April 12, 2024 • 23 mins
Ever returned from a trip to find your business running like clockwork, or did you come back to chaos? My recent jaunt to South Carolina left me awestruck as our landscaping team didn't miss a beat during my absence, proving the muscle of our training and the art of delegation. Alongside my reflections, Brandon joins the conversation, echoing the sentiment with his own tales of time off where clear roles and responsibilities paved the way for uninterrupted operations. We unravel how the 'win triangle' can serve as your business's compass, empowering your staff to navigate decisions even when you're not there to steer the ship.
Strap in as we venture through the gritty details of why sticking to your guns with established processes isn't just busywork—it's the backbone of productivity. A recent gaffe in our mulching routine turned into a teachable moment, showcasing how veering off the beaten path can lead to time-consuming slip-ups. Dan, our guest, brings a fresh perspective on how learning styles, particularly learning from mistakes, can be a goldmine for growth. We wrap things up by championing the trifecta of training, communication, and accountability, ensuring that every team member grows from each experience and stays true to our company's operational compass.
Do you want to grow your business and your profits? Is your business too dependent on you the owner? Improve or implement processes that help you grow. Eliminate stress while improving cash flow. Interested? If so check out LOS. Landscape Operating System with Peer group is for you.
Learn more here https://www.scalingscoresystem.com/los
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Morning everybody.
Welcome to Landscape Talkmorning show.
Seth Brandon Dan here today.
I want to talk about a coupleof good things today.
Again, processes I was recentlyaway in South Carolina for a
little bit and the team didgreat.
We have great people, we workat our processes and do this.
(00:25):
I just to kind of unpack thatkind of get the perspective from
you guys and talk about that.
Just a reminder if you'reinterested in growing your
landscape business, grow yourlandscape business, grow your
profits.
About the LOS is the idea ofit's not just for the owners.
As an owner, you go to all theconferences, you learn and then
(00:52):
you got to kind of come back inand train your team, which a lot
of times it doesn't happen.
So with LOS you get training,plus your team and key people
can get training so you can growtogether.
So check them out.
There's a QR code there butsome partners there with the
show, so we'll dive into it.
So again, you know, last, youknow, for the last week or so I
(01:15):
was away down South Carolinahaving a little bit of you know,
spend a little bit of time withfamily, so it was really good.
Try to really shut off things.
You know, I checked in a littlebit but I was trying to take a
little bit more of a break.
You know things have been busy.
We had a new family memberrecently, so a baby, so there's
(01:35):
just been a lot going on.
So it's just kind of good toget away and spend a little time
with the family.
So I guess, you know, when youthink about landscape businesses
, it's a busy time, right, it'sbusy time in spring.
But I guess just you know, fromyour guys' perspective, how'd
the week go?
You know, because I thinkthat's always the thing and you
(01:56):
know what.
You know, what have we done totry to help make it so people
can go away?
I know, brandon, like you wereaway earlier for, you know, for
a little bit of time.
You know you have a lot of keythings that you do and you know,
I think you know, hopefully youhad a enjoyable time.
I think you went to see thePhillies or whatever, and we're
down in Florida, you know.
(02:16):
So doing these things wasimportant so that, like you know
, not just owners can get awaybut, like staff and key team
members can have rest andrelaxation too.
I think I'd just like to talkabout that today and just see
how do we do that, how do wehelp each other?
How do you get there If you'resomebody that you can never get
away?
(02:37):
I think people are veryinterested in that.
I hear it all the time.
I'm always working, I can'tstop Things like that.
What did you see last week?
How did it go?
Like you know, I'm alwaysworking, I can't stop things
like that.
So you know what, what did yousee last week?
You know how'd it go.
And then, maybe, how do you getthere?
That doesn't mean we're perfectat it, obviously.
Uh, I always say that first.
You know we don't have it allfigured out, but just for people
that are listening, like whatwas last week?
(02:58):
Like um, did anything miss abeat, you know how was it?
It's springtime, and then howdo you get there as as an
organization or company?
So I mean, I'll just throw itout there.
Whoever wants to dive in first.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's um, we have a lot of good
processes in place.
I think it was pretty muchbusiness as usual, um, because
everyone knows what theirresponsibilities are and what
they need to do, what's expectedof them and their goals for the
week.
You know, we talked before youleft, like is there anything
(03:35):
that we needed from you?
And we made sure we had what weneeded for the upcoming week.
And you know just, we just kindof rolled along, like I said,
like business as usual.
Everyone knows what theirexpectations are.
We had things set up.
We didn't need anything fromyou.
We got it ahead of time.
You still checked in, but itwas.
(03:55):
You know, we have everythingkind of like planned and set up.
It's just basically set theschedule and just do it.
And then, you know, I think, aslong as you're prepared ahead
of time and you have your stufforganized and everything's ready
to go, it's not a big deal.
And I think that's that's toughfor a lot of owners or
leadership is like if you'rejust winging everything all the
(04:17):
time.
That's where you have problemsthat come into play is because
you're always winging it andputting out fires, as we like to
say, um so you're, you know andthat and that's, that's normal
you can make.
You know one thing I learnedwhen I first started you can
make a perfect plan and it'sprobably not gonna.
It's probably not gonna go thatway.
You know there's gonna bechanges and I think as long as
(04:39):
you're, you have a, you have apretty solid plan and you have
people that are capable ofmaking decisions and you give
them the formula to make thedecision and you trust in them
to make good decisions.
It goes that way.
We talk about the wind triangleand we talk about it with all of
our team members, whetheryou're entry level, you know
(05:02):
everyone, everyone looks at thewind triangle and that's how we
make decisions.
Like, if you're unable to gethold of a manager in a moment,
you have to make a decision.
You look at the wind triangleand you make a decision based on
that, and and and go from there.
So I think you know it was justbusiness as usual for us,
because we have good processesset up and people make good
(05:26):
decisions, and we had, we haveeverything scheduled out.
So it's, it's just pretty muchnormal, normal stuff what is.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Maybe just explain briefly what is the wind
triangle frame.
But it's like listening.
They're probably think theymight say, like what is the wind
triangle?
Like what is that?
Or like how would you just sayit in a you know or explain it?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, it's basically just a triangle that's even on
all sides.
So, um, we say for us, we have,we have the customer, we have
the team member, and then wehave the company.
As long as all three of thoseare winning equally, that's a
great decision to make.
Um, so, uh, you know, I, youknow, whatever it may be, um, we
(06:06):
tell guys to make decisions onthat that it came up the other
week where guys didn't followthe process that we have in
place for one task, so theydidn't get the job done because
they didn't follow itaccordingly and the job was left
incomplete at the end of theday because they didn't follow
it.
And I said to them, you know,and they're like, well, we could
come in the next day and finishit, and I'm like, well, that's
(06:29):
great, or you know the next week.
But because it was a Friday,and I'm like that's great, but
you know, now you're gettingovertime or sitting there and
it's not getting finished.
So, like, the only person thatwon in that whole scenario is
you, the company.
The only person that won inthat whole scenario is you.
The job didn't get done, so thecustomer wasn't taken care of
and the company is losing outbecause you didn't follow the
process and we may have tostretch that in another week,
(06:56):
bump another job and or pay youovertime.
So if you follow the process,there's a reason for it and that
leads to everyone winning.
So that's the win triangle.
That's how we try to make youknow everyone winning, so, um,
that's, that's the win triangle.
That's how we try to makedecisions um for everyone to win
awesome, dan.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
What do you, what's your kind of take on it?
Or, you know, what have youkind of seen from your
perspective?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
um, I mean just going back a little bit to like how
we set up processes.
I would say like the two keypieces of that are one like how
clearly the process is laid out,like how, how kind of simple it
is to know exactly what thesteps are to get through this
process, and also when that'ssupposed to happen.
(07:37):
Because if those two things aretrue, then you know someone who
maybe hasn't done a certainthing before can pretty much
step into that role and theyknow exactly what it is they
need to do and when it'ssupposed to happen.
It's like Brandon said if youjust kind of leave it to chance
or leave it up in the air, likechances are it's not going to
(07:58):
work.
You know the best that it couldwork.
So you know we always try tohave things laid laid out,
whether it's, you know, doing aninterview, doing some
onboarding, um, you know,training somebody, getting guys
started in the morning, allthese things we want to have
like laid out so that if someonedoes need to step in for
someone who's away, you knowit's relatively simple, they can
(08:21):
pick it up pretty quickly andthey also kind of know when
that's supposed to happen, so wedon't have to be, you know,
reaching out and making sureit's happening at the right time
, kind of thing yeah, yeah, Ithink good I just one quick like
synopsis or thing that I seethere is, like we basically have
a playbook, right, and thenanyone can open the playbook and
(08:41):
call the plays, because it'spretty, it's pretty clear on how
we do it.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
So I think that's that's a big thing for our
company.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, I think that's great.
You know, I think the idea is,you know when you can really
have, you know like thatplaybook and processes and like
have it trained.
I think I think the thing thatyou know we continue to work on
and refine is like from thebeginning.
So when somebody starts reallykind of setting the expectation
of, like what they need to doand what they're accountable for
(09:12):
and I remember I think it waseven yesterday we checked in on,
you know, just just talkingabout, you know, some of our
people and you know, a lot oftimes people look at like even
raises or this or that or whatyou want them to do.
But it all goes back to youhave to communicate what you
want the people to do and whatyou count on them for, and that
(09:33):
becomes a process in itself.
And then, if you do that,typically things run a little
bit better if everybody knowswhat they want.
I always try to pay attention towhat do you say, and this isn't
in a negative way, but what doyou say when somebody isn't
there?
And I'm not saying this in abad way, but like if you say
(09:54):
something, then I try to likemake sure, like that that's
telling me that I need to saythat to the person and then we
just have to make sure we have aprocess that helps get that
thing accomplished.
So I think, like that's those.
Um, those are usually thethings that need to be worked on
.
Fixed processes need to bearound them or checked in.
(10:17):
Um, I think the other thing withprocess is you can measure it
right.
So if you have a good process,you can say, like, is this
getting done?
How well is this getting done?
Maybe even what's the score?
You know that this is beingeffective.
So you know, know, I think thatthat's good.
I've you know, for brandon, Iknow you said that you were
given one example what was theprocess at the end of the day
(10:40):
that you were kind of referringto, because I think that's
helpful to just anytime we cankind of give like a real life
example of like what was theprocess so they didn't get the
job done?
Um, you know, cause somebacklogs, but what was the
process that they, that we hadin place that wasn't implemented
, that needed to be followed?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
yeah, so basically what happened was a mulch job
and, um, we have a special pieceof equipment it's called mulch
mate.
Um, and it had a fluke thingthat happened.
It went down, so they had to goback to like the old school
method of like um, you knowshoveling mulch, right, so mulch
(11:22):
mate, fills your wheelbarrow inlike three to five seconds,
makes your life a lot easier.
So they had to go back tofilling these, the mulch, uh,
the wheelbarrows, and what theydid was they didn't follow our
process of like saying we say wewant the whole truck unloaded,
so we want to dump everythingbefore we start spreading.
Well, they didn't do that.
They had someone spreadingimmediately and what the problem
(11:45):
that occurred was they wentthrough all that, got a second
truck there but now the firsttruck sitting there, emptied and
it's not being reloaded, andthat for this particular
property we couldn't.
We don't have mulch delivered onsites, we have to run back to
our shop to get it, which ismaybe 20 minutes away.
So what they did was theyemptied the first truck, were
(12:09):
spreading while doing it, movedon to the second truck and
continued to do that sameprocess.
Now it's three o'clock.
They probably need maybe onesmaller truckload, three
quarters of a truckload, tofinish the day and they have two
empty trucks, all the mulch isspread and everyone's standing
there twiddling their thumbs.
So the reason that doesn't workis now, if a guy goes back to
(12:33):
load up, both trucks are empty,everyone's standing around
Twitter, lunar thumbs and it'sprobably going to take him
realistically an hour to go back, load and come back and they're
not going to get the jobfinished, whereas if they would
have followed our process ofdumping, everything they could
have been spreading as thatsecond truck was going back and
getting loaded up again and thenthey had the third truck to be
(12:55):
working out of there and therewould have been no lull in the
action.
So that's, that was the problem.
And they would have.
They would have gotten the jobcomplete.
Even with the equipment goingdown, they still would have been
able to complete the job.
But because they didn't followour process, that led to them
saying like, well, and you knowit would have been a late day,
(13:17):
they would end up having to worklater than they normally do.
You know, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
So because they didn't followit, it turned into this snowball
effect where everyone waslosing except for I guess you
could say the guys.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, I think that's a great example.
You know, in that area it'sreally really important to.
So I think what I want to shareis it's really important to
identify what might have beengoing wrong.
So, like, how we got to thatpoint was through seeing it a
lot of times and knowing that,like, when trucks are doing this
(13:57):
, maybe they're not beingefficient.
So that's where we put a processin place, and I think that's
the other thing that's goodabout you know, peer groups, or
talking with other companies oror, or paying attention, you can
kind of understand what is goodand what isn't, and you kind of
get ideas of, like how to dothat and you know that can be
really, really beneficial sothat you know you can eliminate
(14:20):
that.
Then you make a process aroundthat, you train it and then you
hold people accountable.
So, like, when somethingdoesn't go right now, you can
say, like you know, you weretrained on this, we did show you
this, you know this issomething that we need to do and
it becomes a teaching pointversus oh no, why didn't we get
it done and we never talkedabout it?
So I think that's good.
Um dan, anything you can thinkof or want to add to the well it
(14:45):
just reminds me, um, about youknow, people have like different
learning styles kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
They, they.
You know, we, we always gothrough our, our training
program with, with guys, um,either new guys or guys that
could just use a refresh oncertain things.
Um, but like you know, at theend of the day sometimes it
sometimes it takes just like alittle, a little little mix-up
(15:13):
early on to say, okay, this iskind of an example.
Now you've experienced it, youcan see how it would have worked
better a different way.
Sometimes some guys kind ofneed that, they need to do it
themselves before it reallyfully sticks.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, I think, just to elaborate on that.
So like that's a great example.
Sometimes, like you know, Ithink of a kid and you're like,
hey, that's hot.
And you're like they keep tryingto reach to touch it and you're
like, hey, that's hot, don'ttouch, it's gonna hurt, you're
gonna have an ouchie, and thenthey touch it and then they go,
oh, they start crying and theyget burned and you're like I
told you like, and then then itlike sinks in.
(15:53):
So I think you know example ofdan said, and then, just to
elaborate on that, so, like thathappened, friday, we have a
tuesday meeting with our, ourguys every week and everybody,
and we sit down, just go oversome key points.
Well, uh, we immediatelyaddressed that on tuesday and
was like talked through it witheveryone and I think it like
dawned on everyone on like why,hey, we, we do know what we're
(16:17):
talking about.
There is a reason that we havethese things and we want you to
follow them.
And I think everyone likerealized, like you know, okay,
yeah, that makes a ton of sense.
We understand, they all wentthrough the training program,
they all watched the videos,they all did the quizzes on what
our process was, but theysimply didn't follow it.
Sometimes people think theyknow better or maybe they just
(16:38):
get caught up in the moment andthey don't realize it.
But I think sometimes, like Dansaid, it's like you can talk
and talk and talk, but sometimesyou just need to get burned by
the stove to realize.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, I got to remember that for next time.
And I think the thing that'sreally, you know, really
interesting with this is it doesand I say this a lot but it
just takes time and energy to dothis.
I mean you have to, you know,you create some training and
then it's, you know, it's onkind of like management and the
team to be to be able to findwhen it's not going well kind of
quickly so that it just doesn'tkeep repeating.
I can think of like years agowhen we were doing this, where
(17:17):
we just kind of let people keeptouching the stove or keep
letting them do the wrong thinginefficiently and we didn't even
know.
So like that's a whole notherthing is like once you identify
it, you have to create somethingto do it and improve it so that
it does.
I think also tying earlier towhat we said about you know,
(17:38):
going away and giving peoplebreaks and things like that is
really goes back to the, to theprocesses and clear roles of
what people are doing, so thatyou know, when somebody goes
away, like this is what thisperson is doing and somebody can
can cover it.
I actually had a, you know,conversation with somebody that
(18:00):
I was working with and they weregoing away in September and
they've been really strugglingto like get things off their
plate.
They do everything.
And then they basically saidthat you know they have to do
everything, right?
So like I have to do everything.
So then I said, well, who'sgoing to do it while you're away
?
Like well, I'm making a list ofwhat I need to do, what I do,
(18:23):
so somebody else can do it.
I'm like, did you just hearwhat you just said?
So so many times, it's reallyabout just really creating what
needs done so that somebody elsecan do it.
And she realized at the timeshe's like, oh, I guess somebody
else can do that.
I'm like, yeah, absolutely.
(18:43):
And then I said, well, who didit before you?
And they're like, yeah, so sothat was helping get that off
the plate.
But we have to identify, giveclear things that we do and then
you can.
Then you can have people do itand help out.
I think that makes it betterfor everybody.
And I think it's tough you knowit's tough to always, you know
(19:04):
to give things away and andfollow up.
You just really have to knowwhat, who does what, when and
when to step in if it isn't, ifit isn't working.
So great topic today.
You know, just want to.
You know switch to.
You can't make it up again andcan't make it up.
Or the things that you seewhere you're just like.
You know, I just can't believethat they're doing that.
(19:25):
I give the example a lot oftimes you've tuned in and heard
strapping down dirt.
You know just different funnythings like that that you just
can't make up.
So what?
What has you?
Have you seen anything recentlythat you know you just want to
share, for you can't make it up.
If you have things, pleaseshare it in.
(19:45):
You know, we were just making acompiling, a list of different
things and yeah, it's going tobe fun.
We're going to give some awardsfor some of the best you can't
make it up yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
So I can think of one um, ironically just happened
this morning.
Um, I was messaging someone onlinkedin networking.
Um, you know, it could be apotential like link up for like,
uh, you know, connecting andstuff and and lead into maybe
some like work together andstuff.
And uh, I was just following up, sent a previous message and
(20:20):
just was following up with somepeople.
Hey, just you know, checking inand following up on my last
message, and she, just you knowI I probably sent messages that
maybe to her, maybe like a weekago message, and she, just you
know I I probably sent messagesmaybe to her, maybe like a week
ago.
She got back to me and was like, hey, you know in regards to
what?
And I just said, you know,networking.
And then, um, she got, she cameback and was like, okay, I can
meet now.
And I'm like, well, it was liketwo minutes later and she's
(20:42):
like if you can't meet now, letme know I have something else to
do.
So I, it was right before this,this uh, um, recording of what
we're doing right now.
And I was like I, unfortunatelyI can't, I have a meeting, um,
but I'm you know, I'm availablelater today.
And she's like um, she says, uh, forget it, like, don't message
(21:02):
me, don't contact me, uh, like,stop stop reaching out.
And I'm like what?
No, like, how does it?
How do you change from like,yeah, sure, I'll meet with you
too.
I can't right now toimmediately be like don't talk
to me, never contact me again,um, lose my number.
It was just really bizarre, um,a really bizarre like scenario.
(21:25):
I'm just unfortunately the thisvery moment.
It didn't work out for me, um,but I'm pretty available.
I want to call or else lose mynumber yeah, I mean, it was like
insane a little bit.
It was like and I thought itwas like extremely like rude,
but I was just like okay, well,you know, sometimes I guess
things work out for a reason andmaybe that was somebody I
(21:46):
didn't want to really be dealingwith or talking with um, but it
was really bizarre and I feellike you can't make that up,
like it's just yeah, I can meetwith you.
Oh, you can't write me rightnow, forget it don't ever
contact me again so yeah, that'smy, that's my.
You can't make it up.
It's hot, fresh right off thestove this morning, so yeah, dan
anything you can think of.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I mean, the only thing that comes to mind for
like real recently, that was thequoting of projects involving
like a planting job.
And you know, sometimes it'salways good to give like some
recommendations, but sometimeswhen you know the client, the
client has a, has a clear,specific vision of like exactly
what they want.
You know she, she sends me some, you know pictures on Amazon or
whatever some stuff she foundand you know they're like super
specific, like hybrid varietiesof things you couldn't possibly
(22:43):
get anywhere unless you orderedthem online.
I was like, well, you know I Ican supply these specific things
, um, but you know I I can'tlike guarantee that they're
gonna get established.
It's gonna be from like bulbsand seeds and whatever.
Or you know, I can get you likesome more standard varieties
(23:04):
still in the same like colorscheme you're going for, and
it'd be a lot you know simplerand I could you know better
guarantee it's gonna do well, um, so, like you know people,
people wanting like just superspecific stuff, that like,
because they don't they're notreally big into gardening
themselves.
They just kind of findsomething online that they like,
they're like that get, get methat yeah, yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
It's just wild out there.
So a lot of good, a lot of goodthings.
We have your.
You can't make it up.
Send it in.
Check out LOS if you're lookingto improve your processes,
scale your business, grow yourprofits.
Thanks for tuning in and we'llbe talking to you soon.
Morning everybody.
Welcome to Landscape Talkmorning show.
Seth Brandon Dan here today.
I want to talk about a coupleof good things today.
Again, processes I was recentlyaway in South Carolina for a
little bit and the team didgreat.
We have great people, we workat our processes and do this.
(00:25):
I just to kind of unpack thatkind of get the perspective from
you guys and talk about that.
Just a reminder if you'reinterested in growing your
landscape business, grow yourlandscape business, grow your
profits.
About the LOS is the idea ofit's not just for the owners.
As an owner, you go to all theconferences, you learn and then
(00:52):
you got to kind of come back inand train your team, which a lot
of times it doesn't happen.
So with LOS you get training,plus your team and key people
can get training so you can growtogether.
So check them out.
There's a QR code there butsome partners there with the
show, so we'll dive into it.
So again, you know, last, youknow, for the last week or so I
(01:15):
was away down South Carolinahaving a little bit of you know,
spend a little bit of time withfamily, so it was really good.
Try to really shut off things.
You know, I checked in a littlebit but I was trying to take a
little bit more of a break.
You know things have been busy.
We had a new family memberrecently, so a baby, so there's
(01:35):
just been a lot going on.
So it's just kind of good toget away and spend a little time
with the family.
So I guess, you know, when youthink about landscape businesses
, it's a busy time, right, it'sbusy time in spring.
But I guess just you know, fromyour guys' perspective, how'd
the week go?
You know, because I thinkthat's always the thing and you
(01:56):
know what.
You know, what have we done totry to help make it so people
can go away?
I know, brandon, like you wereaway earlier for, you know, for
a little bit of time.
You know you have a lot of keythings that you do and you know,
I think you know, hopefully youhad a enjoyable time.
I think you went to see thePhillies or whatever, and we're
down in Florida, you know.
(02:16):
So doing these things wasimportant so that, like you know
, not just owners can get awaybut, like staff and key team
members can have rest andrelaxation too.
I think I'd just like to talkabout that today and just see
how do we do that, how do wehelp each other?
How do you get there If you'resomebody that you can never get
away?
(02:37):
I think people are veryinterested in that.
I hear it all the time.
I'm always working, I can'tstop Things like that.
What did you see last week?
How did it go?
Like you know, I'm alwaysworking, I can't stop things
like that.
So you know what, what did yousee last week?
You know how'd it go.
And then, maybe, how do you getthere?
That doesn't mean we're perfectat it, obviously.
Uh, I always say that first.
You know we don't have it allfigured out, but just for people
that are listening, like whatwas last week?
(02:58):
Like um, did anything miss abeat, you know how was it?
It's springtime, and then howdo you get there as as an
organization or company?
So I mean, I'll just throw itout there.
Whoever wants to dive in first.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's um, we have a lot of good
processes in place.
I think it was pretty muchbusiness as usual, um, because
everyone knows what theirresponsibilities are and what
they need to do, what's expectedof them and their goals for the
week.
You know, we talked before youleft, like is there anything
(03:35):
that we needed from you?
And we made sure we had what weneeded for the upcoming week.
And you know just, we just kindof rolled along, like I said,
like business as usual.
Everyone knows what theirexpectations are.
We had things set up.
We didn't need anything fromyou.
We got it ahead of time.
You still checked in, but itwas.
(03:55):
You know, we have everythingkind of like planned and set up.
It's just basically set theschedule and just do it.
And then, you know, I think, aslong as you're prepared ahead
of time and you have your stufforganized and everything's ready
to go, it's not a big deal.
And I think that's that's toughfor a lot of owners or
leadership is like if you'rejust winging everything all the
(04:17):
time.
That's where you have problemsthat come into play is because
you're always winging it andputting out fires, as we like to
say, um so you're, you know andthat and that's, that's normal
you can make.
You know one thing I learnedwhen I first started you can
make a perfect plan and it'sprobably not gonna.
It's probably not gonna go thatway.
You know there's gonna bechanges and I think as long as
(04:39):
you're, you have a, you have apretty solid plan and you have
people that are capable ofmaking decisions and you give
them the formula to make thedecision and you trust in them
to make good decisions.
It goes that way.
We talk about the wind triangleand we talk about it with all of
our team members, whetheryou're entry level, you know
(05:02):
everyone, everyone looks at thewind triangle and that's how we
make decisions.
Like, if you're unable to gethold of a manager in a moment,
you have to make a decision.
You look at the wind triangleand you make a decision based on
that, and and and go from there.
So I think you know it was justbusiness as usual for us,
because we have good processesset up and people make good
(05:26):
decisions, and we had, we haveeverything scheduled out.
So it's, it's just pretty muchnormal, normal stuff what is.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Maybe just explain briefly what is the wind
triangle frame.
But it's like listening.
They're probably think theymight say, like what is the wind
triangle?
Like what is that?
Or like how would you just sayit in a you know or explain it?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah, it's basically just a triangle that's even on
all sides.
So, um, we say for us, we have,we have the customer, we have
the team member, and then wehave the company.
As long as all three of thoseare winning equally, that's a
great decision to make.
Um, so, uh, you know, I, youknow, whatever it may be, um, we
(06:06):
tell guys to make decisions onthat that it came up the other
week where guys didn't followthe process that we have in
place for one task, so theydidn't get the job done because
they didn't follow itaccordingly and the job was left
incomplete at the end of theday because they didn't follow
it.
And I said to them, you know,and they're like, well, we could
come in the next day and finishit, and I'm like, well, that's
(06:29):
great, or you know the next week.
But because it was a Friday,and I'm like that's great, but
you know, now you're gettingovertime or sitting there and
it's not getting finished.
So, like, the only person thatwon in that whole scenario is
you, the company.
The only person that won inthat whole scenario is you.
The job didn't get done, so thecustomer wasn't taken care of
and the company is losing outbecause you didn't follow the
process and we may have tostretch that in another week,
(06:56):
bump another job and or pay youovertime.
So if you follow the process,there's a reason for it and that
leads to everyone winning.
So that's the win triangle.
That's how we try to make youknow everyone winning, so, um,
that's, that's the win triangle.
That's how we try to makedecisions um for everyone to win
awesome, dan.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
What do you, what's your kind of take on it?
Or, you know, what have youkind of seen from your
perspective?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
um, I mean just going back a little bit to like how
we set up processes.
I would say like the two keypieces of that are one like how
clearly the process is laid out,like how, how kind of simple it
is to know exactly what thesteps are to get through this
process, and also when that'ssupposed to happen.
(07:37):
Because if those two things aretrue, then you know someone who
maybe hasn't done a certainthing before can pretty much
step into that role and theyknow exactly what it is they
need to do and when it'ssupposed to happen.
It's like Brandon said if youjust kind of leave it to chance
or leave it up in the air, likechances are it's not going to
(07:58):
work.
You know the best that it couldwork.
So you know we always try tohave things laid laid out,
whether it's, you know, doing aninterview, doing some
onboarding, um, you know,training somebody, getting guys
started in the morning, allthese things we want to have
like laid out so that if someonedoes need to step in for
someone who's away, you knowit's relatively simple, they can
(08:21):
pick it up pretty quickly andthey also kind of know when
that's supposed to happen, so wedon't have to be, you know,
reaching out and making sureit's happening at the right time
, kind of thing yeah, yeah, Ithink good I just one quick like
synopsis or thing that I seethere is, like we basically have
a playbook, right, and thenanyone can open the playbook and
(08:41):
call the plays, because it'spretty, it's pretty clear on how
we do it.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
So I think that's that's a big thing for our
company.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, I think that's great.
You know, I think the idea is,you know when you can really
have, you know like thatplaybook and processes and like
have it trained.
I think I think the thing thatyou know we continue to work on
and refine is like from thebeginning.
So when somebody starts reallykind of setting the expectation
of, like what they need to doand what they're accountable for
(09:12):
and I remember I think it waseven yesterday we checked in on,
you know, just just talkingabout, you know, some of our
people and you know, a lot oftimes people look at like even
raises or this or that or whatyou want them to do.
But it all goes back to youhave to communicate what you
want the people to do and whatyou count on them for, and that
(09:33):
becomes a process in itself.
And then, if you do that,typically things run a little
bit better if everybody knowswhat they want.
I always try to pay attention towhat do you say, and this isn't
in a negative way, but what doyou say when somebody isn't
there?
And I'm not saying this in abad way, but like if you say
(09:54):
something, then I try to likemake sure, like that that's
telling me that I need to saythat to the person and then we
just have to make sure we have aprocess that helps get that
thing accomplished.
So I think, like that's those.
Um, those are usually thethings that need to be worked on
.
Fixed processes need to bearound them or checked in.
(10:17):
Um, I think the other thing withprocess is you can measure it
right.
So if you have a good process,you can say, like, is this
getting done?
How well is this getting done?
Maybe even what's the score?
You know that this is beingeffective.
So you know, know, I think thatthat's good.
I've you know, for brandon, Iknow you said that you were
given one example what was theprocess at the end of the day
(10:40):
that you were kind of referringto, because I think that's
helpful to just anytime we cankind of give like a real life
example of like what was theprocess so they didn't get the
job done?
Um, you know, cause somebacklogs, but what was the
process that they, that we hadin place that wasn't implemented
, that needed to be followed?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
yeah, so basically what happened was a mulch job
and, um, we have a special pieceof equipment it's called mulch
mate.
Um, and it had a fluke thingthat happened.
It went down, so they had to goback to like the old school
method of like um, you knowshoveling mulch, right, so mulch
(11:22):
mate, fills your wheelbarrow inlike three to five seconds,
makes your life a lot easier.
So they had to go back tofilling these, the mulch, uh,
the wheelbarrows, and what theydid was they didn't follow our
process of like saying we say wewant the whole truck unloaded,
so we want to dump everythingbefore we start spreading.
Well, they didn't do that.
They had someone spreadingimmediately and what the problem
(11:45):
that occurred was they wentthrough all that, got a second
truck there but now the firsttruck sitting there, emptied and
it's not being reloaded, andthat for this particular
property we couldn't.
We don't have mulch delivered onsites, we have to run back to
our shop to get it, which ismaybe 20 minutes away.
So what they did was theyemptied the first truck, were
(12:09):
spreading while doing it, movedon to the second truck and
continued to do that sameprocess.
Now it's three o'clock.
They probably need maybe onesmaller truckload, three
quarters of a truckload, tofinish the day and they have two
empty trucks, all the mulch isspread and everyone's standing
there twiddling their thumbs.
So the reason that doesn't workis now, if a guy goes back to
(12:33):
load up, both trucks are empty,everyone's standing around
Twitter, lunar thumbs and it'sprobably going to take him
realistically an hour to go back, load and come back and they're
not going to get the jobfinished, whereas if they would
have followed our process ofdumping, everything they could
have been spreading as thatsecond truck was going back and
getting loaded up again and thenthey had the third truck to be
(12:55):
working out of there and therewould have been no lull in the
action.
So that's, that was the problem.
And they would have.
They would have gotten the jobcomplete.
Even with the equipment goingdown, they still would have been
able to complete the job.
But because they didn't followour process, that led to them
saying like, well, and you knowit would have been a late day,
(13:17):
they would end up having to worklater than they normally do.
You know, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
So because they didn't followit, it turned into this snowball
effect where everyone waslosing except for I guess you
could say the guys.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, I think that's a great example.
You know, in that area it'sreally really important to.
So I think what I want to shareis it's really important to
identify what might have beengoing wrong.
So, like, how we got to thatpoint was through seeing it a
lot of times and knowing that,like, when trucks are doing this
(13:57):
, maybe they're not beingefficient.
So that's where we put a processin place, and I think that's
the other thing that's goodabout you know, peer groups, or
talking with other companies oror, or paying attention, you can
kind of understand what is goodand what isn't, and you kind of
get ideas of, like how to dothat and you know that can be
really, really beneficial sothat you know you can eliminate
(14:20):
that.
Then you make a process aroundthat, you train it and then you
hold people accountable.
So, like, when somethingdoesn't go right now, you can
say, like you know, you weretrained on this, we did show you
this, you know this issomething that we need to do and
it becomes a teaching pointversus oh no, why didn't we get
it done and we never talkedabout it?
So I think that's good.
Um dan, anything you can thinkof or want to add to the well it
(14:45):
just reminds me, um, about youknow, people have like different
learning styles kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
They, they.
You know, we, we always gothrough our, our training
program with, with guys, um,either new guys or guys that
could just use a refresh oncertain things.
Um, but like you know, at theend of the day sometimes it
sometimes it takes just like alittle, a little little mix-up
(15:13):
early on to say, okay, this iskind of an example.
Now you've experienced it, youcan see how it would have worked
better a different way.
Sometimes some guys kind ofneed that, they need to do it
themselves before it reallyfully sticks.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, I think, just to elaborate on that.
So like that's a great example.
Sometimes, like you know, Ithink of a kid and you're like,
hey, that's hot.
And you're like they keep tryingto reach to touch it and you're
like, hey, that's hot, don'ttouch, it's gonna hurt, you're
gonna have an ouchie, and thenthey touch it and then they go,
oh, they start crying and theyget burned and you're like I
told you like, and then then itlike sinks in.
(15:53):
So I think you know example ofdan said, and then, just to
elaborate on that, so, like thathappened, friday, we have a
tuesday meeting with our, ourguys every week and everybody,
and we sit down, just go oversome key points.
Well, uh, we immediatelyaddressed that on tuesday and
was like talked through it witheveryone and I think it like
dawned on everyone on like why,hey, we, we do know what we're
(16:17):
talking about.
There is a reason that we havethese things and we want you to
follow them.
And I think everyone likerealized, like you know, okay,
yeah, that makes a ton of sense.
We understand, they all wentthrough the training program,
they all watched the videos,they all did the quizzes on what
our process was, but theysimply didn't follow it.
Sometimes people think theyknow better or maybe they just
(16:38):
get caught up in the moment andthey don't realize it.
But I think sometimes, like Dansaid, it's like you can talk
and talk and talk, but sometimesyou just need to get burned by
the stove to realize.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, I got to remember that for next time.
And I think the thing that'sreally, you know, really
interesting with this is it doesand I say this a lot but it
just takes time and energy to dothis.
I mean you have to, you know,you create some training and
then it's, you know, it's onkind of like management and the
team to be to be able to findwhen it's not going well kind of
quickly so that it just doesn'tkeep repeating.
I can think of like years agowhen we were doing this, where
(17:17):
we just kind of let people keeptouching the stove or keep
letting them do the wrong thinginefficiently and we didn't even
know.
So like that's a whole notherthing is like once you identify
it, you have to create somethingto do it and improve it so that
it does.
I think also tying earlier towhat we said about you know,
(17:38):
going away and giving peoplebreaks and things like that is
really goes back to the, to theprocesses and clear roles of
what people are doing, so thatyou know, when somebody goes
away, like this is what thisperson is doing and somebody can
can cover it.
I actually had a, you know,conversation with somebody that
(18:00):
I was working with and they weregoing away in September and
they've been really strugglingto like get things off their
plate.
They do everything.
And then they basically saidthat you know they have to do
everything, right?
So like I have to do everything.
So then I said, well, who'sgoing to do it while you're away
?
Like well, I'm making a list ofwhat I need to do, what I do,
(18:23):
so somebody else can do it.
I'm like, did you just hearwhat you just said?
So so many times, it's reallyabout just really creating what
needs done so that somebody elsecan do it.
And she realized at the timeshe's like, oh, I guess somebody
else can do that.
I'm like, yeah, absolutely.
(18:43):
And then I said, well, who didit before you?
And they're like, yeah, so sothat was helping get that off
the plate.
But we have to identify, giveclear things that we do and then
you can.
Then you can have people do itand help out.
I think that makes it betterfor everybody.
And I think it's tough you knowit's tough to always, you know
(19:04):
to give things away and andfollow up.
You just really have to knowwhat, who does what, when and
when to step in if it isn't, ifit isn't working.
So great topic today.
You know, just want to.
You know switch to.
You can't make it up again andcan't make it up.
Or the things that you seewhere you're just like.
You know, I just can't believethat they're doing that.
(19:25):
I give the example a lot oftimes you've tuned in and heard
strapping down dirt.
You know just different funnythings like that that you just
can't make up.
So what?
What has you?
Have you seen anything recentlythat you know you just want to
share, for you can't make it up.
If you have things, pleaseshare it in.
(19:45):
You know, we were just making acompiling, a list of different
things and yeah, it's going tobe fun.
We're going to give some awardsfor some of the best you can't
make it up yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
So I can think of one um, ironically just happened
this morning.
Um, I was messaging someone onlinkedin networking.
Um, you know, it could be apotential like link up for like,
uh, you know, connecting andstuff and and lead into maybe
some like work together andstuff.
And uh, I was just following up, sent a previous message and
(20:20):
just was following up with somepeople.
Hey, just you know, checking inand following up on my last
message, and she, just you knowI I probably sent messages that
maybe to her, maybe like a weekago message, and she, just you
know I I probably sent messagesmaybe to her, maybe like a week
ago.
She got back to me and was like, hey, you know in regards to
what?
And I just said, you know,networking.
And then, um, she got, she cameback and was like, okay, I can
meet now.
And I'm like, well, it was liketwo minutes later and she's
(20:42):
like if you can't meet now, letme know I have something else to
do.
So I, it was right before this,this uh, um, recording of what
we're doing right now.
And I was like I, unfortunatelyI can't, I have a meeting, um,
but I'm you know, I'm availablelater today.
And she's like um, she says, uh, forget it, like, don't message
(21:02):
me, don't contact me, uh, like,stop stop reaching out.
And I'm like what?
No, like, how does it?
How do you change from like,yeah, sure, I'll meet with you
too.
I can't right now toimmediately be like don't talk
to me, never contact me again,um, lose my number.
It was just really bizarre, um,a really bizarre like scenario.
(21:25):
I'm just unfortunately the thisvery moment.
It didn't work out for me, um,but I'm pretty available.
I want to call or else lose mynumber yeah, I mean, it was like
insane a little bit.
It was like and I thought itwas like extremely like rude,
but I was just like okay, well,you know, sometimes I guess
things work out for a reason andmaybe that was somebody I
(21:46):
didn't want to really be dealingwith or talking with um, but it
was really bizarre and I feellike you can't make that up,
like it's just yeah, I can meetwith you.
Oh, you can't write me rightnow, forget it don't ever
contact me again so yeah, that'smy, that's my.
You can't make it up.
It's hot, fresh right off thestove this morning, so yeah, dan
anything you can think of.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I mean, the only thing that comes to mind for
like real recently, that was thequoting of projects involving
like a planting job.
And you know, sometimes it'salways good to give like some
recommendations, but sometimeswhen you know the client, the
client has a, has a clear,specific vision of like exactly
what they want.
You know she, she sends me some, you know pictures on Amazon or
whatever some stuff she foundand you know they're like super
specific, like hybrid varietiesof things you couldn't possibly
(22:43):
get anywhere unless you orderedthem online.
I was like, well, you know I Ican supply these specific things
, um, but you know I I can'tlike guarantee that they're
gonna get established.
It's gonna be from like bulbsand seeds and whatever.
Or you know, I can get you likesome more standard varieties
(23:04):
still in the same like colorscheme you're going for, and
it'd be a lot you know simplerand I could you know better
guarantee it's gonna do well, um, so, like you know people,
people wanting like just superspecific stuff, that like,
because they don't they're notreally big into gardening
themselves.
They just kind of findsomething online that they like,
they're like that get, get methat yeah, yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
It's just wild out there.
So a lot of good, a lot of goodthings.
We have your.
You can't make it up.
Send it in.
Check out LOS if you're lookingto improve your processes,
scale your business, grow yourprofits.
Thanks for tuning in and we'llbe talking to you soon.
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