Thanks for watching! on Hustle Podcast. I am
your host Andy Wilson with 16 years of experience
in the green industry. This is the podcast that
helps you legitimize and grow your lawn care
business. Today we have a special guest, Melissa
Johnson. She is the Director of Marketing for
Petra Tools. She has 11 ,300 followers on Instagram.
Melissa, thank you for joining the Lawn Hustle.
Thanks for having me. For listeners who may not
know you, can you share your background? Sure.
So I purchased a home in 2011 and shortly thereafter
I started doing my own landscaping. I had had
some personal tragedy kind of hit our family
and in trying to absorb that and understand that.
I absolutely fell in love with working in the
yard and landscaping. And I grew up with my parents
always landscaping and loving it. And so it just
very naturally came to me. We had very little
landscape here at our home. And so I started
just one landscaping bed at a time and I was
filming everything and putting it on my Instagram.
So I started Instagram in 2017 and I had already
been a couple of years into filming. And so I
started doing that because I just really wanted
to connect with people who loved the same things
I loved. And I did not want to, I just kind of
wanted to cut all the people and all the things
that I would see on Facebook and all the years
of collecting, you know, different friends and
people, family, all that. I wanted all of that
cut out. I wanted to just have something I could
go to for myself. to learn about growing and
learn about the lawn and learn about all those
things. I, after that, decided to become a master
gardener. So I went to training in Kansas City
and became a master gardener and then met a whole
other slew of crazy plant people in doing that.
And so in 2019, Petra Tools contacted me. and
asked me to make a video for their backpack sprayer.
It was the HD 4000. And at that time, that was
the only backpack sprayer they had. And so little
by little, for a couple of years, I made just
free content for them. They would send me products
and I would try them and put them on my Instagram
page and highlight all of the different things
I was doing in the yard through the years. And
then in 2022, they asked me to come in -house
with them and be an in -house content creator.
So then I started with the brand. And at that
point, then Petra Tools became Petra Max, and
eventually Beast Insulation Products. And so
now I am the face of the brand for Petra Tools,
for Petra Max, sorry, for Petra Max. And so I
handle all the different lawn applications, the
mulch glue, rock glue, and all of those things.
And it has been an absolute blast. So then...
In the last few months, the opportunity came
up and they contacted me, and I do have a marketing
background, an extensive marketing background,
and they contacted me and said that they wanted
me to come on board as the Director of Marketing
over all of social influence. So now I am in
charge of all of the creator relationships across
PetroTools, Petromax, and Beast USA products.
So it's been a very, very exciting last couple
of months, and I'm just excited to be able to
have some different different platforms and different
people to meet to kind of spread the word about
all the different opportunities that we have
specifically for creators in the green industry.
I can't, I can't hear you. In your experience,
what is the biggest misconception that lawn care
pros have? about brand partnership? Well, I think,
you know, I think the guys maybe with running,
you know, running a lawn care business is not
easy. You know what I mean? It's not it's not
an easy business to be in. It's painstaking.
They're managing crews. They're managing a lot
of different things. And I mean, I know it just
from on the very basic level of what I do here
at my home. I maintain over an acre of property.
It's a lot of work. So when you're out running
these crews and doing all the different things
that they're doing, I feel like sometimes these
guys are in the weeds a little bit. And content
creation may be something that they're, they
feel overwhelmed by. They may not know how to
do it. They may not know where to start. And
that's where someone like me comes in because
as a creator and as someone that's in this space.
I look forward to being able to work with people
because what they're doing is exactly what we
want, which is projects and storytelling. That
is the way to engage with people on social media
is by showing them projects that they can create
and complete, or just the fascination of watching
a project. And of course, storytelling. People
want to hear a story. They want to know about
what's going on. So these guys are already in
the field. They're already out doing the stories,
right? They're actually making the stories and
making the projects. So now it's just a matter
of them putting up a camera and documenting it,
right? And so them doing that is absolutely an
essential thing that needs to happen for any
business right now is to be involved with social
media and getting a presence online, because
that's a huge part of how people are. choosing
who to work with, right? And you see a lot of
different brands that are very active on social
media and they almost become like neighborhood
celebrities, right? And this is a great way to
be able to break into this business. And like
I said, it's stuff that you're already doing.
Like you're already laying the pavers. You're
already mowing the beautiful lines. Let's talk
about ways that you can capture that and put
it into video where it's beneficial for both
of us because we have paid collaborations. You
know what I mean? Like we're paying guys to do
what they're already being paid to do. So it's
a beautiful relationship for sure. I think sometimes
we make it harder than what it really is. For
example, I was mulching up some leaves at my
own home. And I just stuck my phone on a tripod
and filmed it. Didn't do anything really extraordinary,
but it got 463 ,000 views. The ones that I really
focus on and try sometimes don't take off, but
it's those ones where you stick a phone on a
tripod and just record what you're already doing.
and making content and posting it. Do you feel
like brands are more interested in relevance
and trust than they are follower count? Because
I know follower count holds a lot of people back
because they see the main influencers in our
industry with thousands and thousands of followers.
So someone that is a small lawn care business
might be intimidated because they don't have
that follower number. So can you describe to
us, should we focus on relevance and trust once
you get a brand's attention? Prove to them that
you are trustworthy, that you will do what the
brand expects you to do and You'll follow through
with all of the guidelines. Yeah, absolutely.
So we actually prefer to work with the smaller
guys. And I'll tell you why. Because I was that
smaller guy back in the day. And Petra Tools
contacted me and they said, we love the videos
that you make. We love the way that you can speak
on camera, the angles, the projects that you
think of. We love that. And so when they contacted
me, I had only had, I mean, probably less than
a thousand followers. And, you know, fast forward
to today, I have not done a good job of staying
up to speed on my page because I do so much content
creation for Petro Tools. But in the last year,
we had over 900 million views across all of our
platforms. And this year, our goal is 2 billion
views. And when they calculated my my reels and
the content that I performed last year, it was
up at almost 400 million views. So to your question,
the views are important, the followers are important,
but those things come with regular posting and
with creating. So I've been able to do a lot
of that for Petra Tools and Petra Max and Beast.
We've had phenomenal success. On my own page
though, I have kind of fallen back a little bit
and that's one of my goals for this year is to
make sure that I'm taking care of my page also.
So for these guys that aren't doing that, when
you're not posting regularly, when you're not
doing those things, it is harder to pick up the
followers. It is harder to be able to do those
things. But I will tell you that I actually prefer
to work with the smaller pages. When I am looking
for creators, some of these guys and some of
these accounts, someone can say, oh, well, I
charge $2 ,500 for a reel. Well, the problem
with that is that it may or may not perform.
It may or may not convert. So I can't pay $2
,500 when I'm looking through your content, looking
through your pages, and I'm seeing where there's
a good chance that it could flop and it could
maybe just pick up 6 ,000 views and maybe 30
comments. I can't pay for that. So it's very
hard for me to be able to justify that. We have
to sell a lot of product to cover $2 ,500. But
what I love about working with the smaller guys
is that I can make them a reasonable offer for
their time that's going to go into it and for
what's going to happen and then we can scale
up together. So as they're making the content
I may be able to come in and say, OK, well, I
can pay you $200 to do this reel. And the reel
may only take them less than an hour to be able
to handle the filming, throw it together in a
video, post it, tag it, collaborate it. We see
how it performs. If it performs, and we're getting
more views, and you're having things that are
popping off at a million views, and you've got
things that are going here and there, then that
is naturally and organically going to rate. And
then we can also see the conversions. We have
affiliate links available. So if the guys are
doing something where they're promoting a sprayer,
we have affiliate links right now at 10 % commission.
If our sprayers are in the $200 range for the
HD 4000, you're going to make $20 every one that
you sell. So that's how I'm trying to build in.
I'm trying to be very competitive with the rates
that we pay because as a creator, I understand
it's difficult to create. Sometimes it looks
really easy. But it is kind of a grind. Sometimes
you got a shadow in the way or there's airplanes
flying overhead or dogs are barking, you know,
and you guys reshoot and reshoot. So I understand
all of those things. So in my mind, and that's
why I think it's really unique and very strategic
thing that they did by bringing me into this
position, because I understand both sides. So
I work for the creators because I want to make
sure they're happy and that they're getting what
they need and that they feel valued. and I also
have to protect my company. So I'm merging both
of those things as a 50 -50 to be able to do
right on both sides. And so that we create really
beautiful, mutually beneficial and growing relationships
together. You mentioned that viewership and subscribers
and followers come by consistent posting. Describe
to her. Listeners, how often should they be posting?
Well, here's the deal. I mean, I feel like in
a perfect world, daily is best. I know I've learned
from what we do with Petra Tools, Petra Max and
Beast. I mean, we post five times a day. Two
reels go public and three reels go trial. And
here's what I'll tell the guys that may worry
about posting or they may feel some kind of way
around it. They don't maybe want people to see
what they're posting initially. Put it on trial.
If you're on a business account, you can post
a reel. You can put it on a trial basis. It will
not show it to your audience. So it actually
shows it to anybody who doesn't follow you to
see what type of traction it gets. And then if
it picks up and it's got good traction, then
you can post it publicly to your page so that
everybody can see it. So I think that's also
a good rule of thumb is And most of these guys,
like I said, they're doing the work anyways.
So even if they do something as simple as post
a before and an after, so say they don't want
to be on camera, even if they're able to do something
as simple as pan the area before, pan the area
after, put it together in cap cut or in shot,
in shot is what I prefer to use. I know a lot
of people use cap cut. Those are super easy,
really, really easy programs to be able to use.
and you can do it right on your phone. Or you
can even do it right in platform. So you could
just go into Instagram or Facebook and post a
reel and import those two clips, put the text
overlay on a before and an after. And put it
up, people love before and afters, they love
ASMR videos, and they love time lapses. Those
are the three. And I think that's because of
our inability to focus on anything now. As Americans,
we're just constantly like, there's so much to
absorb at all times. So some of that type of
content performs really well because it captures
the attention quickly. The other great piece
of advice I can give to them is learning about
hooks. And right now we live in this beautiful
age of AI where you can go into AI and you can
say, give me three hooks for a hardscaping project
that had this issue, this issue, and this issue.
What should I say for a reel on Instagram? And
click Enter and it will give you all the information
you need. So then it will give you the hooks
because a hook is the first one to three seconds
of your reel has to be what grabs people. And
that's why those other things I mentioned work
really well, because initially, the time lapse
is moving so fast, you grab the interest of someone.
So for these guys that are doing leaves, that
are doing pavers, that are doing things where
they're going to go in and do a big cleanup,
put the tripod up, put it on time lapse, and
just post that. And you'll probably pick up a
good amount of viewership. So what we're doing
right now, what we noticed in the last year,
yes, we had 900 million views. That's a lot of
views. but we didn't really capture the followers.
So when I came in, we sat down, we kind of looked
through everything and we said, that tells me
that we're not connecting with people well enough,
that we're not something that they feel some
sort of connection or need or desire to have
to be with us, to follow us, right? So that's
when we came up with the plan for 2026. The plan
is projects and storytelling. If you don't have
a project or you don't have storytelling, That's
not going to work for us. The days of just spraying
rocks with glue and showing hands going over
it are over. It has to be something that engages.
So for instance, our Beast USA page, if you've
got any guys that are listening that in the off
season, they're doing any kind of building or
contractor work, things like that, this is an
amazing, it's a very viral spray foam. It's a
DIY spray foam kit. We, what we have done in
just the last few months has been incredible.
We have multiple reels that have hit well into
the millions and people love seeing the projects.
They love seeing an animal barn, a duck house,
a golf simulator, a DIY golf simulator, DIY built
sauna. basement fixes, attics, you name it. Those
projects are on there. And so we are engaging
with all these amazing creators that have the
project. So, hey, I'm going to turn my old shed
into my home office, into a home office on my
property. And we're going to insulate it today
with Beast DIY spray foam. You see what I'm saying?
So you're talking about the pain points of what's
going on. I need to keep this space warm. I'm
going to do it with this product. Let me show
you how the before, the after, boom, there you
go. There's something. So now when you go on
our beast page, one of the main headers says
that we're the home of unique DIY insulation
projects. So people are starting to follow now
in the past two months, we've had almost 3000
followers and that happens because people are
now feeling a connection to this page where we're
going to teach them how to do something. We're
going to show you cool projects and then we're
going to show you the people doing it and how
to get it done. So if you can translate that
now, our goal is to pivot and translate that
for season coming up to be able to do that with
petro tools and petromax. So how do we do that
with sprayers? How do we do that with mulch and
rock glue? How do we do that with grass paints?
How do we do that with mulch dyes? Those kind
of things. What are the pain points? So for someone
who's filming in this business, they're going
to go to a client's yard and the client, they
may be putting down all, you know, $2 ,000 worth
of fresh mulch. Well, the client says, well,
my mulch runs, you know, the wind hits it or
the dogs run through here. The kids are playing
basketball here. my mulch goes everywhere. That
is an opportunity for us. That's when you call
me and you say, hey, Melissa, I got a client.
We're going to do this mulch installation. I
need something to keep the mulch in place. We
will send you free products. You will film for
us. We will negotiate a rate that is fair for
everybody. You will submit that back to us. It
will show the pain point of this person having
thousands of dollars put down in their yard.
You being able to spray it with 100 % biodegradable,
non -toxic, permeable, mulch glue, keep it in
place. They're able to show the before and after,
how they've solved the problem. They can upsell
the product to their customer that they got for
free from us and everybody's happy, right? We're
getting the content and the story that we needed.
They're fixing their problems with their customer
and they're already doing the business. All they
did was set up a tripod and take a couple clips
on doing it. And I can testify to the fact that
their mulch glue works amazing. I'd done a mulch
job and there was a sidewalk that was leading
up to the front porch. On both sides there's
mulch and they said the mulch is coming out onto
the sidewalk. So I said, I got just what you
need. I got some mulch glue, we'll spray the
mulch and you won't have that issue anymore.
So I sprayed it. I waited about three weeks and
I called them back and said, Hey, it's Andy,
professional on maintenance. Just checking in
on your mulch around your sidewalk. They said
that problem has been eliminated. So encourage
our listeners, better tools, get their mulch
glue. It works. I can verify that. Absolutely
and the rock glue works amazing too. I mean it's
one of those things I apply it I put it down
a couple times a year it depends on what method
you use you know if you're spraying it it will
it will loosen up a little bit quicker than using
a bucket method if you're using a small area
and you put the mulch in there into a bucket
Put the glue in and mix it and then apply it.
It will stay for over 12 months I've got it right
in my front yard. It gets hit with basketballs.
It gets rained on it gets wind It gets all those
things and it is in perfect condition I have
not lost the mulch and that's what really used
to bother me I mean I have to bring in 20 yards
of mulch to mulch my property I mean it is thousands
of dollars just in mulch It's about two months
of time for me to do it myself And so I was tired
of this happening. And so what's even more beautiful
about it? This is an upsell to anyone who has
trees on their property. My property is heavily
treed. The guys would come in and do the leaf
removal and I'd have dirt everywhere. They would
blow every piece of mulch out of my beds. Now
I've got it all locked in. I've sprayed, like
I said, I do it a couple of times a year. I'll
spray those areas where I've got the beds that
I know the leaves are gonna come. And we've got
the videos. I mean, you can blow it right off
the top. The leaves blow right off the top of
the mulch and your mulch stays in place. It's
beautiful. And the other thing too, it is permeable.
It will allow water and nutrients to get to the
soil. It is 100 % biodegradable, 100 % non -toxic.
It is safe. Where there's a lot of our competitors
that are being made in China, they're selling
on Amazon, they've got VOCs, they've got all
these other things. Ours is tried, true, tested.
It is 100 % safe. And it works great in pea gravel
too. Yes, it does. Absolutely. I did a job in
my city where they had some steps going down
and they had pea gravel. down both sides of the
steps. And it was the same story, pea gravel
getting all out over the sidewalk because of
dogs and kids running through it and playing.
So I said, let me try this. This was the first
job I ever used your glue on. I said, let me
try this and see. I've never used this product.
I want to test it. I want to see if it works.
And so I sprayed it. And same thing, I called
him later. And same story. It works great. We're
not having that issue anymore. So it does work.
And I encourage you to reach out to Petro Tools
and get some of the glue, test it and try it
and prove us correct that it works as it has
been described. We're going to take a short break
and hear a word from our show sponsor Eartha
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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 Melissa
Johnson, the Director of Marketing for Petra
Tools. Melissa, what brands in the green industry?
What do they look for when deciding to work with
someone like me or one of our listeners? Is there
anything specifically that they are looking for?
I mean ideally like I said, I like to work with
people that when I the first thing I do when
I'm searching so we have access to different
platforms like upfluence and Places like that
that you can go and register for an account put
what type of business you're in and any any companies
like us that are gonna You know rep a product
we can put a campaign out But the issue that
I found is that a lot of these guys and crews
they don't use things like that so they're not
looking for campaigns again maybe it's in the
weeds maybe it's not knowing about it so I find
that I have to actually manually search for these
accounts so me and my team We'll go in through
my Instagram account. My Instagram account is
FancyFlowerFarmer. So if anybody ever gets a
message from FancyFlowerFarmer, it's me asking
you to make videos for us. And then we also use
Built Solid Talent, which is a small agency that
we created that we blast out different opportunities
and different things to help recruit from social
media. And we also put those things out on our
pages as well, Petra Tools, Petra Max, and Beast.
What I'm looking for when I look into someone's
page the first thing I do I obviously look at
a follower count and I look at Their their reels.
I mean I'll start going through the reels Looking
do they have their face and anything like that's
kind of important for us guys I mean we got to
have the faces on things another thing too. I
would like to really know as I'm doing this I
cannot tell you how many pages I come up across.
There is no contact information. I don't know
where they're located. I don't know what the
email is. Guys, you can add an email link to
your Instagram pages, to your Facebook, where
people can immediately contact you. I strongly
suggest putting your city in your state so that
if someone's looking, they come across your page
and see you're doing great work. Oh, you're in
Youngstown, Ohio. Oh, you're in Kansas City,
Missouri. They can call you and actually, you
can get clients that way too. Or some of these
guys have it where it's set to no contact. So
unless... you're approved by them or following
them and they're following you, you can't even
contact them. So sometimes these guys are losing
out on opportunities simply because their page
is not open to allow people to message them.
So that's definitely something I think people
should check into because it's happened over
and over again. I see people that I'm like, oh,
this is great. I would have paid this guy 500
bucks for a reel and I can't get ahold of them.
So that's definitely something to note. But so
that's what I do is I'll look through all their
content. I look at the way they can engage with
the camera. Do they have some kind of personality?
Style are they serious and are they authoritative
or are they funny and engaging? So really and
I want it all right I want all I want the whole
variety of people on our page. I want every Type
of job I want every type of personality because
that is what I think will be best for our pages
is to have Just this like nice group of people
and and repeat people by the way. I'm not looking
to work with me I'm not looking to try and have
to hit the streets and find people all day every
day. That's not what I'm trying to do. I want
to work with a group of 50 guys and girls that
I can rely on. I know they're going to create
the content I need. They're going to upload it
as they've been asked to do. They're going to
collaborate it back with us so that we get those
views and they get the views. They're going to
give me the proper B -roll that I need. That's
another big part of our negotiation. Say we have
a guy that's a smaller creator. Say he makes
a video for us, and this has happened time and
time again. They make a video, they post it on
their page, and they only have 1 ,000 followers.
So they may only get 1 ,000 views on their content.
What we ask of every single creator is that when
they film, they give us all of the footage that
went into making that finished reel. So we provide
them with a folder. They go in, they load the
files, and they provide all the b -rolls. That's
the b -roll. All the subsequent video that went
into making it with your speaking video is your
a -roll. And then everything that's showing what
you're doing, those kind of things, those are
all your b -rolls. We're going to ask that everybody
load those together. Because what happens, the
magic of what happens, is that on some of these
smaller pages, they may only get 1 ,000 views.
And it may not perform, right? What we do is
we take it and we give it to our professional
editing team. I've got an entire team of script
writers, an entire team of social media strategists,
an entire team of editors. And these people eat,
breathe, and sleep social media. This is all
they care about. This is all they think about.
And so that's why our socials have done so well.
So then what we do is we send it. I call my guys
up. I say, hey, we got reels in from Andy. He's
ready. His stuff is there. They'll go into your
folder, and they start magically wizardry all
their things. They'll whip up these crazy posts.
They know exactly what to do. They know exactly
what captions. We have data scientists that are
behind all this stuff. They know exactly what
to do to try to make this go viral, and then
they post it. And then we will collaborate it
back with you. So we'll post it on our end, where
we've already got 50 ,000 to 90 ,000 followers
on some of our pages and then it takes off, right?
And so then that's the beauty in it. I've got
some people that have no social media presence
whatsoever. And we've got a real on beast right
now that just hit 4 .2 million views from our
remix. So that's how that stuff works. I've got
another guy, Dayton Hardwood. He did some spray
foam stuff for us. He put that up and he hit
over a million. I think he's almost at two million
views right now in the last two weeks. I talked
to him the other day. He said, yep, I picked
up 250 followers from that. They're still coming
in regularly. And so again, this is the opportunity.
It's kind of like. Trying to figure out ways
that we can kind of scratch each other's backs,
right? It's a hard world out there Everybody's
trying to just you know up their business up
their game And so we're trying to do the same
thing in a different way But we can rely on each
other in these relationships so that we can make
this a little bit easier Trying to win in this
social media game What mistakes do you see people
make when DMing or emailing brands to try to
make a connection? Well again, I would highly
suggest if you're a person that is not a good
writer right or you might struggle figuring it
out What to say put it into AI go to chat GPT.
I'm gonna email Petra tools This is what I do.
And just even if you're not, you know what I
mean? Just put it all in the chat, right? It's
not asking you for proper spelling or punctuation
or any of that. Put all the details you can into
the chat. Say, make me something that's appropriate
to send to a DM. And it will populate that for
you. You can look at it. You can cut and copy
that. Or what I highly recommend is that you
take whatever. AI does give you. And as a human
being, go through it and kind of edit it and
make it sound how you need it to sound. But that
can help you perfectly curate your ideas if you're
not a good writer or if you're not a marketer
to be able to approach some of these brands with
opportunities that you have. Reach out to the
brands. Send the DMs. Send the DMs. Send the
emails. We have people that contact us regularly
through our customer service line just saying,
hey, I'm Joe and Wichita, Kansas, and I own a
lawn mowing business. Are there any opportunities?
The customer service team sends those to me,
and immediately we contact Joe, find out what
he's got going on. Because that's going to be
my first question for you. What kind of projects
you got going on? What kind of stories can you
tell? So if you've got those things going on,
there's work to be had everywhere. Follow the
brands. Make sure you're following all these
brands. Make sure that you are engaging with
them. That is the best way. I mean, that's how
it happened with me with Petra Tools. I was following
Petra Tools. I engaged with the post, and then
it was a, hey, would you like to make a video
for us? If there's someone out there that doesn't
have any brand collaborations going on right
now, and they want to try to start getting the
attention of a brand, do you recommend if they're
using Steel or Echo or grasshopper mowers or
toro mowers tag them in their post abs every
single time every time you mow every time you
use the steel trimmers anytime you do any of
those things Tag them and collaborate them. The
worst thing that could happen is they're not
going to accept your collaboration. And you should
know that's probably going to happen. But if
you start making some great reels and you learn
how to do it, there's a chance they may collaborate
it back with you. You know what I mean? These
brands may collaborate back. People love the
stories of the hustle. You know what I mean?
These brands appreciate that, right? They know
the same things. Our products, my products are
not going out and just going to sit in the driveway
and look pretty. They need to be applied. They
need to be worked. They need to be, there's effort
that goes into all of those things. The lawn
mowers, effort. Steel or skag mowers. I have
a skag. I love skags. Every time I run my skag
and I get beautiful stripes through the lawn,
I put it, I take a pan out. post it, tags gag.
You know what I mean? All the time. So, and that's
a great way of just getting your, you know, and
that goes back and also into affiliates. There's
a huge other engine. So, what I do is UGC. It's
user generated content, right? That's guys going
out just making their own videos, like posting
them to socials, doing that kind of thing. There's
also the whole world of the affiliates, you know,
when you're an affiliate for someone then you
are working inside like kind of in behind the
scenes They're giving you a link and anything
that you sell you earn commissions on those links
So when guys are coming us and they're working
with the sprayers The first thing we do now is
offer everybody the opportunity to be an affiliate
So you can sell this stuff if you want to. If
you don't want to, that's great. But I think
it's at your loss if you don't. Because you'll
get this link. All you have to do is post it
in your link tree or your link library. That's
another great piece of information I like to
give people. Make sure that you have a link library.
So when you tell people, click the link in bio,
that link in bio should go to some type of link
library, which holds all the different links.
Otherwise, you only have one shot in that one
spot. to put one link, right? And most of the
time, it's gonna be something like a website
or something like that. So if you click, there's
different, I use Linktree, there's LTK, there's
lots of different link libraries that you can
go to. So when you click on that bio, it will
then take you to the Linktree that has all the
different links that I'd like to promote. So
I have a whole section on my Instagram that shows
Petra Tools, Petra Max, all the different things.
I can put a picture of the, this is all very
easy stuff to do, guys. It's not difficult, I
promise. You just have to do it. I think that's
the biggest thing for all of us in anything,
no matter what it is you're dealing with. Just
do it. If you're worried about planting a plant
in the ground because you don't know if it's
going to be in the right spot, that's what all
my girlfriends say to me all the time. I'm so
scared to plant a plant. I don't want to put
it in the wrong spot. I'm like, put the plant
in the ground. Put it in the ground. You'll learn.
You'll learn by trial and error. You'll learn
by doing it. And so to your point, What I would
recommend people do is as they're using, and
I've got a perfect example of it, guys, go to
Fancy Flower Farmer on Instagram, click the link
in my bio, and you will see exactly what I'm
talking about. I'm gonna talk about all the steel
products that I've used, all the things that
I've ever, like all the things that I use. I
make a link for them, you link the link to it,
and then eventually you can start linking the
affiliate stuff, which then every single time,
so if someone sees you use a Petra Tools battery
-operated backpack sprayer, the number one backpack
sprayer in the country, you can check chat to
be... it'll tell you. Use that backpack sprayer
and then the guys are watching you say, man I
need to get that backpack sprayer. So then they
go and they click in your link tree and they
click on the link to go buy it. They buy the
$200 sprayer and you get a $20 check. I mean,
it's that simple. So that's a whole other revenue
stream that as these guys are building. That's,
I guess, the main message I want to put out to
your people today is the guys that are the smaller
guys, I don't ever want them to feel like they've
already lost in the race because everybody else
is already doing these things. Now is your time.
Now is your time. We are coming up on a fresh
new season. Start to get some of these things
in order keep these things top of mind of DMing
with the brands working with the deals putting
the content out Tagging doing all of those things
by the end of this season. You could have 20
,000 followers by the end of this season and
be really into something great. And for the younger
guys specifically, we've got guys right now that
we are working with that are unbelievable. We've
got 14 year old boys that are out doing pressure
washing companies and hanging lights, McLean
Power Washing. Look him up. The kid is unbelievable.
We just met with him. We just sent him a bunch
of our sprayers for power washing. People love
these stories. So if you're a young guy and you're,
you know, high school, college -aged, or just
out of college, and you're thinking about starting
a landscaping business, now is the time. Start
it. Capitalize on the fact that people want to
see these young kids succeeding, hustling and
succeeding, and capitalize on that. Set goals
for yourself. That's another thing, too. One
of the reasons that Henry McLean has done so
well with his page. He started that page and
said, can I make $25 ,000 this summer doing landscaping?
Or doing, I'm sorry, power washing. He went door
to door, videoed himself going door to door.
videoed himself doing all the prep work and all
the things. And he hit $25 ,000 before December.
You know, he had to move into a couple of different
things, but he's 14 years old. So can you imagine
what someone who's able to do this full time
can do? Document every step of the way. Document
everything. That is so good. And I can tell you
from personal experience, tagging brands works
because I run grasshopper mowers because I have
a grasshopper dealer. three miles from my shop.
All mowers make tall grass short, but I went
with Grasshopper for customer support, dealer
support, and I just started tagging Grasshopper
on my post. One day I'm pulling in to get some
gas at our local convenience store here in my
city. My phone rang. I answered the phone the
guy introduced himself as a marketing director
for grasshopper mowers and Wanted to know if
I would be interested in becoming a brand ambassador
First thought to come to my mind. This is a scam
So I said well, let me think about it. So the
next morning I get up and I call Grasshopper
mowers and I said this guy Told him his name.
Said he's a marketing director for Grasshopper
Mowers. And he's in charge of your social media.
And he called me and asked me if I wanted to
be a brand ambassador. I'm calling because I
don't know if this is a scam or not. She said,
oh no, he's standing right here. Do you want
to talk to him? So I became a Grasshopper Mowers
ambassador. They flew me to Florida. film me
mowing a four million dollar property made commercials
out of the the content all because I started
tagging grasshopper mowers I would have never
had that opportunity ever no matter how good
I can mow no matter how good I am people want
to see real things yes real people so When you
guys are doing your work, your real jobs with
real clients, people want to see that. The brands
want to see authenticity in how their products
are being used. And so that is gold. That is
absolute gold to a brand to see people actually
using your product. And it's not a commercial.
It's not a staged anything. It's real life. And
people love seeing that. So if you go to Grasshoppermower's
Instagram page, a lot of those videos. are me
mowing on my grasshopper mower? I'm definitely
going to check that out. Check it out. Grasshopper
mowers. Do multiple platforms such as a podcast,
social media, whether it's Facebook, TikTok,
Instagram, LinkedIn, do they increase your value
to brands? That's a great question. That's a
great question. When you're a smaller presence,
probably not as much, but as you grow and you
have 80 ,000 followers on this one and 200 ,000
followers on this one and it's stretched out,
the deals become more lucrative because there's
a price to pay for all of those audiences. When
you're smaller, it's a great idea to make sure
that you are taking the time to set those audiences
up, so making sure that you're going into LinkedIn,
that you're doing Facebook, TikTok, YouTube,
Instagram, all of those are a must, setting up
at least those four. So you've got all of those
things set up, and then you continue to make
sure that you're posting. on all of them which
can be cumbersome you know but on youtube you
can do youtube shorts so you're still keeping
vertical and then it's kind of consistency across
the board because that used to be a big hang
up for a lot of people posting on youtube because
it was horizontal only and so then you're taking
verticals you can't stretch that out so it was
like a big thing now at least they have shorts
you can throw it in the shorts and the shorts
are great for like mind numbing you know, kind
of videos to like showing, you know, an aerator
in slow motion. You know what I mean? That's
great. Showing the plugs flying up in the air
everywhere. Perfect. Like that's the kind of
stuff that, you know, is just like the brain
numbing content. But yes, so to your question,
the more that you can amass on each platform
makes you overall more valuable. Well, I know
the first time a brand reached out to me and
asked me what my price was. I was intimidated
because I had never given anybody a price. So
what can you say to our listeners to bring calm
to them when it comes to setting their price?
Well, here's the deal. I mean, we're always from
a brand perspective. We're always... down to
negotiate. So like if you were saying, hey, well,
this is what my price is. And to be honest with
you, I haven't had too much trouble with that,
I have to say. We've worked with, I mean, I've
got 200 active jobs going on right now. And of
all those jobs, I mean, there have been some
that we've had to pass on because it just does
not make sense for us to spend that kind of money
with the level of engagement that they get back.
And some of them have some of them have been
pretty lucrative deals, and we've been able to
work some things out. With us at least, I can
tell you the intention is to make sure that it's
a fair deal for what we can expect or forecast
to be able to receive back from your brand. And
like I said, take a chance with it because...
If you create the content and if we post it and
it does really well, then that only makes you
valuable. But if from the get -go, you're like,
oh, well, they're not going to pay me $500 or
whatever it is when the engagement's not there.
I can't pay $500 if someone's going to get 1
,000 views and four likes. That's not worth that
to us. But if you say, OK, well, she'll pay me
$200. I'm going to make the reel. It's going
to cover my time doing it. Let's post it and
see what happens. at least start. So I would
engage with the brands and prove your value,
which is what I feel like I've done from the
beginning. You know what I mean? And so I kind
of look for the same level of work ethic and
desire to create and the hustle that I gave to
this business. That's exactly what I'm looking
for because my efforts have been rewarded through
the years working with this company. And I know
that they will do that for anybody else. So that's
the best advice I can give is to at least try.
Great advice. If one of our listeners today is
in the lawn care business and in the next, say,
six to 12 months, they want to develop a relationship
with a brand, what should they start focusing
on right now to help them establish that brand
relationship six to 12 months out? Well, I think
that's a great question. And I think that goes
back to looking and having a little bit of foresight
as to what the season is going to hold for you
and what products you have in your arsenal that
you can do your tagging and do your great mentions
and your call outs, or what products maybe you
need to make an investment in if you want to
be in a specific, if you want to be in a specific,
with a specific brand. maybe you need to invest
in some of their products to be able to then
use those products in your videos and review
them. Reviews are also great too. If you want
to just post a video, post content, just giving
reviews of how the product worked, what was great.
what you loved about it. You know, that's also
a great thing too, for any of these businesses
to have just like more of a review instead of
the use. I mean, obviously the use is great too,
showing it in action, but even just giving reviews
can be very, very powerful for a brand. Well,
I appreciate you coming on the show today. You
have given us some very actionable, powerful
advice. guidelines to help us become more available
for brands. And like we've said, you're already
mowing, you're already installing mulch, you're
already trimming bushes. Why not record yourself,
tag the brand, and set yourself up for maybe
some paid sponsorships or paid collaborations.
It helps you financially and it helps the brand
get their product out to more people. So I really
appreciate you and I am excited to announce that
I am going to be working with Petra Tools. We're
going to be posting some content using their
products. And it's going to be educational content.
It's going to be experimental content where they
see me working with their product. And I'm excited
about it. And I believe that this show has been
a success because Melissa Johnson was our guest.
So I thank you for being a guest. I thank our
listeners for tuning in today. And one last question,
where can our listeners find you? So I you guys
can get right in touch with me if people are
ready to rock and roll right now Email me Melissa
at Petra tools calm that will come straight to
my inbox If you're looking for me on socials,
you can find me personally on fancy flower farmer
on Instagram Facebook And then I would highly
recommend that you check out our products Petra
tools petra tools Petra max so petra tools are
all the sprayers petromax or all the liquid solutions
and then we also have our super viral beast products
that are B E E S T and we're all over social
media so you just have to put those things in
and you'll find our pages. All right until we
talk again I wish you all nothing but happiness
and success and remember the grass is always
greener where you water it so Appreciate you
being on the Lawn Hustle Podcast. God bless you.
Thank you for having me.