Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald, interviewed Mela Lovett. CEO of "Family Lawn Services, a distinguished Metro Atlanta landscape company, excels in providing top-tier lawn care solutions explicitly tailored for both residential and commercial properties. Their dedication to elevating outdoor aesthetics shines through meticulous lawn maintenance, innovative landscape design, and reliable ground-keeping. With a strong foothold in the heart of Georgia, our expert team pledges an unparalleled commitment to green brilliance. Trust us to redefine your terrain with our landscaping artistry, serving as a testament to the community's trust in our eco-centric vision. Enlist Family Lawn Services to transform your garden into a verdant oasis."
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're about to make a change in your life
and you feel uncomfortable, that's the best feeling you can
have because for the first time in your life, you're
making a decision that's going to be best for you
and not what somebody told you to do.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And that's when all bets are off.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald.
Our theme is there's no perfect time to start following
your dreams. I recognize that we all have different definitions
of success. For you and maybe the side of your hl,
it's time to stop reading other people's success stories to
start living your own.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Cap wedding Welcome. This is Rashan McDonald. Thank you, Thank
you so much for tuning in to the show. If
you want to be a guest on my show, it's
please go to Money Making Conversations dot com click the
b a guest button. I handle all the bookings talent
(00:56):
that come on my show personally. It really helps really
set the for the type of show I wanted to
deliver every week and it's been very popular and been
well received, and I think everybody who listens to the
show and spread the word about the show. It really
helps when people talk about the show in the streets
because hopefully I'm delivering the information that makes sure life
a lot better, whether you run a business, whether you're
(01:17):
working a forty dollar week job, or you're just getting
information about life. Because I share information about my personal
success stories and my failures, because I think I feel
it's important that people get a grasp that nobody's perfect
and we are not perfect. Those imperfections can make other
people's lives better. It's not always about the sunny side
(01:39):
of the world that enables success stories to happen. It's
when you tell people and enable them to skip past
your mistakes that may enable them to be way more successful.
It's called mentoring, and that's what I do on this
radio radio show or podcast however you listening to this format.
Let's get started here. I am Rushama, and I host
(02:01):
this weekly money making conversation show just for you. The
interviews and information that this show provides are for everyone.
It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
start living your own. My guess it's the CEO of
Family Lawn Services. It's that time of the year. Everybody
a landscape company that excels and provides the top tier
(02:22):
lawn care solutions, expecially explicitly tailored for both residential and
commercial properties. Please welcome to the Money Making Conversation master Class.
Mela love it. How you doing, Mila?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Hi, resign o? Good? How are you now?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Would I be wrong and say you've been out in
the yard all day?
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Definitely would be.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Oh, oh, you've been having the scene. It's okay, right,
there's sunshine or rainy days, it doesn't matter. It's a
good day with you.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Huh Right. Sometimes I'll get out there when it needs,
you know, a lady touch, but I leave it up
to the guys.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well good, Let's let's talk about being a CEO, and
also I want to talk about it. When I was
going through your bio, Mila, it well mentioned something about
being a serial entrepreneur. What does that mean? When you
say a serial entrepreneur.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I mean I run multiple businesses. Okay, of course you
can't only have one stream of income, and so landscape
is my top priority. But I'm also age mortgage lender
in Georgia for commercial and residential properties. I'm a consultant
(03:38):
on business setups and how to properly structure your business
because a lot of the time our people wasn't taught that.
So I feel like it's my duty to tell the world,
teach them how to properly structure their businesses so that
they can thrive and won't have to content continue to
(04:00):
use personal money for business purposes.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, let me ask you this because a lot of
people come to me and uh, because I, first of all,
I love the fact that you mentioned multiple streams of
income because I talk about that all the time on
one making conversations master class that you know, I say,
there are twenty four hours in the day, learn to
take advantage of each hour. And I'm assuming that's what
you're doing with these multiple streams of income format because
it's not based in a forty hour work week. Correct?
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
So how do you how do you manage? I heard
her husband in your bayo, I heard kids in your bio.
I hear the multiple streams of income? See, Oh, how
are you doing all this? Mealer?
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Oh? I meditate? Honestly, I meditate. Oh some days, I
honestly don't know how I'm doing it, but I know
that it's a bigger goal. R It's bigger than me.
So my body is pretty much taking its own control
and just doing it. I'll call the people that I need,
(05:03):
put people in places to help me when needed. I
appreciate all my support, but yeah, meditation is my number
one go to.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Now I've never done meditating. I've never talked about meditating
on the show. I've talked about stretching. I've talked about yoga,
I guess, but meditation. Talk to me about that because
that sounds like something that people need to when they
hit that stress point. Some type of meditation needs to
be in everybody's life, I believe, or slow down button
(05:34):
or a moment to be able to you know, I
guess they say decompress, talk about meditation.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yes, that's very important. And like I said, I do
multiple things. So I have small children under what seven
and four? So I got children, I have puppies and everything.
Everybody needs something at one time. So when I feel
myself getting a little too much pressure, a little too overwhelmed,
(06:05):
I shut everything down. No phone, no computer, no kids, nobody.
I sit in the room, put on frequency sounds off
the pandora, and I just breathe in and breathe out.
At that moment, everything that's on my mind I let
it go. Nothing I do about it right now, let
me take these ten minutes to just really regroup, because mentally,
(06:29):
you can't function properly with so many things hitting you
at one time. That's how I feel about it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, I like that. I like that. I know that
everybody has a way of dealing with stress. That's a
stress moment right there. When you're when you're meditating, when
you're decompressing, you're you're finding a zone where okay, look
before I say something wrong, do something wrong, you know, stop,
and that that control. I admire the fact that you
(06:59):
know your brain breaking point or nearing your breaking point.
I'm assuming that's what you're trying to avoid.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Correct, correct, correct, And I actually learned that after my
last son something personal about me. I have postpartum depression.
So I had to really dig into my mental to
understand what is going on, Why is this happening? Why
(07:25):
do I feel such pressure, darkness, sadness, everything is going
on at one time. And that's when I started meditating.
I started digging into paths, traumas all along, writing things down,
getting these things out so I to understand when is
my breaking point and what do I need to do
(07:47):
when I'm reaching it.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Let me ask you this because I want to really
I think it's important as we delve into this because
of the fact that, you know, as African Americans, we
don't talk about mental health. We tend to shy away
from those systems that may show we are not perfect.
And we all know we live in a highly stressful
environment because of the color of our skin. So what
(08:10):
did you turn to? What did you find that on
this morment? Was it your husband? Where did you go
to realize, you know, I need help.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
I think what happened was my son got really my
youngest son was really, really sick, and I mean everything
is hit at one time, and it really hurt. It
felt really heavy. I'm like, I'm just gonna run away,
leave all of this alone, just run away. I left
(08:43):
the house. I sat and I thought about it. I'm like, Okay,
can you really leave your children by their selves? Can
you leave them to not be raised by mother? Like, no,
can't do that, That's not an option. So I started reading,
started reading about the importance of your mental health. I
(09:07):
didn't have insurance at the time, so I didn't have
a doctor I could go to. Just started reading and
then I start journaling, writing things out because everything that
I was reading was saying, you have to get out
these past traumas in order for you to move forward.
So I said, Okay, everything that ever happened in the past,
(09:30):
I have to completely and ultimately let it go, Let
it out, let it go. It happened. I don't know
or understand why it may happen, but it doesn't matter
because it doesn't affect who I am.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Today, right right, And I think it's important as entrepreneurs
people get into business that you know, we all want
lying at the door when you open your door. We
all want an email box full when you have a business.
But those sometimes it doesn't happen like that. You have
down moments, those stress moments, those stress points that pop up.
(10:05):
Now you've been an entrepreneur in the family lawn service.
Now I gotta ask you this, is it a seasonal
period for lawn service?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
When I first when we post first started, we thought it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Was okay, you thought, like, Mabe, the summertime. It's when
it's like you busy, busy in my mind, you know,
and it's you know, like I'm just saying, like May
to September is if you have launch service company, you busy,
and then all of a sudden, when the days get cold,
in my mind, you start shutting down and you have
to make sure you save money from your summer activity.
(10:47):
You're telling me that's that's that's not how it really works. Correct, correct,
talk to me.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Okay, so it's seasonal. Yeah, you make more money during
the summertime. You would think that at first, but as
your repetition gets out there, people understand what you do,
under respect the quality of work you do. You have referrals,
that's referring you to other people. Then the wintertime can
(11:16):
be just as busy as the summertime. The only difference
is we're not doing as many properties as we would
normally do.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Right, right, Okay, so let's talk about Uh, you know,
I'm a guy you know who thanks you know who
thinks he knows lawn service.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Okay, they all do.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
You know, I'm a good le I know I know
about nuts edge and crab grass, and I know about
the cloud clovers. And you know I got my you know,
I got my weed and feed or the weed. They
won't harm your the spread, they won't harm your grass,
but to harm the weeds. So I'm not. I guess
(11:58):
I'm know enough to be dangerous.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Me.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Look, okay, okay, okay, okay, Now I call you as
a lawn service. What do I need to be because
I brought you on the show, because first of all,
like I said, I know enough to be dangerous, but
I need you to make my yard last to avoid
that ugliness, because I don't want to be the neighbor
(12:20):
who has the bad looking yard in the in the
in the neighborhood. So when I call you, what in
any particular questions I should be asking you as a
family lawn service?
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yes, okay, So when you initially call a landscape company,
it depends on what kind of services you're looking for.
Now you have lawn maintenance.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Okay, cool? Is lawn maintenance? Cutting your grass?
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah, okay, cuttings in your edgine, blowing, that's lawn mask
if you if the hedges are included, will from the
bushes as well.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Okay, now let me ask you this, let me shure it.
So so oh, you know, I'm just using my yard
as an example, not gonna get too descriptive. Or now
I do have the hedges, and then sometimes you know,
you walk and I got these little limbs probably need
to be cut back. I guess would you call that trimming?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Trimming?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Okay, cool, So hedging we call trimming as well. That's
you know hedges. You walk around the path where you
they look like they're a little fat, you know, look
like they need to be you know, trim back a
little bit so off the top knock off. Now that's
a skill. Though. Now I hired the wrong person one
time and I almost lost all my hedges. Okay, how
(13:43):
do I know the right person to get out there?
They won't have me cry because I cried. I cried,
walked out there, I saw this guy and I went,
I have made a major mistake. And you know he
cut my He cut my hedges so bad that he
left and didn't even ask for no money. Not that
I would have paid him, but no, he knew, he
(14:07):
knew he had messed up that bad. I wouldn't. I'll
tell you something me. It was just a moment for
me in my yard, because you know, that's where I
get relaxed. She know, your yard is where you get relaxed.
You come home and you feel good, you're walking into
your house. And I hide this guy he would he
left a little note in my mailbox. Right, you laughing
(14:30):
at me now because you said, Rishan, that's sign number
one mailbox. No up table. We're about to go to
break so I could finish this story. Beeler, because you're
laughing at me now because you know I'm making some mistakes.
I made some mistakes. Now I'm not making those mistakes anymore.
We're talking to her, Meela love It. She's a serial entrepreneur.
She's the CEO of Family Lawn Services. Now she doesn't
(14:51):
go out there and cut no grass, but she knows
and tells everybody what to do. She lives a life
of accudition the rest of those people out there working
in the sun. You call her, she'd keep me in
the sun. We be right back with Family Lawn Service CEO,
Mela love It. You're listening to Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
I'm your host, Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
with Rushawan McDonald. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations
Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass continues
online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow Money Making Conversations
(15:38):
Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
My guest is the CEO of Family Lawn Services, Mela
love It. Mila Os was laughing at me Chuckley, and
I say Chuckley when I told her how I got
my lawn service. Somebody had left a note in my mailbox.
You know, trust in me. I hired this person to
(16:02):
do lawn services manicure unless you used the word manicure.
That's what he said on his note, me loave, he
did lawn manicures. Okay, came in and destroyed my hedges
so bad that when I went inside and came back out,
he was gone and I never saw him again, Mila.
(16:25):
So that's a testimony to how bad he did my York.
So with that being said, what did I do wrong?
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I'm so sorry for lasting sorry. But first, first, for
say a note in your mailbox? No sorry, no, sir.
Even when I started a landscape company, we never opened
somebody's mailbox but a business part on the side or
(16:56):
on the front, because you know it's a set of
room fit to open the mailbo mm hmmmm hl Like
we're in preschool. You want to be my boyfriend? Yes
or no? No, no, no, sorry, you should not have
allowed him to do anything to your bushes. Last, you
(17:17):
need to check the resources right.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Well, you know I but you know, sometimes it goes
in the whole thing. It's like even if I call
the people, you know, I didn't know where to look.
I was in a hurry. I'm gonna use that excuse.
I was in a hurry. You know what could somebody
do wrong? You know? And I discovered that they if
they don't know what they're doing, they out there. You
let somebody damage something that if you if you do
(17:47):
it wrong, then guess what you have to physically replace
the hedges, which I wind up doing. So he may
have left without me paying him, but he left a bill, right,
He left a battle. And so so with that being said,
you as a lawn service, when did you start your
lawn business? Mila?
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Oh, we started five years ago, okay.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
And what made you feel that was an area of
business that you could be successful in?
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Honestly, it was just off the hope to be able
to lead something to our children.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
My husband said, I want to cut grass.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I said, okay, that's that's really that's an understatement. What
was he doing Prior to lawn service.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
We were both working at retail stores. I was the
assistant manager at Walgreens and the manager at Walmart.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Okay, so y'all had successful jobs with the medical health
care plans, and y'all independently thought y'all would go in
business together to do Launcher. And that's really I'm just
trying to figure out why lawn service? Did you go
through a list of opportunities for business? Uh options? Why
(19:13):
lawn service? Because your husband said, let's cut grass. He
went and got a couple of lawnmows, a couple of
weed eats. He knew. Somebody give us some backstory.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah, literally, he used to cut grass with his brother
when they were younger, When they were you know, kids
cut the neighborhoods grass and things like that. But outside
of that, I've never seen them cut grass until we
got a house of our own, right, and he cut
the grass.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
So basically, you're telling me that, you know, like he's
an interesting story about me, Like I didn't, you know,
I didn't. My mom always cooked, but then as I
got older, I fell in love with cooking and baking
because I started doing it myself. So are you saying
that when you got a house. It kind of triggered
maybe an entrance, because he was he really like really
(20:05):
jazzing up your yard, like really killing the weeds and
doing the hedges and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Yeah, yeah, he studied. He started on our grass or
our grades.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Wow. And then so so how do you start hiring
people for your company? How do you do that process?
I guess I want to say me. I know you said.
Look with Sean, I handle the paperwork. They do the task.
He's by himself. He's told you you have successful jobs,
y'all not leaving you know, y'all not leaving jobs that
(20:41):
not that that people are companies that people don't know,
very familiar jobs. What did people say? Your family members
say to you, people you know, tell you you're quitting two
jobs as managers, system managers to.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Cut grass, well rich only I didn't quit.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Okay, okay, okay, you played it, played it, played it smart,
you quit, you cut grass. I'm just keeping up. I'm
keeping my forty hour with job.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
That's what you say, right until we, you know, get
it rolling, which I'm glad we did it, because any
business have losses. Right our first season, somebody stole the truck,
the equipment, everything, literally stole everything we had.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Okay, you know that happened to the guy who's cutting
my grass too. So you know, he came to me
one day and uh, he said, Rashaan got some bad news.
My truck and all my equipment was stolen. H So
how did it happen in your situation? You know, because
he's literally said, you know what he did was parked
(21:48):
in front of somebody's house. He walked inside and he
came back and everything was gone.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah, and the way it hasn't our. Our truck was
part in this rightway in your driveway, in this driveway.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
And what type of truck was it? What type of
truck was?
Speaker 4 (22:07):
It was a white I'll never forget it. It was like
a two thousand and five, two thousand and six white
Dodge round two seater.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
To keep in the back.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Yep, yep. Put the small equipment on the bed, put
the one lawn moor on the trailer. I walked outside,
I'm about to go to work, and I'm like, babe,
where up truck it? He said, it's outside. I'll say, well,
(22:41):
wait to park get it? He said, stop playing. I'm
not for the place to you. I'm not saying the
place to parked the car right outside? I said, oh, okay,
where you come look cause I don't see sure enough?
It was not out there, blew everything up, blew everything up,
had to start completely open. He wanted to quit, and
(23:03):
I was like, no, we ain't gonna get nobody that
much power because we still need to leave something to
these children. At that I only had one. We still
need to leave something to this kid. So we kept going.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
How did you recover from that? How did you recover
from that? Did you have to get loan? Did you
start one lawn more? Because the insurance cover your equipment,
did it cover the vehicle that was stolen?
Speaker 4 (23:32):
The equipment was not covered. The vehicle was covered. So
we were able to get another truck with no problem.
We just had to get equipment, so we have loan
for the equipment.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
We were talking about Miela Loved she's the CEO of
Family Lawn Services. Mila, how can one get in touch
with you?
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Eight hundred four six row five eight one more time
eight hundred four six zero.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Five eight and what is your website?
Speaker 4 (24:10):
The website is Family Lawn Services dot com.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Let me ask you this as we close out this interview,
what do you think for your company? Is your strongest
strength as a company when it comes to lawn service
abilities both residential.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
And commercial pass down, I would say the quality of work.
My boys are out there showing out and I'm grateful
to them.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
So you're telling me, Rashaan McDonald, if you call Family
Lawn Services and you want somebody to do the hedges,
you know, get them all nice and round or squared off,
you know, trim back the trees. I should be calling you.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Absolutely, you should be calling me because I'm not gonna
mess up your bushes. Right why perfect wound? However you
like them?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Well, I'll tell you something that's that's a skill that
is something I can't do. I've seen it done wrong
so and I've had tears in my eyes when it
was done wrong. But more importantly, you know, this is
a great interview from a standpoint of honesty. You talked
about the meditation. You talked about being a serial entrepreneur,
multiple strings of income. You talked about stress. You talk
(25:24):
about overcoming the arts or walking away both you and
your husband, walking away from full time jobs. Being smart
enough to know that as you enter into the independent
entrepreneur space once you keep working and one should venture
into that task and then all the then all at
the top of it, when all was stolen from you,
(25:46):
you didn't quit. That is real important advice that everybody
needs to hear. And I really appreciate you coming on
Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Thank you Mela so much, mister McDonald for having me.
I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Well, you know, I enjodged seriously. You know, people come
on this show and they you know, I don't know
what they're going to talk about. I have a list
of things what I want to ask them. But your
conversation is one of the more honest conversations that people
need to hear about stress and how you deal with stress.
Because we are we live in a vacuum, especially African
American people of color. We want to be in denial.
(26:22):
We want to walk around with high blood pressure, we
want to walk around with high cholesterol. And then suddenly
you look around and go what happened to Bill? What
happened to Jennifer? Because we didn't go to the doctor,
because we didn't admit that stressful situations where it was
led to bad eating, physical or mental disorders, but your conversation.
(26:43):
I hope when people hear it, they hear enough to say,
maybe I should listen and check in on what's happening here,
because I really appreciate you coming on the show, because
I believe you save some lives listening to this show
when one listens to his interview. Thank you, Mila.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
I hope so too. Thank you so much, mister McDonald.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Cool, Okay, this is not all I want you to
stay here. This is Money Making Conversation Masterclass, and I'm
your host for Sean McDonald. Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
Thank you for joining us for this edition of Money
Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan
McDonald is produced by thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. More
information about thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc. Is available
at thirty eight fifteen media dot com. And always remember
to lead with your gifts
If you're about to make a change in your life
and you feel uncomfortable, that's the best feeling you can
have because for the first time in your life, you're
making a decision that's going to be best for you
and not what somebody told you to do.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And that's when all bets are off.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald.
Our theme is there's no perfect time to start following
your dreams. I recognize that we all have different definitions
of success. For you and maybe the side of your hl,
it's time to stop reading other people's success stories to
start living your own.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Cap wedding Welcome. This is Rashan McDonald. Thank you, Thank
you so much for tuning in to the show. If
you want to be a guest on my show, it's
please go to Money Making Conversations dot com click the
b a guest button. I handle all the bookings talent
(00:56):
that come on my show personally. It really helps really
set the for the type of show I wanted to
deliver every week and it's been very popular and been
well received, and I think everybody who listens to the
show and spread the word about the show. It really
helps when people talk about the show in the streets
because hopefully I'm delivering the information that makes sure life
a lot better, whether you run a business, whether you're
(01:17):
working a forty dollar week job, or you're just getting
information about life. Because I share information about my personal
success stories and my failures, because I think I feel
it's important that people get a grasp that nobody's perfect
and we are not perfect. Those imperfections can make other
people's lives better. It's not always about the sunny side
(01:39):
of the world that enables success stories to happen. It's
when you tell people and enable them to skip past
your mistakes that may enable them to be way more successful.
It's called mentoring, and that's what I do on this
radio radio show or podcast however you listening to this format.
Let's get started here. I am Rushama, and I host
(02:01):
this weekly money making conversation show just for you. The
interviews and information that this show provides are for everyone.
It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
start living your own. My guess it's the CEO of
Family Lawn Services. It's that time of the year. Everybody
a landscape company that excels and provides the top tier
(02:22):
lawn care solutions, expecially explicitly tailored for both residential and
commercial properties. Please welcome to the Money Making Conversation master Class.
Mela love it. How you doing, Mila?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Hi, resign o? Good? How are you now?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Would I be wrong and say you've been out in
the yard all day?
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Definitely would be.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Oh, oh, you've been having the scene. It's okay, right,
there's sunshine or rainy days, it doesn't matter. It's a
good day with you.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Huh Right. Sometimes I'll get out there when it needs,
you know, a lady touch, but I leave it up
to the guys.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well good, Let's let's talk about being a CEO, and
also I want to talk about it. When I was
going through your bio, Mila, it well mentioned something about
being a serial entrepreneur. What does that mean? When you
say a serial entrepreneur.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I mean I run multiple businesses. Okay, of course you
can't only have one stream of income, and so landscape
is my top priority. But I'm also age mortgage lender
in Georgia for commercial and residential properties. I'm a consultant
(03:38):
on business setups and how to properly structure your business
because a lot of the time our people wasn't taught that.
So I feel like it's my duty to tell the world,
teach them how to properly structure their businesses so that
they can thrive and won't have to content continue to
(04:00):
use personal money for business purposes.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, let me ask you this because a lot of
people come to me and uh, because I, first of all,
I love the fact that you mentioned multiple streams of
income because I talk about that all the time on
one making conversations master class that you know, I say,
there are twenty four hours in the day, learn to
take advantage of each hour. And I'm assuming that's what
you're doing with these multiple streams of income format because
it's not based in a forty hour work week. Correct?
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
So how do you how do you manage? I heard
her husband in your bayo, I heard kids in your bio.
I hear the multiple streams of income? See, Oh, how
are you doing all this? Mealer?
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Oh? I meditate? Honestly, I meditate. Oh some days, I
honestly don't know how I'm doing it, but I know
that it's a bigger goal. R It's bigger than me.
So my body is pretty much taking its own control
and just doing it. I'll call the people that I need,
(05:03):
put people in places to help me when needed. I
appreciate all my support, but yeah, meditation is my number
one go to.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Now I've never done meditating. I've never talked about meditating
on the show. I've talked about stretching. I've talked about yoga,
I guess, but meditation. Talk to me about that because
that sounds like something that people need to when they
hit that stress point. Some type of meditation needs to
be in everybody's life, I believe, or slow down button
(05:34):
or a moment to be able to you know, I
guess they say decompress, talk about meditation.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yes, that's very important. And like I said, I do
multiple things. So I have small children under what seven
and four? So I got children, I have puppies and everything.
Everybody needs something at one time. So when I feel
myself getting a little too much pressure, a little too overwhelmed,
(06:05):
I shut everything down. No phone, no computer, no kids, nobody.
I sit in the room, put on frequency sounds off
the pandora, and I just breathe in and breathe out.
At that moment, everything that's on my mind I let
it go. Nothing I do about it right now, let
me take these ten minutes to just really regroup, because mentally,
(06:29):
you can't function properly with so many things hitting you
at one time. That's how I feel about it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, I like that. I like that. I know that
everybody has a way of dealing with stress. That's a
stress moment right there. When you're when you're meditating, when
you're decompressing, you're you're finding a zone where okay, look
before I say something wrong, do something wrong, you know, stop,
and that that control. I admire the fact that you
(06:59):
know your brain breaking point or nearing your breaking point.
I'm assuming that's what you're trying to avoid.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Correct, correct, correct, And I actually learned that after my
last son something personal about me. I have postpartum depression.
So I had to really dig into my mental to
understand what is going on, Why is this happening? Why
(07:25):
do I feel such pressure, darkness, sadness, everything is going
on at one time. And that's when I started meditating.
I started digging into paths, traumas all along, writing things down,
getting these things out so I to understand when is
my breaking point and what do I need to do
(07:47):
when I'm reaching it.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Let me ask you this because I want to really
I think it's important as we delve into this because
of the fact that, you know, as African Americans, we
don't talk about mental health. We tend to shy away
from those systems that may show we are not perfect.
And we all know we live in a highly stressful
environment because of the color of our skin. So what
(08:10):
did you turn to? What did you find that on
this morment? Was it your husband? Where did you go
to realize, you know, I need help.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
I think what happened was my son got really my
youngest son was really, really sick, and I mean everything
is hit at one time, and it really hurt. It
felt really heavy. I'm like, I'm just gonna run away,
leave all of this alone, just run away. I left
(08:43):
the house. I sat and I thought about it. I'm like, Okay,
can you really leave your children by their selves? Can
you leave them to not be raised by mother? Like, no,
can't do that, That's not an option. So I started reading,
started reading about the importance of your mental health. I
(09:07):
didn't have insurance at the time, so I didn't have
a doctor I could go to. Just started reading and
then I start journaling, writing things out because everything that
I was reading was saying, you have to get out
these past traumas in order for you to move forward.
So I said, Okay, everything that ever happened in the past,
(09:30):
I have to completely and ultimately let it go, Let
it out, let it go. It happened. I don't know
or understand why it may happen, but it doesn't matter
because it doesn't affect who I am.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Today, right right, And I think it's important as entrepreneurs
people get into business that you know, we all want
lying at the door when you open your door. We
all want an email box full when you have a business.
But those sometimes it doesn't happen like that. You have
down moments, those stress moments, those stress points that pop up.
(10:05):
Now you've been an entrepreneur in the family lawn service.
Now I gotta ask you this, is it a seasonal
period for lawn service?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
When I first when we post first started, we thought it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Was okay, you thought, like, Mabe, the summertime. It's when
it's like you busy, busy in my mind, you know,
and it's you know, like I'm just saying, like May
to September is if you have launch service company, you busy,
and then all of a sudden, when the days get cold,
in my mind, you start shutting down and you have
to make sure you save money from your summer activity.
(10:47):
You're telling me that's that's that's not how it really works. Correct, correct,
talk to me.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Okay, so it's seasonal. Yeah, you make more money during
the summertime. You would think that at first, but as
your repetition gets out there, people understand what you do,
under respect the quality of work you do. You have referrals,
that's referring you to other people. Then the wintertime can
(11:16):
be just as busy as the summertime. The only difference
is we're not doing as many properties as we would
normally do.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Right, right, Okay, so let's talk about Uh, you know,
I'm a guy you know who thanks you know who
thinks he knows lawn service.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Okay, they all do.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
You know, I'm a good le I know I know
about nuts edge and crab grass, and I know about
the cloud clovers. And you know I got my you know,
I got my weed and feed or the weed. They
won't harm your the spread, they won't harm your grass,
but to harm the weeds. So I'm not. I guess
(11:58):
I'm know enough to be dangerous.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Me.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Look, okay, okay, okay, okay, Now I call you as
a lawn service. What do I need to be because
I brought you on the show, because first of all,
like I said, I know enough to be dangerous, but
I need you to make my yard last to avoid
that ugliness, because I don't want to be the neighbor
(12:20):
who has the bad looking yard in the in the
in the neighborhood. So when I call you, what in
any particular questions I should be asking you as a
family lawn service?
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yes, okay, So when you initially call a landscape company,
it depends on what kind of services you're looking for.
Now you have lawn maintenance.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Okay, cool? Is lawn maintenance? Cutting your grass?
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah, okay, cuttings in your edgine, blowing, that's lawn mask
if you if the hedges are included, will from the
bushes as well.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Okay, now let me ask you this, let me shure it.
So so oh, you know, I'm just using my yard
as an example, not gonna get too descriptive. Or now
I do have the hedges, and then sometimes you know,
you walk and I got these little limbs probably need
to be cut back. I guess would you call that trimming?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Trimming?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Okay, cool, So hedging we call trimming as well. That's
you know hedges. You walk around the path where you
they look like they're a little fat, you know, look
like they need to be you know, trim back a
little bit so off the top knock off. Now that's
a skill. Though. Now I hired the wrong person one
time and I almost lost all my hedges. Okay, how
(13:43):
do I know the right person to get out there?
They won't have me cry because I cried. I cried,
walked out there, I saw this guy and I went,
I have made a major mistake. And you know he
cut my He cut my hedges so bad that he
left and didn't even ask for no money. Not that
I would have paid him, but no, he knew, he
(14:07):
knew he had messed up that bad. I wouldn't. I'll
tell you something me. It was just a moment for
me in my yard, because you know, that's where I
get relaxed. She know, your yard is where you get relaxed.
You come home and you feel good, you're walking into
your house. And I hide this guy he would he
left a little note in my mailbox. Right, you laughing
(14:30):
at me now because you said, Rishan, that's sign number
one mailbox. No up table. We're about to go to
break so I could finish this story. Beeler, because you're
laughing at me now because you know I'm making some mistakes.
I made some mistakes. Now I'm not making those mistakes anymore.
We're talking to her, Meela love It. She's a serial entrepreneur.
She's the CEO of Family Lawn Services. Now she doesn't
(14:51):
go out there and cut no grass, but she knows
and tells everybody what to do. She lives a life
of accudition the rest of those people out there working
in the sun. You call her, she'd keep me in
the sun. We be right back with Family Lawn Service CEO,
Mela love It. You're listening to Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
I'm your host, Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
with Rushawan McDonald. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations
Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass continues
online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow Money Making Conversations
(15:38):
Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
My guest is the CEO of Family Lawn Services, Mela
love It. Mila Os was laughing at me Chuckley, and
I say Chuckley when I told her how I got
my lawn service. Somebody had left a note in my mailbox.
You know, trust in me. I hired this person to
(16:02):
do lawn services manicure unless you used the word manicure.
That's what he said on his note, me loave, he
did lawn manicures. Okay, came in and destroyed my hedges
so bad that when I went inside and came back out,
he was gone and I never saw him again, Mila.
(16:25):
So that's a testimony to how bad he did my York.
So with that being said, what did I do wrong?
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I'm so sorry for lasting sorry. But first, first, for
say a note in your mailbox? No sorry, no, sir.
Even when I started a landscape company, we never opened
somebody's mailbox but a business part on the side or
(16:56):
on the front, because you know it's a set of
room fit to open the mailbo mm hmmmm hl Like
we're in preschool. You want to be my boyfriend? Yes
or no? No, no, no, sorry, you should not have
allowed him to do anything to your bushes. Last, you
(17:17):
need to check the resources right.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Well, you know I but you know, sometimes it goes
in the whole thing. It's like even if I call
the people, you know, I didn't know where to look.
I was in a hurry. I'm gonna use that excuse.
I was in a hurry. You know what could somebody
do wrong? You know? And I discovered that they if
they don't know what they're doing, they out there. You
let somebody damage something that if you if you do
(17:47):
it wrong, then guess what you have to physically replace
the hedges, which I wind up doing. So he may
have left without me paying him, but he left a bill, right,
He left a battle. And so so with that being said,
you as a lawn service, when did you start your
lawn business? Mila?
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Oh, we started five years ago, okay.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
And what made you feel that was an area of
business that you could be successful in?
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Honestly, it was just off the hope to be able
to lead something to our children.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
My husband said, I want to cut grass.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I said, okay, that's that's really that's an understatement. What
was he doing Prior to lawn service.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
We were both working at retail stores. I was the
assistant manager at Walgreens and the manager at Walmart.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Okay, so y'all had successful jobs with the medical health
care plans, and y'all independently thought y'all would go in
business together to do Launcher. And that's really I'm just
trying to figure out why lawn service? Did you go
through a list of opportunities for business? Uh options? Why
(19:13):
lawn service? Because your husband said, let's cut grass. He
went and got a couple of lawnmows, a couple of
weed eats. He knew. Somebody give us some backstory.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah, literally, he used to cut grass with his brother
when they were younger, When they were you know, kids
cut the neighborhoods grass and things like that. But outside
of that, I've never seen them cut grass until we
got a house of our own, right, and he cut
the grass.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
So basically, you're telling me that, you know, like he's
an interesting story about me, Like I didn't, you know,
I didn't. My mom always cooked, but then as I
got older, I fell in love with cooking and baking
because I started doing it myself. So are you saying
that when you got a house. It kind of triggered
maybe an entrance, because he was he really like really
(20:05):
jazzing up your yard, like really killing the weeds and
doing the hedges and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Yeah, yeah, he studied. He started on our grass or
our grades.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Wow. And then so so how do you start hiring
people for your company? How do you do that process?
I guess I want to say me. I know you said.
Look with Sean, I handle the paperwork. They do the task.
He's by himself. He's told you you have successful jobs,
y'all not leaving you know, y'all not leaving jobs that
(20:41):
not that that people are companies that people don't know,
very familiar jobs. What did people say? Your family members
say to you, people you know, tell you you're quitting two
jobs as managers, system managers to.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Cut grass, well rich only I didn't quit.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Okay, okay, okay, you played it, played it, played it smart,
you quit, you cut grass. I'm just keeping up. I'm
keeping my forty hour with job.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
That's what you say, right until we, you know, get
it rolling, which I'm glad we did it, because any
business have losses. Right our first season, somebody stole the truck,
the equipment, everything, literally stole everything we had.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Okay, you know that happened to the guy who's cutting
my grass too. So you know, he came to me
one day and uh, he said, Rashaan got some bad news.
My truck and all my equipment was stolen. H So
how did it happen in your situation? You know, because
he's literally said, you know what he did was parked
(21:48):
in front of somebody's house. He walked inside and he
came back and everything was gone.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah, and the way it hasn't our. Our truck was
part in this rightway in your driveway, in this driveway.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
And what type of truck was it? What type of
truck was?
Speaker 4 (22:07):
It was a white I'll never forget it. It was like
a two thousand and five, two thousand and six white
Dodge round two seater.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
To keep in the back.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Yep, yep. Put the small equipment on the bed, put
the one lawn moor on the trailer. I walked outside,
I'm about to go to work, and I'm like, babe,
where up truck it? He said, it's outside. I'll say, well,
(22:41):
wait to park get it? He said, stop playing. I'm
not for the place to you. I'm not saying the
place to parked the car right outside? I said, oh, okay,
where you come look cause I don't see sure enough?
It was not out there, blew everything up, blew everything up,
had to start completely open. He wanted to quit, and
(23:03):
I was like, no, we ain't gonna get nobody that
much power because we still need to leave something to
these children. At that I only had one. We still
need to leave something to this kid. So we kept going.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
How did you recover from that? How did you recover
from that? Did you have to get loan? Did you
start one lawn more? Because the insurance cover your equipment,
did it cover the vehicle that was stolen?
Speaker 4 (23:32):
The equipment was not covered. The vehicle was covered. So
we were able to get another truck with no problem.
We just had to get equipment, so we have loan
for the equipment.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
We were talking about Miela Loved she's the CEO of
Family Lawn Services. Mila, how can one get in touch
with you?
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Eight hundred four six row five eight one more time
eight hundred four six zero.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Five eight and what is your website?
Speaker 4 (24:10):
The website is Family Lawn Services dot com.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Let me ask you this as we close out this interview,
what do you think for your company? Is your strongest
strength as a company when it comes to lawn service
abilities both residential.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
And commercial pass down, I would say the quality of work.
My boys are out there showing out and I'm grateful
to them.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
So you're telling me, Rashaan McDonald, if you call Family
Lawn Services and you want somebody to do the hedges,
you know, get them all nice and round or squared off,
you know, trim back the trees. I should be calling you.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Absolutely, you should be calling me because I'm not gonna
mess up your bushes. Right why perfect wound? However you
like them?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Well, I'll tell you something that's that's a skill that
is something I can't do. I've seen it done wrong
so and I've had tears in my eyes when it
was done wrong. But more importantly, you know, this is
a great interview from a standpoint of honesty. You talked
about the meditation. You talked about being a serial entrepreneur,
multiple strings of income. You talked about stress. You talk
(25:24):
about overcoming the arts or walking away both you and
your husband, walking away from full time jobs. Being smart
enough to know that as you enter into the independent
entrepreneur space once you keep working and one should venture
into that task and then all the then all at
the top of it, when all was stolen from you,
(25:46):
you didn't quit. That is real important advice that everybody
needs to hear. And I really appreciate you coming on
Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Thank you Mela so much, mister McDonald for having me.
I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Well, you know, I enjodged seriously. You know, people come
on this show and they you know, I don't know
what they're going to talk about. I have a list
of things what I want to ask them. But your
conversation is one of the more honest conversations that people
need to hear about stress and how you deal with stress.
Because we are we live in a vacuum, especially African
American people of color. We want to be in denial.
(26:22):
We want to walk around with high blood pressure, we
want to walk around with high cholesterol. And then suddenly
you look around and go what happened to Bill? What
happened to Jennifer? Because we didn't go to the doctor,
because we didn't admit that stressful situations where it was
led to bad eating, physical or mental disorders, but your conversation.
(26:43):
I hope when people hear it, they hear enough to say,
maybe I should listen and check in on what's happening here,
because I really appreciate you coming on the show, because
I believe you save some lives listening to this show
when one listens to his interview. Thank you, Mila.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
I hope so too. Thank you so much, mister McDonald.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Cool, Okay, this is not all I want you to
stay here. This is Money Making Conversation Masterclass, and I'm
your host for Sean McDonald. Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
Thank you for joining us for this edition of Money
Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan
McDonald is produced by thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. More
information about thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc. Is available
at thirty eight fifteen media dot com. And always remember
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