hustle podcast. I am your host Andy Wilson with
17 years of experience in the green industry.
Today we have a special guest with us Jason Kruehl
and I've been following him on social media for
quite some time. He has 5 ,475 followers on Instagram.
And I want to encourage my listeners now, go
to Instagram, search him out, follow him. You
will enjoy his content as much as I do. Jason,
thank you for joining the Lawn Hustle. Well,
thanks for having me. I really appreciate that.
I do more on YouTube probably than Instagram,
but I do try to post content on both sites, but
I enjoyed. I appreciate the invite this morning
and looking forward to talking with you. Well,
I have seen you and Paul Jameson on your content.
And when I first saw the one video and then I
think Paul explained to me what you were doing
or you were blowing grass and people were thinking,
no, this guy doesn't know what he's doing. But
you were doing it intentional. He used to live
in Atlanta. I live near Birmingham. It's not
too far away. He would come over and we would
make content. He would film me doing stuff that
was incorrect. I don't do that a lot anymore,
but yeah, some of those, I guess millions of
people watched it and they told me to keep sprayed
yards and get off the lawn mower. Well, I enjoy
your content. I appreciate it. Let me ask you,
what inspired you? to get into the lawn care
business? That's a good question. I think I just,
maybe we started around the same time. I just
finished my 18th year and I had, I tell people
I had probably 15 jobs before that. I don't think
that's an exaggeration, all bad basically. I
do have a college degree and you know, I could
have just did something else. At some point in
my life, I figured out I was, I've only, I guess,
been a hard worker, but I was not necessarily
a great employee. Not that I would show up and
do what I was told to do. I just, again, never
had a good job. At some point, I guess I had
figured out I had an entrepreneurial spirit.
I was like, you know, I could do this on my own.
Why am I working for these people? But I didn't
have a lot of great ideas. I wanted to do something
that... I guess you would describe as bigger
than myself. I wanted, I'd considered joining
the military, I considered being a missionary,
I could start a business. And so I ended up starting
a business and didn't know what to do. And so
I started mowing grass. And, you know, it kind
of had some minor successes early on that compared
to my pathetic jobs. I had had seemed like so
I became quickly hooked on. Well, how has your
business evolved over the years? 18 years in
the business From the time you started to where
you are today. How have you gotten to where you
are? I used to mow grass. I lived in Montgomery,
Alabama. I was mowing grass and over time I was
approached by somebody who bought that business.
I wasn't necessarily looking to sell it but I
was made an offer and so I sold that business
and I kept a small portion and kept mowing grass
but two years later we decided to relocate our
family two hours north or roughly two hours north.
So I sold the remaining portion of my business
and I decided to get into the weed control side
of the business. And I guess that was 11 or 12
years ago and I've really enjoyed that. So as
far as the evolution, I mean, it was more relocating
and then decide I want to do weed control. And
I was mulling grass when I started that as well.
But I eventually decided, you know, I'm going
to go the weed control route. I wasn't sure if
I wanted to grow and have multiple trucks. But
I think, and I did have two trucks one time,
but I just became comfortable for a couple of
reasons saying, you know what, I think I'm going
to do it myself. Some of that has to do with
having a social media side to what I do. I may
do it different if I didn't have that. And then
some of it just became who I was. Some people
were wired differently and some can handle the
chaos of employees and all that. And I'm not
as good at that. That's why I shrunk it back
down and worked by myself. Well, success is not
determined by how many crews you have. Success
is determined by your individual goals, your
individual desires and dreams. And if you are
reaching those goals and those dreams are becoming
reality, then you're being successful. So it's
not determined by crew numbers and how many trucks
you have. Because some guys choose to be solo
operators, and I think that's what you have chosen
So I appreciate You being on my show, but let
me ask you this What keeps you passionate you
and I both know? That burnout is real We all
go through those struggles when we're tempted
Throw in the towel, go get a job, and work for
somebody else. But what keeps Jason passionate
about his business, about the green industry,
and what keeps him motivated to keep going day
after day? That's a good question. And I've given
that some thought, because I do think, well,
I'll say this. Just finishing my 18th year. I
think I'm far more excited about year 19 than
I probably was year three. You know, so my burnout
came early on and thinking, I don't know if this
can work, you know, because not having a good
idea of how to scale and how to manage employees
and what my true overhead costs were. It seemed
like I was working harder and not making more
money as I began to learn myself. And of course,
obviously got more experience in the business,
I'm able to manage it in a way that also helps
me achieve other life goals. To me, this is my
answer. It doesn't mean that it's true for everybody
else. But for me, if I grew a $10 million a year
landscape company or whatever, which is an admirable
goal, but neglected other things in my life,
primarily my family, then that would not be success
in my eyes. So I've tweaked it to where monetarily,
I definitely try to make money and want to make
more than I did last year and have financial
goals. But I also have four kids and a wife and
we're active in our church. There's other things
going on. I have aging parents and a lot of things
I want to accomplish other than lawn care. So
I think when I look at the lawn business, I'm
like, I personally wouldn't trade jobs with almost
anybody. I love what I do. I love doing lawn
care more than I do being on YouTube, to be honest
with you, because it's not that stressful to
be. I'm out there literally spraying water on
people's yard with some herbicide mixed in. And
I'm able to listen to stuff like I listen to
podcasts or audiobooks while I'm doing it. So
I'm saying I'm challenging myself mentally. I'm
staying active physically. It gives me a flexible
schedule, which allows me to be a dad and a husband.
And it pays pretty well. I'm like, I don't I
wouldn't trade that for an office job that even
if it paid more, which I don't think it would.
It's not a hard decision for me. So I think.
having those terrible jobs early on maybe helped
me out to appreciate where I'm at today. Well,
I hope our listeners heard what you were saying.
You don't want to get so busy building a business
that you fail in building a life. That's a more
succinct way to say what I just said. So yeah,
I appreciate that summary. But I was at that
point where when I started I was growing so fast
and was so busy that I was missing birthday parties,
missing family retreats and get togethers. My
wife would come home and I would ask her who
was there. She would go down the list and she
would say, this one asked where you were and
this one asked what you were doing. And I realized
that I was missing out on what I was trying to
build a business for. I was missing out on my
family. So I cut back and I said, listen, family
is number one. Well, my relationship with God
is number one. Family is number two. Professional
lawn maintenance is number three. And that's
the order that it has to be because I don't want
to try to build something and lose everything.
So... How have you seen the lawn care industry
in your years in the business? How have you seen
it change over the years? Well, again, when I
started, I just went out there and started working.
I don't know that I had a great plan. What I've
realized today, and as I switched to weed control
and fertilization, I was like, this is so much
better. Why would I mow grass? Now, I see people
that are mowing grass actually being fairly successful.
I would say one way is change. Some people say,
well, the prices are about the same as they were
20 years ago. Yeah, I don't believe that. I have
friends. I can't believe what they charge for
mowing the grass and seem to get plenty of work
to be able to do that. And of course, landscaping
is expensive, too. So they're able to put together
a plan that I wasn't able to do on that side
of the business. I think, you know, it's a legit,
I don't know, the demand is there. People aren't,
the customer, the clientele, they're not exactly
shifting more towards do it yourself. They're
probably shifting even more toward pay somebody
to do all these services for me. So I think there's
huge demand. And I think it's become actually
more respected. You know, it used to be like,
well, you're just cutting grass because you couldn't
cut it with a real job or something. You know,
I felt like what maybe is mowing insecurities.
But now I feel like, you know, somebody I know
some young people that are doing quite well in
their 20s doing landscaping and mowing and we
don't look down on them. We actually probably
say, wow. That was a good decision. You're doing
a lot better off than a lot of your people you
probably graduated high school with and took
a different path. You're way further along than
they are as far as career wise. So I don't know.
More respected, I guess, would be would be one
thing. Maybe one other thing quickly was just
how we get customers and things, of course, has
changed. I used to walk around, put door hangers
outside, which can still work. But so much of
it now is online and you're your reputation online,
Google reviews, and your website rank, all these
things that nobody cares about. You used to literally
name your business like AA Lawn Care, AAA Lawn
Care, so that you would show up first in the
white pages, or yellow pages probably. I don't
think that has almost no relevance anymore today.
Well, let's take a short break and hear a word
from my show sponsor. Tired of chasing payments
and losing track of jobs? Eartha Pro Backoffice
software makes it simple for solo guys and small
lawn care and landscaping crews. Schedule, invoice,
and organize all in the same place. We also have
a mobile app and integrate into QuickBooks. Sign
up at EarthaPro .com with promo code TheLawnHustle11
for a $50 Amazon gift card, 10 % off, and personalized
onboarding. Eartha Pro, you run the outside work,
we run the office. And we're back with Jason
Kruehl. We're so happy that he is a guest on
the show today. Let me ask you, what trends are
you seeing in the green industry right now that
is changing the trajectory of our business? I
think I've become aware of a couple of things.
Of course, if you go to those and stuff, you'll
see all the autonomous equipment and certainly
a big push and battery equipment. And for years,
I guess since COVID became more evident with
like labor issues, you know, being a challenge.
So. I don't know. I don't know that it's fully
hit where I'm at yet, but I think where at least
the wheels are turning on how can we shift to
be more, well, less labor dependent and more
battery equipment, save on gas. And I picked
up on that this year when I met a friend of mine
that he has a... We were at dinner with a group
of lawn care people and this guy probably had
the biggest business of all of us does lots of
schools and lots of big properties and big crews
and trucks out driving all over place and He
told me that he runs all battery -powered Handheld
equipment as mowers are still gas. I think his
blowers are gas but as far as Tremors and I think
hedge trimmers and all that stuff string tremors
and Edger's, he's using Makita battery powered
equipment. I thought, wow, because it wasn't
just like a little small timer. And it wasn't
in California where he may have been forced a
little bit, forced his hand. This is in Alabama,
slow adopters to the trends. So I think those
are a couple of things that are changing the
industry a little bit. This last year at Equip
Expo, I connected with a brand. And I've become
an ambassador for them and they have sent me
some battery powered trimmers, hedge trimmers,
blowers. And I'm really impressed with the power
that they have. I wish the batteries would last
longer though. That's my only issue with them
is the batteries just don't last. And this has
been my experience. I have a lot of Milwaukee
equipment that they send me and I love a lot
of the equipment. The blowers are the one that,
one of my friends who researched a lot, he said,
the blowers use so much energy. that it's hard
to, from a cost standpoint, to put the size battery
on there that you need. It's going to be very
expensive to give you the equivalent energy that
you would get from a gas blower. Now, on trimmers,
hedge trimmers, string trimmers, things, it's
a lot easier to do. So, but to your point, maybe
I've seen a great improvement even over the years
to where like I... I go, I have a battery backpack
blower and string trimmers and all, you know,
and I go grab those, even chainsaw. I have a
gas chainsaw, battery chainsaw. I almost always
grab the battery one just for my personal preference.
Well, you're right. The batteries on the blowers,
I burn through them so quick. But if I'm doing
a hedge job and trimming a few bushes, that that
hedge trim will last all day. And I haven't come
across anything that that Cinex 60 volt hedge
trim will not cut through. It's a great piece
of equipment. Well, is there any misconceptions
about the lawn care industry that you would like
to clear up? We're not all chucking the trucks
or anything that you want to clear up. Maybe
to my earlier point, it's I think it's a very
respectable industry nowadays. Like I used to
probably be a little bit embarrassed, but feel
like, yeah, I graduated. I was not saying this
in a too arrogant way, but I was valedictorian
my high school or I graduated with honors in
college with, you know, I think I felt like sometimes
my family thought surely he's going to accomplish
more than like you and lawn care. I mean, And
maybe I should have, I don't know. But to me,
it's more of just a fit personality -wise, what
I enjoy. I just want to be out there doing something.
So I think the misconception being that it's
kind of a low -end job. You're just the grass
cutter guy that is working for that. To me, I
don't tell the customers this, but in my mind,
I hope that... Again, I'm not saying this too
arrogantly, but I think they need me more than
I need them. I have a service to offer you and
a skill set and you can fire me if you want to,
but I can go get more customers. So it's not
like, hey, that's my guy who comes over and does
my yard because I'm a big shot. He's down here
working for me. I'm like, well, whatever. I don't
care what job you have. I take it serious. I
take a lot of pride in my work. It's just a respectable
thing and I wouldn't if my son said I want to
get into lawn care and not go to college or go
to college and then start a lawn care. Yeah,
I would. Hey, that sounds like a great decision
to me. I think it's again if you're cut out for
it, it's certainly not for everybody. Well guys
like you, Mike Andes was in college to be a brain
surgeon and he has over 200 locations now of
Augusta lawn care. We had him on the show, and
he talked about his journey and how he got started.
And I think guys like you, like him, like Paul
Jameson, Naylor Taliaferro, these guys bring,
in my view, authenticity to our industry. And
our industry is just full of great guys that
are passionate about their business. passionate
about serving their community and they're making
a change. I believe our industry is going through
a paradigm shift where we're changing from those
misconceptions and people are now wanting to
get into the lawn care business as a first option,
not a second option. That's a good way to say
it. I think some of the people you mentioned,
I don't know Mike as well. I know Nailor, Paul,
and others. And what I think you get with the
lawn care people, not everybody fits in a box,
but you get somebody that's not afraid to work
and has that little blue collar side to them
that's not afraid to get dirty and work. And
I think with that comes a little bit of character
development and humility. Those people, have
different levels of success. Obviously Mike's
done great for himself. But, you know, you sit
and talk to them and they're just, they're not,
in my experience, not full of themselves and
you can have conversation with them and treat
them like a real person. And so I think you get
a lot of that with lawn care people. They're
not, again, not all of them are clones, but just
great. I mean, I just love being around, when
I'm around a lot of people. It doesn't seem like
a matter of where they're from. Of course, we
have something in common, but it's just a good
conversation with somebody I feel like is sort
of a friend that I never met. Well, that's what
I enjoy going to equip. I went to Nailer's event
the two days prior to event the LCR Summit. And
the reason why I love going to these events,
because when I find people in the industry, that
are successful. And I can rub shoulders with
them. Success breeds success. And I think you
become who you hang around with. If you choose
to hang around with the losers in our industry,
then you're probably going to end up being a
loser. But I care too much about my business.
I've worked too hard to establish my business
to let someone else destroy it. So I hang around
with guys that are going to build me up. Let
me ask you, who is your mentor? Well, I mean,
I have a friend named James who's taught me from
the weed control and fertilization side. We knew
each other before I started doing weed control
and through different circumstances. He managed
a large weed control and fertilization company
while I was mowing grass. and he's old enough
to be my dad, you know, but anyway, his company
sold out and he went to work for Harrell's who
I now buy my fertilizer and things from. And
I moved, I had sort of lost touch with him for
a couple of years. I didn't, I don't know if
I knew what he was doing, but I contacted him
and said, hey James, I'm thinking about getting
in weed control and fertilization. You know,
I had a little bit of experience on the low end
side. He says, well, I'm now working for Harrelson.
I'm selling stuff now. He would have helped me
anyway, but we were friends and he helps people
that he barely knows. But anyway, he really took
me under his wing at a critical time and he had
over 30 years experience. So he was just unbelievable.
And today I still speak with him, I would say
at least weekly. And just I guess there's no
substitute for experience. I mean, I've got my
own experience now, but his experience on the
turf side, yes, but also just business practical
sense, talking with customers. I mean, there's
no complaint that he hadn't heard just about
it, how to deal with it. I was giving one tip.
He said he told me early on, he said. you get
somebody complaining, and in weed control, you
probably get more complaints than Moe. He said,
when he has somebody complaining and they have
a problem, they're like, oh, what happened here
and this, and I'm paying you, and it looked better
before you started, all that. He said, you wanna
quickly, now, it could be 100 % their fault.
They ain't watered in a year, and they did all
Moe -ed it, scouted it, or whatever. But they
don't want you getting into an argument with
them. So he said, just as quickly as you can,
shift the conversation from the problem to the
solution. And just remembering that and say,
you know, well, I understand you're frustrated
about your yard. And you'll say, well, the reason
this looks terrible is because you're a terrible
homeowner. You know, that's not going to get
you anywhere. But I can quickly start saying,
well, I tell you what. Let's try this. Why don't
you give me three weeks? I'm going to put a heavy
application of fertilizer down. And I want you
to, if you would commit to watering this grass,
a deep soaking twice a week. And let's check
back in three weeks and see how it's looking.
And you know, and so that shifts it from what
I want you to resize the yard. You must make
to now three weeks later, it's Bermuda grass
doesn't grow back. It's green, you know. Stuff
like that he taught me has helped a lot along
with you know actually how to take care of turf
and stuff of that nature Well, that is so good
shifting from the problem to the solution I'm
going to remember that and encourage my listeners
to practice that Because there's nothing I hate
worse than client business tension or Feeling
like they're not happy You know, there's too
many businesses in my town that they can very
quickly drop me and move on to the next guy.
So if I change my attitude, my mindset, the way
I think about the problem and focus on the solution,
that's going to bring calm to it. So I appreciate
that. That is so good. Can you give our listeners
one, two or three lawn care tips that will help
create a beautiful property. I can certainly
try. I mean, I want to maybe a misconception
about that is there is, it is somewhat of a partnership.
Like, yeah, I'm doing weed control and fertilization.
And so the yards that look the best, typically
have a homeowner that also cares a little bit.
So if the homeowner is not willing to ever water,
no matter how dry and hot it gets, or they're
not going to mow the grass, but once every three
weeks, because they just don't like it. There's
only so much you could do from a chemical standpoint
in fertilizer. So I think understanding that
you certainly play a role in it. I mean, to that
point, the frequent mowing, I know it sounds
I'm not saying that the guy that's out there,
you know, real mowing every day or every other
day. You ain't gotta be that guy. But weekly
mowing compared to bi -weekly does make a huge
difference. And again, I'm dealing with Bermuda
lawns, primarily some Zoysia. I think, you know,
it is a combination of turf health and and the
weed control side. So it's somewhat of a misconception.
I think sometimes the customers want to know,
why don't I have weeds ever? Can't you just spray
more pre -emergent, more post -emergent, just
spray, spray, spray, spray? Well, you understand
that the... The actual turf, it will tolerate
the herbicide. It doesn't mean it likes the herbicide.
It tolerates it. What you're spraying, as it
was explained to me recently, is trying to kill
a plant. Now the grass, it won't kill it, but
you're not exactly happy about having 2, 4D sprayed
on it or whatever the product is of that particular
type. So there has to be an emphasis on quality.
you know nutrition to help balance that and have
it as James taught me yeah at some point you
got to let the grass grow you can't just continue
hammering it with pre -emerge all the time and
never give a chance to grow so um you know participating
cooperating with your guy you know we tell people
water once a week deeply you know again i'm in
the south if you got super crazy hot drago so
not not watering five times a week for 10 minutes
but you'll figure out how much you want to run
your sprinkler, let's say it's 30 minutes a week.
Just soak it real good, 30 minutes, once a week,
early in the morning. And that will definitely
help with weeds and fungus. The mulling frequency
has a role. And ultimately, you do need a guy
or a person that takes care of the turf manager,
whether you do it yourself or you hire somebody
like me. The quality products do make a significant
difference. not all fertilizers created the same.
You know, you go buy, I buy a $40, $50 bag, you
buy a $20 bag and say, well, you know, they both
got three numbers on the bag. Let's throw it
out there and see what happens. You know, they're
not created equal. So quality products ultimately
saves you time and money in my opinion. I pay
a little bit more, but I don't get the callbacks.
I got happy customers. They don't fire me. They
recommend me to their neighbors. That's getting
a little bit on the business side, but maybe
that's helpful. Well, let's talk about the business
side for just a second here if someone in your
town Came to you and said Jason. I've seen your
work. I know the quality of work you do I'm wanting
to start a lawn care service business. What should
I do? What advice would you give them? start
like a weed control like me or mowing or either
one? Weed control, mowing, either one. Yeah.
Well, if they were in my town, I mean, I wouldn't
probably be thrilled about it because I was like,
well, I mean, I help people sometimes, but I
don't necessarily want to raise up a direct competitor
if I can help it. Well, let's just say I'm helping
somebody 30 minutes away that we're going to
be in separate communities. I think you It's
very challenging and we control to figure it
out on your own just to be honest with you I'm
not saying yeah, I sell courses I whatever you
buy but buy my stuff if you want But you need
somebody to teach you what to do and it's hard
to find information on the internet I do I did
there's one advantage. I'm one of the few people
on there that teaches people how to do it, but
you can come up with a program, whether you work
with a supplier and they put together a program
and you talk to somebody like me and it's like,
you know, here's the program. So. figuring out
what to spray and what fertilizer to use and
when to do it. And I look at it as sort of immersing
yourself in a foreign culture, trying to learn
the language. You know, if you and I start tomorrow
doing Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish, we might
make it a little ways. But if we moved to Mexico
for a year and refused to speak English, we'd
probably get pretty good a lot faster. So once
you get out there you got somebody just you're
reading the sheet says I'm supposed to spray
you know this and at this right and this at this
right and you know just do it do find somebody
knows what they're doing do what they tell you
to do but as you do it It's basically science.
I mean if in a basic form science is making observations
what I just did this what work what didn't work
So I sprayed the yard I did exactly what Jason
told me to do but this weed didn't die How come
this weed and you know, and so I have these guys
in a mint longer. They text me a picture Hey,
what's this way? They didn't die. I said, oh,
that's that way You got to use this other product
on that weight. So I keep it in a little two
gallon sprayer on my truck The cheap product
will kill almost all the way. So anyway, find
somebody that tells you what to do, do what they
say, and then pay attention to what's working,
what's not working, and ask questions. Why didn't
that work? To me, that would be like immersing
yourself in the culture and you're able to learn
as quickly as possible. running and operating
a business. Well, people use this book sometimes
and I say I really love the book. I didn't listen
to it, but you may have heard of Michael Gerber's
E Myth Revisited. I think it's a great book.
It's about some lady that baked pies with her.
and or something and then and she's all open
a pie baking business well then she got just
totally overwhelmed with that realize she's at
the bacon getting there at two in the morning
instead of 10 o 'clock at night baking she hated
running the business but she liked making pies
and now this whole concept which people heard
for you kind of working in your or working on
your business not in your business you know again
i didn't follow that advice but i do think it's
good advice especially if you're trying to grow
a business bigger than a solo operation That's
one that sticks my mind up. Other than that,
again, my friend James has impacted me a lot.
And I think to your point, if you're... it's
like the idea of joining a gym for working out
or something you know it's just it's a little
bit contagious so when you're saying I go to
went to Nailor's event I got around these people
it's kind of like makes you a little bit more
excited about going back and doing lawn care
yes you know where if you're just out there on
an island doing it by yourself it can get a little
frustrating frustrating so I say, yeah, James,
of course, been a mentor to me, but I've also
had opportunity to be around a lot of people,
not all of them doing weed control, that I gained
a lot of encouragement just observing them, seeing
what works. And I think just practical tip, I
mean. We're just very transparent about it. I
want my friends to be successful and I tell them
what I'm doing. I don't care. Some people get
so hung up that they got the formula and I'm
not going to give any tips to anybody. I don't
operate that way personally. What do you have
a favorite quote or saying that you live by?
I doubt it. I am Christian, so I'm shaped heavily
by the Bible and then take that pretty seriously
as far as studying that. So I mean, I don't know
about a direct quote, but to go back to my earlier
point, I don't want to grow a huge business to
neglect above things. So again, without a quote,
well, I'll quote. Jesus I guess you know seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteous all
these things to be added to you like I can sit
around worrying about it Am I saving enough in
my IRA? Am I my kids gonna have enough for college?
Am I am I gonna have to spray yards when I'm
70 years old because I didn't put enough what
yeah? Ultimately I am convinced that those things
ultimately did not lead to any kind of real satisfaction
in life. And as I even talked about why did I
win in the wine business, I said, well, I wanted
to do something bigger than myself. Not that
I've been here and I'm running a solo office,
maybe I didn't cause that. But the point is,
I don't think building my own personal Jason
Creel kingdom is exactly... do it for me. I would
lay down very unfulfilled. So I want to say even
when I'm doing lawn care, it's more to me than
just spraying the yard and getting rid of weeds.
There's a purpose behind it that's bigger than
myself. That is so good. One thing I've noticed
in the last few years is people are more open
to talk about their faith. And I've seen that.
kind of a change in the industry. You know, you
have expressed your faith and talked about your
church. Paul Jameson always talks about his faith,
his church, wrote his newest book on Level Up
Your Money, Biblical Principles to Financial
Success, you know, and people are willing to
share their faith. And I appreciate that about
our industry. I think we're almost to the point
where there's more professionals than there are
chucks in the trucks or Dan in the van. You know,
our industry's changing and one thing's for sure,
whether it's changing, I want to change with
it. I want to be able to express my faith in
God and talk about my relationship with Jesus
Christ. I want to be able to change with the
industry when it shifts from gas to battery powered.
Because one thing is for sure, if you are not
willing to change with the industry, you will
get ran over by the industry. And I want to change
with it, not be against all the changes. Be a
rebel. say something about your point about talking
about your faith. I think whether it's politics
or I'm hoping it's a little bit of a pushback
to what we get so often, which is just a social
media keyboard warriors or whatever. Let's just
get on there and blast everybody who disagrees
with us, which is so stupid. I would much rather,
if you told me that you're an atheist who...
who, you know, hates all the things that I stand
for or whatever. Yeah, that's fine. I would love
to talk to you about it and have a conversation.
I think both sides would come out respecting
the other person a lot more than. So I hope that
there's a little bit of that like, hey, I'm so
tired of this bunch of Internet stuff where we
just blast everybody and divisiveness that's
caused in our country over a number of issues.
And I mean, I feel like I could go to talk to
somebody who had a complete different worldview,
have a conversation with, we probably would neither
one convince each other of others position, but
that would be certainly much more productive
than, you know, getting on the internet and making
a bunch of stupid comments. I agree 100%. That
is so good. Well, is there anything that we're
leaving out that you would like to share with
our listeners? Not particularly. I guess what
I've said from my own standpoint is if you're
in the lawn business and maybe you're a little
burned out or maybe you're getting started, I
think it's very important not to compare yourself
with everybody else. It doesn't mean you can't
learn from that person. But yeah, I mean, if
you and I sit on here and we... And we got Mike
Andes on here. And I started comparing my level
of success to Mike Andes. Eventually, I guess
I'd just go crawl in the bed again and go back
to sleep. This is not going well. And there's
a Tennessee where I can certainly learn from
him. But I understand that we're two different
people. He's got a certain gift set and knowledge
and a mind that allows him to do what he does.
I have a different set of skills that allow me
to be successful in a different way. Our bank
accounts certainly look different, but that's
okay and don't worry about that. Again, I'm not
making an excuse for you to go out there and
just be pathetic and go bankrupt in three years,
but I'm saying don't think that so -and -so's
killing it and just crushing everything you know
we don't know everything about the story behind
them they may be appear more successful they
are in reality I'm not suggesting that by mic
by any means but don't get so caught up in comparing
yourself with other people and I do think if
if I could go back and talk to my younger self
if I could have saved more money early on, I
wouldn't have to be quite so aggressive in my
savings plan today as a, you know, not old, but,
you know, I had to ramp up the aggressiveness
to have an exit strategy one day because I didn't
do so well when I was younger. Well, the Bible
says we're not wise if we compare ourselves among
ourselves. You know, I look at your success.
I might not be to your level of success. But
there's someone out there that might not be to
my level of success, but we're a community and
we can all learn from each other. And like going
to those events, Nailers and Equip, when I walk
in that massive showroom floor at Equip Expo,
it's bigger than professional lawn maintenance.
It's not just me. And I realize I'm not in this
all by myself. There's people that I went to
equip to meet I wanted to meet them. I wanted
to shake their hand But then there are those
who stopped me and I'm nobody But they stopped
me and said I've been listening to your podcast
or I watch your content on YouTube or Instagram
or tik -tok or Facebook So even though we're
not all on the same level. We're all in the same
community So that's what I appreciate about the
green industry. It is a community. Today before
we went live, I got on your website and started
looking at some of the content that you offer
for sale. Would you like to talk about that for
a minute and let our people know what you have
to offer? decent amount of time talking people
out of bond. There's a bunch that I do talk people
into and all I mean by that is yeah I deal with
warm season grasses and I teach people who are
maybe they're mowing grass and they want to get
in weed control or they're you know I have some
people they're like in a second career one guy's
retired fireman one guy's just retired as a school
teacher they want to get in weed control. So
that's primarily what I try to help people with.
If you want to get in weight control and you
don't know where to start, I've done everything
from currently in a one -year mentoring program
with a group of people. I have a video course.
It's lawncarelife .com. I give people the option
to come ride with me for the day. They can do
a one -hour coach. You know, things like that.
Primarily, hey, I want to get in wing control,
Jason. I'm ready to do that. And I don't know
how to get started. Can you help me? It's not,
you know, my last year, my business did 5 .2
million this year. Can you help me get to 7 .8
million next year? You're like, no, I can't.
But if you want to get going and something, you
need somebody to hold your hand and get you started.
And I hope you make millions later on. But that's
what I offer. Well, I think that brings us to
a conclusion on the show and I appreciate all
the information you shared with our listeners
and I'm sure they found a value in what you had
to say and Until we talk again. God bless you
and I wish you nothing but success and We'll
talk again real soon