July 21, 2025 • 50 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's cold, Jerry.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's cold.
Speaker 3 (00:03):
We're recording now.
So you know, welcome to thedumpster fire.
That is the NerdBrand Podcast.
I'm all in, yeah, we're all in.
We're here today with MikeMason from the Lawn Pro and
we're going to chat about well,it's going to be all about him
and, you know, dig into the.
You're going to be a littlepunny on this show.
(00:24):
So we're going to dig into theroots of the successful
landscaping business with youand it's over two decades of
experience.
You've been at this for a while.
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Almost three.
It'll be three next month, inSeptember.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
All right.
Well, all right Three decades,30 years.
Yeah, stay tuned in for about 30years worth of entrepreneurship
and landscaping from Mike upnext.
We're back.
(01:10):
Welcome to this episode of theNerdBrand Podcast.
We dig into the roots ofsuccessful landscaping business
with our guest from the lawn pro, mike Mason.
With over two decades ofexperience, we just now learned
it's almost three, and you'vegrown from a local lawn care
service to a trusted name acrosslouisville and southern indiana
.
So, uh, we're gonna talk alittle bit about branding,
building trust and the not sopretty side of entrepreneurship.
(01:31):
Whether you're a business owner, marketer or just love a
well-kept yard, this show mightbe for you.
So welcome, mike.
Thank you for coming on theshow.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
It's your first time yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, yeah, Welcome to the madness.
And you're like well, what'sthis thing y'all been doing for
like 255 episodes like this,this right here.
So this theme is growth fromthe ground up Again to our
audience.
I told you this would be punnyand I think that's a word.
(02:03):
I don't know if it's a word, ifyou can spell it it is now it
is.
Now we're going to uncover howyou navigated some changes in
the industry, because I thinkwith any business there's so
many freaking changes thathappen now week to week.
I mean, we all pivot is likethat meme that's on the episode
of Friends.
I think we're all screamingpivot.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Trying to get the couch up the steps.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah, that's how it is right.
It's like, how do I get thecouch up the steps today on
Tuesday, Because then I've gotto figure start all over again
on Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
If you go through one more pivot, you might end up
like Chandler and just go shutup, shut up, shut up.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Oh my gosh.
Anyways, tell our audience abit about you, to kind of open
us up, give us a little bit ofyour origin story and then, yeah
, we'll get some.
We'll ask you some questionshere.
We're kind of curious about theknow.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, so we we, Mike Mason, married got two kids,
three grandkids.
I started working at Lawn Pro.
Lawn Pro was started by mybrother-in-law and my
father-in-law company in 1995.
(03:22):
My sister-in-law came on boardkind of in the sales role.
I was more operations.
My brother-in-law sort ofexited the company.
He went to work for Ford MotorCompany and so, yeah, I took
over the operations in 2000.
And then my wife, Dana, and Ipurchased the company from my
(03:44):
father-in-law March 20th of 2020, which is, as most know, the
height of the COVID or thepandemic and yeah, so we've been
off and running for a long timeand we have seen a lot.
The industry has changed a lot,Business has changed a lot.
The industry has changed a lot,Business has changed a lot.
(04:05):
And yeah, so we're just tryingto pivot and figure it out every
single day, right, Like everysingle day.
So, yeah, we have about 27 teammembers.
We do work, like you said,Jason, we do work in the
Louisville area all the way downto E-Town and then as well as
into Southern Indiana, probablyas north as about Sellersburg,
(04:27):
something like that kind of ayou know geography of where we
operate, if you will.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it's like you said.
I mean, I think the mantra I'vehad a lot of conversations with
business owners.
We, you know, we picked up anew client.
It's a, she's a nursepractitioner and, um, you know
she does direct primary care andyou know she asks a lot of
questions.
I said that's fine, that's kindof what we're here for.
It's like we're consultants aswell as we are as creatives, so
it's like an amalgamation of thetwo in our agency.
(04:57):
But it's like the number onerule of uh, I've been telling
business owners lately and Ithink it gives them a little bit
of comfort at least I hope itdoes.
It's like figure it out is yourmantra.
Like you're never going toleave that state of figuring and
trying to figure it out,because there's always something
to come.
Um, yeah, so that is.
I didn't know you were papaw.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I uh, yes, yeah yeah, I've got um, two, two, uh,
fosters and one biological anduh, so we're navigating that and
that is interesting, to say theleast, frustrating.
It's every emotion that you canpossibly imagine.
But yeah, so there are threeboys under the age of three.
(05:41):
The oldest is three and there'sthree, two and Mason is eight
months now.
So yeah, it is.
It is interesting when theycome over to coach and DD's
house and as they wear us out,so they my, my, you know, at 40,
when I was, I was in my fortiesand you know I wasn't going to
(06:02):
be called grandpa and so my, myname is called Grandpa and so my
name is Coach.
And then my wife Dana's name isDee, dee, yeah, yeah, so they
call me Coach.
Yeah, so it's not Grandpa.
I couldn't do that.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
That's how my mom.
She didn't want to be calledGranny or Mama.
My mom's name is Joni and shetook the J name and they call
her Jama.
Yeah, Nice.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I didn't know it was such a hard thing.
You know what I mean.
Like I had a Meemaw and Peepawand a Granny and Grandpa when I
was a kid, you know.
So that was that was all I knew, I guess, if you will.
And then it's like hold on asecond, I'm not going to be
called Grandpa, I'm not going tobe gonna be, you know, it's
like I'm not.
Yeah, I'm still in my 40s rightnow, bro, come on, now I'm in
(06:49):
my 50s, so maybe it gets alittle easier, I guess right,
yeah, yeah, I kind of nowunderstand why.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Uh, of course mitch is in his 60s and I kind of
understand now why he's likecool with it, because he didn't
seem.
He seemed proud of it when hegot his hat, and it makes sense
now when you were like whatyou're in for.
Grandkids are awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Kids are okay.
Grandkids are fantastic, though, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
That's about being an auntie and mine are about to be
about three hours away.
They my brother's in themilitary, so it's constantly
like we see him every once in awhile.
But now that he'll be within athree hour drive, they'll be
coming over to my house andrunning amok probably.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, they're awesome, they're fun,
they're a lot of fun, a lot offun for sure what was your you
know?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
do you remember your first client and what that
experience was like?
You had to name names.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, Not really Because, like I said, I joined
the company.
So my daughter, she just turned30.
So when she was born, dana andI weren't married.
It was, you know, it was a, itwas a thing.
(08:06):
And so I was working two jobsand going to school full time,
but I was not in, not during thesummer.
So I kind of had a traditionalcollege path where I was taking
college, you know, in UofL, for,you know, in the, in the fall
and spring semester and then Iwould work full time, you know,
(08:28):
through that at the end.
And so I was working at UPS andat a, at a place called Ezra
materials over in Sellersburg,indiana, which is not a, not a
happy place there's nothingpretty about that, but it you
know.
So I was in school, my dad wasthe operations manager, our
production manager over there,and they had a program for
(08:50):
college students of employees,and so, yeah, I did that in 1993
, 1994, and the summer of 1995.
And McKenzie was born in summerof 1995, um, and mckenzie was
(09:11):
born in in june of 95, and so Iwas working at ups and at asrock
.
So I go to asrock from 7 to 330 and then go see mckenzie and
dana spend an hour or two withthem and um, and then would go
to ups for four hours and unload, package cars and get home 930,
10 o'clock at night, get up atsix in the morning and do it
again.
So, yeah, well then my brother,that's where my brother-in-law
(09:32):
and father-in-law came to me.
It's like, hey, you know, weneed help, we're starting to
grow this business it's it'sgetting some legs and you know,
can you know we'll work aroundyour school, all that, and so
that was a big deal for mebecause I was determined and you
know my mom was adamant that Ifinish school and you know,
(09:54):
school probably was for me.
I don't think it is for everyoneand you know, as a person of
the trades, like you know, wehave a lot of, we have a lot of
team members that, um, that doreally really well and don't
have a formal education but areare very bright and very
talented and um, yeah, you know,and I think sometimes we miss
that, uh, in society we'vealways been where we have to.
(10:18):
You know, that was when I wasgrowing up.
It was like you got to go tocollege, you've got to go to
college, you've got to go tocollege, you got to go to
college.
You got to go to college.
You won't have a future if youdon't.
And I don't think that's trueany longer.
But yeah, so that was aninteresting summer.
That summer of 95 was probablyit was like the best and worst
summer of my life.
It was the best because mydaughter and she has just turned
(10:42):
into this fantastic human beingand I'm so proud of her.
But the work was brutal.
I mean brutal.
Yeah, I run Jackhammer and dothings like that all morning and
afternoon and then go unloadthe brown package cars for four
hours, learn to drive a stickmoving those trucks around.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
So all was not locked yeah, skill sets you're gonna
get in the classroom, that's forsure that's right, that's
exactly right yeah, I meanbecause I know, I know like, uh,
you know, I think we all knowmike rowe and and and how he is
sort of like forging and hasbeen for years about trades and
and going to schools and gettinga, you know, not necessarily a
degree but just a skill set.
(11:26):
You know there's like 8 millionpositions open, I think is what
I last heard him say about, youknow, the trade market and that
just seems to be growing.
It seems like a lot of people,kayla's age especially, are kind
of starting to drift towardthat way, because I mean, it's
sort of I think it provides alittle bit more meaning.
I mean I I remember when Iremember you said 1995 and I was
(11:48):
just like I think I was 18.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I wasn't even thought of yet I was 20.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I was 20 in 1995.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yeah, maybe I need to go back and see.
I graduated high school in 94.
And Mike and I are old enoughthat we actually were around
when email came out, so thatsays something.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
the internet oh, it's like I'll leave out the name of
the person that invented it,but I remember the advent of the
internet as he did yeah, thatyou remember.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Like dude you're getting adele, you remember all
those things, all those.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then when we were kids,like there was a commercial that
was for our parents and it waslike it's 10 o'clock, do you
know where your children are?
Yeah, literally they were inthat at 10 am.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Oh man.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Do you know where your kids are?
Yeah, oh man, do you know whereyour?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
kids are yeah.
Have you hugged your kid today?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah, it's like my word, like the 90s were crazy.
Oh they were awesome though.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, they were awesome.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Oh yeah, you didn't have anybody's fire hose, nobody
cared.
You know, you just walk up inthe yard, turn the thing, do
that.
Don't do that today, kids.
That's not a good idea.
The kids are watching this.
I hope that would be veryembarrassing.
Anyway, so you've been.
Here's a big question for you.
You've been in business for 20years, no-transcript people and
(13:22):
cash.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Amen, right, and maybe not in that order
depending on the day, but butyeah, I mean just you know, we
have obviously been in businessover 20 years, almost 30.
We, we've, we've made a lot ofmistakes and, and I guess the
(13:46):
biggest challenge and I hopethat at the end of the movie,
when they talk about me longafter I'm gone that we did it
the right way and we made a lotof mistakes but we owned them,
and so I think that was a bigchallenge and it's just keeping
your integrity through, throughit all Right, like doing the
(14:08):
right thing, no matter theexpense, no matter what it costs
, like right, you know.
And one of my favorite sayingsis like you know, as long as
we're still breathing, we canalways make more money.
Yeah, you know, and so, but we,you know, and we can just yeah
and like, so we just yeah.
I guess that's I'm trying tokind of summarize that.
You know, isn't it like youknow, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
We don't really necessarily, and it sounds out
this sounds weird to say and I'msure it's going to be even
weirder to hear, but hey, youknow, this is the Nerd Brand
podcast.
This isn't you know.
This isn't you know.
This isn't.
Like you know, sean whateverhis name was, it just had
governor newsome on um.
It's like you know, weliterally are um, like I've said
before, where you just are inthe business of just always
(14:53):
trying to figure it out and asentrepreneurs, we don't
necessarily know how somethingor need to know how something
works.
We just know how to take it andmake money from it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
That's cold.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, it's kind of like the way it is with
entrepreneurship, like a trueentrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, yeah, and you know, and we have, as
entrepreneurs, we have such ahigh level of responsibility,
right, I mean, like we are,we're shepherds of our team and
we need to lead them well.
And so you know, when I hadsaid people, you know, we've
been in business 30 years, wehave 20, a team of somewhere we
fluctuate between 25 and 30.
We probably need to be about 30full if we're full force.
(15:36):
But you know, we've employedover 500 through the years.
Maybe I think we might even bepushing up on 1,000.
Maybe something cool That'd bea cool stat to know is if I
could figure that out.
You know what I mean, I don'tknow where I get some of those
records from, but just growing,learning, when I was in my 20s I
(15:58):
thought I knew everything.
When I was in my 30s, I began toplot and formulate plans for
future, and then in my forties,you know that got better and in
my fifties now it's like it'sserving others, right, like so
you just kind of you walk thosestages of life, which has been
cool, uh, but it's challenging,right.
(16:20):
I mean, you know, noteverybody's, not everybody buys
into what you're selling, evenwhen you're selling to your team
, what we do and who we are andhow we've become very, very
picky about the people that areon our team.
We had to let a guy go lastweek and it's like you just
(16:43):
can't be on our team.
I'm sorry it's not working.
I grew up in sports, so from anentrepreneurial, from a
leadership perspective, I dothings like a coach.
That's why my grandkids call mecoach and I try to lead that
way, because I feel it's myobligation to steward this
company to the best of myability, because it's not mine
(17:07):
and yeah, so just leading peopleand learning how to do that and
navigate through thegenerations, because it was very
different in the 90s than it isin the 2020s.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Oh yeah, I mean it's amazing over the last five years
how things have changed.
I remember when I you know, Ithink my first company I started
was in.
It was in 2008.
I have this weird thing aboutstarting things during crises,
so I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, it was one of our best years ever.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
It was a terrible year, right, I mean yeah, I
don't want to think maybe I'mgonna take this lesson and have
this epiphany on the show rightnow.
I'm going to hold on toNerdBrand for a while because I
don't know if I can do anothercrisis.
It's like, hey, economiccollapse, start an agency.
Yeah, I mean it worked out.
It got absorbed by another onein 2014.
(18:01):
But then, after taking a breakand then starting another one
during a pandemic, I'm like Igot bad.
I feel like I got bad timingsometimes.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, Well, that's key to life is timing.
Timing is everything it's anelement that is impeccable
timing.
Like I, just I don't, Like I donot have good timing, that's
for sure.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah, you know, but you know you learn a lot of like
hard lessons in that way oflike what not to do.
I've always learned that way.
I don't know if that's how youthink, but for me I've always
been um sounds weird to say this, but thinking negatively, not
not pessimistic negatively, butkind of like an inverse of logic
of um, like what not to do,learning from lessons of what
not to do in order to figure outwhat to do, instead of trying
(18:42):
to do things and then learn fromthe mistake.
You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, I know A hundred percent Right.
I mean it's was it Einstein,right?
That, like he figured out orEdison, I think, whoever it was
the light bulb like?
What is it Like?
1500, 2000.
It's like I've learned 2000ways and 3,000 ways not to make
a light bulb.
You know what I mean, andthat's one of the things I like
to say is, if it stings, itsticks, right.
(19:07):
So when you're in business andsomething happens that hurts, I
mean like it stings, you feel it, you feel it in your core, that
sticks with you and you adjustright.
That sticks with you and youadjust right.
And so the entrepreneurs andthe excuse me, the leaders that
win are able to take thosenegative things, learn from them
(19:32):
, overcome them and make surethey do not get repeated right.
And then, in the inverse isalso true the things that do
work, you work to repeat themover and over again.
And uh, yeah, like that'sanother favorite saying of mine
if it stings, it sticks, and.
And if it isn't, wasn't for badluck, I wouldn't have any luck.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
So like, yeah, that was, um, that that is most of my
experience and learning and mygrowth has come through failures
and challenges for sure becauseI've always had the philosophy
like we're learners, you know,like you know, some people say
I'm a teacher, I think you're alearner, you're always a learner
(20:13):
.
There was actually a book onthis.
Um, I think it was like sevenprinciples of learning or
something.
I had it back when I was inschool in my 30s and, um, yeah,
you're always a learner and Ithink, like, in our season of
life, you know, you become thatperson where you are a steward,
you're still learning.
How do you like, for example, Iwatch a lot of podcasts done by
(20:35):
veterans.
You know they're in their 30s,they're younger than you and I,
but they served in Afghanistan,they were in Iraq, they were,
were in you know a lot of thesefields and now they're
podcasting and I guess theirndas with the pentagon have
expired because they face stuffand I hear I'm like, like whoa,
that seems scary because, uh, anexample of that was one guy
(20:58):
said that we have a system andSCRAM or something like that.
Basically, if a battleshipfires a Patriot missile and we
have an F-35 in the air 100miles out, it can take over the
telemetry of that missile andguide it to a destination, much
like a baton runner will pass abaton to another runner on a
(21:21):
track to get to the goal.
We've been doing this since the90s, right, I'm like.
So what you're saying is thePentagon's been messing with AI
for way longer than we want toall say, right?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Very, very scary Right, very scary.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
But I watch these guys.
They've become masters atcontent creation.
They've become masters atmarketing and branding.
One of them I'll give a nod tois fat electrician.
Um, you know he has made achannel out of teaching
historical stuff.
He is a great guy.
Fat electrician is so fun tolisten to in the stories,
especially war stories, where hetold the story of when Franklin
Delano Roosevelt and his team,the president, they went to sail
(22:10):
across the ocean in a ship.
And then another battle,another destroyer was escorting
them across, you know, to watchout for U-boats, and they
decided to have a little wargame.
And so they would like ping theother ship and go ha ha ha, we
got you, we shot you.
And then the ship that thepresident was on was like, yay,
whatever, you hit us.
And then they went for a whileand they said, ok, and it's a
(22:31):
sub Actually it was a submarine,yeah, sub, that was actually
shooting at him, one of ours orsomething.
And they were like launchtorpedo to number number two.
And he's like ping.
And he's like, yeah, we got youagain, ha, ha.
And then the guy goes launchtorpedo two, number three.
And the captain's like white,what?
No, that's live.
And they actually shot a livetorpedo at the president of the
(22:52):
United States.
Oh boy, atlantic Ocean.
This is World War II.
Oh boy, somebody's losing theirjob, right?
Somebody's losing their job,right, somebody's losing their
job, somebody's like man.
You'll never guess what I didtoday.
I shot at the president with atorpedo um, and they may keep to
(23:16):
themselves though.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, but yeah that's the kind of information you
share, right?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
their own buttocks but he talks.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
He talks a lot about like how these guys were
strategists and and what theydid, what they built on the fly.
As an entrepreneur, it'sinspirational to me, just
because you know you, you kindof like to see like, okay, well,
it sometimes feels like we'reimposters.
You know imposter syndrome, youknow.
So I don't know how often youstruggle with that, but I kind
(23:47):
of go back to these stories andwhat these stories of these vets
and everything, and that's kindof how I turn off that noise in
my, in my head.
How do you handle impostersyndrome?
Is there an outlet you go to tolisten to or learn from or, you
know, gets you out of that?
Or do you ever struggle withimposter syndrome?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, no, no, yeah, I mean it's.
I'm a human Right.
So, you know, am I worthy?
Am I good enough?
Can I do it?
You know, when I think aboutwhere our company is today and,
and you know, can I lead it tothe next level?
Because growing a business islevels, and it doesn't matter
(24:27):
what industry you're in.
I believe that to be true, thatthere's breakthroughs and
there's levels and that kind ofa thing that you have to work
through.
I probably shouldn't say this ona podcast, but I'm not a big
podcast guy.
I probably shouldn't say thison a podcast, but I'm not a big
podcast guy.
So I listen to and I hate toread, but I do listen to a lot
(24:49):
of audiobooks.
I spend a lot of time travelingaround the area and in my truck
, and so I try to take advantageof that time and I'm the same
way.
I listen to a lot of books thatwere, you know, former navy
seals.
Um, jocko willick is a bit.
I'm a big fan of his, and justhis voice is kind of sounds like
(25:11):
a seal, kind of like a, likejust somebody.
I'm trying to.
I don't, I want to make sureI'm clean, you know my language,
but like somebody you don'thave somebody you don't want to
mess with Somebody you don'twant to mess with.
But yeah, and then like, andthen in the strategy, because
you know it's, I think there wasan old, it was an Asian thing
(25:35):
that like businesses, war orsomething like that.
I don't remember the exact allof the terminology or who said
that, but there's a lot to it.
Right, it's strategy, it's.
It's it's moving on the fly,it's having a plan, a very well
thought out plan that isexecuted very well, that you can
adjust on the fly right.
(25:56):
Like, because it's not nothingever is ever going to go the way
that you think about.
Like that you think it's goingto go Right.
I'm trying to think of theyou'll probably, you could
probably know this one.
It's like.
That went different in my mindIn my head.
Right, yeah, yeah, I forgot.
There's a.
(26:16):
There's a, there's, there's areference somewhere that I can't
remember what it is, but it'slike, yeah, and that I think
that's business.
Right, I mean, I genuinely do,and it is.
It's combat, right, and andlike it was.
Every day is combat, and youknow.
And so you, you devise a plan,you have a plan, you communicate
it, you train on it, and thenthen you have to adjust because
(26:40):
it's something's gonna go, amamiss, right, and just, every
day is something different.
Right, like we blew a rockthrough a window last week.
We got a text yesterday.
It's like, hey, here's my lightbulb on my yard that is blown
out.
Like, did you all do this?
Like probably, I mean, becausethat's everything, but you know
(27:02):
what I mean.
But you know and and so thingshappen.
You have to adjust.
But even through that you learn.
Going back a minute there, youlearn from that.
And so, guess what?
I've got a great company, agreat local company, that does
emergency glass repairspecifically on commercial
properties.
And when I call them at eighto'clock at night and I've got to
(27:24):
secure the owner's privateentry to his office because we
just threw a rock through hisdoor, like, I got to get that
secured tonight and they didright.
And so now we've created arelationship, you know, through
again, that's kind of throughthose struggles and through
those challenges, where you kind, of, through those struggles
and through those challenges,where you can really forge
(27:46):
relationships and partnershipsand things like that.
We're a huge relationshipcompany and, um, yeah, so like
when we threw it through, threwone through a window, a double
pane window that was safe, thatwasn't it's.
We didn't break the inside,blah, blah, blah, and but we had
somebody that they knew, us, wecould contact and they helped
(28:06):
us through that transition andmake sure that that property was
safe and that you know theglass wouldn't fall out or you
know that it was just, it wassafe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean.
So it's again taking achallenge and turning it into a
win right, like, as businessowners, our biggest success
(28:27):
comes from when we take a very,very negative situation and we
handle it well.
And that creates trust.
And every business, in myopinion, has to start.
The foundational cornerstone ofthe business has to be trust
that we trust one another, thatwe're going to do everything we
(28:51):
can to service our team and toservice our clients and to
service our community.
And so that is forged is forgedwhen life is good and
everything's going just as youplanned.
(29:11):
It's not like trust is built,but not like it is.
When we screw them right, likewhen we mess it up, how are you
going to respond?
And we had a situation that Iwon't get into too dirty of the
details, but we had a situationwhere we screwed up.
I mean big time, big timescrewed up to the tune that it
(29:32):
cost us about $50,000 to remedy.
Yeah, yep, but I promise youthat we came through that better
, but I promise you that we camethrough that better.
What was interesting, one ofthe clients that we did not
service well was so impressedhow we handle it.
(30:02):
No-transcript, it's because weowned it, we faced it, we
learned from it.
Number one we made somesignificant changes in our
operation to ensure that cannever happen again.
It's okay.
It's okay to make a mistake,but you can never make the same
mistake twice because if you did, then going back again you
(30:24):
didn't learn from it and we haveto learn.
We have to learn from ourmistakes and I think that's the
key Learning from your mistakes.
And number one ownership ofyour mistakes, ownership of your
role.
In anything right, and theseare the things we preach to our
team.
(30:44):
It's like you're going to screwup, but let's make sure your
mistake, we know about yourmistake before the client knows
about your mistake, right?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
If you threw a rock through a window right, make
sure that we know that you threwthe rock through the window
first so that we can get infront of that.
And it went perfectly.
It was, I mean, like withinfive minutes of it happening.
I was on the, you know, he wason the phone with the operations
manager.
Operations manager is like hey,we've got a problem, I'm
communicating with our accountmanager for that site, I'm on
(31:15):
the phone with our window repairpeople, our glass people, and
so within 20, 30 minutes, we'vecommunicated with the client,
we've communicated what happened, we communicated the fix, we
had a plan and within an hourthey're on site.
And it's like that's where youwin.
(31:36):
Right, it's not the we made abunch of money on this one.
The growth and the win comesfrom.
How do you handle a mistake andcan that client trust you when
you do?
Because we all screw up.
Right, we all screw up.
We're people, we're human, wemake mistakes.
But if you own that and deliverupon that and so like, it's
(31:59):
like what you know, they were soimpressed.
It was like, by the time we letthem know that it happened, we
let them know, hey, we let themknow.
Hey, here's what happened,here's what we're doing, here's
what you can expect.
Let us know if something's.
If there's anything else, letus know what that is.
If there's another problem, letus know what that is and we
will solve that.
(32:20):
Yeah, and they're like, youguys are fantastic.
We just threw a rock throughyour window.
What do you mean?
We're fantastic.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
I know People are afraid to tell those kinds of
stories.
It's like don't bring.
My very first job inengineering I worked in an
office.
My supervisor, danny, was great.
He said look, I just got reallyone rule as your supervisor.
He said don't bring me problems, bring me solutions.
He said, because that's none ofyour job.
And he said as long as you dothat cause, he said, as the
(32:49):
supervisor and lead of the team.
He said I already know theproblem.
I'm relying on you and everyonearound me that I brought into
this circle to help me fix theproblem.
So I already know the problem.
I don't need you to tell mewhat the problem is, but tell me
how you're going to fix it.
What are we going to do tocourse correct that?
And I think that's the yeah,people don't.
I think everybody like you saidI think it's a really good
point to make.
(33:09):
It's like not every win isbecause you got the project or
you got the check.
The win sometimes comes out ofthat arduous thing of that
relationship like, yeah, thishappened, but out of the 90 good
that we did that, 10 was wrong,but% now has become the entire
relationship because of the waywe modeled it and now we have a
(33:29):
client for life.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
That's it when you own it.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
We were doing an organic program for, at the time
, our largest client, his home.
It's acres, it's acres.
We added his home and it'sacres.
(33:58):
Right, it's it's acres.
And we we added a product thatis basically equate.
It's, it's a sticker, so it'sit basically equates to like
soap.
I mean it's really it's.
It doesn't have anything to dowith anything, but when you in
in the mix with the heat and thetiming, blah, blah, blah.
So we smoked his entire yardLike acre and a half, two acres
worth of turf grass Dead.
We killed it and we went in.
(34:20):
It's like okay, you know, thisis not good, this is not good.
Yeah, I mean this client, likethis owner.
It represents about a milliondollars worth of business to our
company.
And um, and we went in and wereceded it and that one was only
(34:43):
like 20 grand.
But they, they will, they referus because it's like, because
it's they just know they cantrust us Stuff happens.
That's it.
Stuff happens.
We're really trying to servethem and getting into a space
early on in the organic worldand trying to figure some things
out.
(35:03):
We made a mistake.
We made a mistake and um didn'tconsider the temperatures and
didn't understand the way thisproduct reacts with temperature
changes and uh, it was bad, itwas bad.
Yeah, but like early on he stilltells me that, though he still
(35:23):
is like, still brings it up likein a positive way, yeah, and
tells his friends, lions, runwith lions, and this guy has his
own airplane and blah, blah,blah, very well off, does very
well.
That solidified.
After that our relationshipgrew.
(35:47):
I had not had much interactionwith this person.
It's a big company, it'swhatever.
I didn't really deal with theowner, but now I deal with the
owner.
He even called me a couple ofweeks ago, maybe a month or two
ago, and he's likecongratulations On what he's
(36:08):
like, congratulations on thelist.
He's like you're in myfavorites on my phone.
I don't know I have arrived,right, you know what I mean.
But also that's not easy toshare.
It's not easy to share, right,like it's not easy to share.
But for somebody listening thatjust has has their company,
(36:31):
their team has done something.
Sarah, that's made a big timemistake.
Face it, own it, and I probably, like it'll be like be the
Buffalo, go through that storm,face it head on, get through
that storm and get on the otherside and get to sunnier skies.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yep, I'm going to turn the show over to Mikayla.
Mikayla's got a lightning round.
She's going to take you throughreal quick, so, mikayla did you
get those?
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, I did so nerd lightning round, uh-oh.
So what is your favorite toolin your lawn pro truck you?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
had to pick a favorite my truck.
Yeah, it's air condition, it'sclimate control and I like to be
in it yeah that's fair.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
I don't see it, so I'm right there with you.
It's my favorite exception.
Uh, worst weed to deal with.
I actually want to know thisone too okay, worst weed to deal
with?
Speaker 1 (37:41):
uh, probably crabgrass.
Everything is everything we dois focused around keeping
crabgrass out and preventing itRight, and so, once it went, if
you, if you miss the preventionor you still have breakthrough
all the time, but it's reallyhard to control.
It's really hard to control.
We can do it, but then we starttalking about things that
(38:04):
people that don't like to talkabout anymore, about things that
people that don't like to talkabout anymore.
We need products that, yeah,that are, uh, that are on the
radio that there's so muchmisinformation around it that
I'll just I'll stay away from itbut yeah, let's not.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Let's not get any like cease and desist yeah, yeah
, exactly, exactly my leastfavorite is, uh, pigweed.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
My dad and stepmom have a farm and it's the ones
with the thistles on them.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Oh, okay, is it thistle?
Yeah, because pigweed I'm notfamiliar with, I don't know that
term.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Because it comes with buttercups.
Sometimes too, my stepmom wouldhate buttercup like the yellow
flowers that would just pop outin the pigweed, what they call
it.
It has these thistles on it andI remember I usually wear like
a pair of boots or somethingwhen I'm going out in the field,
but one of these days I justhad flip-flops on and those
thistles got in my toe and ithurt high heavens, so that's my
(39:04):
least favorite weed, yeah, butit'd be like thistle there is a
thistle, bull thistle orsomething like that's.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
That's probably pigweed is probably, is probably
a uh kind of a, a vernacularlike or not a vernacular like a,
you know what I mean.
Like I don't.
I'm too I'm not smart enough toknow the term vernacular of it
like a pseudonym for it.
Yeah, like a common name thatpeople refer to.
(39:32):
Yeah, it's a common name.
I think is probably what I'mlooking for.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
One song you always play while working.
What's that song?
Like your anthem, pick one.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Brothers Osborne.
Good for some, but not foreveryone.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
Can I do that loyal listener payoff?
Yeah, just saying mike is notlooking for sponsorships, but if
you're out there, maybe andhere's my last one.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Uh, favorite kind of lawn to work on.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
How do?
Speaker 1 (40:10):
you mean Like type of turf grass or I don't know.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
I think that was.
I don't believe that Like whatkind of style of grass to plant,
or as far as like terrain even.
I guess it could be, a question.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, slat with fescue is the best.
Yeah, so I know we're thebluegrass state, but bluegrass
does not do well in Kentucky,that's weird, yeah, yeah.
And we have some bluegrass lawnsand in the spring, like April,
(40:49):
and then again in, like October,they're gorgeous but in between
the heat and humidity theydon't hold up, you know.
So I've got friends in thenorth that they use bluegrass
for their sports fields.
Like we would never usebluegrass down here for sports
fields, we would.
We're in a what's called atransition zone.
Bluegrass down here for sportsfields, we're in what's called
the transition zone, so we woulduse in my opinion we would use
(41:11):
warm season turf grasses likeBermuda and Zoysia, things like
that.
So my favorite would be afescue lawn, a full fescue lawn
that's relatively flat, becauseit's easy to mow, it's easy to
maintain, it does well and suitsour climate well.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Since.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
I have a push mow.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
I too like non-hill lawns.
I'm pushing a 200-pound sledacross a gym studio floor.
I'm like but good a gym studiofloor.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
I'm like but good workout yeah, for sure it is a
workout, that's for sure yeah,well, we have.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
I want to put on the screen there.
If everybody is on YouTube, youcan see like you can visit the
lawn pro at lawn procom.
And you know, you know, uh, youknow, see, check out uh, mike
and his team, his projects andthings like that, and mike
appreciate you being on the show.
Um, you know, I've been workingwith you now for quite a while
(42:22):
and it's uh what three years,three, two, I don't know I've
lost, lost count.
It's good.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
I have to rely on my wife.
I was like that was like twoyears ago.
She was like that was sevenyears ago, dummy.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
Dang it.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Yeah, I know my concept of time gets worse and
worse the older I get.
I will say that yeah, it feelslike yesterday.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
It's getting worse for everybody.
I mean, we're in July and we'restill thinking internally like
isn't it June?
Like, no, it's not June, it'sJuly.
It's trucking up, but yeah,yeah, we've been, we love
working with you, your brand andeverything I mean it's.
It's it's like a quiet beastthat's in the community that's
been doing things, and for years, like you said, for 30 years, I
(43:08):
mean that's a long, long timeand you've really established
yourself in the market in manyways, even for, like, off season
services, which you know, a lotof landscapers haven't figured
that one out, and you have Umand so you know that's one of
the things about you apart anduh, so we're really happy to
have you on the show.
I'm sorry we didn't get to talkabout superman.
If mitch was here, we wouldhave talked about that or some
(43:31):
other comic related thing whichwould have been like why, why
are we?
Speaker 1 (43:35):
doing this like I wouldn't even have known how to
answer like yeah, I know, likeyeah, yeah, we all have our
specialties and and I will saymarvel and comics, and I know
it's that's you guys like, y'alllove that.
Like, for me it's like huh what?
Like yeah, I'm an idiot to that, that's for sure yeah, we're
watching that unfold right now.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
That's going to be on a future episode, because we do
have to dive into that, becausethat world has gotten really
weird, wild and I think it'sgoing to get crazier.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Um, you know that's a dc marvel competition.
Is that right's all?
That's the extent of myknowledge on that.
Yeah, it's like I watch thatlike OK, who's going to win this
?
Speaker 3 (44:15):
You remember?
Do you remember this?
You remember HBO?
Like, remember that grand, likeopening?
Yeah, so HBO, they relabeled itMax for their streaming and
then now they just put it back.
They went backward and theyrolled back all that branding
from max.
Now it's again, it's hbo max,and one of the leading shows
they're going to have is a spacecop show, and the space cop
(44:37):
show is the green lanterns.
It is going to be hal jordanand john stewart.
Not john stewart from thecomedian.
There's actually a greenlantern who's a marine and his
name is John Stewart.
So it's a live action show.
Now Nathan Fillion, who playsanother Green Lantern, will have
likely an episode with them onthat show as well.
(44:58):
So yeah, and Homelander, whichhas John Cena, nathan Fillion,
he will make an appearance asthe Green Lantern that he's
playing in the Superman movie.
He will make an appearance onthere in an episode as the Green
Lantern there.
So yeah.
(45:18):
I did, yeah, well, it was reallyfunny.
I was watching an interview andyou know this is really
sidetracked.
This is the part where weactually got this far in going
off the rails.
So good job, everybody,especially me.
But it was like theyinterviewed James Gunn and they
asked him.
He said yeah, how'd it go?
And he said well, he said I gota text message from Ryan
Reynolds and he said man,congratulations.
And then he said after that Iasked him.
(45:40):
I said would you want to beGreen Lantern?
And Ryan Reynolds said F.
It went so poorly the firsttime understood, yeah, yeah, but
I guess that's the new erawe're going into.
So, finally, somethingdifferent.
Besides, you know, the same old, same old.
So it's like we've had chickensandwich long enough, let's get
(46:00):
some meat.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
And um, yeah, there's no, uh, no originality in
hollywood, I think everybody'sso scared to do anything, so
we've lost comedy.
Stuff's not even funny anymore,you know what I mean, Mike.
We're going to offend somebody.
Suck it up, buttercup.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
Well it's like all the characters that James Gunn
is playing with are propertiesthat our generation actually
remembers, like Supergirl.
I'm not opposed to a Supergirlmovie at all.
I'm like it kind of feelsoverdue, really really overdue.
I'm very curious as to who'sgoing to play Wonder Woman.
Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
I'm going to have to get my ass into the gym.
No sleeping, workout, workout,running constantly Cardio.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
I think DC's strength .
They'll have their featurefilms here and there, but I
think that they put more oftheir effort into streaming
shows and episodic stuff.
I think they'll do much, muchbetter.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
I think that's what Marvel's doing, because Marvel
did the same thing with She-HulkWandaVision.
They added to the timeline.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
Yeah, it's like every other show they put out hit and
then it's sort of like StarTrek.
You know the Star Trek pictures, the motion pictures.
You know the Star?
Trek pictures, the motionpictures, I don't know if you're
.
So.
The very first movie is boringas hell, right, because it's
just like a bunch of stuff witha ship, you know, and it was
like the first time they got touse a full-scale model in a
feature film.
So they're like Like everythingwas a ship.
(47:39):
Then you had Wrath of Khan, acomplete flip on its head and
that's the one that stands out.
And then you got Spock.
You know the search for Spock,another snoozer.
And then you had a hit withThor Voyager.
It was like it was only theeven numbers that worked well
for them in that franchise andit's almost like Marvel.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Yeah, it's like Marvel's sort of in that vein.
Yeah, because Star Trek 5sucked, star Trek 6, yeah, it
was a little better.
And then they did the next oneand it was like look, kirk died.
We know you really need to havea movie about that, and so I
think Marvel's kind of that way.
It's like every other one.
(48:18):
It's just kind of the thing.
It's in the movie industry,it's in the nerdverse, it's hit
and misses, it's like what wetalked about today, but anyhow.
But yeah, we did spare you abit of that with Mitch not being
with us today, so he's going tomiss out on this.
He regrets not being with us.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
All I got is Wrath of Khan.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
That's all I know on the Star Trek thing.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
My dad was a big Star Trek, so I remember watching it
on Saturday mornings, I think,if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Is that right Was?
Speaker 1 (48:44):
it Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings?
Speaker 3 (48:46):
Oh no, I think it was Sunday.
No, because we would have beenin church.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
Yeah, I think it was Saturdays.
Yeah, we used to watch the show.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
I guess I remember watching the reference one yeah,
yeah, next Generation was.
I believe it was.
Yeah, was it NBC?
Or is it ABC?
Maybe I don't know.
That's so long ago.
No, it was CBS, because that'sParamount, that's Viacom, that's
who owns the property isParamount.
So yeah, but yeah, yeah, we getinto that.
I got a friend, she's got astudio and we're going to go
(49:13):
down to Ornsboro.
She's filming a sci-fi feature.
So she's like you should comedown and check it out.
We're doing a sci-fi film.
She's got a 50,000 square.
I've known her for years andshe's just like, yeah, just come
on down here.
And I'm like, oh yeah, you justjust shoot.
Just shoot a sci-fi feature.
Yeah, sure, I'll just roll upto the studio and the guard will
be like, yeah, you know theowner, great, come on in.
(49:34):
I'm like that's not how it'sgoing to go.
That's not how it's going to go.
I'm going to be in like thesheriff's, rolling up and saying
like he knows that, yeah, so,anyways, what's for that in the
news, everybody?
Anyways, if you like thisepisode, subscribe to the nerve
brand podcast at nerve brandagencycom slash podcast.
(49:57):
You can sign up for ournewsletter.
We don't spam.
You can follow us on Facebookand Instagram and all the other
places.
And, you know, make sure thatyou also do the same for Mike.
He's out there as well, at thelawn pro.
The handles that you'll findfor him and all of our handles
are at nerd brand agency.
This episode will be on YouTube.
So I do have to give the littleYouTube thing where you have to
(50:19):
subscribe and notification bellto those watching on YouTube.
You know, I know you'reprobably looking for that little
graphic down there.
Um, we's poor, we hadn't gotthat yet, so you got me saying
it.
So, anyways, if you do enjoythis episode, do please let us
know and be sure that you alwaysremember to keep your nerve
(50:39):
bands strong.
It's cold, Jerry.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's cold.
Speaker 3 (00:03):
We're recording now.
So you know, welcome to thedumpster fire.
That is the NerdBrand Podcast.
I'm all in, yeah, we're all in.
We're here today with MikeMason from the Lawn Pro and
we're going to chat about well,it's going to be all about him
and, you know, dig into the.
You're going to be a littlepunny on this show.
(00:24):
So we're going to dig into theroots of the successful
landscaping business with youand it's over two decades of
experience.
You've been at this for a while.
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Almost three.
It'll be three next month, inSeptember.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
All right.
Well, all right Three decades,30 years.
Yeah, stay tuned in for about 30years worth of entrepreneurship
and landscaping from Mike upnext.
We're back.
(01:10):
Welcome to this episode of theNerdBrand Podcast.
We dig into the roots ofsuccessful landscaping business
with our guest from the lawn pro, mike Mason.
With over two decades ofexperience, we just now learned
it's almost three, and you'vegrown from a local lawn care
service to a trusted name acrosslouisville and southern indiana
.
So, uh, we're gonna talk alittle bit about branding,
building trust and the not sopretty side of entrepreneurship.
(01:31):
Whether you're a business owner, marketer or just love a
well-kept yard, this show mightbe for you.
So welcome, mike.
Thank you for coming on theshow.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
It's your first time yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, yeah, Welcome to the madness.
And you're like well, what'sthis thing y'all been doing for
like 255 episodes like this,this right here.
So this theme is growth fromthe ground up Again to our
audience.
I told you this would be punnyand I think that's a word.
(02:03):
I don't know if it's a word, ifyou can spell it it is now it
is.
Now we're going to uncover howyou navigated some changes in
the industry, because I thinkwith any business there's so
many freaking changes thathappen now week to week.
I mean, we all pivot is likethat meme that's on the episode
of Friends.
I think we're all screamingpivot.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Trying to get the couch up the steps.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah, that's how it is right.
It's like, how do I get thecouch up the steps today on
Tuesday, Because then I've gotto figure start all over again
on Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
If you go through one more pivot, you might end up
like Chandler and just go shutup, shut up, shut up.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Oh my gosh.
Anyways, tell our audience abit about you, to kind of open
us up, give us a little bit ofyour origin story and then, yeah
, we'll get some.
We'll ask you some questionshere.
We're kind of curious about theknow.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, so we we, Mike Mason, married got two kids,
three grandkids.
I started working at Lawn Pro.
Lawn Pro was started by mybrother-in-law and my
father-in-law company in 1995.
(03:22):
My sister-in-law came on boardkind of in the sales role.
I was more operations.
My brother-in-law sort ofexited the company.
He went to work for Ford MotorCompany and so, yeah, I took
over the operations in 2000.
And then my wife, Dana, and Ipurchased the company from my
(03:44):
father-in-law March 20th of 2020, which is, as most know, the
height of the COVID or thepandemic and yeah, so we've been
off and running for a long timeand we have seen a lot.
The industry has changed a lot,Business has changed a lot.
The industry has changed a lot,Business has changed a lot.
(04:05):
And yeah, so we're just tryingto pivot and figure it out every
single day, right, Like everysingle day.
So, yeah, we have about 27 teammembers.
We do work, like you said,Jason, we do work in the
Louisville area all the way downto E-Town and then as well as
into Southern Indiana, probablyas north as about Sellersburg,
(04:27):
something like that kind of ayou know geography of where we
operate, if you will.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it's like you said.
I mean, I think the mantra I'vehad a lot of conversations with
business owners.
We, you know, we picked up anew client.
It's a, she's a nursepractitioner and, um, you know
she does direct primary care andyou know she asks a lot of
questions.
I said that's fine, that's kindof what we're here for.
It's like we're consultants aswell as we are as creatives, so
it's like an amalgamation of thetwo in our agency.
(04:57):
But it's like the number onerule of uh, I've been telling
business owners lately and Ithink it gives them a little bit
of comfort at least I hope itdoes.
It's like figure it out is yourmantra.
Like you're never going toleave that state of figuring and
trying to figure it out,because there's always something
to come.
Um, yeah, so that is.
I didn't know you were papaw.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I uh, yes, yeah yeah, I've got um, two, two, uh,
fosters and one biological anduh, so we're navigating that and
that is interesting, to say theleast, frustrating.
It's every emotion that you canpossibly imagine.
But yeah, so there are threeboys under the age of three.
(05:41):
The oldest is three and there'sthree, two and Mason is eight
months now.
So yeah, it is.
It is interesting when theycome over to coach and DD's
house and as they wear us out,so they my, my, you know, at 40,
when I was, I was in my fortiesand you know I wasn't going to
(06:02):
be called grandpa and so my, myname is called Grandpa and so my
name is Coach.
And then my wife Dana's name isDee, dee, yeah, yeah, so they
call me Coach.
Yeah, so it's not Grandpa.
I couldn't do that.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
That's how my mom.
She didn't want to be calledGranny or Mama.
My mom's name is Joni and shetook the J name and they call
her Jama.
Yeah, Nice.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I didn't know it was such a hard thing.
You know what I mean.
Like I had a Meemaw and Peepawand a Granny and Grandpa when I
was a kid, you know.
So that was that was all I knew, I guess, if you will.
And then it's like hold on asecond, I'm not going to be
called Grandpa, I'm not going tobe gonna be, you know, it's
like I'm not.
Yeah, I'm still in my 40s rightnow, bro, come on, now I'm in
(06:49):
my 50s, so maybe it gets alittle easier, I guess right,
yeah, yeah, I kind of nowunderstand why.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Uh, of course mitch is in his 60s and I kind of
understand now why he's likecool with it, because he didn't
seem.
He seemed proud of it when hegot his hat, and it makes sense
now when you were like whatyou're in for.
Grandkids are awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Kids are okay.
Grandkids are fantastic, though, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
That's about being an auntie and mine are about to be
about three hours away.
They my brother's in themilitary, so it's constantly
like we see him every once in awhile.
But now that he'll be within athree hour drive, they'll be
coming over to my house andrunning amok probably.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, they're awesome, they're fun,
they're a lot of fun, a lot offun for sure what was your you
know?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
do you remember your first client and what that
experience was like?
You had to name names.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, Not really Because, like I said, I joined
the company.
So my daughter, she just turned30.
So when she was born, dana andI weren't married.
It was, you know, it was a, itwas a thing.
(08:06):
And so I was working two jobsand going to school full time,
but I was not in, not during thesummer.
So I kind of had a traditionalcollege path where I was taking
college, you know, in UofL, for,you know, in the, in the fall
and spring semester and then Iwould work full time, you know,
(08:28):
through that at the end.
And so I was working at UPS andat a, at a place called Ezra
materials over in Sellersburg,indiana, which is not a, not a
happy place there's nothingpretty about that, but it you
know.
So I was in school, my dad wasthe operations manager, our
production manager over there,and they had a program for
(08:50):
college students of employees,and so, yeah, I did that in 1993
, 1994, and the summer of 1995.
And McKenzie was born in summerof 1995, um, and mckenzie was
(09:11):
born in in june of 95, and so Iwas working at ups and at asrock
.
So I go to asrock from 7 to 330 and then go see mckenzie and
dana spend an hour or two withthem and um, and then would go
to ups for four hours and unload, package cars and get home 930,
10 o'clock at night, get up atsix in the morning and do it
again.
So, yeah, well then my brother,that's where my brother-in-law
(09:32):
and father-in-law came to me.
It's like, hey, you know, weneed help, we're starting to
grow this business it's it'sgetting some legs and you know,
can you know we'll work aroundyour school, all that, and so
that was a big deal for mebecause I was determined and you
know my mom was adamant that Ifinish school and you know,
(09:54):
school probably was for me.
I don't think it is for everyoneand you know, as a person of
the trades, like you know, wehave a lot of, we have a lot of
team members that, um, that doreally really well and don't
have a formal education but areare very bright and very
talented and um, yeah, you know,and I think sometimes we miss
that, uh, in society we'vealways been where we have to.
(10:18):
You know, that was when I wasgrowing up.
It was like you got to go tocollege, you've got to go to
college, you've got to go tocollege, you got to go to
college.
You got to go to college.
You won't have a future if youdon't.
And I don't think that's trueany longer.
But yeah, so that was aninteresting summer.
That summer of 95 was probablyit was like the best and worst
summer of my life.
It was the best because mydaughter and she has just turned
(10:42):
into this fantastic human beingand I'm so proud of her.
But the work was brutal.
I mean brutal.
Yeah, I run Jackhammer and dothings like that all morning and
afternoon and then go unloadthe brown package cars for four
hours, learn to drive a stickmoving those trucks around.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
So all was not locked yeah, skill sets you're gonna
get in the classroom, that's forsure that's right, that's
exactly right yeah, I meanbecause I know, I know like, uh,
you know, I think we all knowmike rowe and and and how he is
sort of like forging and hasbeen for years about trades and
and going to schools and gettinga, you know, not necessarily a
degree but just a skill set.
(11:26):
You know there's like 8 millionpositions open, I think is what
I last heard him say about, youknow, the trade market and that
just seems to be growing.
It seems like a lot of people,kayla's age especially, are kind
of starting to drift towardthat way, because I mean, it's
sort of I think it provides alittle bit more meaning.
I mean I I remember when Iremember you said 1995 and I was
(11:48):
just like I think I was 18.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I wasn't even thought of yet I was 20.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I was 20 in 1995.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yeah, maybe I need to go back and see.
I graduated high school in 94.
And Mike and I are old enoughthat we actually were around
when email came out, so thatsays something.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
the internet oh, it's like I'll leave out the name of
the person that invented it,but I remember the advent of the
internet as he did yeah, thatyou remember.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Like dude you're getting adele, you remember all
those things, all those.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then when we were kids,like there was a commercial that
was for our parents and it waslike it's 10 o'clock, do you
know where your children are?
Yeah, literally they were inthat at 10 am.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Oh man.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Do you know where your kids are?
Yeah, oh man, do you know whereyour?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
kids are yeah.
Have you hugged your kid today?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah, it's like my word, like the 90s were crazy.
Oh they were awesome though.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, they were awesome.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Oh yeah, you didn't have anybody's fire hose, nobody
cared.
You know, you just walk up inthe yard, turn the thing, do
that.
Don't do that today, kids.
That's not a good idea.
The kids are watching this.
I hope that would be veryembarrassing.
Anyway, so you've been.
Here's a big question for you.
You've been in business for 20years, no-transcript people and
(13:22):
cash.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Amen, right, and maybe not in that order
depending on the day, but butyeah, I mean just you know, we
have obviously been in businessover 20 years, almost 30.
We, we've, we've made a lot ofmistakes and, and I guess the
(13:46):
biggest challenge and I hopethat at the end of the movie,
when they talk about me longafter I'm gone that we did it
the right way and we made a lotof mistakes but we owned them,
and so I think that was a bigchallenge and it's just keeping
your integrity through, throughit all Right, like doing the
(14:08):
right thing, no matter theexpense, no matter what it costs
, like right, you know.
And one of my favorite sayingsis like you know, as long as
we're still breathing, we canalways make more money.
Yeah, you know, and so, but we,you know, and we can just yeah
and like, so we just yeah.
I guess that's I'm trying tokind of summarize that.
You know, isn't it like youknow, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
We don't really necessarily, and it sounds out
this sounds weird to say and I'msure it's going to be even
weirder to hear, but hey, youknow, this is the Nerd Brand
podcast.
This isn't you know.
This isn't you know.
This isn't.
Like you know, sean whateverhis name was, it just had
governor newsome on um.
It's like you know, weliterally are um, like I've said
before, where you just are inthe business of just always
(14:53):
trying to figure it out and asentrepreneurs, we don't
necessarily know how somethingor need to know how something
works.
We just know how to take it andmake money from it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
That's cold.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, it's kind of like the way it is with
entrepreneurship, like a trueentrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, yeah, and you know, and we have, as
entrepreneurs, we have such ahigh level of responsibility,
right, I mean, like we are,we're shepherds of our team and
we need to lead them well.
And so you know, when I hadsaid people, you know, we've
been in business 30 years, wehave 20, a team of somewhere we
fluctuate between 25 and 30.
We probably need to be about 30full if we're full force.
(15:36):
But you know, we've employedover 500 through the years.
Maybe I think we might even bepushing up on 1,000.
Maybe something cool That'd bea cool stat to know is if I
could figure that out.
You know what I mean, I don'tknow where I get some of those
records from, but just growing,learning, when I was in my 20s I
(15:58):
thought I knew everything.
When I was in my 30s, I began toplot and formulate plans for
future, and then in my forties,you know that got better and in
my fifties now it's like it'sserving others, right, like so
you just kind of you walk thosestages of life, which has been
cool, uh, but it's challenging,right.
(16:20):
I mean, you know, noteverybody's, not everybody buys
into what you're selling, evenwhen you're selling to your team
, what we do and who we are andhow we've become very, very
picky about the people that areon our team.
We had to let a guy go lastweek and it's like you just
(16:43):
can't be on our team.
I'm sorry it's not working.
I grew up in sports, so from anentrepreneurial, from a
leadership perspective, I dothings like a coach.
That's why my grandkids call mecoach and I try to lead that
way, because I feel it's myobligation to steward this
company to the best of myability, because it's not mine
(17:07):
and yeah, so just leading peopleand learning how to do that and
navigate through thegenerations, because it was very
different in the 90s than it isin the 2020s.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Oh yeah, I mean it's amazing over the last five years
how things have changed.
I remember when I you know, Ithink my first company I started
was in.
It was in 2008.
I have this weird thing aboutstarting things during crises,
so I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, it was one of our best years ever.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
It was a terrible year, right, I mean yeah, I
don't want to think maybe I'mgonna take this lesson and have
this epiphany on the show rightnow.
I'm going to hold on toNerdBrand for a while because I
don't know if I can do anothercrisis.
It's like, hey, economiccollapse, start an agency.
Yeah, I mean it worked out.
It got absorbed by another onein 2014.
(18:01):
But then, after taking a breakand then starting another one
during a pandemic, I'm like Igot bad.
I feel like I got bad timingsometimes.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, Well, that's key to life is timing.
Timing is everything it's anelement that is impeccable
timing.
Like I, just I don't, Like I donot have good timing, that's
for sure.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah, you know, but you know you learn a lot of like
hard lessons in that way oflike what not to do.
I've always learned that way.
I don't know if that's how youthink, but for me I've always
been um sounds weird to say this, but thinking negatively, not
not pessimistic negatively, butkind of like an inverse of logic
of um, like what not to do,learning from lessons of what
not to do in order to figure outwhat to do, instead of trying
(18:42):
to do things and then learn fromthe mistake.
You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, I know A hundred percent Right.
I mean it's was it Einstein,right?
That, like he figured out orEdison, I think, whoever it was
the light bulb like?
What is it Like?
1500, 2000.
It's like I've learned 2000ways and 3,000 ways not to make
a light bulb.
You know what I mean, andthat's one of the things I like
to say is, if it stings, itsticks, right.
(19:07):
So when you're in business andsomething happens that hurts, I
mean like it stings, you feel it, you feel it in your core, that
sticks with you and you adjustright.
That sticks with you and youadjust right.
And so the entrepreneurs andthe excuse me, the leaders that
win are able to take thosenegative things, learn from them
(19:32):
, overcome them and make surethey do not get repeated right.
And then, in the inverse isalso true the things that do
work, you work to repeat themover and over again.
And uh, yeah, like that'sanother favorite saying of mine
if it stings, it sticks, and.
And if it isn't, wasn't for badluck, I wouldn't have any luck.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
So like, yeah, that was, um, that that is most of my
experience and learning and mygrowth has come through failures
and challenges for sure becauseI've always had the philosophy
like we're learners, you know,like you know, some people say
I'm a teacher, I think you're alearner, you're always a learner
(20:13):
.
There was actually a book onthis.
Um, I think it was like sevenprinciples of learning or
something.
I had it back when I was inschool in my 30s and, um, yeah,
you're always a learner and Ithink, like, in our season of
life, you know, you become thatperson where you are a steward,
you're still learning.
How do you like, for example, Iwatch a lot of podcasts done by
(20:35):
veterans.
You know they're in their 30s,they're younger than you and I,
but they served in Afghanistan,they were in Iraq, they were,
were in you know a lot of thesefields and now they're
podcasting and I guess theirndas with the pentagon have
expired because they face stuffand I hear I'm like, like whoa,
that seems scary because, uh, anexample of that was one guy
(20:58):
said that we have a system andSCRAM or something like that.
Basically, if a battleshipfires a Patriot missile and we
have an F-35 in the air 100miles out, it can take over the
telemetry of that missile andguide it to a destination, much
like a baton runner will pass abaton to another runner on a
(21:21):
track to get to the goal.
We've been doing this since the90s, right, I'm like.
So what you're saying is thePentagon's been messing with AI
for way longer than we want toall say, right?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Very, very scary Right, very scary.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
But I watch these guys.
They've become masters atcontent creation.
They've become masters atmarketing and branding.
One of them I'll give a nod tois fat electrician.
Um, you know he has made achannel out of teaching
historical stuff.
He is a great guy.
Fat electrician is so fun tolisten to in the stories,
especially war stories, where hetold the story of when Franklin
Delano Roosevelt and his team,the president, they went to sail
(22:10):
across the ocean in a ship.
And then another battle,another destroyer was escorting
them across, you know, to watchout for U-boats, and they
decided to have a little wargame.
And so they would like ping theother ship and go ha ha ha, we
got you, we shot you.
And then the ship that thepresident was on was like, yay,
whatever, you hit us.
And then they went for a whileand they said, ok, and it's a
(22:31):
sub Actually it was a submarine,yeah, sub, that was actually
shooting at him, one of ours orsomething.
And they were like launchtorpedo to number number two.
And he's like ping.
And he's like, yeah, we got youagain, ha, ha.
And then the guy goes launchtorpedo two, number three.
And the captain's like white,what?
No, that's live.
And they actually shot a livetorpedo at the president of the
(22:52):
United States.
Oh boy, atlantic Ocean.
This is World War II.
Oh boy, somebody's losing theirjob, right?
Somebody's losing their job,right, somebody's losing their
job, somebody's like man.
You'll never guess what I didtoday.
I shot at the president with atorpedo um, and they may keep to
(23:16):
themselves though.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, but yeah that's the kind of information you
share, right?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
their own buttocks but he talks.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
He talks a lot about like how these guys were
strategists and and what theydid, what they built on the fly.
As an entrepreneur, it'sinspirational to me, just
because you know you, you kindof like to see like, okay, well,
it sometimes feels like we'reimposters.
You know imposter syndrome, youknow.
So I don't know how often youstruggle with that, but I kind
(23:47):
of go back to these stories andwhat these stories of these vets
and everything, and that's kindof how I turn off that noise in
my, in my head.
How do you handle impostersyndrome?
Is there an outlet you go to tolisten to or learn from or, you
know, gets you out of that?
Or do you ever struggle withimposter syndrome?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, no, no, yeah, I mean it's.
I'm a human Right.
So, you know, am I worthy?
Am I good enough?
Can I do it?
You know, when I think aboutwhere our company is today and,
and you know, can I lead it tothe next level?
Because growing a business islevels, and it doesn't matter
(24:27):
what industry you're in.
I believe that to be true, thatthere's breakthroughs and
there's levels and that kind ofa thing that you have to work
through.
I probably shouldn't say this ona podcast, but I'm not a big
podcast guy.
I probably shouldn't say thison a podcast, but I'm not a big
podcast guy.
So I listen to and I hate toread, but I do listen to a lot
(24:49):
of audiobooks.
I spend a lot of time travelingaround the area and in my truck
, and so I try to take advantageof that time and I'm the same
way.
I listen to a lot of books thatwere, you know, former navy
seals.
Um, jocko willick is a bit.
I'm a big fan of his, and justhis voice is kind of sounds like
(25:11):
a seal, kind of like a, likejust somebody.
I'm trying to.
I don't, I want to make sureI'm clean, you know my language,
but like somebody you don'thave somebody you don't want to
mess with Somebody you don'twant to mess with.
But yeah, and then like, andthen in the strategy, because
you know it's, I think there wasan old, it was an Asian thing
(25:35):
that like businesses, war orsomething like that.
I don't remember the exact allof the terminology or who said
that, but there's a lot to it.
Right, it's strategy, it's.
It's it's moving on the fly,it's having a plan, a very well
thought out plan that isexecuted very well, that you can
adjust on the fly right.
(25:56):
Like, because it's not nothingever is ever going to go the way
that you think about.
Like that you think it's goingto go Right.
I'm trying to think of theyou'll probably, you could
probably know this one.
It's like.
That went different in my mindIn my head.
Right, yeah, yeah, I forgot.
There's a.
(26:16):
There's a, there's, there's areference somewhere that I can't
remember what it is, but it'slike, yeah, and that I think
that's business.
Right, I mean, I genuinely do,and it is.
It's combat, right, and andlike it was.
Every day is combat, and youknow.
And so you, you devise a plan,you have a plan, you communicate
it, you train on it, and thenthen you have to adjust because
(26:40):
it's something's gonna go, amamiss, right, and just, every
day is something different.
Right, like we blew a rockthrough a window last week.
We got a text yesterday.
It's like, hey, here's my lightbulb on my yard that is blown
out.
Like, did you all do this?
Like probably, I mean, becausethat's everything, but you know
(27:02):
what I mean.
But you know and and so thingshappen.
You have to adjust.
But even through that you learn.
Going back a minute there, youlearn from that.
And so, guess what?
I've got a great company, agreat local company, that does
emergency glass repairspecifically on commercial
properties.
And when I call them at eighto'clock at night and I've got to
(27:24):
secure the owner's privateentry to his office because we
just threw a rock through hisdoor, like, I got to get that
secured tonight and they didright.
And so now we've created arelationship, you know, through
again, that's kind of throughthose struggles and through
those challenges, where you kind, of, through those struggles
and through those challenges,where you can really forge
(27:46):
relationships and partnershipsand things like that.
We're a huge relationshipcompany and, um, yeah, so like
when we threw it through, threwone through a window, a double
pane window that was safe, thatwasn't it's.
We didn't break the inside,blah, blah, blah, and but we had
somebody that they knew, us, wecould contact and they helped
(28:06):
us through that transition andmake sure that that property was
safe and that you know theglass wouldn't fall out or you
know that it was just, it wassafe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean.
So it's again taking achallenge and turning it into a
win right, like, as businessowners, our biggest success
(28:27):
comes from when we take a very,very negative situation and we
handle it well.
And that creates trust.
And every business, in myopinion, has to start.
The foundational cornerstone ofthe business has to be trust
that we trust one another, thatwe're going to do everything we
(28:51):
can to service our team and toservice our clients and to
service our community.
And so that is forged is forgedwhen life is good and
everything's going just as youplanned.
(29:11):
It's not like trust is built,but not like it is.
When we screw them right, likewhen we mess it up, how are you
going to respond?
And we had a situation that Iwon't get into too dirty of the
details, but we had a situationwhere we screwed up.
I mean big time, big timescrewed up to the tune that it
(29:32):
cost us about $50,000 to remedy.
Yeah, yep, but I promise youthat we came through that better
, but I promise you that we camethrough that better.
What was interesting, one ofthe clients that we did not
service well was so impressedhow we handle it.
(30:02):
No-transcript, it's because weowned it, we faced it, we
learned from it.
Number one we made somesignificant changes in our
operation to ensure that cannever happen again.
It's okay.
It's okay to make a mistake,but you can never make the same
mistake twice because if you did, then going back again you
(30:24):
didn't learn from it and we haveto learn.
We have to learn from ourmistakes and I think that's the
key Learning from your mistakes.
And number one ownership ofyour mistakes, ownership of your
role.
In anything right, and theseare the things we preach to our
team.
(30:44):
It's like you're going to screwup, but let's make sure your
mistake, we know about yourmistake before the client knows
about your mistake, right?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
If you threw a rock through a window right, make
sure that we know that you threwthe rock through the window
first so that we can get infront of that.
And it went perfectly.
It was, I mean, like withinfive minutes of it happening.
I was on the, you know, he wason the phone with the operations
manager.
Operations manager is like hey,we've got a problem, I'm
communicating with our accountmanager for that site, I'm on
(31:15):
the phone with our window repairpeople, our glass people, and
so within 20, 30 minutes, we'vecommunicated with the client,
we've communicated what happened, we communicated the fix, we
had a plan and within an hourthey're on site.
And it's like that's where youwin.
(31:36):
Right, it's not the we made abunch of money on this one.
The growth and the win comesfrom.
How do you handle a mistake andcan that client trust you when
you do?
Because we all screw up.
Right, we all screw up.
We're people, we're human, wemake mistakes.
But if you own that and deliverupon that and so like, it's
(31:59):
like what you know, they were soimpressed.
It was like, by the time we letthem know that it happened, we
let them know, hey, we let themknow.
Hey, here's what happened,here's what we're doing, here's
what you can expect.
Let us know if something's.
If there's anything else, letus know what that is.
If there's another problem, letus know what that is and we
will solve that.
(32:20):
Yeah, and they're like, youguys are fantastic.
We just threw a rock throughyour window.
What do you mean?
We're fantastic.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
I know People are afraid to tell those kinds of
stories.
It's like don't bring.
My very first job inengineering I worked in an
office.
My supervisor, danny, was great.
He said look, I just got reallyone rule as your supervisor.
He said don't bring me problems, bring me solutions.
He said, because that's none ofyour job.
And he said as long as you dothat cause, he said, as the
(32:49):
supervisor and lead of the team.
He said I already know theproblem.
I'm relying on you and everyonearound me that I brought into
this circle to help me fix theproblem.
So I already know the problem.
I don't need you to tell mewhat the problem is, but tell me
how you're going to fix it.
What are we going to do tocourse correct that?
And I think that's the yeah,people don't.
I think everybody like you saidI think it's a really good
point to make.
(33:09):
It's like not every win isbecause you got the project or
you got the check.
The win sometimes comes out ofthat arduous thing of that
relationship like, yeah, thishappened, but out of the 90 good
that we did that, 10 was wrong,but% now has become the entire
relationship because of the waywe modeled it and now we have a
(33:29):
client for life.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
That's it when you own it.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
We were doing an organic program for, at the time
, our largest client, his home.
It's acres, it's acres.
We added his home and it'sacres.
(33:58):
Right, it's it's acres.
And we we added a product thatis basically equate.
It's, it's a sticker, so it'sit basically equates to like
soap.
I mean it's really it's.
It doesn't have anything to dowith anything, but when you in
in the mix with the heat and thetiming, blah, blah, blah.
So we smoked his entire yardLike acre and a half, two acres
worth of turf grass Dead.
We killed it and we went in.
(34:20):
It's like okay, you know, thisis not good, this is not good.
Yeah, I mean this client, likethis owner.
It represents about a milliondollars worth of business to our
company.
And um, and we went in and wereceded it and that one was only
(34:43):
like 20 grand.
But they, they will, they referus because it's like, because
it's they just know they cantrust us Stuff happens.
That's it.
Stuff happens.
We're really trying to servethem and getting into a space
early on in the organic worldand trying to figure some things
out.
(35:03):
We made a mistake.
We made a mistake and um didn'tconsider the temperatures and
didn't understand the way thisproduct reacts with temperature
changes and uh, it was bad, itwas bad.
Yeah, but like early on he stilltells me that, though he still
(35:23):
is like, still brings it up likein a positive way, yeah, and
tells his friends, lions, runwith lions, and this guy has his
own airplane and blah, blah,blah, very well off, does very
well.
That solidified.
After that our relationshipgrew.
(35:47):
I had not had much interactionwith this person.
It's a big company, it'swhatever.
I didn't really deal with theowner, but now I deal with the
owner.
He even called me a couple ofweeks ago, maybe a month or two
ago, and he's likecongratulations On what he's
(36:08):
like, congratulations on thelist.
He's like you're in myfavorites on my phone.
I don't know I have arrived,right, you know what I mean.
But also that's not easy toshare.
It's not easy to share, right,like it's not easy to share.
But for somebody listening thatjust has has their company,
(36:31):
their team has done something.
Sarah, that's made a big timemistake.
Face it, own it, and I probably, like it'll be like be the
Buffalo, go through that storm,face it head on, get through
that storm and get on the otherside and get to sunnier skies.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yep, I'm going to turn the show over to Mikayla.
Mikayla's got a lightning round.
She's going to take you throughreal quick, so, mikayla did you
get those?
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, I did so nerd lightning round, uh-oh.
So what is your favorite toolin your lawn pro truck you?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
had to pick a favorite my truck.
Yeah, it's air condition, it'sclimate control and I like to be
in it yeah that's fair.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
I don't see it, so I'm right there with you.
It's my favorite exception.
Uh, worst weed to deal with.
I actually want to know thisone too okay, worst weed to deal
with?
Speaker 1 (37:41):
uh, probably crabgrass.
Everything is everything we dois focused around keeping
crabgrass out and preventing itRight, and so, once it went, if
you, if you miss the preventionor you still have breakthrough
all the time, but it's reallyhard to control.
It's really hard to control.
We can do it, but then we starttalking about things that
(38:04):
people that don't like to talkabout anymore, about things that
people that don't like to talkabout anymore.
We need products that, yeah,that are, uh, that are on the
radio that there's so muchmisinformation around it that
I'll just I'll stay away from itbut yeah, let's not.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Let's not get any like cease and desist yeah, yeah
, exactly, exactly my leastfavorite is, uh, pigweed.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
My dad and stepmom have a farm and it's the ones
with the thistles on them.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Oh, okay, is it thistle?
Yeah, because pigweed I'm notfamiliar with, I don't know that
term.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Because it comes with buttercups.
Sometimes too, my stepmom wouldhate buttercup like the yellow
flowers that would just pop outin the pigweed, what they call
it.
It has these thistles on it andI remember I usually wear like
a pair of boots or somethingwhen I'm going out in the field,
but one of these days I justhad flip-flops on and those
thistles got in my toe and ithurt high heavens, so that's my
(39:04):
least favorite weed, yeah, butit'd be like thistle there is a
thistle, bull thistle orsomething like that's.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
That's probably pigweed is probably, is probably
a uh kind of a, a vernacularlike or not a vernacular like a,
you know what I mean.
Like I don't.
I'm too I'm not smart enough toknow the term vernacular of it
like a pseudonym for it.
Yeah, like a common name thatpeople refer to.
(39:32):
Yeah, it's a common name.
I think is probably what I'mlooking for.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
One song you always play while working.
What's that song?
Like your anthem, pick one.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Brothers Osborne.
Good for some, but not foreveryone.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
Can I do that loyal listener payoff?
Yeah, just saying mike is notlooking for sponsorships, but if
you're out there, maybe andhere's my last one.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Uh, favorite kind of lawn to work on.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
How do?
Speaker 1 (40:10):
you mean Like type of turf grass or I don't know.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
I think that was.
I don't believe that Like whatkind of style of grass to plant,
or as far as like terrain even.
I guess it could be, a question.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, slat with fescue is the best.
Yeah, so I know we're thebluegrass state, but bluegrass
does not do well in Kentucky,that's weird, yeah, yeah.
And we have some bluegrass lawnsand in the spring, like April,
(40:49):
and then again in, like October,they're gorgeous but in between
the heat and humidity theydon't hold up, you know.
So I've got friends in thenorth that they use bluegrass
for their sports fields.
Like we would never usebluegrass down here for sports
fields, we would.
We're in a what's called atransition zone.
Bluegrass down here for sportsfields, we're in what's called
the transition zone, so we woulduse in my opinion we would use
(41:11):
warm season turf grasses likeBermuda and Zoysia, things like
that.
So my favorite would be afescue lawn, a full fescue lawn
that's relatively flat, becauseit's easy to mow, it's easy to
maintain, it does well and suitsour climate well.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Since.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
I have a push mow.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
I too like non-hill lawns.
I'm pushing a 200-pound sledacross a gym studio floor.
I'm like but good a gym studiofloor.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
I'm like but good workout yeah, for sure it is a
workout, that's for sure yeah,well, we have.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
I want to put on the screen there.
If everybody is on YouTube, youcan see like you can visit the
lawn pro at lawn procom.
And you know, you know, uh, youknow, see, check out uh, mike
and his team, his projects andthings like that, and mike
appreciate you being on the show.
Um, you know, I've been workingwith you now for quite a while
(42:22):
and it's uh what three years,three, two, I don't know I've
lost, lost count.
It's good.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
I have to rely on my wife.
I was like that was like twoyears ago.
She was like that was sevenyears ago, dummy.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
Dang it.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Yeah, I know my concept of time gets worse and
worse the older I get.
I will say that yeah, it feelslike yesterday.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
It's getting worse for everybody.
I mean, we're in July and we'restill thinking internally like
isn't it June?
Like, no, it's not June, it'sJuly.
It's trucking up, but yeah,yeah, we've been, we love
working with you, your brand andeverything I mean it's.
It's it's like a quiet beastthat's in the community that's
been doing things, and for years, like you said, for 30 years, I
(43:08):
mean that's a long, long timeand you've really established
yourself in the market in manyways, even for, like, off season
services, which you know, a lotof landscapers haven't figured
that one out, and you have Umand so you know that's one of
the things about you apart anduh, so we're really happy to
have you on the show.
I'm sorry we didn't get to talkabout superman.
If mitch was here, we wouldhave talked about that or some
(43:31):
other comic related thing whichwould have been like why, why
are we?
Speaker 1 (43:35):
doing this like I wouldn't even have known how to
answer like yeah, I know, likeyeah, yeah, we all have our
specialties and and I will saymarvel and comics, and I know
it's that's you guys like, y'alllove that.
Like, for me it's like huh what?
Like yeah, I'm an idiot to that, that's for sure yeah, we're
watching that unfold right now.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
That's going to be on a future episode, because we do
have to dive into that, becausethat world has gotten really
weird, wild and I think it'sgoing to get crazier.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Um, you know that's a dc marvel competition.
Is that right's all?
That's the extent of myknowledge on that.
Yeah, it's like I watch thatlike OK, who's going to win this
?
Speaker 3 (44:15):
You remember?
Do you remember this?
You remember HBO?
Like, remember that grand, likeopening?
Yeah, so HBO, they relabeled itMax for their streaming and
then now they just put it back.
They went backward and theyrolled back all that branding
from max.
Now it's again, it's hbo max,and one of the leading shows
they're going to have is a spacecop show, and the space cop
(44:37):
show is the green lanterns.
It is going to be hal jordanand john stewart.
Not john stewart from thecomedian.
There's actually a greenlantern who's a marine and his
name is John Stewart.
So it's a live action show.
Now Nathan Fillion, who playsanother Green Lantern, will have
likely an episode with them onthat show as well.
(44:58):
So yeah, and Homelander, whichhas John Cena, nathan Fillion,
he will make an appearance asthe Green Lantern that he's
playing in the Superman movie.
He will make an appearance onthere in an episode as the Green
Lantern there.
So yeah.
(45:18):
I did, yeah, well, it was reallyfunny.
I was watching an interview andyou know this is really
sidetracked.
This is the part where weactually got this far in going
off the rails.
So good job, everybody,especially me.
But it was like theyinterviewed James Gunn and they
asked him.
He said yeah, how'd it go?
And he said well, he said I gota text message from Ryan
Reynolds and he said man,congratulations.
And then he said after that Iasked him.
(45:40):
I said would you want to beGreen Lantern?
And Ryan Reynolds said F.
It went so poorly the firsttime understood, yeah, yeah, but
I guess that's the new erawe're going into.
So, finally, somethingdifferent.
Besides, you know, the same old, same old.
So it's like we've had chickensandwich long enough, let's get
(46:00):
some meat.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
And um, yeah, there's no, uh, no originality in
hollywood, I think everybody'sso scared to do anything, so
we've lost comedy.
Stuff's not even funny anymore,you know what I mean, Mike.
We're going to offend somebody.
Suck it up, buttercup.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
Well it's like all the characters that James Gunn
is playing with are propertiesthat our generation actually
remembers, like Supergirl.
I'm not opposed to a Supergirlmovie at all.
I'm like it kind of feelsoverdue, really really overdue.
I'm very curious as to who'sgoing to play Wonder Woman.
Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
I'm going to have to get my ass into the gym.
No sleeping, workout, workout,running constantly Cardio.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
I think DC's strength .
They'll have their featurefilms here and there, but I
think that they put more oftheir effort into streaming
shows and episodic stuff.
I think they'll do much, muchbetter.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
I think that's what Marvel's doing, because Marvel
did the same thing with She-HulkWandaVision.
They added to the timeline.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
Yeah, it's like every other show they put out hit and
then it's sort of like StarTrek.
You know the Star Trek pictures, the motion pictures.
You know the Star?
Trek pictures, the motionpictures, I don't know if you're
.
So.
The very first movie is boringas hell, right, because it's
just like a bunch of stuff witha ship, you know, and it was
like the first time they got touse a full-scale model in a
feature film.
So they're like Like everythingwas a ship.
(47:39):
Then you had Wrath of Khan, acomplete flip on its head and
that's the one that stands out.
And then you got Spock.
You know the search for Spock,another snoozer.
And then you had a hit withThor Voyager.
It was like it was only theeven numbers that worked well
for them in that franchise andit's almost like Marvel.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Yeah, it's like Marvel's sort of in that vein.
Yeah, because Star Trek 5sucked, star Trek 6, yeah, it
was a little better.
And then they did the next oneand it was like look, kirk died.
We know you really need to havea movie about that, and so I
think Marvel's kind of that way.
It's like every other one.
(48:18):
It's just kind of the thing.
It's in the movie industry,it's in the nerdverse, it's hit
and misses, it's like what wetalked about today, but anyhow.
But yeah, we did spare you abit of that with Mitch not being
with us today, so he's going tomiss out on this.
He regrets not being with us.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
All I got is Wrath of Khan.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
That's all I know on the Star Trek thing.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
My dad was a big Star Trek, so I remember watching it
on Saturday mornings, I think,if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Is that right Was?
Speaker 1 (48:44):
it Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings?
Speaker 3 (48:46):
Oh no, I think it was Sunday.
No, because we would have beenin church.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
Yeah, I think it was Saturdays.
Yeah, we used to watch the show.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
I guess I remember watching the reference one yeah,
yeah, next Generation was.
I believe it was.
Yeah, was it NBC?
Or is it ABC?
Maybe I don't know.
That's so long ago.
No, it was CBS, because that'sParamount, that's Viacom, that's
who owns the property isParamount.
So yeah, but yeah, yeah, we getinto that.
I got a friend, she's got astudio and we're going to go
(49:13):
down to Ornsboro.
She's filming a sci-fi feature.
So she's like you should comedown and check it out.
We're doing a sci-fi film.
She's got a 50,000 square.
I've known her for years andshe's just like, yeah, just come
on down here.
And I'm like, oh yeah, you justjust shoot.
Just shoot a sci-fi feature.
Yeah, sure, I'll just roll upto the studio and the guard will
be like, yeah, you know theowner, great, come on in.
(49:34):
I'm like that's not how it'sgoing to go.
That's not how it's going to go.
I'm going to be in like thesheriff's, rolling up and saying
like he knows that, yeah, so,anyways, what's for that in the
news, everybody?
Anyways, if you like thisepisode, subscribe to the nerve
brand podcast at nerve brandagencycom slash podcast.
(49:57):
You can sign up for ournewsletter.
We don't spam.
You can follow us on Facebookand Instagram and all the other
places.
And, you know, make sure thatyou also do the same for Mike.
He's out there as well, at thelawn pro.
The handles that you'll findfor him and all of our handles
are at nerd brand agency.
This episode will be on YouTube.
So I do have to give the littleYouTube thing where you have to
(50:19):
subscribe and notification bellto those watching on YouTube.
You know, I know you'reprobably looking for that little
graphic down there.
Um, we's poor, we hadn't gotthat yet, so you got me saying
it.
So, anyways, if you do enjoythis episode, do please let us
know and be sure that you alwaysremember to keep your nerve
(50:39):
bands strong.
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