November 21, 2024 • 31 mins
Are you ready to see your landscaping business thrive by stepping back? Join our host Tommy Cole as he sits down with Matt Davis, the innovative mind behind College Fund Landscaping, in this episode of "Roots of Success." Discover how Matt’s journey from a student with a mower to a remote leader living his dream in Crested Butte, Colorado, reveals the transformative power of empowering teams, streamlining KPIs, and letting go of perfection. Learn how open book management and a focus on education can elevate your company from good to great.
THE BIG IDEA:
Empower your team for success and personal freedom.
KEY MOMENTS:
[00:00] Unique setup for landscaping business interview today.
[04:30] Scholarship raffles for students' tuition assistance.
[08:14] Manage each line item to beat budget.
[12:24] Fitness and wellness enable fun, active lifestyle.
[14:17] Mental strength and recharging are essential for success.
[16:30] Empower others, use technology for efficiency.
[19:18] Run business remotely, empower team, adapt post-Covid.
[25:18] Driven by helping others through dedicated teamwork.
[27:56] Fascinating people shaped my hardworking character.
[29:03] Efficient setup enables successful business independence.
QUESTIONS WE ANSWER
What are the benefits of using open book management in small businesses?
How can delegating tasks improve business efficiency and growth?
What skills can you develop through door-to-door collections or newspaper delivery jobs?
How to effectively manage a business remotely?
What are the key components of a successful referral program for small businesses?
What strategies can help empower employees and improve workplace productivity?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The Roots of Success podcast isfor the landscape professional
who's looking to up their game.
We've got a brain trust of experts tohelp you nurture the roots of a successful
business and grow to the next level.
This is The Roots of Success.
welcome to Roots of Successpodcast and I'm your host Tommy
Cole with McFarlin Stanford.
I've got an awesome guest today My sortof my new best friend we have a lot
(00:24):
in common come to find out we get upearly, we work out, we hustle all day.
And It's been great.
Matt Davis with College FundLandscaping out of Lucas, Texas,
kind of like north of Dallas suburb.
How are you doing, Matt?
Good, Tommy.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, this is great.
This is going to be awesome.
We're actually at a different location,a little bit different set up here.
(00:45):
This is an in person.
Which is very uniquefor us and our audience.
So.
This is great.
So Matt, tell me what has been going on.
How long you been in business?
How did you get into landscaping?
Like, this is probably not themost ideal setup that you probably
envisioned, but there's a reasonwhy you're sitting here today.
So how'd you get started?
(01:06):
Yeah, 100%.
Well, if you want to go back to thevery beginning, I have to thank my dad.
My dad is a serial entrepreneur, and heactually had a, a fire sprinkler business.
I don't want to get too much in thedetails, but he was doing sprinkler
installations in the Bahamas.
And then that savings and loanscandal kind of went down.
The Bahamas people didn't have the money.
They didn't pay him.
He went out of business.
He started mowing yards.
(01:28):
In the Bahamas?
No, no.
He was doing just a job atthe casinos in the Bahamas.
So we lived here in Dallas at the time.
So he needed to he had three kids.
He needed to pay the bills, right?
So he started mowing yards.
Absolutely hated it.
I would actually mowyards with him, right?
But he didn't like the business.
He ended up going off andfinding another career path.
And at that point in time,he gave my brother and I a
(01:49):
trailer and about 40 yards.
So it started there.
And then he, he told us to, tocollege, to college fund landscaping.
So that's really theirorigination story from it.
Thank you, dad.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, Iowe a lot to my father.
Yeah.
My brother quit.
He started doing that.
So then it was just me.
We didn't have a lot of money at the time.
So I, I continued to do it.
(02:10):
Wanted to go to college.
I went to university, NorthTexas, North Texas paving way
through school, doing that.
So then decided to makea career out of it.
And then we still had the name.
And so we started givingaway scholarships.
So it had stuck with us ever since.
So you started the company andnamed it college fund landscaping.
that's very unique in this world.
(02:30):
Like, I don't think I've ever seen it.
And so.
What, what, what strive you tosay this is going to be the name?
Tell me about the story of youmaking money during college.
Yeah, well, I mean, I literally,I wasn't making money during
college, I was going into debt,and I'd pay it off every summer.
So those credit cards put methrough college, and then in the
summer, I'd mow yards, pay themoff, and just did that over.
But I, my dad named thecompany, it wasn't me.
(02:51):
What does
this College Fund landscapelook like in college?
What's a pickup?
It's myself.
I wish
I could say I I had a team.
I was smart enough to build a team.
I didn't learn that until later in lifeabout the power of leveraging other
people and allowing them to do their jobs.
I learned it eventually, though, luckily.
It was literally myselfdriving back from Denton.
I worked four days, pickup truck mowers,mow by myself, and then go back to work.
(03:15):
Gosh,
that's
great.
So, I have a lot in common with you.
Yeah.
So, I had a mobile wash businessat the college I went to.
So, I had a truck, I had atrailer, I had a black tank.
It was called Soaker Wash Systems.
And I would drive after class wouldget out whether it be one o'clock
(03:36):
or four o'clock in the afternoonAnd I had a designated route.
I had usps postal trucks I had womenonly workout gyms and I had a couple of
lawyers and bankers and literally I wouldshow up between two and four Detail cars.
Yeah, and then make money andi'm on onto the races kind
of like you Kind of like CFL.
Exactly.
(03:56):
Kind of like it.
Same
thing.
Same thing.
Yeah.
And that, that paid for all my fund stuff.
My, my parents would not fund meand all the activities or anything
that I would do outside of school.
So it says, you know what?
Figure out a way to makesome money and go after it.
Loved it.
Exact same story.
I had no idea.
Yeah.
More in common
now than I knew before.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So college is fun.
So you're not in college anymore.
No.
No.
Well past that.
You've graduated past that.
(04:17):
Yeah.
But tell me to the you guys do a lotof community things and, and, and I
think our audience learned a lot aboutyou yesterday getting the getting
the award for community services.
Tell me a little bit about that andwhat it means to College Fund Landscape.
Yeah, well, so I like helping people.
Like, I, I hate to say this, but itlawn maintenance is not my passion.
Helping people is mypassion and it's a vehicle.
(04:38):
We can do lawn maintenance andlandscaping and fertilization.
We control as a vehicle tohelp people, both our employees
and our customers, right?
Yeah.
So, and in part of that, Is the,call it is the scholarships, which
we give away one to the Universityof North Texas, and then we also
give more to our, our clients.
We actually do a scholarship raffle.
Where if you've got a kid in in highschool that's about to go to college or
(04:59):
they're in college, they can put theirname in a, in a bucket basically, we
pull it out, and then we give out themoney and we pay down their tuition.
So that's one piece.
We also do food drives.
We're doing one right now,Thanksgiving food drive.
And then internally, we do alot of financial education.
Great game of business.
Jack Stagg, big believerin his philosophies.
So we, we do a lot of financialeducation trying to teach our guys.
(05:21):
A lot of our guys are hispanic.
I always say, like, if we don'tteach them who will, they don't
have the opportunities elsewhere.
So if we can just better people's lives,then everything else will be better.
Yes.
So tell me how that is set up.
So you're teaching people.
Is that, Is that the field staff?
Is that the office support team?
Is that everyone?
Is it volunteering?
What's that structure look like?
(05:42):
No, it's absolutelyeveryone in our company.
We do, every Friday we have a meeting.
It's 30 45 minutes.
We go through our P& L.
All the way.
Top line, all the way down to bottom line.
We go through our goals.
We have a bonus programthat's tied to the net income.
Tell them where they're at.
We do efficiency ratings.
And then have the sideconversations with them.
If I'm going to be honest, we need tohave more of those side conversations.
Yeah.
(06:02):
Yeah.
That's really where the benefit comes.
Some of them are embarrassed or to askin, in the, in the public group setting.
So but it's just teaching themthat and like what they can do.
Cause if knowledge is power, if youknow what you can change and you can
change it, if you don't know whatto do, you know, you're just going
to continue doing the same things.
how was it to unroll that out?
I feel like a lot of times, yeah,it's painful, but there's a lot
(06:25):
of owners out there saying, youknow, Why should I expose or why
should I open up my books and share?
Why did everyone's hesitantabout that type of thing?
It's called an openbook management, right?
What what made you?
I'm sure it was awkward at first.
Yes, and it still is.
So how did you
overcome
all that?
Just do it?
(06:45):
Belief in what, what the common good is.
And yes, just do it.
And we, I didn't makethe decision right away.
I read a great game of businessprobably six or seven years ago.
And it took me four years afterthat to really comprehend, do it.
And I have to give the creditto my leadership team who gave
me the confidence to do it.
Without them and their support Iwouldn't be able to actually do it.
(07:06):
And they, they, they backit, they believe in it.
And so they're doing alot of the work, right?
What are some results?
Because people have.
knowledge about open book.
I mean, it's very simple.
It's revenue, it's grossprofit, it's net profit.
They can see what'sgoing into the expenses.
They see how they can adjust.
The, the, the labor andthe materials and the subs.
(07:28):
What is the conversations like nowfor what it was before all of that?
Well, we're only a year and a halfinto full open book management.
So, we're still, we're still learningand growing and adapting, but one
story I can tell that I always think isfunny is we were doing a celebration.
We hit our numbers, and we were ata pool hall, and we were all playing
pool and drinking beer and eatinghamburgers, and one of my workers
(07:50):
was like, hey, Matt, come here.
And I was like, what's,what's going on, Solomon?
And he's like, How muchmoney we spend in here.
We got to keep this money in the company.
I'm like, guys, we're having a party.
They're like, he's worriedabout the party budget.
Cause he knew it was going to come down.
And I explained to himwhich it made me learn.
I was like, I guess I shouldexplain this before we do it.
Like this isn't coming out of your bonus.
Right.
Cause we did a upsell.
Game.
(08:11):
And that's what it was.
And we got the, we, the amount of upsales was funding, funded by the, you
know the game paid for it, essentially.
So that was just a fun story.
I always, I always laugh about.
Just an awareness is actually really key.
Yes, 100%.
I think an awareness ofunderstanding what it means.
And that's actually a good point.
Good question for him to ask.
Yes.
I mean, it's so right.
You know, what aboutthis or what about that?
(08:33):
And when you have the knowledge ofthose types of issues or things to
learn about along the way, whetherit's a new mower that got broke
or whatever, you want to invest insomething else, you know, hold on.
What's the reason behind it?
I mean, how we learned was.
Managed by the Alignum.
That ism has stuck from, fromyears and years and years.
It's not the total budget of 10, 000.
(08:54):
It's each line item that gets tothe 10, 000 and you need to beat
the budget on all those line items.
We call it managed by the Alignum.
Super successful.
So whether you've got trees andshrubs, You can't combine the total
value of those, it's, it's everysingle line item in the estimate.
Crazy story, but long before we had reallygood software programs right now, like
(09:15):
all these great, great ones, but we wouldsit with an estimate in our director of
finance person, and he would go throughline item by line item to say, here's the
cost that you've hit every line, here'swhat you should bill, and all that.
And I'm like, Oh my God, this is likeinsane, but like literally managing every
single item of an estimate and invoice.
(09:35):
Every dollar
that goes out and comes in is the same.
Yeah, right.
So you got to look at them.
Yeah So crazy story.
So we never met and then at somepoint you Joined aces which was crazy.
I'm like, there's a guy that I know Hereat ace discovery, which you joined in.
It's
(09:55):
just march this year just
this this earlier this year Crazy enough.
He's my landscaper at the house.
This is pretty pretty awesome storyYou might want to know like how we
connected but before that I I moved ina a new a newer house four years ago,
four years ago in COVID and I said Ineed to continue on with my landscaper.
And but before several years beforethat, probably three, four years, I
(10:18):
looked up someone in my area and Isaid, I need to find someone, I said,
I don't need the chuck in a truck,but I need someone pretty decent.
And I found college fundlandscaping by Google.
And I said, because of that name,something is attracted to, to me.
And I picked up the phoneand said, give me a quote.
And I mean, I got an instant quote.
(10:39):
Yeah,
that's good.
That's good.
You're like, thank God.
That's good.
Right.
That's
what's supposed to happen.
Right.
Yeah.
And I was just attracted to the name.
The website was great.
The idea of the college fund, thescholarships And something just simple.
Take care of my yard.
I'm kind of embarrassed tellingpeople I need someone to take care
of my yard considering I'm thelandscape guy, but time, time is very
(11:01):
short with my kids and my family.
I don't know my own
yard either.
Yeah.
So a little, a
little, it's hard to swallow,but that's how I found Matt.
And then Matt came to discover.
I'm like, Oh my God, wehad, we had a lot in common.
We sat at the, at the hotel in New Orleansand we had breakfast and it was great.
So that's how I found college fun.
I feel like, man, thingssort of aligned up for us.
(11:23):
Yeah.
It was funny when I, I remember reachingout, I sent an email to, I think just
whatever email boxes McFarlin Stanfordand you responded, you're like,
you're like, you take care of my lawn.
And I'm like, what?
Yeah.
It was funny.
It came through the
general inbox and said, Matt Daviscalls from said, that's mine.
I'm going to snag it.
I'll run with it.
And everyone's like, who is that?
(11:44):
I'm like, it's my landscape.
When I
met Michael in November,Michael Bosco too.
Yeah.
Not knowing he was a coach either.
Yeah, it's through another network.
And I actually went out to Michael'sshop and we talked about open
book management and he told, Ididn't know he was a coach either.
So yeah, I guess it was allcalling supposed to bring this.
It's all a, it's
all a deal.
It's cool.
We hit it off at breakfastat the hotel in March and
(12:06):
ice bass.
And that's where I'm going.
You have no idea.
So we had a lot in common.
We're talking about you know, athletesand training and morning routine.
Yeah.
And eating healthy and all that andworking out and we were just like sort
of this in this tube of Craziness whereeveryone around us is like you guys are a
bunch of weirdos Tell me about your healthand wellness journey And how you got here?
(12:34):
Okay?
I've always been active.
I love being outdoors, right?
So most of it just starts with being fitso I can do the things I love Mountain
biking, rock climbing, mountaineering Soif you don't work out, when I go out to
do those things, I'm not good at them.
So that's where it all started.
And then, the older I got, I'm like, Okay,as things are getting harder, I should
probably start looking at my vitamins,supplements, looking at other things
(12:55):
to extend so I can continue to do this.
So I mean, it's really justabout more about having fun.
I wish it was, it was moreesoteric than that, but it's not.
It's just having fun.
I want to be able to do what I love to do.
Yeah.
I think my motivationis my 13 year old son.
I've got to compete against him.
I've still got to whip his butt.
So that's kind of my motivationto stay, you know, strong and fit.
Oh yeah, I hear you.
I mean, I've got a four and a halfyear old daughter and I want to
(13:16):
keep up with her and run with herand be able to throw her and, like,
lay on the floor and, you know, doall the things, play airplanes, so.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
What's your perfect day?
My perfect day.
So I don't, it's funny,I don't like mornings.
I'm not a morning person.
Okay.
But I know my perfect day includes forcingmyself to get up and do my workout because
everything else is better after that.
Yeah.
(13:37):
If I do my workout and I do mymeditation, I do my journaling, I'm
better with my team, I'm better withmy wife, I'm better with my kid,
I'm more patient, I'm more balanced.
So I have to, first thing Ihave to do every morning is do
something I don't want to do.
I don't want to get up and
do hard things.
Well, yeah, just getting upfor me and starting early.
And then so, it's getting up,starting early I do about 10 minutes
(13:58):
of meditation do whatever workoutit is I'm doing that day and then
I, Typically go eat while I eat.
I like to do.
I'm doing this programcalled unbeatable mind.
Mark divine.
If you somehow watch this, I love you.
Let me take that note.
Yeah, it's great.
Do his program, learn more about that.
And then spend a little time with family.
Then I go to the office for afew hours, like take a break in
(14:18):
the middle of the day, eat lunch.
If I don't do that, myafternoon isn't as productive.
So it's not a drag.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then go out, ride my bikein the afternoon, do something
outdoors, do it for a hike.
It's great to have astrong mental aspect of it.
I mean the day to day grind as anentrepreneur, business owner, leader
(14:39):
high ranking officer thing is tobe strong mentally and physically.
I, I, I believe that wholeheartedlyand It keeps you sharp.
It keeps you intact.
And it's either, it's either I'm going ahundred miles an hour or I'm like pillow
is slammed on the I mean, I'm, my head isslammed on a pillow, but there's, there's
now times where I've got to slow down.
(15:00):
I've got to take it easy.
I've got to sort of reset.
One of my mentors told me one day, hesaid, man, you know, There's a, there's
a portion of your day where you haveto stop and mentally sort of recharge.
And I'm like, I don't know what that is.
And you have to stop.
And if it's 20 minutes in the afternoon tokind of reset, I work better afterwards.
Like even, and I used to chargeall the way through a lot, but.
(15:23):
The quality, the production and thequality of thought wasn't as good.
So by taking that little breakin the middle of the day, it
makes my afternoons better.
That's an ideal, you know, work day.
Ideal family day would just be goingout on a hike or doing something else.
Great.
Speaking of family and hike.
Yeah.
You made this bold move.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I was like, which one?
(15:43):
I wasn't sure which oneyou were talking about.
This bold move of moving out ofstate and still having the business.
That's right.
And, I think it's awesome.
I think it's fascinating.
And, I think it shows that you havethe ability to manage from afar.
So the companies in, in the NorthDallas region and you moved to the
beautiful Crested Butte, Colorado,one of my most favorite cities.
(16:04):
I love it.
And tell me what's back up.
How did you get to the pointwhere you can move away?
Because most owners, you know,them, they're very, very hands on.
Okay.
So how did you get your teambuilt to get to where you are now?
That's a long story.
Getting, learning from mistakes at first.
(16:25):
I mean, my, my biggest mistake earlyin my career was not under, was
thinking I had to do everything.
And that was, that stagnatedour growth substantially.
And if I didn't think I could doeverything, I wouldn't think, okay, well,
I can pay somebody X dollars to do it.
I was like, no, I, I don't, Ineed to do it myself, you know,
trying to save that extra money.
(16:46):
So when I finally realized that ifyou put somebody in a position clearly
define their role and let them do itand kind of get out of their way and
guide them when they need it, thatyou can go a lot faster and then you
can start focusing on other things.
So when I learned that it took tothe next level, it's like, well, I'm
probably not needed here physically.
Right.
And we have zoom.
(17:06):
I mean, COVID changed the world, right?
And without COVID, I probably wouldn'tbe moved away because I understand that,
you know, all the technology can let youdo those things, but it's those lessons
I learned early that allowed me tomake the decisions now that it is okay.
So what does the org chart look like?
I believe you've got some key managersthat sort of run the day to day.
What does that look like?
Yeah, well, I mean,that's the other piece.
(17:28):
Without the key managers,I couldn't do it.
If you don't have the team,you can't, you can't do it.
But I've got a general manager, andthen departmental managers, a sales
manager, maintenance manager, and afertilization weed control manager.
And then the maintenance manager'sgot a sub field supervisor.
The sales manager's gotcustomer services under there.
Fertilization manager'sgot his vert techs.
And he's actually alsoselling enhancement work too.
(17:49):
But they own their roles.
And they're very clearly defined.
Music to my ears as a coach.
Define the roles.
Define the responsibilities.
I'm sure you've got KPIs of some sort.
What are those?
If I'm going to be honest,I think we have too many.
I want to narrow it down.
But I'm arguing with my leadership team.
(18:10):
They like all of it.
I want to kind of shrink it down.
We obviously track revenue.
We track efficiency.
I mean, it's the main ones.
Revenue, efficiency numbers,where our leads are.
Working for work estimates out, likefor enhancement work, how many are
backlog of work, you know, the basicones in the landscape industry,
nothing we don't do anything thatI don't think is abnormal there.
(18:30):
So as you're working from Crested Butte,is there a, is there like a dashboard
or is it something that you're watching?
It's kind of like driving a car, right?
So I can't physicallysee things in operation.
I know crews are getting out.
They're producing work.
How does that work?
Well, we do EOS, right?
And so that's another thing that withoutthat, I probably wouldn't be here.
(18:52):
There's a lot to, to thesystems that we put into place.
So in EOS, there's a software called 90.
So we follow that.
That's got all our KPIs on there.
We use service autopilot.
So if I want to jump in and lookat the dispatch board, I can.
I don't do that anymore because, you know,I mean, they make the decisions on that.
I just look at thenumbers of the financials.
I mean, we go over thefinancials every week.
I mean, the financials are tellingyou, it is a little lagging.
(19:13):
That's the only problem with studying thefinancials, is it's a lagging indicator.
But so, and I do a same page asmy general manager every week.
And then we do a, an L10 and EOS termsof management meeting on Thursdays.
So, I've got a cadenceregularly with the team.
So, it's, I'm aware ofeverything I need to be aware of.
It's fascinating.
To see that you can run thebusiness from another state.
(19:37):
And, and I, it's almost like I wantto challenge people, especially
business owners to look at it in thatlens where we're always just used to
being touching something in controlof something at all times where it's.
The crews or the office staff or themarketing or the sales and they have to
(19:57):
touch it But I think kovat taught us alesson like you said It's like, how do
you manage a team if you're not there?
So, so what are some, what are some peoplethat are, say, say, say an owner is, is
there, you know, a medium sized companyand they want to get to that level of.
(20:18):
Quote, maybe not move out of theway to another state, but like,
how do they get into that nextstep and get the team to rise up?
I, that's a pretty easy one.
And in my opinion I travel a lot and I'vealways traveled a lot, so I've always
gone away from my company frequently.
So they're used to me.
Okay.
So that was like
almost like a test run each time.
That's exactly where I was going to go.
So when you do travel, go travel.
(20:39):
Do not check in.
Like things aren't going to happen.
They're so bad that you'regoing to be out of business.
Come back and have the list of thingsthat went wrong or what the decisions
they made and have them, you can sitdown with your team and talk about it.
And then figure out whatdecisions they made.
Let them make the decisions.
It might be the right decision,it might be the wrong the wrong
decision, let's talk about why youmade it and how we can maybe think
(21:00):
about a different decision next time.
But those little micro vacations.
allow the team to kind of, well,one, what I realized is I'm not
as important as I think I am,
right?
Like my ego thinks I'm needed.
Oh, it's so true.
Love that.
Love that.
Matt's needed.
Matt
solves all the
problems.
Well, that's what you do as a helper.
You want to help people.
Right.
And the other answer is like, youdon't want to solve all the problems.
(21:22):
You want them to solve theproblems you want to help them.
So it's, you know, the not my monkey,you know, the one minute manager,
you know, that whole concept.
But you have to give people people.
And I also realize that people wantto be able to make the decisions.
They don't want to have to go to somebody.
They want the authority.
And because then it's their resultand they can take ownership of it.
So those little mini vacations, I wouldstart taking those and then just talk
(21:44):
with their team about what happenedwhen it when things came back and make
little micro changes and then systems.
I mean, I don't know if you know Colby,but I'm eight and follow through.
So systems intense.
Yeah.
So just follow the systemand you'll be okay.
Follow the system.
Follow the system.
So,
Speaking of system, but Whatis, what does that mean?
I think a lot of owners saying, well,we just need processes and systems and
(22:05):
everything's going to like work out.
Everyone gets stuck inthe building though.
it's, yeah, I do too.
How have you overcome that?
OODA loop, observe,orient, decide, and act.
Okay.
Say that again.
Wait, what?
It's a military thing.
It's a OODA loop.
O O D A.
Okay.
So you make a decision, then youobserve what happens, orient yourself
to what the results would happen, thenmake a decision on it and act on it.
(22:29):
So you can write the, write theprocess and don't make it, you
don't worry about perfection.
Just get it out there, get it testedand then make a change if needed.
And that'll get you there faster thantrying to make that perfect system.
And some things I, I over systemize.
I, Marty Grunder has done a story.
You can
relate to him, right?
Oh yeah.
SOP, SOP for the,
(22:49):
for the
paper towel holder?
Yes.
I was like, oh Marty,
that's my guy.
Like, I felt that.
But it doesn't, it's not needed.
So you can over systemize things.
It's more guidelines on some things.
Yeah.
And I also learned that let the,even though I love writing systems,
let them write their own systems.
They'll follow them much betterthan if I write the system.
Bye.
I write the system, it's Matt's system.
You know, if they write it, thenit's going to be followed a lot more.
(23:13):
It sounds like it's anempowerment of the team.
100%.
100 percent empowerment.
If you want to hire A players,you've got to act like an A
team and let that A player go.
They don't want to
be handcuffed.
Yeah.
And they see
not being able to do their own stuffor having to go to you for, for,
to make a decision is handcuffs.
And people who have high drivedon't want to be handcuffed
(23:34):
and
you need those peoplein your organization.
Right.
What did you say the people that arelike, well, what if I have the bite hire?
What happens?
I've had bite hires.
So what?
Move on.
Yeah.
Move on.
What did you learn?
Yeah, exactly.
What did you learn?
Were there any red flags that yousaw that you, you know, in hindsight,
oh, I should have asked thisquestion or but yeah, just move on.
(23:55):
So what happened?
Yeah, some of the most successfulpeople, I'd say every successful
person has had a bad hire.
Yeah, 100%.
Every person.
And multiple bad hires.
100%.
And move on.
More than one.
Yeah,
short term memory.
That's, I tell found that statwhen my son's in baseball,
highly competitive baseball.
And it's like, the most accomplishedbaseball players have the shortest memory.
Yeah.
(24:15):
Like struck out, move on, triple, move on.
Right.
It's done.
Move on.
That's what landscapeowners struggle with.
And even, even managers just overthinking.
Yeah.
I like the baseball analogy too.
Cause a great batters, you know, only,only gets on base one of the third on
base makes it one out of three times.
That's a great batter.
Yeah.
So they're failing two out of three times.
(24:37):
Yeah.
So just don't worry about it.
Just,
and you can be a professionaland make a ton of money.
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, it's just, you learn fromeverything if you want, if you want to.
Yeah.
If you look for the learning,there's learning and everything.
Yeah.
That's a good story.
So what about this industrywe're in landscape industry?
What do you feel aboutwhat's the future of it?
How do you feel?
(24:58):
What's your
take?
Man, I don't know whatthe future of it is.
I should probably think about itmore, but I, I just look centrally
about what I can do for my team.
That's the future I think about.
And how I can educate my team.
I mean, I've got a robotic mowerat my house, testing that out.
Okay.
So I am thinking about those things.
I wish I could, I shouldprobably spend more time thinking
about the industry long term.
Yeah.
(25:19):
What's the future ofCollege Fund Landscape like?
I don't know.
We, we need to grow and I want toget to a size where we can go ESOP
even though it's in the conversationhere with some other people, there's
people either love it or hate it.
Yeah, okay.
So I'm in an extreme informationgathering, but it goes back down
to my desire to help people.
And also why I'm here, why I wasbeen able to move to Colorado first
(25:41):
started my father, you know, teachingme hard work, give me those 40 yards.
And then the team I built.
Right without them.
I've got workers beenwith me for 18 19 years.
That's great.
Right.
They're my brothers like we'vewe've buried a child Yeah with them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry about that.
You're good.
You're good.
(26:01):
That that's part of the That's the part.
I love the most is the camaraderiethe the the family the traditions
we live in a world that we shouldhelp people more often to build
teams because of that reason.
I, I, let me just give youmy take on this landscape.
Landscape is the best industry.
(26:22):
I absolutely love it.
You don't meet bad people.
No.
And look how many people Iwork with all over the US
and I like hard workers and that what'swhere you find I like hard workers.
I grew up, grew up working
since I was 12 years old.
I've had all kinds of jobs.
I've done throw newspapers, soldfireworks, swept warehouses.
I had a
paper route too.
Yeah,
get outta here.
(26:42):
You ride your
bicycle?
Yes.
Until I was 14 and 14.
I was driving at, at 3:00 AM There you
go.
There you go.
As
long as I didn't get caught.
Yeah.
I did get caught oncefrom a police saucer.
My dad had to come, you know, help me out.
But I would.
On weekends and holidays,I would get up at 3 a.
m Sometimes 2 30 and runthe paper route on weekends.
I no kidding.
(27:02):
Yeah,
also another challenge anotherthing I did was collecting money.
I learned so much from that.
Are you If anyone remembers i'm kindof getting a little old here But you
would carry this little two ring binder.
Yeah,
I remember.
Oh my gosh
You knock on the door.
Oh my gosh
(27:23):
Yeah,
and you knock on the door and you knockon the door and it's for like you got
to pay your like 12 bill I don't evenremember was and I walked to the next
one and everyone got to this houseand i'm like They're always answered.
They're mean they got this loud dogand they did collect 12 and give them a
coupon back It was way before technology
Yeah.
And
that was some hard stuff.
(27:43):
I learned
a lot though.
Learned I learned from that is, is howto read, a lot of how to read people.
Yeah.
I've always, I've taken itto my career even these days.
I've always, if somebody ever tells meabout how they're not going to stiff me,
ooh, they're probably going to stiff me.
Stop.
Yeah.
Why would you even, whywould you even bring that up?
I know.
I mean, it's just.
Oh, don't worry,
I got the money.
(28:03):
I'm like, oh, this guymight not have the money.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Why'd you even tell me that?
I've met some fascinating peopleand I think that's what built
my character to what I am today.
You know, there's some days I wouldabsolutely dread it and God bless my dad.
My dad's not here, but I've learnedso much from that guy cause he worked
his tail off and he, and I didn't,and I don't know why the reason when I
(28:25):
was 13, why I had to do these things.
But now I know.
I'm sitting here today, youknow, decently successful.
I'm getting here with you and I learneda ton and throwing newspapers and
people now have no idea what that is.
They won't even give her thispaper out to a kid anymore.
No, they won't.
No.
Anyways, it was it was fascinating.
We grew up you know, with not a lot,but we worked our tails off and that's,
(28:47):
I think that's who we built up today.
So we have tons of stories to share.
Matt, generally like, thank you somuch for, for attending this in person.
Sort of session.
This is great.
I can go on for a lot longer,but it's been impressive.
I've learned a lot I've reallylearned how building your team up
to Take ownership you hire the goodpeople Give them the things that they
(29:11):
need the resources and go run it.
That's right.
And I
love it You've got your dashboards.
You got your thing set up.
You got your system set up go runit What I learned today was great.
Go away for a few days, many vacations.
That's almost the litmustest of your business.
If you're getting 30 phonecalls a day, there's a problem.
(29:32):
That's right.
Right?
And if you're getting a phonecall or a text, Once a day
life's probably pretty good.
That's right And so that's whatthat's that's a highly recommendation.
I I thoroughly love that.
You know, listen College FundLandscaping does the basic needs
services for all homeowners.
i'm one of them They're notinstalling gigantic huge multi
(29:53):
million dollar properties.
They're just literally well We did
do a half million dollar job.
Okay, there you go in may.
So there you go You'vegot some cool work but
yet you're taking You're takingthis off their shoulders to
take care of their property.
and you're providing a service thatis now very reputable in the industry.
Everyone knows CFL.
I've referred you guys multiple times.
(30:14):
I get these.
Thank you.
By the way, if you refer someone,you get a 50 visa gift card.
And my wife's like, well,did you get the card?
Did you get the card?
I'm like, well, I don't know.
I don't know if thecard's ever going to come.
We got a little bit
behind there for a while.
I know our office.
No,
they're good.
50.
And it's great.
I recommend CFL all the time.
(30:34):
So it's been a pleasure.
Thank you for takingthe time and joining us.
Yeah,
man, it was great.
Yeah.
Ready to take the next step?
Download our free Profitability Scorecardto quickly create your own baseline
financial assessment and uncover thefastest ways to improve your business.
Just go to McFarlinStanford.com/scorecardto get yours today To learn more about
(30:56):
McFarlin Stanford our best in classpeer groups and other services go to
our website at McFarlinStanford.comAnd don't forget to follow us on
LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
See you next time on the Roots of Success.
The Roots of Success podcast isfor the landscape professional
who's looking to up their game.
We've got a brain trust of experts tohelp you nurture the roots of a successful
business and grow to the next level.
This is The Roots of Success.
welcome to Roots of Successpodcast and I'm your host Tommy
Cole with McFarlin Stanford.
I've got an awesome guest today My sortof my new best friend we have a lot
(00:24):
in common come to find out we get upearly, we work out, we hustle all day.
And It's been great.
Matt Davis with College FundLandscaping out of Lucas, Texas,
kind of like north of Dallas suburb.
How are you doing, Matt?
Good, Tommy.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, this is great.
This is going to be awesome.
We're actually at a different location,a little bit different set up here.
(00:45):
This is an in person.
Which is very uniquefor us and our audience.
So.
This is great.
So Matt, tell me what has been going on.
How long you been in business?
How did you get into landscaping?
Like, this is probably not themost ideal setup that you probably
envisioned, but there's a reasonwhy you're sitting here today.
So how'd you get started?
(01:06):
Yeah, 100%.
Well, if you want to go back to thevery beginning, I have to thank my dad.
My dad is a serial entrepreneur, and heactually had a, a fire sprinkler business.
I don't want to get too much in thedetails, but he was doing sprinkler
installations in the Bahamas.
And then that savings and loanscandal kind of went down.
The Bahamas people didn't have the money.
They didn't pay him.
He went out of business.
He started mowing yards.
(01:28):
In the Bahamas?
No, no.
He was doing just a job atthe casinos in the Bahamas.
So we lived here in Dallas at the time.
So he needed to he had three kids.
He needed to pay the bills, right?
So he started mowing yards.
Absolutely hated it.
I would actually mowyards with him, right?
But he didn't like the business.
He ended up going off andfinding another career path.
And at that point in time,he gave my brother and I a
(01:49):
trailer and about 40 yards.
So it started there.
And then he, he told us to, tocollege, to college fund landscaping.
So that's really theirorigination story from it.
Thank you, dad.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, Iowe a lot to my father.
Yeah.
My brother quit.
He started doing that.
So then it was just me.
We didn't have a lot of money at the time.
So I, I continued to do it.
(02:10):
Wanted to go to college.
I went to university, NorthTexas, North Texas paving way
through school, doing that.
So then decided to makea career out of it.
And then we still had the name.
And so we started givingaway scholarships.
So it had stuck with us ever since.
So you started the company andnamed it college fund landscaping.
that's very unique in this world.
(02:30):
Like, I don't think I've ever seen it.
And so.
What, what, what strive you tosay this is going to be the name?
Tell me about the story of youmaking money during college.
Yeah, well, I mean, I literally,I wasn't making money during
college, I was going into debt,and I'd pay it off every summer.
So those credit cards put methrough college, and then in the
summer, I'd mow yards, pay themoff, and just did that over.
But I, my dad named thecompany, it wasn't me.
(02:51):
What does
this College Fund landscapelook like in college?
What's a pickup?
It's myself.
I wish
I could say I I had a team.
I was smart enough to build a team.
I didn't learn that until later in lifeabout the power of leveraging other
people and allowing them to do their jobs.
I learned it eventually, though, luckily.
It was literally myselfdriving back from Denton.
I worked four days, pickup truck mowers,mow by myself, and then go back to work.
(03:15):
Gosh,
that's
great.
So, I have a lot in common with you.
Yeah.
So, I had a mobile wash businessat the college I went to.
So, I had a truck, I had atrailer, I had a black tank.
It was called Soaker Wash Systems.
And I would drive after class wouldget out whether it be one o'clock
(03:36):
or four o'clock in the afternoonAnd I had a designated route.
I had usps postal trucks I had womenonly workout gyms and I had a couple of
lawyers and bankers and literally I wouldshow up between two and four Detail cars.
Yeah, and then make money andi'm on onto the races kind
of like you Kind of like CFL.
Exactly.
(03:56):
Kind of like it.
Same
thing.
Same thing.
Yeah.
And that, that paid for all my fund stuff.
My, my parents would not fund meand all the activities or anything
that I would do outside of school.
So it says, you know what?
Figure out a way to makesome money and go after it.
Loved it.
Exact same story.
I had no idea.
Yeah.
More in common
now than I knew before.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So college is fun.
So you're not in college anymore.
No.
No.
Well past that.
You've graduated past that.
(04:17):
Yeah.
But tell me to the you guys do a lotof community things and, and, and I
think our audience learned a lot aboutyou yesterday getting the getting
the award for community services.
Tell me a little bit about that andwhat it means to College Fund Landscape.
Yeah, well, so I like helping people.
Like, I, I hate to say this, but itlawn maintenance is not my passion.
Helping people is mypassion and it's a vehicle.
(04:38):
We can do lawn maintenance andlandscaping and fertilization.
We control as a vehicle tohelp people, both our employees
and our customers, right?
Yeah.
So, and in part of that, Is the,call it is the scholarships, which
we give away one to the Universityof North Texas, and then we also
give more to our, our clients.
We actually do a scholarship raffle.
Where if you've got a kid in in highschool that's about to go to college or
(04:59):
they're in college, they can put theirname in a, in a bucket basically, we
pull it out, and then we give out themoney and we pay down their tuition.
So that's one piece.
We also do food drives.
We're doing one right now,Thanksgiving food drive.
And then internally, we do alot of financial education.
Great game of business.
Jack Stagg, big believerin his philosophies.
So we, we do a lot of financialeducation trying to teach our guys.
(05:21):
A lot of our guys are hispanic.
I always say, like, if we don'tteach them who will, they don't
have the opportunities elsewhere.
So if we can just better people's lives,then everything else will be better.
Yes.
So tell me how that is set up.
So you're teaching people.
Is that, Is that the field staff?
Is that the office support team?
Is that everyone?
Is it volunteering?
What's that structure look like?
(05:42):
No, it's absolutelyeveryone in our company.
We do, every Friday we have a meeting.
It's 30 45 minutes.
We go through our P& L.
All the way.
Top line, all the way down to bottom line.
We go through our goals.
We have a bonus programthat's tied to the net income.
Tell them where they're at.
We do efficiency ratings.
And then have the sideconversations with them.
If I'm going to be honest, we need tohave more of those side conversations.
Yeah.
(06:02):
Yeah.
That's really where the benefit comes.
Some of them are embarrassed or to askin, in the, in the public group setting.
So but it's just teaching themthat and like what they can do.
Cause if knowledge is power, if youknow what you can change and you can
change it, if you don't know whatto do, you know, you're just going
to continue doing the same things.
how was it to unroll that out?
I feel like a lot of times, yeah,it's painful, but there's a lot
(06:25):
of owners out there saying, youknow, Why should I expose or why
should I open up my books and share?
Why did everyone's hesitantabout that type of thing?
It's called an openbook management, right?
What what made you?
I'm sure it was awkward at first.
Yes, and it still is.
So how did you
overcome
all that?
Just do it?
(06:45):
Belief in what, what the common good is.
And yes, just do it.
And we, I didn't makethe decision right away.
I read a great game of businessprobably six or seven years ago.
And it took me four years afterthat to really comprehend, do it.
And I have to give the creditto my leadership team who gave
me the confidence to do it.
Without them and their support Iwouldn't be able to actually do it.
(07:06):
And they, they, they backit, they believe in it.
And so they're doing alot of the work, right?
What are some results?
Because people have.
knowledge about open book.
I mean, it's very simple.
It's revenue, it's grossprofit, it's net profit.
They can see what'sgoing into the expenses.
They see how they can adjust.
The, the, the labor andthe materials and the subs.
(07:28):
What is the conversations like nowfor what it was before all of that?
Well, we're only a year and a halfinto full open book management.
So, we're still, we're still learningand growing and adapting, but one
story I can tell that I always think isfunny is we were doing a celebration.
We hit our numbers, and we were ata pool hall, and we were all playing
pool and drinking beer and eatinghamburgers, and one of my workers
(07:50):
was like, hey, Matt, come here.
And I was like, what's,what's going on, Solomon?
And he's like, How muchmoney we spend in here.
We got to keep this money in the company.
I'm like, guys, we're having a party.
They're like, he's worriedabout the party budget.
Cause he knew it was going to come down.
And I explained to himwhich it made me learn.
I was like, I guess I shouldexplain this before we do it.
Like this isn't coming out of your bonus.
Right.
Cause we did a upsell.
Game.
(08:11):
And that's what it was.
And we got the, we, the amount of upsales was funding, funded by the, you
know the game paid for it, essentially.
So that was just a fun story.
I always, I always laugh about.
Just an awareness is actually really key.
Yes, 100%.
I think an awareness ofunderstanding what it means.
And that's actually a good point.
Good question for him to ask.
Yes.
I mean, it's so right.
You know, what aboutthis or what about that?
(08:33):
And when you have the knowledge ofthose types of issues or things to
learn about along the way, whetherit's a new mower that got broke
or whatever, you want to invest insomething else, you know, hold on.
What's the reason behind it?
I mean, how we learned was.
Managed by the Alignum.
That ism has stuck from, fromyears and years and years.
It's not the total budget of 10, 000.
(08:54):
It's each line item that gets tothe 10, 000 and you need to beat
the budget on all those line items.
We call it managed by the Alignum.
Super successful.
So whether you've got trees andshrubs, You can't combine the total
value of those, it's, it's everysingle line item in the estimate.
Crazy story, but long before we had reallygood software programs right now, like
(09:15):
all these great, great ones, but we wouldsit with an estimate in our director of
finance person, and he would go throughline item by line item to say, here's the
cost that you've hit every line, here'swhat you should bill, and all that.
And I'm like, Oh my God, this is likeinsane, but like literally managing every
single item of an estimate and invoice.
(09:35):
Every dollar
that goes out and comes in is the same.
Yeah, right.
So you got to look at them.
Yeah So crazy story.
So we never met and then at somepoint you Joined aces which was crazy.
I'm like, there's a guy that I know Hereat ace discovery, which you joined in.
It's
(09:55):
just march this year just
this this earlier this year Crazy enough.
He's my landscaper at the house.
This is pretty pretty awesome storyYou might want to know like how we
connected but before that I I moved ina a new a newer house four years ago,
four years ago in COVID and I said Ineed to continue on with my landscaper.
And but before several years beforethat, probably three, four years, I
(10:18):
looked up someone in my area and Isaid, I need to find someone, I said,
I don't need the chuck in a truck,but I need someone pretty decent.
And I found college fundlandscaping by Google.
And I said, because of that name,something is attracted to, to me.
And I picked up the phoneand said, give me a quote.
And I mean, I got an instant quote.
(10:39):
Yeah,
that's good.
That's good.
You're like, thank God.
That's good.
Right.
That's
what's supposed to happen.
Right.
Yeah.
And I was just attracted to the name.
The website was great.
The idea of the college fund, thescholarships And something just simple.
Take care of my yard.
I'm kind of embarrassed tellingpeople I need someone to take care
of my yard considering I'm thelandscape guy, but time, time is very
(11:01):
short with my kids and my family.
I don't know my own
yard either.
Yeah.
So a little, a
little, it's hard to swallow,but that's how I found Matt.
And then Matt came to discover.
I'm like, Oh my God, wehad, we had a lot in common.
We sat at the, at the hotel in New Orleansand we had breakfast and it was great.
So that's how I found college fun.
I feel like, man, thingssort of aligned up for us.
(11:23):
Yeah.
It was funny when I, I remember reachingout, I sent an email to, I think just
whatever email boxes McFarlin Stanfordand you responded, you're like,
you're like, you take care of my lawn.
And I'm like, what?
Yeah.
It was funny.
It came through the
general inbox and said, Matt Daviscalls from said, that's mine.
I'm going to snag it.
I'll run with it.
And everyone's like, who is that?
(11:44):
I'm like, it's my landscape.
When I
met Michael in November,Michael Bosco too.
Yeah.
Not knowing he was a coach either.
Yeah, it's through another network.
And I actually went out to Michael'sshop and we talked about open
book management and he told, Ididn't know he was a coach either.
So yeah, I guess it was allcalling supposed to bring this.
It's all a, it's
all a deal.
It's cool.
We hit it off at breakfastat the hotel in March and
(12:06):
ice bass.
And that's where I'm going.
You have no idea.
So we had a lot in common.
We're talking about you know, athletesand training and morning routine.
Yeah.
And eating healthy and all that andworking out and we were just like sort
of this in this tube of Craziness whereeveryone around us is like you guys are a
bunch of weirdos Tell me about your healthand wellness journey And how you got here?
(12:34):
Okay?
I've always been active.
I love being outdoors, right?
So most of it just starts with being fitso I can do the things I love Mountain
biking, rock climbing, mountaineering Soif you don't work out, when I go out to
do those things, I'm not good at them.
So that's where it all started.
And then, the older I got, I'm like, Okay,as things are getting harder, I should
probably start looking at my vitamins,supplements, looking at other things
(12:55):
to extend so I can continue to do this.
So I mean, it's really justabout more about having fun.
I wish it was, it was moreesoteric than that, but it's not.
It's just having fun.
I want to be able to do what I love to do.
Yeah.
I think my motivationis my 13 year old son.
I've got to compete against him.
I've still got to whip his butt.
So that's kind of my motivationto stay, you know, strong and fit.
Oh yeah, I hear you.
I mean, I've got a four and a halfyear old daughter and I want to
(13:16):
keep up with her and run with herand be able to throw her and, like,
lay on the floor and, you know, doall the things, play airplanes, so.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
What's your perfect day?
My perfect day.
So I don't, it's funny,I don't like mornings.
I'm not a morning person.
Okay.
But I know my perfect day includes forcingmyself to get up and do my workout because
everything else is better after that.
Yeah.
(13:37):
If I do my workout and I do mymeditation, I do my journaling, I'm
better with my team, I'm better withmy wife, I'm better with my kid,
I'm more patient, I'm more balanced.
So I have to, first thing Ihave to do every morning is do
something I don't want to do.
I don't want to get up and
do hard things.
Well, yeah, just getting upfor me and starting early.
And then so, it's getting up,starting early I do about 10 minutes
(13:58):
of meditation do whatever workoutit is I'm doing that day and then
I, Typically go eat while I eat.
I like to do.
I'm doing this programcalled unbeatable mind.
Mark divine.
If you somehow watch this, I love you.
Let me take that note.
Yeah, it's great.
Do his program, learn more about that.
And then spend a little time with family.
Then I go to the office for afew hours, like take a break in
(14:18):
the middle of the day, eat lunch.
If I don't do that, myafternoon isn't as productive.
So it's not a drag.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then go out, ride my bikein the afternoon, do something
outdoors, do it for a hike.
It's great to have astrong mental aspect of it.
I mean the day to day grind as anentrepreneur, business owner, leader
(14:39):
high ranking officer thing is tobe strong mentally and physically.
I, I, I believe that wholeheartedlyand It keeps you sharp.
It keeps you intact.
And it's either, it's either I'm going ahundred miles an hour or I'm like pillow
is slammed on the I mean, I'm, my head isslammed on a pillow, but there's, there's
now times where I've got to slow down.
(15:00):
I've got to take it easy.
I've got to sort of reset.
One of my mentors told me one day, hesaid, man, you know, There's a, there's
a portion of your day where you haveto stop and mentally sort of recharge.
And I'm like, I don't know what that is.
And you have to stop.
And if it's 20 minutes in the afternoon tokind of reset, I work better afterwards.
Like even, and I used to chargeall the way through a lot, but.
(15:23):
The quality, the production and thequality of thought wasn't as good.
So by taking that little breakin the middle of the day, it
makes my afternoons better.
That's an ideal, you know, work day.
Ideal family day would just be goingout on a hike or doing something else.
Great.
Speaking of family and hike.
Yeah.
You made this bold move.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I was like, which one?
(15:43):
I wasn't sure which oneyou were talking about.
This bold move of moving out ofstate and still having the business.
That's right.
And, I think it's awesome.
I think it's fascinating.
And, I think it shows that you havethe ability to manage from afar.
So the companies in, in the NorthDallas region and you moved to the
beautiful Crested Butte, Colorado,one of my most favorite cities.
(16:04):
I love it.
And tell me what's back up.
How did you get to the pointwhere you can move away?
Because most owners, you know,them, they're very, very hands on.
Okay.
So how did you get your teambuilt to get to where you are now?
That's a long story.
Getting, learning from mistakes at first.
(16:25):
I mean, my, my biggest mistake earlyin my career was not under, was
thinking I had to do everything.
And that was, that stagnatedour growth substantially.
And if I didn't think I could doeverything, I wouldn't think, okay, well,
I can pay somebody X dollars to do it.
I was like, no, I, I don't, Ineed to do it myself, you know,
trying to save that extra money.
(16:46):
So when I finally realized that ifyou put somebody in a position clearly
define their role and let them do itand kind of get out of their way and
guide them when they need it, thatyou can go a lot faster and then you
can start focusing on other things.
So when I learned that it took tothe next level, it's like, well, I'm
probably not needed here physically.
Right.
And we have zoom.
(17:06):
I mean, COVID changed the world, right?
And without COVID, I probably wouldn'tbe moved away because I understand that,
you know, all the technology can let youdo those things, but it's those lessons
I learned early that allowed me tomake the decisions now that it is okay.
So what does the org chart look like?
I believe you've got some key managersthat sort of run the day to day.
What does that look like?
Yeah, well, I mean,that's the other piece.
(17:28):
Without the key managers,I couldn't do it.
If you don't have the team,you can't, you can't do it.
But I've got a general manager, andthen departmental managers, a sales
manager, maintenance manager, and afertilization weed control manager.
And then the maintenance manager'sgot a sub field supervisor.
The sales manager's gotcustomer services under there.
Fertilization manager'sgot his vert techs.
And he's actually alsoselling enhancement work too.
(17:49):
But they own their roles.
And they're very clearly defined.
Music to my ears as a coach.
Define the roles.
Define the responsibilities.
I'm sure you've got KPIs of some sort.
What are those?
If I'm going to be honest,I think we have too many.
I want to narrow it down.
But I'm arguing with my leadership team.
(18:10):
They like all of it.
I want to kind of shrink it down.
We obviously track revenue.
We track efficiency.
I mean, it's the main ones.
Revenue, efficiency numbers,where our leads are.
Working for work estimates out, likefor enhancement work, how many are
backlog of work, you know, the basicones in the landscape industry,
nothing we don't do anything thatI don't think is abnormal there.
(18:30):
So as you're working from Crested Butte,is there a, is there like a dashboard
or is it something that you're watching?
It's kind of like driving a car, right?
So I can't physicallysee things in operation.
I know crews are getting out.
They're producing work.
How does that work?
Well, we do EOS, right?
And so that's another thing that withoutthat, I probably wouldn't be here.
(18:52):
There's a lot to, to thesystems that we put into place.
So in EOS, there's a software called 90.
So we follow that.
That's got all our KPIs on there.
We use service autopilot.
So if I want to jump in and lookat the dispatch board, I can.
I don't do that anymore because, you know,I mean, they make the decisions on that.
I just look at thenumbers of the financials.
I mean, we go over thefinancials every week.
I mean, the financials are tellingyou, it is a little lagging.
(19:13):
That's the only problem with studying thefinancials, is it's a lagging indicator.
But so, and I do a same page asmy general manager every week.
And then we do a, an L10 and EOS termsof management meeting on Thursdays.
So, I've got a cadenceregularly with the team.
So, it's, I'm aware ofeverything I need to be aware of.
It's fascinating.
To see that you can run thebusiness from another state.
(19:37):
And, and I, it's almost like I wantto challenge people, especially
business owners to look at it in thatlens where we're always just used to
being touching something in controlof something at all times where it's.
The crews or the office staff or themarketing or the sales and they have to
(19:57):
touch it But I think kovat taught us alesson like you said It's like, how do
you manage a team if you're not there?
So, so what are some, what are some peoplethat are, say, say, say an owner is, is
there, you know, a medium sized companyand they want to get to that level of.
(20:18):
Quote, maybe not move out of theway to another state, but like,
how do they get into that nextstep and get the team to rise up?
I, that's a pretty easy one.
And in my opinion I travel a lot and I'vealways traveled a lot, so I've always
gone away from my company frequently.
So they're used to me.
Okay.
So that was like
almost like a test run each time.
That's exactly where I was going to go.
So when you do travel, go travel.
(20:39):
Do not check in.
Like things aren't going to happen.
They're so bad that you'regoing to be out of business.
Come back and have the list of thingsthat went wrong or what the decisions
they made and have them, you can sitdown with your team and talk about it.
And then figure out whatdecisions they made.
Let them make the decisions.
It might be the right decision,it might be the wrong the wrong
decision, let's talk about why youmade it and how we can maybe think
(21:00):
about a different decision next time.
But those little micro vacations.
allow the team to kind of, well,one, what I realized is I'm not
as important as I think I am,
right?
Like my ego thinks I'm needed.
Oh, it's so true.
Love that.
Love that.
Matt's needed.
Matt
solves all the
problems.
Well, that's what you do as a helper.
You want to help people.
Right.
And the other answer is like, youdon't want to solve all the problems.
(21:22):
You want them to solve theproblems you want to help them.
So it's, you know, the not my monkey,you know, the one minute manager,
you know, that whole concept.
But you have to give people people.
And I also realize that people wantto be able to make the decisions.
They don't want to have to go to somebody.
They want the authority.
And because then it's their resultand they can take ownership of it.
So those little mini vacations, I wouldstart taking those and then just talk
(21:44):
with their team about what happenedwhen it when things came back and make
little micro changes and then systems.
I mean, I don't know if you know Colby,but I'm eight and follow through.
So systems intense.
Yeah.
So just follow the systemand you'll be okay.
Follow the system.
Follow the system.
So,
Speaking of system, but Whatis, what does that mean?
I think a lot of owners saying, well,we just need processes and systems and
(22:05):
everything's going to like work out.
Everyone gets stuck inthe building though.
it's, yeah, I do too.
How have you overcome that?
OODA loop, observe,orient, decide, and act.
Okay.
Say that again.
Wait, what?
It's a military thing.
It's a OODA loop.
O O D A.
Okay.
So you make a decision, then youobserve what happens, orient yourself
to what the results would happen, thenmake a decision on it and act on it.
(22:29):
So you can write the, write theprocess and don't make it, you
don't worry about perfection.
Just get it out there, get it testedand then make a change if needed.
And that'll get you there faster thantrying to make that perfect system.
And some things I, I over systemize.
I, Marty Grunder has done a story.
You can
relate to him, right?
Oh yeah.
SOP, SOP for the,
(22:49):
for the
paper towel holder?
Yes.
I was like, oh Marty,
that's my guy.
Like, I felt that.
But it doesn't, it's not needed.
So you can over systemize things.
It's more guidelines on some things.
Yeah.
And I also learned that let the,even though I love writing systems,
let them write their own systems.
They'll follow them much betterthan if I write the system.
Bye.
I write the system, it's Matt's system.
You know, if they write it, thenit's going to be followed a lot more.
(23:13):
It sounds like it's anempowerment of the team.
100%.
100 percent empowerment.
If you want to hire A players,you've got to act like an A
team and let that A player go.
They don't want to
be handcuffed.
Yeah.
And they see
not being able to do their own stuffor having to go to you for, for,
to make a decision is handcuffs.
And people who have high drivedon't want to be handcuffed
(23:34):
and
you need those peoplein your organization.
Right.
What did you say the people that arelike, well, what if I have the bite hire?
What happens?
I've had bite hires.
So what?
Move on.
Yeah.
Move on.
What did you learn?
Yeah, exactly.
What did you learn?
Were there any red flags that yousaw that you, you know, in hindsight,
oh, I should have asked thisquestion or but yeah, just move on.
(23:55):
So what happened?
Yeah, some of the most successfulpeople, I'd say every successful
person has had a bad hire.
Yeah, 100%.
Every person.
And multiple bad hires.
100%.
And move on.
More than one.
Yeah,
short term memory.
That's, I tell found that statwhen my son's in baseball,
highly competitive baseball.
And it's like, the most accomplishedbaseball players have the shortest memory.
Yeah.
(24:15):
Like struck out, move on, triple, move on.
Right.
It's done.
Move on.
That's what landscapeowners struggle with.
And even, even managers just overthinking.
Yeah.
I like the baseball analogy too.
Cause a great batters, you know, only,only gets on base one of the third on
base makes it one out of three times.
That's a great batter.
Yeah.
So they're failing two out of three times.
(24:37):
Yeah.
So just don't worry about it.
Just,
and you can be a professionaland make a ton of money.
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, it's just, you learn fromeverything if you want, if you want to.
Yeah.
If you look for the learning,there's learning and everything.
Yeah.
That's a good story.
So what about this industrywe're in landscape industry?
What do you feel aboutwhat's the future of it?
How do you feel?
(24:58):
What's your
take?
Man, I don't know whatthe future of it is.
I should probably think about itmore, but I, I just look centrally
about what I can do for my team.
That's the future I think about.
And how I can educate my team.
I mean, I've got a robotic mowerat my house, testing that out.
Okay.
So I am thinking about those things.
I wish I could, I shouldprobably spend more time thinking
about the industry long term.
Yeah.
(25:19):
What's the future ofCollege Fund Landscape like?
I don't know.
We, we need to grow and I want toget to a size where we can go ESOP
even though it's in the conversationhere with some other people, there's
people either love it or hate it.
Yeah, okay.
So I'm in an extreme informationgathering, but it goes back down
to my desire to help people.
And also why I'm here, why I wasbeen able to move to Colorado first
(25:41):
started my father, you know, teachingme hard work, give me those 40 yards.
And then the team I built.
Right without them.
I've got workers beenwith me for 18 19 years.
That's great.
Right.
They're my brothers like we'vewe've buried a child Yeah with them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry about that.
You're good.
You're good.
(26:01):
That that's part of the That's the part.
I love the most is the camaraderiethe the the family the traditions
we live in a world that we shouldhelp people more often to build
teams because of that reason.
I, I, let me just give youmy take on this landscape.
Landscape is the best industry.
(26:22):
I absolutely love it.
You don't meet bad people.
No.
And look how many people Iwork with all over the US
and I like hard workers and that what'swhere you find I like hard workers.
I grew up, grew up working
since I was 12 years old.
I've had all kinds of jobs.
I've done throw newspapers, soldfireworks, swept warehouses.
I had a
paper route too.
Yeah,
get outta here.
(26:42):
You ride your
bicycle?
Yes.
Until I was 14 and 14.
I was driving at, at 3:00 AM There you
go.
There you go.
As
long as I didn't get caught.
Yeah.
I did get caught oncefrom a police saucer.
My dad had to come, you know, help me out.
But I would.
On weekends and holidays,I would get up at 3 a.
m Sometimes 2 30 and runthe paper route on weekends.
I no kidding.
(27:02):
Yeah,
also another challenge anotherthing I did was collecting money.
I learned so much from that.
Are you If anyone remembers i'm kindof getting a little old here But you
would carry this little two ring binder.
Yeah,
I remember.
Oh my gosh
You knock on the door.
Oh my gosh
(27:23):
Yeah,
and you knock on the door and you knockon the door and it's for like you got
to pay your like 12 bill I don't evenremember was and I walked to the next
one and everyone got to this houseand i'm like They're always answered.
They're mean they got this loud dogand they did collect 12 and give them a
coupon back It was way before technology
Yeah.
And
that was some hard stuff.
(27:43):
I learned
a lot though.
Learned I learned from that is, is howto read, a lot of how to read people.
Yeah.
I've always, I've taken itto my career even these days.
I've always, if somebody ever tells meabout how they're not going to stiff me,
ooh, they're probably going to stiff me.
Stop.
Yeah.
Why would you even, whywould you even bring that up?
I know.
I mean, it's just.
Oh, don't worry,
I got the money.
(28:03):
I'm like, oh, this guymight not have the money.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Why'd you even tell me that?
I've met some fascinating peopleand I think that's what built
my character to what I am today.
You know, there's some days I wouldabsolutely dread it and God bless my dad.
My dad's not here, but I've learnedso much from that guy cause he worked
his tail off and he, and I didn't,and I don't know why the reason when I
(28:25):
was 13, why I had to do these things.
But now I know.
I'm sitting here today, youknow, decently successful.
I'm getting here with you and I learneda ton and throwing newspapers and
people now have no idea what that is.
They won't even give her thispaper out to a kid anymore.
No, they won't.
No.
Anyways, it was it was fascinating.
We grew up you know, with not a lot,but we worked our tails off and that's,
(28:47):
I think that's who we built up today.
So we have tons of stories to share.
Matt, generally like, thank you somuch for, for attending this in person.
Sort of session.
This is great.
I can go on for a lot longer,but it's been impressive.
I've learned a lot I've reallylearned how building your team up
to Take ownership you hire the goodpeople Give them the things that they
(29:11):
need the resources and go run it.
That's right.
And I
love it You've got your dashboards.
You got your thing set up.
You got your system set up go runit What I learned today was great.
Go away for a few days, many vacations.
That's almost the litmustest of your business.
If you're getting 30 phonecalls a day, there's a problem.
(29:32):
That's right.
Right?
And if you're getting a phonecall or a text, Once a day
life's probably pretty good.
That's right And so that's whatthat's that's a highly recommendation.
I I thoroughly love that.
You know, listen College FundLandscaping does the basic needs
services for all homeowners.
i'm one of them They're notinstalling gigantic huge multi
(29:53):
million dollar properties.
They're just literally well We did
do a half million dollar job.
Okay, there you go in may.
So there you go You'vegot some cool work but
yet you're taking You're takingthis off their shoulders to
take care of their property.
and you're providing a service thatis now very reputable in the industry.
Everyone knows CFL.
I've referred you guys multiple times.
(30:14):
I get these.
Thank you.
By the way, if you refer someone,you get a 50 visa gift card.
And my wife's like, well,did you get the card?
Did you get the card?
I'm like, well, I don't know.
I don't know if thecard's ever going to come.
We got a little bit
behind there for a while.
I know our office.
No,
they're good.
50.
And it's great.
I recommend CFL all the time.
(30:34):
So it's been a pleasure.
Thank you for takingthe time and joining us.
Yeah,
man, it was great.
Yeah.
Ready to take the next step?
Download our free Profitability Scorecardto quickly create your own baseline
financial assessment and uncover thefastest ways to improve your business.
Just go to McFarlinStanford.com/scorecardto get yours today To learn more about
(30:56):
McFarlin Stanford our best in classpeer groups and other services go to
our website at McFarlinStanford.comAnd don't forget to follow us on
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See you next time on the Roots of Success.
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