December 2, 2025 • 25 mins
Doni Jones, owner of Don’s Tree Services, started with $43, a vision, and no equipment. Today, she’s running a $4M/year tree care business. In this episode of Masters of Home Service, host Adam Sylvester talks with Doni about building a values-driven company, creating a family legacy, leading with discipline and purpose, and how she plans to make her next goal of a $100 million+ valuation a reality.
New to Jobber? Masters of Home Service listeners can claim an exclusive discount for Jobber at http://bit.ly/4kAzgm0
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
It was like two o'clock in themorning and this guy is asking for
(00:04):
the keys to my truck.
Who was it?
It was the repo man. Wow.
And I got up the next day andpeople are calling me about stuff.
Trucks need to be fixed. I gotjobs go do. I was like, oh.
So I got to go to work. And honestly,
I feel like our guys locked in andwas like, no, we're doing this.
(00:26):
Welcome to Masters of Home Service,
the best podcast for home service proslike us. I'm your host, Adam Sylvester,
and I want you to crush it in business.If you've been feeling down lately,
business is hard. If you're feelinglike just nothing's working,
trucks are breaking down and clientsare upset and people are leaving,
and clients are waiting along time to get your work,
(00:46):
and you got one star view lastweek, and business is just hard.
If you're feeling that way,then today's day for you,
because we're going tobring you some inspiration.
We're going to give you some ways tofeel better about what you've got and to
keep fighting, to keep going business.If it was easy, everybody would do it.
And you're a fighter and we're goingto bring some of that fight out of you
(01:08):
today with this great story.I've got Doni Jones with me,
and she's the owner and founderof Don's Tree Service in Atlanta,
and she's been business for 25 years,but it hasn't always been roses.
Not at all. We can get intothat. And Doni, here's the thing.
You're crushing it and I'm justso inspired by you. Thank you.
And I think that you're the backbone ofthe economy. You are employing people.
(01:29):
It's a family business. Yourdaughter works with you,
your husband works with you. Itwasn't always easy. We'll get to that.
Not much money, not much leads, notmany trucks. It's it's business.
You're doing it and it's so inspiringand so I'm just grateful to share the mic
with you today.
Thank you. I really appreciateyou. I'm appreciative to be here.
I'm honored to be here. So thankyou for what you do. And honestly,
a lot of our success over the last fiveyears is due to what you do with Jobbers
(01:53):
for real, because thatwas a game changer for us,
which was the importanceof putting in systems.
And I think for us growing andgoing through ups and downs,
one of the soft spots wehad was putting in systems.
And so Jobbers been a reallygreat addition to the company,
so I appreciate that.
I'm glad to hear that. Ireally do. So 25 years ago,
you start this business with $43,
(02:16):
$43 in a dream and a lot of uncertaintyand a lot of fear and unknown,
but you had a dream. And so you startthis business with no leads, no trucks,
nothing. Right? Basically.
Absolutely.
No partner to lean on until you met yourhusband a few years later, marry him.
And you guys have beenbuilding business ever since.
Take us back to what it was like inthose early days where it's just your
(02:37):
friends didn't understand whatyou were doing. What was it like?
Well, luckily, I actually grewup in the tree care industry,
and so people that knew me from wayback in the day were like, oh, okay.
Of course, she would start a treeservice. But when I was younger,
the thing I loved about the tree careindustry when being with my dad was that
he seemed happy when he wasworking and when he was at home,
(02:58):
it was a little bit of a monster. It wasa little challenging dealing with him,
but I noticed how nice it was being outin the field with the guys and around
trucks and equipment. SoI fell in love with that.
But when I got out on my own and startedworking in other industries like sales,
marketing, network marketing, et cetera,
I thought that was what I wanted to dountil one day I woke up depressed and was
(03:18):
like, I just didn'twant to do that anymore.
And so I went for a long drive and justwas like, man, what am I going to do?
And I literally had only $43 to my name,and I just looked out over the horizon.
I was like, man, there'sa lot of trees in Atlanta.
And I decided to start a tree service.
I remember the last time I was reallyhappy was when I was working with my
brother And my dad in thetree care industry, and I really started with nothing,
(03:43):
but I had a dream.
And one thing I did learnin those companies and those sales companies was that
thoughts are things, andif you can think about it,
you can bring it into fruition. And soeven though I was broke, I said, well,
I can at least afford to get somebusiness cards. So I went to,
what was the Kinko's thento get my business cards.
(04:03):
And the guy behind the counterwas like, well, they're $88,
but I'll take your $43, come back andget 'em. I decided to leave the Kinkos,
go down the street, and I was like,
if I'm starting a tree serviceand I don't have any money,
I'm probably going to have to get usedtrucks and I'm going to have to get those
trucks painted. I saw a paintstore on the side of the road,
and I went in there and I told the guyI needed a truck painted. And he said,
(04:26):
well, what's a little lady likeyou doing with a truck like that?
He had a Jamaican accent, and I waslike, I have a tree service. And he goes,
well, how much would you charge to cutthose four trees down? And I was like,
we're a little busy right now. I was like,
but I can do it for whateverit was like 500 bucks.
They were really small trees. And I said,
but I can get you on the schedule fornext Saturday. And it was a Tuesday,
(04:47):
and my brother had called me out of theblue like an hour or so after I had made
this decision. And after I metthis guy and he's like, Hey,
you're not going to believe this. Iknow I haven't seen you in a while,
but I'm going to comevisit you in Atlanta. Well,
my brother's in the tree care industry.And I said, well,
you're not going to believethis. I started a tree service.
I need somebody to cut these treesdown. So that's how I started.
(05:08):
And then the gentleman that eventuallybecame my husband saw me chugging
along and trying to get things going,
and he was also coming out of the networkmarketing industry and wasn't happy
with the results that he was having thereand wasn't sure what he wanted to do
next. And I asked for his help,
and we started to slowly build thetree service and we would do jobs,
take a little money, get a truck,take a little bit more money,
(05:29):
start bringing in people. Wewere just hustling, grinding.
Exactly. And it grew intowhat it is right now,
which we've got 40 team members right now,
and we have an incredibleculture in our company,
and we are now seeing anothergeneration of people join our company,
not just my daughter,
but the sons of some of the guys thatwork for our company are wanting to be
(05:51):
part of the company. And it isjust been amazing. It really has,
but it's been hard. And so think for me,
I was really going off a gutand grit for the longest time,
but at some point I realized I've got toput in systems And I've got to tighten
up the loose ends.
I do want to get to some ofthose things that you changed.
(06:12):
Absolutely.
But for that though, there'ssome by listening out there.
Who's.
About to quit?
Yeah, don't quit.
Don't quit. Is that whatyou were telling? Yeah.
Was there a point that you almostquit? What was the closest you got?
Can you think back?
I feel like we all have a story like thatwhere we had a choice either continue
going or just peel off and pull over.
(06:32):
Yeah. Yeah. Actually, probably one of the,
I've got two stories thatreally were tough for me,
and this is why I talk about mindsetand what you put in your brain.
Being in the other industriesthat we're in sales,
we read a lot of motivational books,inspirational books and stuff.
So I knew to just stay focused andjust keep trying to be positive.
(06:52):
But we just literally hadno money in the beginning.
And I remember coming to a job site,
I'm looking at one of thechainsaws that's on the ground.
The guys were puttingoil, gas and mix in it,
and I see duct tape around the saw,
and I was like, what's goingon here? And they said, well,
(07:13):
Doni, we know you didn't havethe money to fix the saw,
so we just kind of fixed it.
It'll last for a little bit until wecan afford to get a new saw. I was like,
oh. So my people not only know thatwe're struggling, they know we're broke,
so broke that they tried to fix a sawwith duct tape. Interestingly enough,
the guy that told me that is actuallystill with our company 15 years later,
(07:37):
and I'm guessing.
That's not what you set out to do. No.
You don't want.
Anybody fixing sauce with tape.
No. I mean, I thought that if youstart a business, you just go get rich.
It doesn't work like that.
And I know there are people that startcompanies and they make good decisions
and they save 10,
20% of their income and they set itaside and they've got the money for the
taxes and they do all the right things.That was not me. I learned the hard way.
(07:59):
So what I tell people is if youcould avoid making those mistakes,
avoid them. But even if you avoidmaking those mistakes in business,
you're going to havesomething that's going to.
Trip and fall on something.
You're going to tripand fall on something,
even if you're good with money and you'regood with making sure your taxes are
paid and you're good with making surethat there's a maintenance schedule for
(08:19):
your equipment. Yourissue might be people.
Are you good with workingwith people? Luckily,
I'm blessed to have good people skills,so that wasn't the thing. But for me,
it was the management of the money.
And I think as far as whenwas I closest to quitting,
it wasn't so much closest to quitting.
It was questioning myself whether I wassmart enough to do this because I just
(08:41):
was juggling things and things werefalling through the cracks and one night
because we just financiallywere not where we needed to be.
One night I get a knock on the doorand it was like two o'clock in the
morning and this guy isasking for the keys to my
truck.
Who was it?
It was the repo man. Wow.
(09:04):
I remember thinking, because myhusband went down to answer the door,
obviously I'm a girl.
He's not going to let his wifemask so o'clock in the morning.
So he answers the doorand he is like, Doni,
I think you need to come down here.Because it wasn't the boogeyman.
It was like this guy repo in ourtruck. And the guy's like, yeah,
I don't want to cause any problems.
(09:25):
Just anything that's yours thatyou need to get out of the truck.
You get out of the truck. At the time wehad our lot was actually at our house.
I had a little small farm and weused to keep our trucks in the back,
and so they knew where the truck was.And so I remember I told my husband,
I was like,
give him the keys.And I went back to bed and I slept like a
(09:45):
baby. I can't explainit, it makes no sense.
But I just was done. Iwas like, I give up, Lord.
I'm too stupid to do this. I'm so stupid.
I don't even know how to manage ourmoney so that our trucks don't get
repossessed. And so I toldmy husband, I was like,
I don't know what I'm goingto do tomorrow. I was like,
but I can't live like this anymore becausemy husband's very detail oriented and
(10:08):
I'm more of the people person.So in my mind I'm like,
I don't know how I'm dotomorrow, but I'm done.
I just was done. So I don't think Iwas necessarily in that moment going to
quit, but I just didn'thave anything left in me.
I got up the next day and peopleare calling me about stuff.
Trucks need to be fixed. I got jobs.Life was going to do it. I was like, oh,
(10:30):
so I got to go to work.So I just went back to work.
I explained to the guys,yeah, we're down a truck,
because Doni couldn't take care ofthings in a timely manner. And honestly,
I feel like our guys locked in andwas like, no, we're doing this.
Humility always galvanizes.
Always. It does. It does.
One thing I heard John Maxwellsay, I love this is he said,
(10:51):
the lack of momentum makesus look worse than we are.
And a lot of momentum makesus look better than we are.
That's so true. So true.
And so if our listenersright now have no momentum,
you're probably not asbad as you think you are.
It just feels that way andit looks that way and hey,
and when you start getting thatmomentum again and you start,
you're don't get too much of an egobecause It makes you look better than you
(11:13):
are too.
Exactly. But also you got to make sureyou have momentum in the right direction.
So for me,
I needed to find somebody that could helpme manage the money or I needed to be
better at managing the money. Justhonestly, just be honest with myself.
And so we did some Dave Ramseywith our company and with our
personal finances, and honestly,
(11:34):
I will not sit up here right now and saythat we're where we need to be. I mean,
we're definitely way better than we were,
but I have dreams that are even biggerThan where I
am right now. So even for rightnow, as successful as we've become,
I want to go even further.
So going back to what you weretalking about with John Maxwell,
(11:55):
we actually have one of our team leaders,
actually the vice presidentof our company, IU Gonzalez,
who's actually leading a training rightnow using the 21 Irrefutable Laws of
Leadership. And he's doing thatwith all of our team leads.
And that was the other thing I had tolearn is to be able to let go and let the
people that are really good in my companydo what they do best. I Don't have to
(12:16):
hang on for dear lifebecause I've got good people,
but somebody watching this justgetting started might go, well,
how do you get good people? Itstarts with you being a good person.
And be honest, the first.
Law is the first law of hisfirst laws is law of the lid.
And the organization is dependenton how good of a leader is
(12:37):
leading it. And if your lid islow, you're not a good leader,
you're not have good organization. So itis look in the mirror is the first law.
Absolutely. And I think that's oneof the reasons why as a company,
we are a company of leadersbecause we like to nurture leaders.
And I had to learn that, likeyou said, the law of the lid,
I had to get out of my own way, butwhile getting out of my own way,
(12:58):
I had to get better.One of my old mentors used to say,
in order for things to change,
I have to change in order for thingsto get better, I have to get better.
And that's what I've had to do,and I'm continually doing it.
I'm watching content online.
I'm taking classes online and going toseminars and webinars because I want to
be a better leader.
(13:18):
I don't know what it's like to builda hundred million dollar company,
but I'm watching people that havealready done it and learning, okay,
this is what I'm going to need to do tonavigate this company in that direction.
Doni,
this is a great conversation and I wantto pause for a minute to talk about
Jobber because you've been using Jobberin your business for over five years
now.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you've said it is changedeverything. Tell us about that.
(13:40):
Well, I don't want to be redundant.It keeps saying it's a game changer,
but it really is, and not onlythat, it puts things in place.
There's a lot of times with businesspeople, we talk about invoicing,
we talk about accounts receivables,we talk about our estimates,
you talk about keeping your crewsand knowing where they're at.
All of that can be done inJobber. All of that's in Jobber.
(14:03):
And we actually used to useanother software prior to Jobber,
and it was just primarily just forwriting estimates and invoicing.
And then of course, our adminteam would keep track of expenses.
But with Jobber, yougot it all right there.
And it's such a simple interface.A simple program to
master. It really is.
(14:23):
And each one of our team leads usesJobber All we do is get them set up,
give them a little bit ofinformation, a few tutorials,
and they're on their way.
And that helps me feel better becauseI know I've got a system that is almost
plug and play for the most part.
Yeah technicians pull their phone out,see what's on the schedule and go,
and it's that simple.
That's what my day to day is.
(14:45):
Yeah.
Pull your phone out and go. Evenwith our leads, with our estimator,
our salespeople and our techniciansboth use Jobber to run their day to
day.
Yeah. Awesome. I'm gladit's worked for you well.
It's worked well.
It will work well for you too.
If you feel like you've got estimatesover here and jobs here and payments here
and invoices here and quotes, noneof that. Yeah, bring it all in house.
(15:07):
Bring it under Jobber one roof.It'll make your life so much easier.
So go to Jobber.com/podcast deal,
get the exclusive discount and start usingJobber right now. So once you got out
of the worst part and things were start,what were some of those nuts and bolts?
What are some things that you did mayberun the money, maybe around operations,
managing people?
(15:27):
What were some of those things thatyou did that really made a difference?
Organizing myself. Literallyorganizing myself, organizing my day,
writing things down. Honestly,
writing things down andalso learning who I am.
There are just some things I'm reallygood at and there are other things I'm not
good at. Once again,
the managing of the money was notnecessarily my strong suit. So guess what?
(15:49):
I have to have somebody thatmanages the receivables,
manages collections.
Invoices.
So I can make some moneyand stuff like that,
but I need somebody that actuallysits at a desk and goes, okay,
these are all the open invoices. Let mereach out to those people. Once again,
Jobber actually makes that easier becauseyou get all these automated responses
(16:10):
that you could send to people.
So was cash flow aproblem in the beginning?
Yeah.
Oh my goodness. You do the work,not get paid, spend too much money.
Well, here's the thing,you're not the only one.
And that's what we're havingthis conversation because there's many more just
like you who struggle withthat in the beginning.
Well, cash flow was an issue, but also,
(16:30):
there was an issue with menot realizing who my customer
was. We've been blessed to have reallygood people almost from the beginning,
the initial group of people we had notso great, but as we went on in time,
we've got better and better in people.Well, if you get better people,
you've got to pay them better andcharge more, and you charge more, right?
I was just so concerned aboutfilling up the schedule that I'm
(16:55):
putting people on the schedule thatmaybe they can't afford us or maybe they
don't value us in order topay their invoices on time.
And so then you run around chasingpeople. So I had to really learn, well,
who is our client? I had to learn,
my client isn't the guy that's lookingfor the cheapest price that if somebody
opens the door and be like, I hopeyou're cheap. I be like, okay,
I'm not the tree service for you.
(17:16):
Then you give your competitor his nameand being okay with saying no, Because if
you say no to this, you're sayingyes to something else. I always say,
if you say no to this,you're saying yes to that.
So that's what we really try to focuson is making sure we're attracting
our customers and goingback to doing the hard work.
And what I see with a lot of entrepreneursis that they don't want to do,
(17:37):
they don't want to look inthe mirror and just say,
I'm not good at this and I need help.
I love asking for help.
My ego is like this as far as wanting abigger business and all those kinds of
things. Yeah, big ego there, but asfar as the day-to-day little ego, why?
Because if I let my ego lead,
(17:57):
I'm not going to open myselfup to get the help that I need,
but also know that I've got something tobring to the table and that it's my job
to bring something to the tablefor my team and for my customers,
and that I need to walk in that.
It's okay to have a bigdream and have humility too.
There you go.
You can have both.
So you start getting some team membersin place and you're starting to get some
(18:19):
momentum a little bit maybe once youhit a million or two or something like
that. What were some of the things thatyou did in terms of accountability,
team culture? How does thatall play into your success?
Well, traction has alsobeen a game changer for us.
If people aren't familiar withthat, it's a book by Gino Wickman.
We actually started utilizing tractionin our business, all that kind of stuff.
(18:39):
Yeah, absolutely. Sothat's been very helpful.
But going back to being a smallbusiness organization, branding,
making sure that the simple things,
making sure all of our guyshave red shirts, our color,
making sure our people look goodwhen they show up on the job site.
Now in the tree care industry,obviously at the end of the day,
we're going to be sweaty and ourshirt might get ripped, or you got.
(19:01):
To start off strong, startthe day looking fresh.
Exactly. Start the day lookingfresh. And then also, a lot of times,
business people don't want tohave those hard conversations.
Sometimes you have to tell somebodyyou're just not the right fit.
Let's talk about the hardconversations, because for me,
that's been part of my journey too.How did you get over being a pushover?
(19:23):
Were you a pushover? I was a pushover.No, no. Okay, let's talk about it. Let's.
Talk about it. No. Okay. Realquick. Sorry. When I was in retail,
I had a mentor that she was actually adistrict manager for one of the stores
that I worked for. And she said to me,she goes, Doni, you'll go far in life,
but what's going to stopyou is you have no tact.
(19:44):
And what had happened was one of theguys that was my assistant manager at one
of my stores, he had body odor. So insteadof pulling him aside and saying, Hey,
you have a little, is there a problem?I've noticed a little bit of odor.
I didn't say that. I waslike, Hey, you stink.
Smell that.
And it hurt his feelings. And hewent and told my district manager,
and then she comes to thestore, she's like, listen,
(20:05):
I want to see you go far in life,but you've got to learn some tact.
So that's been a problem for mefrom the beginning is having tact.
It's possible to say theright thing the wrong way.
Exactly, exactly. So I had to learn tact.
I also had to learn different personalitytraits just because I want to hear it
straight. If I've got somethingin my teeth, I want you to say,
you got something in my teeth. If Ismell bad, I want you to say, Doni,
(20:27):
you stink. Most peopleare not cut out that way.
So I really had to learn how to manage
people. That was a big part of my journey,was learning how to manage people.
For me, it was not assumingthe worst of people,
giving people the benefit of thedoubt. Hey, why did you do that?
(20:48):
You want to clobber them? Why did youdo that? Well, because X, Y, and Z. Oh.
And then you're like, oh, that makessense. I was about to clobber you,
but now that I found out the rest of thecontext and understand why you did it
actually makes perfect sense now.
And that communication is soimportant to business and asking
questions, not assuming the worst,giving the benefit of the doubt,
(21:09):
not cutting people off.
To a certain extent, to a certain extent,
because I did go through a phasewhere I held onto people too long.
We literally had a driver that weshould have let go a long time ago.
He would have a little mistakehere, a little mistake there,
but instead of learning from themistakes, there was always an excuse.
It was always somebody else's fault.
Oh yeah.
Until one day he took mygrapple truck and he ripped the
(21:32):
power lines down a whole street.
Whatever wire was hanging low, hetook it down. So I started getting.
It's your fault.
It's your fault.
It's not my fault.
And what's funny is my daughters atthe time were like eight and 10 years
old, and they were like, couldyou please fire him? Mommy.
(21:55):
Needless to say, that person'sno longer with us anymore,
but I used to hang on peoplea little bit too long.
We all.
Exactly.
It's so much easier to keep peopleout than to get 'em out later.
Yeah, absolutely.
And so if you can just make surethat you do your due diligence,
parade these new people in front of yourcurrent people, and they'll tell you,
that guy's not going to cut'em in, not hire that guy.
(22:17):
And our people will do that. We actuallyare like gatekeepers of the culture,
the company, and that's a beautifulthing to watch. And actually,
I don't do the first interview anymore.She have one of our team members,
Fatima, she's our HR manager.She will do the first interview,
and if they can get past her,
then they could see me or eitherIU to get another interview.
One of the things we love totalk about is radical honesty,
(22:39):
and we got that from Ray Dalio.
He has a book called Principles that isa must read for anybody out there that
wants to scale and grow their businessor just understand really important
principles in life and in business.What he talks about is radical honesty.
And so for us,
I'd rather have the hard conversation nowas opposed to sweeping something under
(22:59):
the rug or making it too soft. And aperson is like, oh, it's not that bad.
And I'm like, no, it really is.
I've got three takeaways here I wantto share with the audience that I think
will inspire them. Number one is don'tquit. Setbacks are part of the journey.
Failure, feeling a fraud, feeling likeyou're just not going to good enough.
We've all been there. It's part of thejourney. So don't quit. Keep going.
Press on. Number two is self-awareness.Look in the mirror and say,
(23:22):
who do I need to be to be a good leader?
How can I take this business tothe next level? It starts with me.
I am the lid of my organization, andso if I don't like where the lid is,
I need to improve. I need to getbetter. Number three is communication.
I don't think there's anything moreimportant than communication in an
organization. Making surethat you communicate with people in an effective way.
Listening, well, two ears and one mouth,
(23:43):
making sure that you don'tassume the worst of people.
Give them benefit of the doubtsand communication will galvanize,
humility will galvanize anorganization around a common goal.
Ineffective communication is just a greatway to make everything rot. So Doni,
thank you so much for beinghere. I really appreciate it.
Oh, you're welcome. Andthank you for having me.
I think this has been incredibleand I love what you guys do.
I love the difference youguys have made in our company,
(24:03):
so I'm actually honored tobe here, and I appreciate it.
There is someone out there who's aboutto quit, speak to 'em, encourage 'em.
What would you say to them?
First of all, don't quit. And wetalked about having hard conversations,
and one of the hardest conversations youcan have is with yourself and a lot of
people that we have these bigdreams that we have these big goals,
but then we get in the mire ofeverything and we think, oh,
(24:26):
I must be doing something wrongbecause it's hard and actually hard is
part of the journey.
Sometimes the best thing that I can dois have a hard conversation with myself
and go, Hey, what are my habits,
rituals and routines are myhabits supporting what that big
dream is? Do a self-assessmentand realize that you can do it.
(24:48):
Don't quit and get the information youneed to be the best you that you can be.
The only people who get hurt on arollercoaster are the ones who jump off.
There you go.
Yeah.
That's right.
Doni, thanks for being here. Howdo people find out more about you?
Well, you can find out moreabout me by going to our website,
www.donstree.com. And me specifically,
you can hit me at thetree lady on Instagram,
(25:09):
or you can find us on Instagramat Dons tree service, atl.
Awesome. Well, thanks for beinghere. I really appreciate it.
I appreciate you having me.
And thank you for listening.
I hope you're inspired by Doni's storyin her business. She's crushing it.
I hope that you go crush it aswell. I'm your host, Adam Sylvester.
You can find me@adamsylvester.com.
Your team and your clients andyour family deserve your very best.
(25:30):
So go give it to 'em.
It was like two o'clock in themorning and this guy is asking for
(00:04):
the keys to my truck.
Who was it?
It was the repo man. Wow.
And I got up the next day andpeople are calling me about stuff.
Trucks need to be fixed. I gotjobs go do. I was like, oh.
So I got to go to work. And honestly,
I feel like our guys locked in andwas like, no, we're doing this.
(00:26):
Welcome to Masters of Home Service,
the best podcast for home service proslike us. I'm your host, Adam Sylvester,
and I want you to crush it in business.If you've been feeling down lately,
business is hard. If you're feelinglike just nothing's working,
trucks are breaking down and clientsare upset and people are leaving,
and clients are waiting along time to get your work,
(00:46):
and you got one star view lastweek, and business is just hard.
If you're feeling that way,then today's day for you,
because we're going tobring you some inspiration.
We're going to give you some ways tofeel better about what you've got and to
keep fighting, to keep going business.If it was easy, everybody would do it.
And you're a fighter and we're goingto bring some of that fight out of you
(01:08):
today with this great story.I've got Doni Jones with me,
and she's the owner and founderof Don's Tree Service in Atlanta,
and she's been business for 25 years,but it hasn't always been roses.
Not at all. We can get intothat. And Doni, here's the thing.
You're crushing it and I'm justso inspired by you. Thank you.
And I think that you're the backbone ofthe economy. You are employing people.
(01:29):
It's a family business. Yourdaughter works with you,
your husband works with you. Itwasn't always easy. We'll get to that.
Not much money, not much leads, notmany trucks. It's it's business.
You're doing it and it's so inspiringand so I'm just grateful to share the mic
with you today.
Thank you. I really appreciateyou. I'm appreciative to be here.
I'm honored to be here. So thankyou for what you do. And honestly,
a lot of our success over the last fiveyears is due to what you do with Jobbers
(01:53):
for real, because thatwas a game changer for us,
which was the importanceof putting in systems.
And I think for us growing andgoing through ups and downs,
one of the soft spots wehad was putting in systems.
And so Jobbers been a reallygreat addition to the company,
so I appreciate that.
I'm glad to hear that. Ireally do. So 25 years ago,
you start this business with $43,
(02:16):
$43 in a dream and a lot of uncertaintyand a lot of fear and unknown,
but you had a dream. And so you startthis business with no leads, no trucks,
nothing. Right? Basically.
Absolutely.
No partner to lean on until you met yourhusband a few years later, marry him.
And you guys have beenbuilding business ever since.
Take us back to what it was like inthose early days where it's just your
(02:37):
friends didn't understand whatyou were doing. What was it like?
Well, luckily, I actually grewup in the tree care industry,
and so people that knew me from wayback in the day were like, oh, okay.
Of course, she would start a treeservice. But when I was younger,
the thing I loved about the tree careindustry when being with my dad was that
he seemed happy when he wasworking and when he was at home,
(02:58):
it was a little bit of a monster. It wasa little challenging dealing with him,
but I noticed how nice it was being outin the field with the guys and around
trucks and equipment. SoI fell in love with that.
But when I got out on my own and startedworking in other industries like sales,
marketing, network marketing, et cetera,
I thought that was what I wanted to dountil one day I woke up depressed and was
(03:18):
like, I just didn'twant to do that anymore.
And so I went for a long drive and justwas like, man, what am I going to do?
And I literally had only $43 to my name,and I just looked out over the horizon.
I was like, man, there'sa lot of trees in Atlanta.
And I decided to start a tree service.
I remember the last time I was reallyhappy was when I was working with my
brother And my dad in thetree care industry, and I really started with nothing,
(03:43):
but I had a dream.
And one thing I did learnin those companies and those sales companies was that
thoughts are things, andif you can think about it,
you can bring it into fruition. And soeven though I was broke, I said, well,
I can at least afford to get somebusiness cards. So I went to,
what was the Kinko's thento get my business cards.
(04:03):
And the guy behind the counterwas like, well, they're $88,
but I'll take your $43, come back andget 'em. I decided to leave the Kinkos,
go down the street, and I was like,
if I'm starting a tree serviceand I don't have any money,
I'm probably going to have to get usedtrucks and I'm going to have to get those
trucks painted. I saw a paintstore on the side of the road,
and I went in there and I told the guyI needed a truck painted. And he said,
(04:26):
well, what's a little lady likeyou doing with a truck like that?
He had a Jamaican accent, and I waslike, I have a tree service. And he goes,
well, how much would you charge to cutthose four trees down? And I was like,
we're a little busy right now. I was like,
but I can do it for whateverit was like 500 bucks.
They were really small trees. And I said,
but I can get you on the schedule fornext Saturday. And it was a Tuesday,
(04:47):
and my brother had called me out of theblue like an hour or so after I had made
this decision. And after I metthis guy and he's like, Hey,
you're not going to believe this. Iknow I haven't seen you in a while,
but I'm going to comevisit you in Atlanta. Well,
my brother's in the tree care industry.And I said, well,
you're not going to believethis. I started a tree service.
I need somebody to cut these treesdown. So that's how I started.
(05:08):
And then the gentleman that eventuallybecame my husband saw me chugging
along and trying to get things going,
and he was also coming out of the networkmarketing industry and wasn't happy
with the results that he was having thereand wasn't sure what he wanted to do
next. And I asked for his help,
and we started to slowly build thetree service and we would do jobs,
take a little money, get a truck,take a little bit more money,
(05:29):
start bringing in people. Wewere just hustling, grinding.
Exactly. And it grew intowhat it is right now,
which we've got 40 team members right now,
and we have an incredibleculture in our company,
and we are now seeing anothergeneration of people join our company,
not just my daughter,
but the sons of some of the guys thatwork for our company are wanting to be
(05:51):
part of the company. And it isjust been amazing. It really has,
but it's been hard. And so think for me,
I was really going off a gutand grit for the longest time,
but at some point I realized I've got toput in systems And I've got to tighten
up the loose ends.
I do want to get to some ofthose things that you changed.
(06:12):
Absolutely.
But for that though, there'ssome by listening out there.
Who's.
About to quit?
Yeah, don't quit.
Don't quit. Is that whatyou were telling? Yeah.
Was there a point that you almostquit? What was the closest you got?
Can you think back?
I feel like we all have a story like thatwhere we had a choice either continue
going or just peel off and pull over.
(06:32):
Yeah. Yeah. Actually, probably one of the,
I've got two stories thatreally were tough for me,
and this is why I talk about mindsetand what you put in your brain.
Being in the other industriesthat we're in sales,
we read a lot of motivational books,inspirational books and stuff.
So I knew to just stay focused andjust keep trying to be positive.
(06:52):
But we just literally hadno money in the beginning.
And I remember coming to a job site,
I'm looking at one of thechainsaws that's on the ground.
The guys were puttingoil, gas and mix in it,
and I see duct tape around the saw,
and I was like, what's goingon here? And they said, well,
(07:13):
Doni, we know you didn't havethe money to fix the saw,
so we just kind of fixed it.
It'll last for a little bit until wecan afford to get a new saw. I was like,
oh. So my people not only know thatwe're struggling, they know we're broke,
so broke that they tried to fix a sawwith duct tape. Interestingly enough,
the guy that told me that is actuallystill with our company 15 years later,
(07:37):
and I'm guessing.
That's not what you set out to do. No.
You don't want.
Anybody fixing sauce with tape.
No. I mean, I thought that if youstart a business, you just go get rich.
It doesn't work like that.
And I know there are people that startcompanies and they make good decisions
and they save 10,
20% of their income and they set itaside and they've got the money for the
taxes and they do all the right things.That was not me. I learned the hard way.
(07:59):
So what I tell people is if youcould avoid making those mistakes,
avoid them. But even if you avoidmaking those mistakes in business,
you're going to havesomething that's going to.
Trip and fall on something.
You're going to tripand fall on something,
even if you're good with money and you'regood with making sure your taxes are
paid and you're good with making surethat there's a maintenance schedule for
(08:19):
your equipment. Yourissue might be people.
Are you good with workingwith people? Luckily,
I'm blessed to have good people skills,so that wasn't the thing. But for me,
it was the management of the money.
And I think as far as whenwas I closest to quitting,
it wasn't so much closest to quitting.
It was questioning myself whether I wassmart enough to do this because I just
(08:41):
was juggling things and things werefalling through the cracks and one night
because we just financiallywere not where we needed to be.
One night I get a knock on the doorand it was like two o'clock in the
morning and this guy isasking for the keys to my
truck.
Who was it?
It was the repo man. Wow.
(09:04):
I remember thinking, because myhusband went down to answer the door,
obviously I'm a girl.
He's not going to let his wifemask so o'clock in the morning.
So he answers the doorand he is like, Doni,
I think you need to come down here.Because it wasn't the boogeyman.
It was like this guy repo in ourtruck. And the guy's like, yeah,
I don't want to cause any problems.
(09:25):
Just anything that's yours thatyou need to get out of the truck.
You get out of the truck. At the time wehad our lot was actually at our house.
I had a little small farm and weused to keep our trucks in the back,
and so they knew where the truck was.And so I remember I told my husband,
I was like,
give him the keys.And I went back to bed and I slept like a
(09:45):
baby. I can't explainit, it makes no sense.
But I just was done. Iwas like, I give up, Lord.
I'm too stupid to do this. I'm so stupid.
I don't even know how to manage ourmoney so that our trucks don't get
repossessed. And so I toldmy husband, I was like,
I don't know what I'm goingto do tomorrow. I was like,
but I can't live like this anymore becausemy husband's very detail oriented and
(10:08):
I'm more of the people person.So in my mind I'm like,
I don't know how I'm dotomorrow, but I'm done.
I just was done. So I don't think Iwas necessarily in that moment going to
quit, but I just didn'thave anything left in me.
I got up the next day and peopleare calling me about stuff.
Trucks need to be fixed. I got jobs.Life was going to do it. I was like, oh,
(10:30):
so I got to go to work.So I just went back to work.
I explained to the guys,yeah, we're down a truck,
because Doni couldn't take care ofthings in a timely manner. And honestly,
I feel like our guys locked in andwas like, no, we're doing this.
Humility always galvanizes.
Always. It does. It does.
One thing I heard John Maxwellsay, I love this is he said,
(10:51):
the lack of momentum makesus look worse than we are.
And a lot of momentum makesus look better than we are.
That's so true. So true.
And so if our listenersright now have no momentum,
you're probably not asbad as you think you are.
It just feels that way andit looks that way and hey,
and when you start getting thatmomentum again and you start,
you're don't get too much of an egobecause It makes you look better than you
(11:13):
are too.
Exactly. But also you got to make sureyou have momentum in the right direction.
So for me,
I needed to find somebody that could helpme manage the money or I needed to be
better at managing the money. Justhonestly, just be honest with myself.
And so we did some Dave Ramseywith our company and with our
personal finances, and honestly,
(11:34):
I will not sit up here right now and saythat we're where we need to be. I mean,
we're definitely way better than we were,
but I have dreams that are even biggerThan where I
am right now. So even for rightnow, as successful as we've become,
I want to go even further.
So going back to what you weretalking about with John Maxwell,
(11:55):
we actually have one of our team leaders,
actually the vice presidentof our company, IU Gonzalez,
who's actually leading a training rightnow using the 21 Irrefutable Laws of
Leadership. And he's doing thatwith all of our team leads.
And that was the other thing I had tolearn is to be able to let go and let the
people that are really good in my companydo what they do best. I Don't have to
(12:16):
hang on for dear lifebecause I've got good people,
but somebody watching this justgetting started might go, well,
how do you get good people? Itstarts with you being a good person.
And be honest, the first.
Law is the first law of hisfirst laws is law of the lid.
And the organization is dependenton how good of a leader is
(12:37):
leading it. And if your lid islow, you're not a good leader,
you're not have good organization. So itis look in the mirror is the first law.
Absolutely. And I think that's oneof the reasons why as a company,
we are a company of leadersbecause we like to nurture leaders.
And I had to learn that, likeyou said, the law of the lid,
I had to get out of my own way, butwhile getting out of my own way,
(12:58):
I had to get better.One of my old mentors used to say,
in order for things to change,
I have to change in order for thingsto get better, I have to get better.
And that's what I've had to do,and I'm continually doing it.
I'm watching content online.
I'm taking classes online and going toseminars and webinars because I want to
be a better leader.
(13:18):
I don't know what it's like to builda hundred million dollar company,
but I'm watching people that havealready done it and learning, okay,
this is what I'm going to need to do tonavigate this company in that direction.
Doni,
this is a great conversation and I wantto pause for a minute to talk about
Jobber because you've been using Jobberin your business for over five years
now.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you've said it is changedeverything. Tell us about that.
(13:40):
Well, I don't want to be redundant.It keeps saying it's a game changer,
but it really is, and not onlythat, it puts things in place.
There's a lot of times with businesspeople, we talk about invoicing,
we talk about accounts receivables,we talk about our estimates,
you talk about keeping your crewsand knowing where they're at.
All of that can be done inJobber. All of that's in Jobber.
(14:03):
And we actually used to useanother software prior to Jobber,
and it was just primarily just forwriting estimates and invoicing.
And then of course, our adminteam would keep track of expenses.
But with Jobber, yougot it all right there.
And it's such a simple interface.A simple program to
master. It really is.
(14:23):
And each one of our team leads usesJobber All we do is get them set up,
give them a little bit ofinformation, a few tutorials,
and they're on their way.
And that helps me feel better becauseI know I've got a system that is almost
plug and play for the most part.
Yeah technicians pull their phone out,see what's on the schedule and go,
and it's that simple.
That's what my day to day is.
(14:45):
Yeah.
Pull your phone out and go. Evenwith our leads, with our estimator,
our salespeople and our techniciansboth use Jobber to run their day to
day.
Yeah. Awesome. I'm gladit's worked for you well.
It's worked well.
It will work well for you too.
If you feel like you've got estimatesover here and jobs here and payments here
and invoices here and quotes, noneof that. Yeah, bring it all in house.
(15:07):
Bring it under Jobber one roof.It'll make your life so much easier.
So go to Jobber.com/podcast deal,
get the exclusive discount and start usingJobber right now. So once you got out
of the worst part and things were start,what were some of those nuts and bolts?
What are some things that you did mayberun the money, maybe around operations,
managing people?
(15:27):
What were some of those things thatyou did that really made a difference?
Organizing myself. Literallyorganizing myself, organizing my day,
writing things down. Honestly,
writing things down andalso learning who I am.
There are just some things I'm reallygood at and there are other things I'm not
good at. Once again,
the managing of the money was notnecessarily my strong suit. So guess what?
(15:49):
I have to have somebody thatmanages the receivables,
manages collections.
Invoices.
So I can make some moneyand stuff like that,
but I need somebody that actuallysits at a desk and goes, okay,
these are all the open invoices. Let mereach out to those people. Once again,
Jobber actually makes that easier becauseyou get all these automated responses
(16:10):
that you could send to people.
So was cash flow aproblem in the beginning?
Yeah.
Oh my goodness. You do the work,not get paid, spend too much money.
Well, here's the thing,you're not the only one.
And that's what we're havingthis conversation because there's many more just
like you who struggle withthat in the beginning.
Well, cash flow was an issue, but also,
(16:30):
there was an issue with menot realizing who my customer
was. We've been blessed to have reallygood people almost from the beginning,
the initial group of people we had notso great, but as we went on in time,
we've got better and better in people.Well, if you get better people,
you've got to pay them better andcharge more, and you charge more, right?
I was just so concerned aboutfilling up the schedule that I'm
(16:55):
putting people on the schedule thatmaybe they can't afford us or maybe they
don't value us in order topay their invoices on time.
And so then you run around chasingpeople. So I had to really learn, well,
who is our client? I had to learn,
my client isn't the guy that's lookingfor the cheapest price that if somebody
opens the door and be like, I hopeyou're cheap. I be like, okay,
I'm not the tree service for you.
(17:16):
Then you give your competitor his nameand being okay with saying no, Because if
you say no to this, you're sayingyes to something else. I always say,
if you say no to this,you're saying yes to that.
So that's what we really try to focuson is making sure we're attracting
our customers and goingback to doing the hard work.
And what I see with a lot of entrepreneursis that they don't want to do,
(17:37):
they don't want to look inthe mirror and just say,
I'm not good at this and I need help.
I love asking for help.
My ego is like this as far as wanting abigger business and all those kinds of
things. Yeah, big ego there, but asfar as the day-to-day little ego, why?
Because if I let my ego lead,
(17:57):
I'm not going to open myselfup to get the help that I need,
but also know that I've got something tobring to the table and that it's my job
to bring something to the tablefor my team and for my customers,
and that I need to walk in that.
It's okay to have a bigdream and have humility too.
There you go.
You can have both.
So you start getting some team membersin place and you're starting to get some
(18:19):
momentum a little bit maybe once youhit a million or two or something like
that. What were some of the things thatyou did in terms of accountability,
team culture? How does thatall play into your success?
Well, traction has alsobeen a game changer for us.
If people aren't familiar withthat, it's a book by Gino Wickman.
We actually started utilizing tractionin our business, all that kind of stuff.
(18:39):
Yeah, absolutely. Sothat's been very helpful.
But going back to being a smallbusiness organization, branding,
making sure that the simple things,
making sure all of our guyshave red shirts, our color,
making sure our people look goodwhen they show up on the job site.
Now in the tree care industry,obviously at the end of the day,
we're going to be sweaty and ourshirt might get ripped, or you got.
(19:01):
To start off strong, startthe day looking fresh.
Exactly. Start the day lookingfresh. And then also, a lot of times,
business people don't want tohave those hard conversations.
Sometimes you have to tell somebodyyou're just not the right fit.
Let's talk about the hardconversations, because for me,
that's been part of my journey too.How did you get over being a pushover?
(19:23):
Were you a pushover? I was a pushover.No, no. Okay, let's talk about it. Let's.
Talk about it. No. Okay. Realquick. Sorry. When I was in retail,
I had a mentor that she was actually adistrict manager for one of the stores
that I worked for. And she said to me,she goes, Doni, you'll go far in life,
but what's going to stopyou is you have no tact.
(19:44):
And what had happened was one of theguys that was my assistant manager at one
of my stores, he had body odor. So insteadof pulling him aside and saying, Hey,
you have a little, is there a problem?I've noticed a little bit of odor.
I didn't say that. I waslike, Hey, you stink.
Smell that.
And it hurt his feelings. And hewent and told my district manager,
and then she comes to thestore, she's like, listen,
(20:05):
I want to see you go far in life,but you've got to learn some tact.
So that's been a problem for mefrom the beginning is having tact.
It's possible to say theright thing the wrong way.
Exactly, exactly. So I had to learn tact.
I also had to learn different personalitytraits just because I want to hear it
straight. If I've got somethingin my teeth, I want you to say,
you got something in my teeth. If Ismell bad, I want you to say, Doni,
(20:27):
you stink. Most peopleare not cut out that way.
So I really had to learn how to manage
people. That was a big part of my journey,was learning how to manage people.
For me, it was not assumingthe worst of people,
giving people the benefit of thedoubt. Hey, why did you do that?
(20:48):
You want to clobber them? Why did youdo that? Well, because X, Y, and Z. Oh.
And then you're like, oh, that makessense. I was about to clobber you,
but now that I found out the rest of thecontext and understand why you did it
actually makes perfect sense now.
And that communication is soimportant to business and asking
questions, not assuming the worst,giving the benefit of the doubt,
(21:09):
not cutting people off.
To a certain extent, to a certain extent,
because I did go through a phasewhere I held onto people too long.
We literally had a driver that weshould have let go a long time ago.
He would have a little mistakehere, a little mistake there,
but instead of learning from themistakes, there was always an excuse.
It was always somebody else's fault.
Oh yeah.
Until one day he took mygrapple truck and he ripped the
(21:32):
power lines down a whole street.
Whatever wire was hanging low, hetook it down. So I started getting.
It's your fault.
It's your fault.
It's not my fault.
And what's funny is my daughters atthe time were like eight and 10 years
old, and they were like, couldyou please fire him? Mommy.
(21:55):
Needless to say, that person'sno longer with us anymore,
but I used to hang on peoplea little bit too long.
We all.
Exactly.
It's so much easier to keep peopleout than to get 'em out later.
Yeah, absolutely.
And so if you can just make surethat you do your due diligence,
parade these new people in front of yourcurrent people, and they'll tell you,
that guy's not going to cut'em in, not hire that guy.
(22:17):
And our people will do that. We actuallyare like gatekeepers of the culture,
the company, and that's a beautifulthing to watch. And actually,
I don't do the first interview anymore.She have one of our team members,
Fatima, she's our HR manager.She will do the first interview,
and if they can get past her,
then they could see me or eitherIU to get another interview.
One of the things we love totalk about is radical honesty,
(22:39):
and we got that from Ray Dalio.
He has a book called Principles that isa must read for anybody out there that
wants to scale and grow their businessor just understand really important
principles in life and in business.What he talks about is radical honesty.
And so for us,
I'd rather have the hard conversation nowas opposed to sweeping something under
(22:59):
the rug or making it too soft. And aperson is like, oh, it's not that bad.
And I'm like, no, it really is.
I've got three takeaways here I wantto share with the audience that I think
will inspire them. Number one is don'tquit. Setbacks are part of the journey.
Failure, feeling a fraud, feeling likeyou're just not going to good enough.
We've all been there. It's part of thejourney. So don't quit. Keep going.
Press on. Number two is self-awareness.Look in the mirror and say,
(23:22):
who do I need to be to be a good leader?
How can I take this business tothe next level? It starts with me.
I am the lid of my organization, andso if I don't like where the lid is,
I need to improve. I need to getbetter. Number three is communication.
I don't think there's anything moreimportant than communication in an
organization. Making surethat you communicate with people in an effective way.
Listening, well, two ears and one mouth,
(23:43):
making sure that you don'tassume the worst of people.
Give them benefit of the doubtsand communication will galvanize,
humility will galvanize anorganization around a common goal.
Ineffective communication is just a greatway to make everything rot. So Doni,
thank you so much for beinghere. I really appreciate it.
Oh, you're welcome. Andthank you for having me.
I think this has been incredibleand I love what you guys do.
I love the difference youguys have made in our company,
(24:03):
so I'm actually honored tobe here, and I appreciate it.
There is someone out there who's aboutto quit, speak to 'em, encourage 'em.
What would you say to them?
First of all, don't quit. And wetalked about having hard conversations,
and one of the hardest conversations youcan have is with yourself and a lot of
people that we have these bigdreams that we have these big goals,
but then we get in the mire ofeverything and we think, oh,
(24:26):
I must be doing something wrongbecause it's hard and actually hard is
part of the journey.
Sometimes the best thing that I can dois have a hard conversation with myself
and go, Hey, what are my habits,
rituals and routines are myhabits supporting what that big
dream is? Do a self-assessmentand realize that you can do it.
(24:48):
Don't quit and get the information youneed to be the best you that you can be.
The only people who get hurt on arollercoaster are the ones who jump off.
There you go.
Yeah.
That's right.
Doni, thanks for being here. Howdo people find out more about you?
Well, you can find out moreabout me by going to our website,
www.donstree.com. And me specifically,
you can hit me at thetree lady on Instagram,
(25:09):
or you can find us on Instagramat Dons tree service, atl.
Awesome. Well, thanks for beinghere. I really appreciate it.
I appreciate you having me.
And thank you for listening.
I hope you're inspired by Doni's storyin her business. She's crushing it.
I hope that you go crush it aswell. I'm your host, Adam Sylvester.
You can find me@adamsylvester.com.
Your team and your clients andyour family deserve your very best.
(25:30):
So go give it to 'em.
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