to plan ahead so that snow operations run well. This is Part 1 of a two-part series with Phil. Resources Mentioned: Snowfighters Institute SIMA - Snow and Ice Management Association Maui Jim Sunglasses (PolarizedPlus2) BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Snow Is a 12-Month Business, Not a Winter Job: The best snow operators start planning for next season the moment this one ends. If you go dark for three months and wake up in September, you are already behind. Snow Should Be Your Most Profitable Service Line: If it is not, something is broken. The leading snow pros have figured out how to be profitable no matter what. Pricing, budgeting, sales, and operations all have to work together. You Are Selling an Intangible: Snow is not encyclopedias. You are not selling a pile of snow or a truck with a plow on it. You are selling peace of mind, risk mitigation, and insurance. That takes a different skill set and different training. Grab the Free 52-Week Visual Timeline from SIMA: This tool maps every month of the year from both the contractor's and the customer's perspective. It shows exactly what should be happening each month and where the danger zone starts. Snowfighting Is Emergency Service, Like Firefighting: Nobody loves fires. Nobody loves being away from their family in a blizzard. But there is a reward that comes with keeping your community open. When you tie the work to purpose, the mindset changes. Order Equipment Now, Not in October: Coming off a good winter, undercapitalized operators are buying up inventory. Lead times are real. Set a drop-dead date, work backward, and meet with your team every week to track progress. You Have a Relationship With Your Equipment: Consistent operators paired with consistent machines learn every nuance. Skid steer, Snowrator, pickup truck, even a $50 spreader. Every piece h... Chapters (00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:02) - Why You Should Be Planning Snow in July (00:04:17) - The Two Types of Snow Contractors (00:07:32) - The Free SIMA 52-Week Timeline You Should Be Using (00:09:55) - Snowfighting Is Emergency Service (The Firefighter Analogy) (00:13:12) - The 4 Drivers of Snow Profitability (00:18:45) - Why the Snow Season Never Actually Ends (00:20:26) - Equipment Readiness: Set the Stake, Work Backward (00:23:18) - Why Operators Need a Relationship With Their Equipment (00:26:01) - The Dumb Little Parts That Will Kill You in a Storm (00:27:20) - Salt Shortage Planning and Brine (00:30:07) - Why Every Contract Needs Escalators (00:33:27) - Why the Best Customers Get Taken Care of First (00:35:02) - The Profitability Checkup Every Snow Pro Should Do (00:40:13) - Killing the Trigger Depth Trap (00:43:02) - Scope Creep and Getting Paid for What You Actually Do (00:44:47) - What to Review Before Sending This Year's Contracts (00:46:20) - Announcing GROW! Snow 2026 (00:48:46) - Final Takeaway

Upcoming Events: Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!) Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #172 In this episode, Marty Grunder is joined by National Association of Landscape Professional's SVP of Government Relations and Membership Andrew Bray to talk about the H-2B program and how it impacts landscaping companies' ability to field a full, skilled team each year. They talk about the history of the program, why it works the way that it does, and what fixes are on the table to allow for a more stable program. H-2B Resources and Advocacy: National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) Join NALP Take Action: Voices for Healthy Green Spaces Sign Up for "The Edge” Weekly Newsletter from NALP BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings H-2B Is Capped at 66,000 Visas Per Year, but Demand Is Double That: This year alone, around 130,000 petitions were filed for the April 1 tranche of 33,000 visas. The lottery system runs through letters A through H, and if you land in D or later, you are likely not getting workers. The Landscape Industry Is the Largest User of H-2B by Far: Landscape pros make up about 40% of all H-2B users. The next closest is hospitality at 12 to 13%. The program is built for seasonal work and the landscape industry is its biggest beneficiary. Each H-2B Worker Supports Roughly Four US Jobs: A GAO study found that communities with more H-2B workers had higher median wages than communities without. This program does not take US jobs. It expands them. The Prevailing Wage Is Set by the Department of Labor, Not the Employer: Grunder's H-2B prevailing wage is $18.75. That means they cannot hire anyone, including their own kids, for less than that. It is a fallacy that this is a capitalistic move to pay workers less. Do Not Try to File H-2B Yourself: This is not the same as immigration law. Use a reputable firm. NALP has a list of strategic providers on its website. One wrong move and you are cooked. H-2B Should Never Be More Than 40% of Your Workforce: If you are over that, yo... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:53) - Meet Andrew Bray of NALP (00:04:07) - H-2B 101: How the Program Actually Works (00:04:55) - Why the Cap and the Lottery Are Crushing Demand (00:09:36) - The Biggest Misconceptions About H-2B (00:14:01) - Why You Should Never File H-2B Yourself (00:16:04) - Check Out BobYard! (00:16:42) - Why the Landscape Industry Needs H-2B (00:19:34) - The Real Economic Ripple Effect on US Jobs (00:24:04) - A Quick History of the Cap and Returning Worker Exemption (00:26:38) - The Supplemental Visa Battle and Timing (00:28:29) - The Tug of War Inside the Trump Administration (00:31:55) - How Public Perception Is Starting to Shift (00:35:01) - The Push for Certified Seasonal Employer in FY27 (00:38:33) - How to Advocate for the Program From Your Town (00:41:30) - If Andrew Could Design the Program From Scratch (00:45:02) - Workforce Planning Takeaways for Every Landscape Pro (00:46:28) - Rapid Fire Wrap Up (00:48:44) - Final Takeaway

Upcoming Events: Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!) Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #171 Everyone talks about recruiting. But what about retention? In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder breaks down one of the most critical and often overlooked drivers of success in the landscaping industry: keeping great people. Drawing on 40+ years of experience, Marty shares why the easiest employee to hire is the one you never lose, and how building a strong culture, developing leaders, and creating real opportunities for growth can transform your team. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Retention Starts with Culture, Not Wages: Ask yourself, would you want your son or daughter to work here? Would you want to work for you? Culture is not what you write on the wall. It is how people feel on Sunday night before they come into work Monday morning. Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast: Peter Drucker had it right. Whatever the plan is, culture decides whether it actually happens. Get the culture right and everything else has a chance. Every Manager Owns Retention: HR is not a department. It is a mindset. People quit managers. Every leader has to be able to coach, mentor, train, and address conflict. That is not the HR department's job. It is leadership. Chastise in Private, Praise in Public, and Do It Swiftly: If there is an issue, handle it privately and quickly. If something good happens, call it out specifically in front of everyone. Move fast on both. If It Is Not Written Down, It Did Not Happen: Document every conflict, every conversation, every coaching moment. Jean Seawright has been teaching this for over 25 years. You need it legally, and you need it to see patterns. Hire Slow, Fire Fast, and Get the Bad Apples Out: Every hire is either impressing or depressing. The longer a bad apple stays, the more damage they do. Park a truck if you have to, but get them out and debrief afterward to learn. Give People a Future or Someone Else Will: The best people want more responsibility, opportunity, and growth. Career paths, reviews, promotions, training. The best reason to grow your company is to create opportunities for ambitious people. Be a Lazy River, Not a Raging River or Stagnant Pond: A raging river exhausts everyone. A stagnant pond suffocates them. A lazy river has steady, organized, controlled growth where people are moving but can still catch their breath. Appreciation Does Not Have to Be Expensive: Grunder spent $600 on burgers for the whole team. Marty cooks. Show up at morning stretch. Know their na... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:02:17) - Why Retention Matters More Than Recruiting (00:02:44) - Point 1: Retention Starts With Culture (00:05:38) - Point 2: Every Manager Owns Retention (00:09:11) - HR Is a Mindset, Not a Department (00:11:17) - Point 3: Give Your People a Future (00:13:49) - Meet the Homegrown All-Stars (And Come See Them at a Field Trip) (00:15:06) - Point 4: Appreciation Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive (00:17:31) - Point 5: Do What You Said You Would Do (00:18:48) - Come See It Live at a Field Trip (00:19:35) - Final Takeaway