May 22, 2025 • 62 mins
In this episode of Spectruss Speakeasy, Sam sits down with Austin Webster, third-generation president of The Barn Nursery, to explore how a humble $1,500 roadside fruit stand grew into one of the top nurseries in the country. Austin shares fascinating insights about the plant industry—from seven-year topiary growing processes to managing over a million plants annually—and reveals how Chattanooga's unique biodiversity creates the perfect environment for their business to thrive.
Austin takes us behind the scenes of running a 60-year family business, including how they pivoted during COVID (turning challenges into unexpected efficiencies), their approach to customer service, and why small businesses can outmaneuver corporate giants. He also discusses The Barn's deep community roots through their nonprofit work with Lana's Love, supporting families affected by childhood cancer.
Whether you're a plant enthusiast, business owner, or Chattanooga local, this conversation offers valuable lessons on growth, adaptation, and the power of staying true to your roots while embracing change.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Restaurant at that time was was it 212 Market?
(00:03):
Yeah, that finally closed.
I think that was the onlyrestaurant.
Then Big River came in yeah,that was kind of the first big
one, the brewery and then whenthe aquarium hit it was just
like it started blowing up,right, yeah, now you fast
forward 20 years and it'scompletely different.
I mean the Riverwalk,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Having to expand the interstate for all the traffic
coming in in and everywhere welook like, see you guys plants
now I mean for yeah, seems likecommercial properties and you
mentioned earlier, like I meanhunter museum, ruby falls, rock
city, like yeah, so, and a lotof that.
You know, excitement of seeingthat is over the years.
Uh, because our industry ispretty small.
We've always known the bigplayers and bigger cities and
things like that and went andseen friends in DC or the Boston
area or, you know, even up inMichigan, california, all these
(00:55):
different places and you seeareas where you know the whole
downtown is revitalized.
You have all these planners,all these hanging baskets and
you know it would be.
I mean traveling.
I've always been like man, thatwould be great.
Or you know I'm always takingpictures of plants, nice hotels,
(01:15):
all these different things andwe're getting that.
You know.
And you know we're.
We work a lot with VisionHospitality and you know they're
building that new hotel and youknow they're building that new
hotel and you know they havethat one.
They have all these differentproperties and tons of other.
You know developmentsthroughout town, like Cambridge
Square.
I mean who would have thoughtsomething like that?
(01:35):
I remember the first time Iwent to a friend's house out in
Udawah, you know, in the sixthgrade, I was like man, this is
out here.
And then now I mean, and so nowI mean a lot of those
developments we would see, youknow, in bigger markets.
It was like man, I wish wecould see things like this.
(01:56):
Even when I was in high schoolI would go on some of those
trips with my parents and andthen now, you know, knowing that
we have a few hundred hangingbaskets and I don't know a few
thousand pots downtown, you know, with our flowers in it, every
year is pretty special to seeand it's a point of pride for us
(02:17):
.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, it's got to be, and you break up a good point,
Like whenever you think aboutthe bigger cities, like usually
it's just more and more concrete, right, Like?
More buildings, more concrete,less greenery.
They really have to fight forthose greenscapes and those
green places.
So that's really wherelandscaping comes into play.
You've got to bring that backinto it.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Absolutely, and it is exciting seeing the National
Park City movement.
I know you and I have talkedback and forth on social media a
little bit.
I've seen a few of your posts,you know and commented, and you
know we've talked back and forth, you know, via text or
curiosity about it.
Yeah, and, but you know, Ithink that one of the biggest
(02:55):
things is that there's morebiodiversity than anywhere in
the world other than one placeliterally on the opposite side
of the map in China, other thanone place literally on the
opposite side of the map inChina, in like a 30-mile radius
of Chattanooga, tennessee,because we have all these little
microclimates and stuff so youcan grow more species of plants.
You can also grow more weedsthan anywhere else.
(03:17):
So I bet everybody knows that,but it's really cool.
There's not many places thathave the mountains, the river,
and then you know our downtown,all the small businesses, and
you know, for a town our size,you know the amenities.
You know we fight outside ourweight class and that's, you
(03:39):
know, something we actuallytalked about a little bit
earlier and that's, you know,something we actually talked
about a little bit earlier, butit's you know, to be able to
have.
You know rock climbing,mountain biking, hiking, and you
know a great downtown, like wehave Water sports.
Yeah, the river right throughdowntown, right.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, I mean, and yeah, we have our boat right
there on the river.
I mean it's always a great timeand it's just and the and uh,
it's just and the secret's out.
You know, uh, I guess everybodyknows now, chattanooga is a
pretty great place.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Um.
So it's wild to talk about allthis now and like the thousand
of plants you know just on, likethe commercial side and
downtown.
But then you've got all the youknow.
You've got like the B2C side,business to consumer side, where
you're of course sellinghouseplants, you know people in
apartments, condos, homes, andthen you've got like the
landscaping side where you'reselling for whether it's
residential or commercialprojects.
(04:32):
But all this started was atnight.
I was reading some articlesabout you guys.
What 1968?
And it was you guys bought 1967.
1967.
It was $1,500.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You bought the barn and it was a stand right.
So it was a side-of-the-roadfruit stand in Rossville,
georgia, that my grandparentsbought for $1,500.
But I will say there wasn't aPublix, there wasn't a Food City
to go get your produce from.
So my granddad and then my dadsold a lot of produce.
I actually was talking to a guythe other day, that or
(05:10):
yesterday, and he was working ona project somewhere where I was
and he saw my shirt and stoppedme and talked to me and he was
like I remember going to thebarn when it was in Rossville.
He was like you remember thatand I go.
It'd be hard for me to, becausewe moved our location the year
before I was born and at thattime we were actually renting
the space from Carter Fowler andtheir family and then in the
(05:36):
early 2000s my parents purchasedthe property and tore down a
building, built the biggreenhouses and you know we keep
plugging away there.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, I mean, that's great property because you're in
2475, and I forgot the trafficcount there, but it's
substantial, it's very high,yeah, and it's perfect because
the Missionary Ridge is acomplete, you know, disaster for
traffic and it just backs upand they all sit there right in
front of your place, you knowExactly.
It's kind of the perfectscenario for you all.
You have so much frontage.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
It's great.
You know we get a lot of peoplefrom out of town that you know
stop in.
A lot of people make us, youknow, one of their stops on
vacation.
You know they're like it's agood place to stretch our legs,
use the restroom and, you know,maybe buy a plant or some
pottery.
It's like we're in traffic.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Let's go buy an orchid.
Yeah, we need a new plant.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean, I would do anything other than sit in
traffic, you know.
So that's uh.
Yeah, we definitely uh havesome, some positives there.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
So that's come a long waysbecause you went from $1,500 and
now all these plants and eightfigure business, you know, and,
um, I mean obviously there's alot more to you know, I was
thinking through this as wellbefore he came in, like if I was
trying to manage a businesslike this.
I know nothing about what youguys do in the management, but
it seems like the supply sidecould be.
I mean, there's a lot of hoopsto jump from.
(06:57):
You mentioned that you'rebuying plants all the way out as
far as Oregon and then shippingthem across the country.
Absolutely, and the way youguys pick the suppliers, like
you were telling me earlierabout, like they're all the way
down to the seeds, like they'revery selective.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, the tissue culture and everything.
So a lot of our growers one ofour growers that we buy a good
bit from, is Monrovia.
We're one of their large singlecustomers, customers, and we
work with them a lot.
But when you go to theirfacilities I mean they have
(07:32):
their R&D departments, they'relike you know, turn your phone
off and you know you have tohave like authorization to go in
there.
But it's because I think theyhave a hundred different types
of soil medium that they grow in.
So like they're not puttingaloe in the same soil that they
grow coneflowers in, they're notputting the house plants in the
(07:56):
same thing, they're putting awoody shrub in, and so you can
see all that out there andthey're managing that.
They're managing all the inputsof that.
But they're also managing wherethey're getting their liners
and you know who's growing thatfor them, whether they're doing
it or they're working, you knowwith another vendor on that.
(08:19):
But you know I liken it a lotof times to I mean, it's like a
champion breed hunting dog, youknow.
And so sometimes people will belike well, you know, I want
this locally grown.
I'm like, well, a lot of whatwe have is grown in the state of
Tennessee or in GeorgiaMonrovia has a Georgia location
as well.
But you know there's certainthings that are grown better in
(08:45):
certain climates, Like Oregonfor instance, because of the
temperate climate there you getso many more days where things
can push growth and grow and Ican walk through somewhere and
tell you where something's beengrown and so if you get it grown
to you know a good size outthere, I mean it's set up for
(09:06):
success just like.
But I mean they start down tothe genetics.
Genetics to the soil, to thecare, to the pruning, and you
know, and that's that's what youknow, that's the quality that
you get.
And I know we have some spiralsthat you'll see at the barn.
(09:30):
We kind of have them displayedup front, a bunch of different
topiaries and things like that,and they actually will have them
sectioned off in the fields andshow how many years it takes to
get to the big spiral.
A lot of times it's about aseven-year process.
You go through and you'll seejust the liner.
(09:52):
That's a two-year-old plant.
Then you go to the next block.
They're three years old,they're starting to take shape,
then on up to five and sevenyear where they're mature and
they look perfect.
And then you look at it andyou're you know, you realize how
much time, labor andeverything's been spent on it
and you're like, ok, this isactually a very, very good deal
(10:15):
for what.
You know what is going into it,compared to you know other
things.
We don't sell a manufacturedproduct, right, you know, it's
grown, it's cared for and verythoughtfully selected by us and
our growers, and we only workwith people that stand behind
their product because we'resatisfaction guaranteed.
(10:37):
And if you've got a problem,and if you've ever had a problem
at the barn, we want to takecare of it, we want to deal with
it, and that's been.
The key to our success is, ifsomething ever goes wrong,
something ever goes awry, we'regoing to make it right, and I've
(11:01):
got tons of stories aboutthings that haven't went exactly
right.
But we made it right and that'sthe only way you can do good
business, I believe.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah, absolutely, and I was reading one of the quotes
.
I think you had an article inthe CityScope magazine.
But, talking about how youstart, I think you had a meeting
.
You said big meetings twice ayear and you start the meeting
by identifying who the big bossis, and that's your customers,
you know, and exactly that's sotrue because you've got to get
that one referral business,which you guys have done a great
job, you know, like between allthe different organizations
(11:32):
you're part of here locally, theevents you go to, the people
you help raise money for, butthen also like even the way,
like the messaging, all thatlike it's, um, you know a lot of
humility to it, to where, like,the customers are always right,
sort of thing.
You know it's, yeah, obviouslyworked great for amazon you know
works great for companies,works great for you guys too,
and it's got to help thatsuccess.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
You all have seen well and, and you're right, I
mean we in the meetings that, uh, we have, because the article
that you were talking about wastalking about, you know, being a
third generation person and youknow, and I think that, well,
one of my friends that's aCatholic said, you know, like,
(12:13):
you know, our church is the sameevery week and he's like, well,
it's like a love poem to your,to your girlfriend.
If it's good enough right now,it should be good enough.
You know, love poem to yourgirlfriend.
If it's good enough right now,it should be good enough, you
know, five years from now.
And I kind of, when he saidthat I actually, the way my
brain works, I thought I'm like,well, you know what?
(12:37):
I opened the same way of thosemeetings that my dad always has,
because it's the reason why weare where we are.
And I know some people that youknow they want to put their own
stamp on the business and youknow I've done that in a lot of
ways.
But the old saying, if it ain'tbroke, don't fix it, and you
know, when it's certainly notbroken, it's working.
You know we want to do it thesame, because I mean, I also
(12:59):
tell our employees that and ourteam.
I say if everybody pulls out ofthis gate on a daily basis
happier than they came in andthat can't happen every day with
our employees, sure, but as ageneral rule rule if people are
fulfilled at the end of the day,if our customers leave here and
they feel like they've gotten agood value, they've gotten good
(13:20):
service, they've gotten servicethat they're not going to get
everywhere else, then it's asuccessful day and it will
always provide a good bottomline because we're making sure
we're buying right, we're makingsure we're doing all the things
that we need to do as operators.
So, you know, as long as we'retreating our customers, our
(13:42):
employees, right, you know, Ithink that it always translates
in a healthy bottom line.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, I mean, it's been what it'll be 60 years,
then in two years, yeah, 60years.
So it's obviously paid off.
So many businesses fail in thefirst couple of years, let alone
.
10 years, is a big mark, andnow you're about to be six times
that.
I mean, how many employees doyou guys have now?
Roughly, I'm sure, probably.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
So right now I've got 64, but we still stay under 50
employees for our full-timeequivalent for the year.
So we usually, out of season,are around 40.
And then we go up in the falland then in the spring, spring's
(14:23):
by far our busiest season, okay, and then that property, our
busiest season.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Okay, and then that property you got there is pretty
substantial.
So for those that haven't seen,it might be watching or
listening.
That's what an acre, two acres7.6.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Wow, that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
I'm bad at judging acreage, obviously.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Well it's a long kind of pizza pie-shaped piece of
property.
It doesn't get quite thatnarrow at the end, maybe one
that has a bite taken out of it,but yeah.
So it's kind of more like aflag shape, okay, and so,
anyways, it's kind of hard tosee all of it.
(15:00):
But yeah, we've got a couplehundred parking spaces, which
you know is good, and we've got1.5 acres under roof.
Almost one of those acres isdestroyed right now.
You know, with the hell, I mean, we're still open for business
and still able to house ourproduct in there and everything,
(15:20):
but the roof has a lot of holesin it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, man, I saw that we were talking about it
earlier, but I saw the newschannel through.
That was the first thing I sawof it, of the drone footage, and
, man, that was crazy.
This is the most hail I've everseen.
I also mentioned this earlierMost hail I've ever seen in my
entire life in Chattanooga.
In one year Maybe all the yearsof me living here combined.
It's hailed like, yeah, it'sheld at least, I would say, a
(15:47):
dozen times at my house thisyear.
So bizarre, but it destroyedthat roof you guys have and
you're showing me photos ofhundreds of pounds of ice.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
It looked like like, yeah, in the net broke a steel
cable and the shade clothnetting.
So we have, like you know,something for shade for the
plants.
Uh, that's right outside ourgreenhouse and I mean it was
weighed all the way to theground and had broke a steel
cable.
So I mean it's pretty insane.
And what's also crazy about itis I live like 1.2 miles away
(16:19):
and I showed you like ourdoormat had a few pieces on it
and I took a picture of the sizeof it.
Little did I know the damagethat was you know, yeah, just
less than a mile and a half away.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
You think my buddy doesn't have a joke now.
Well, at least I have a joke.
My buddies just probably laughat me, but I, I think cloud
seating, I think we're stuck incloud seating now this is the
rainiest may I think we've everhad, is what they say, you know
and I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
But I will say that, like I have had times where I
mean it just kind of pops up outof nowhere and I don't remember
that happening other times.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
We've definitely been stuck in a rain cloud, which
that's got to affect you guys,because you hand water
everything, right, all theplants.
Yeah, when you're getting thismuch rain, does that's got to
affect you guys, because youhand water everything, right,
All the plants.
And when you're getting thismuch rain, does that affect your
inventory and affect planningit does, and you know we know
how to handle a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know, not having a roof over certain areas has
been exceptionally challenging,but yeah, I mean it affects all
that.
It affects, uh.
But but yeah, I mean it, itaffects all that.
It affects, uh, I mean customerpatterns.
I mean that the worst thingthat you can have on a saturday
is the cloud emoji, you know, orum, motocon or whatever it is
(17:36):
on your weather app, becausewhen people see that there might
be a 35 chance that it rains atsome point during the day in
Hamilton County, right, and youknow it doesn't.
But when people see that,they're like, okay, well, let's
plan on, you know, doingsomething different.
And we, we find a lot of timethat our, our biggest
(17:57):
competition isn't reallynecessarily Lowe's Home Depot,
another garden center, fairly,lowe's Home Depot, another
garden center.
It's people's time, because Iknow you guys are busy and we're
busy, but I mean there's acouple weekends for you to
(18:19):
really put your tomatoes in andthings like that.
When you take into accountweddings, other activities,
graduations, all these differentthings that you know take your
time away.
I mean time's our most valuableasset.
And then you put a couple rainydays in there and you may just
not grow a tomato garden thatyear, you may just not do as
(18:43):
much as you would have done hadyou had a whole weekend to, as
we say, play in the yard.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Right, that's a really good point because you
really make your money.
Like you said, spring's thebiggest time of year.
Oh yeah, by far, and so yourinventory you've got to front
that.
I mean, how many months out areyou planning for that?
Is it six months out, a yearout?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Nine months to a year out, yeah, so, um, yeah, I mean
we're, we're pretty dialed inon on what we do and so, um, you
know it, it takes a good bit ofshuffling when you do have, you
know that, rain and stuff.
But I will say that, uh,gardeners are pretty determined,
uh, because we might have a badweekend and then we have a
(19:22):
Tuesday that's like a Saturday,because we might have a bad
weekend and then we have aTuesday that's like a Saturday,
um, where everybody, especiallythese days, is uh, working from
home.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
But I don't you know really they're at the barn and
it's convenient for you guys.
Hey, good, good for me.
But yeah, so I mean, that's solike that's kind of a good
variable to think about.
Like, I mean, when you'reordering nine to 12 months out,
uh, do you like taking overmeetings where you guys as a
team are talking about likepercentage of growth for chad
nigga, because if you don't getenough inventory you kind of
(19:53):
leave profit on the table, right?
Yeah, I mean, are you basicallyordering more each year or can
you add quickly?
If you sell out for some reason, can you add more inventory,
inventory quickly?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
So there is flex space for that.
But especially like ourcommercial clients a lot of our
commercial clients we get themon a schedule and it helps us
planning-wise, it helps themcost-wise.
But I mean, I have blocks ofstuff that are grown
(20:24):
specifically for you name thedevelopment in Chattanooga.
We have probably two dozen thatwe literally have them grown
from tissue culture seed tofinished product and we have a
target date on when they'regoing to land and we tell our
(20:47):
growers that in August and wesay, hey, this is how many they
need and everything.
But the other thing there isthey all show up in the same
stage of growth, so they're allperfectly uniform and look great
.
(21:08):
So could I find 1,200 sunpatients?
Absolutely, but they'reprobably going to be from three
different growers, and even fromthree different growers, they
could be in seven differentgrowth stages.
So you could have their May 1crop, their April 20th crop, and
you know, you have some thatare this tall, some that are
this tall, and so you know, Imean, there's a lot of planning
(21:31):
that goes into it and a lot oftime.
Um, you know, I mean it takes alearning process.
Uh, you know, on our side, butalso working with our clients
and making sure we're gettingthem, you know what they need.
But and that's another reasonwhy it's important to work with
the right growers, becausethere's, you know, I've tried
(21:51):
working with other people andthey're like, well, it'll
actually be ready in two weeks.
And I'm like, well, it's a goodthing, I'm not counting on you
guys, because my customers havea clear forecast this weekend,
yeah, and they're going to buyit from somewhere.
So you know, and that's whyit's important to always work
with good partners that have,you know, good integrity.
(22:13):
They have, you know, they havea good product.
They stand behind what they'regoing to do and they do it.
And you know, and then, whenyou get that, that winning
combination, you, you do rinseand repeat, um, and then try to
make it better.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
So out of curiosity.
You know how many plants youguys move on?
An average year A lot.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Uh, no, I, I mean it.
It would be, uh, well, over amillion plants, wow, um, you
know, I mean well, if you justthink about, uh, a lot of the
flats they have, you know, 36 onthere, uh, 36 plants.
And then we sell 17,000 hangingbasket ferns a year, uh, which
(23:03):
which is a pretty amazingstatistic right there.
But you know, I mean the weekof Masters week.
We sell about 2,000 azaleasthat week alone, which you know,
and that's been one of thethings also that I've really
enjoyed doing.
You know, this year we didsomething for Run the Roses.
(23:23):
We, you know, got some shirts,put the team in some some shirts
.
Everybody really enjoyed uhthat.
And then we had uh heart andhive came out and did uh some uh
mint julep tea and uh somebourbon balls and stuff like
that.
So, you know, anything that wecan do to kind of, uh, you know,
create some excitement, Cause Imean, it's it, I think it was.
(23:48):
Henry Ford said if you want tomake everybody happy and go sell
ice cream, well, we sell thenext best thing.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
We sell plants.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
So you know, we can't make everybody happy, but we
can damn sure try.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah.
So, I mean, clearly you guysgot a good recipe of like
marketing advertising, and itseems like I mean the networking
.
For sure you seem to likereally network well over
Chattanooga, but obviouslythere's some and the placement,
I mean the placement of thebusiness, that's a huge part.
Great location, greatvisibility.
Obviously, customer service,people come back.
But what else are you doingmarketing advertising-wise, like
(24:21):
any sort of traditionaladvertising, like print,
billboard, tv, radio, likedigital advertising?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
So we're doing a little bit of TV right now.
We have done some radio, butthat's one of the kind of the
interesting things that we'vekind of went through over the
years, because I mean, you'refrom Chattanooga, you know I
mean my dad spent a ton of moneyon radio TV billboards and I
(24:48):
mean that's what really put uson the map, and you know a lot
of my dad's slogans.
I know the free press did athing where they said, uh, they
had top 10 most iconic ads, andI think my dad was either two or
three of those.
Uh, and you know they it was.
It was really cool, uh, to seethat.
But I mean, you know, I, I meanwhen I grew up I would ask my
(25:10):
dad, hey, what time is it?
And he'd say it's springtime.
And I'm like I mean seriously,Dad, what time is it?
And then you were getting itspringtime or it's fall,
planting time and you can forgetanything else, and so, anyways,
(25:31):
so we had such a vast marketingscheme there but we had done,
you know, kind of the same thingfor so many years, and actually
during COVID, you know, I meanCOVID changed our business
forever and I think it changedmost everybody's business.
That's still in business.
You know, you know forever oneway or the other, I mean whether
(25:51):
it's working from home or it'sa different way of selling or or
what.
And during that time, um, it wasat the beginning of covid, and
somebody said, uh cole,somebody's here to see you.
And I mean we were cranking, wehad, you know, we had already
(26:12):
decided we were going to buildsome out outdoor cash registers
to help kind of set people'ssocial distance.
Uh, cause, you know, we're likewe're coming up on spring, If
you know, if we don't have agood spring, we're we're in
trouble.
You know, I mean every year, Imean if we don't have a good
spring, if we, you know's that'smoney making season, I mean
that's like having a huge cropfailure in a big farm, it's.
(26:34):
It's not good.
Um, and so I mean we werealready trying to do the things
that we could do.
And uh, somebody from HamiltonCounty and uh, the health
department and we're out in theparking lot and I mean we are
jamming.
I mean we've got 150 plus carsin the parking lot.
Yeah, times are good, sun's out.
(26:57):
I'm happy, yeah.
And I see his badge and I'mlike I don't like the looks of
this.
And he goes uh, you got aminute.
I go.
I mean, yeah, I, I think that Ineed to make a minute even if I
don't.
And so we went up to the officeand he said you can't draw a
(27:18):
crowd.
And I'm like, well, that's kindof what we do here.
I mean, like you know, that'syou know, that's like, you know,
that's not what we want to do.
And I was like, okay, well, andhe was like, you know, you got
to create distance.
I was like, well, we'rebuilding these outdoor cash
registers and everything.
And he's like, well, that'sgreat, you know that's.
You know something I hadn'treally thought about, you know,
(27:42):
and I'm like, well, you know,we're going to close every other
register and that way we'llhave it spread out and all these
things.
But the next thing that broughtup was well, I guess we're not
going to be buying our marketingthe same way that we do,
because, you know, he literallytold us you know, that's the one
(28:03):
thing that we don't need to do.
And so we pulled back on a lotof things that I don't know that
we would have ever pulled backon, because, I mean, customers
are the lifeblood of yourbusiness.
Yeah and uh.
I mean you're just going to quitmarketing the way that you have
.
That's put you on the map forthis many years.
(28:24):
And so when we did that, youknow we switched to a lot more
social media and then, you know,still some billboards and
things like that, and, um, wewere able to kind of reallocate
those funds to a lot ofdifferent things, and one of
those was, uh, you know, we wereable to, uh, you know, do a lot
(28:46):
more charitable donations andthings like that.
That you know, um, uh, you knowthings that we feel really good
about doing and you know also away to get our name out there
too, but it's, you know, thereare always causes that you know
align with our values, and so,you know that really shifted the
(29:07):
way that all that went.
And then also, having thoseoutdoor, outdoor cash registers
we did that out of necessity.
We didn't realize it was goingto make us more efficient on, uh
, saturdays, and it was kind oflike um, having a to-go window
at, um, a restaurant.
So you have this kind ofrolling in, you know, and
(29:27):
sometimes we think about ourparking spaces in the parking
lot, like tables at a restaurant.
You want to turn those tablesto get more people in and so
people could come in grab whatthey want and check out quicker
doing that, and so it actuallymade our big days bigger.
So I mean there were some happycoincidences that happened
(29:50):
there, coincidences thathappened there, but that also
helped expedite some of thetransition between the barn
being my dad's and Jim Webster'sand then it being more more me.
I mean it's still, you know, myparents are still owners and you
(30:10):
know, and Gabby and I areowners as well, but, um, you
know, up until to that point, atthat point, I wasn't an owner.
Um, but uh, you know it, itreally it it forced that
transition.
You know, cause I don't knowthat, I mean my, my dad, with
the trailer load after trailerload, all those different things
(30:32):
from my advertising end, Iwould have never done it the way
that he did it, and so it kindof naturally segued to social
media things and I didn't reallylike public speaking or
anything.
And then fast forward a coupleyears and I can't shut up.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I mean that's definitely an awesome silver
lining.
From that, you know, and andhearing that story, god, it gets
me fired up.
The first part of it, you know,the whole health department,
the badge in the first placejust fires me up.
But then you think about, like,did they even show?
Not that I want to steer us inthis direction, but I got it.
I got to open my mouth about itfor a second.
You think they showed up toLowe's and Home Depot and they
were cracking down on them.
Like those guys never stoppedadvertising.
(31:10):
They were deemed essential.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, you know and I mean and that was one of the
first things that I knew theywere going to talk about and one
thing people don't realize iswe sell at least a half a
million dollars worth ofvegetable plants, seeds and
soils that then yield millions,millions of dollars worth of
(31:37):
fresh produce to people in theChattanooga area.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
And that just sounded like a really good soundbite.
I was like you know, if that'swhat we have to hammer away,
that's what we will.
Yeah, because the other thingis, I mean you can't operate a
business like ours without that.
It's like operating six flagswithout the summer.
I mean it ain't gonna happenfor long.
You know, fright Fest onlybrings in so much.
(32:01):
But you know, I think that youknow it was I mean and it was I
mean it was very trying and youknow pivoting and doing it.
But you know, one of the thingsthat we've always done is we've
been opportunistic at a lot oftimes in, you know, purchasing.
(32:23):
That's how we got in thepottery business so big.
You know we buy deals, weextend deals to our customers.
You know we also have ourhigh-end side, but you know
we've always adapted and that'swhere, a lot of times, where we
thrive, I mean you know, likewith this health storm, with
(32:45):
COVID, I mean you know, see achallenge and I'm like you know,
try to stop us.
And I mean our team isresilient, our family's
resilient, and I mean we've gotserious, serious friends and
partners.
I mean I had landscapers comeand help clean up.
(33:07):
Um, you know, from the hell.
Storm damage, no questionsasked.
I mean mean they were therewith blowers and ready to go.
We were open 10 o'clock in themorning when, I got there at 5
am and it looked like a war zoneman.
So I mean things like that areobvious points of pride.
It gets my, you know, bloodpumping talking about it.
But you know, between COVID andyou know, it's just another
(33:29):
thing I mean my dad, he had ahundred year flood the week of
Mother's Day like like we didthis year back in uh oh two.
And you know, and at that time Imean it was devastating.
I mean could have been the nailin the coffin for us because uh
, you know he had just boughtthat property, just did a big
expansion, all these things, anduh also didn't have flood
(33:50):
insurance at the time.
He didn't even know he didn'thave it.
So I mean that was like, youknow, half a million dollar loss
at that time.
And so you know, for us, I meanyou know we've.
You know, if our customersstart saying one thing we have
to try to, you know, adjust toit, and you know, so far, that's
one of the things that we cando that Lowe's and Home Depot
(34:13):
can't do.
We can change our wholecampaign, you know quickly yeah.
Very quickly, within within anhour if we need to.
And and you know, and I've gota great in-house team that you
know, uh, uh, makes all oursignage and everything.
And you know, makes all oursignage and everything.
And you know, one of the mostamazing things and you know, I
(34:39):
do believe that God puts theright people in your life and
your business at different times.
And I mean the lady that doesall my in-house signage, she was
.
She came to work part time forus.
Now she's a manager.
(34:59):
But she came to work part timebecause she had a marketing
company where she does mainlyprint stuff and things like that
.
But one day we had just lostsomebody that was making all our
signs.
And I'm in there and I'm juststubborn enough to figure it out
(35:20):
.
But you know the sign, like youknow, the price on the sign was
this big, the picture was thisbig.
I mean it did not look right,but you could tell what planet
was at what price.
And she goes do you want me todo that?
And I mean, like I said, she'sworking part-time, as you know,
helping in our houseplant roomand I'm like knock yourself out,
(35:40):
yeah.
And then she goes, fixes it.
You know everything looks howit.
You know she's a graphicdesigner, it looks like it's
supposed to and I'm like how didyou know how to do that?
She's like well, I've had myown graphic design company for
30 years and I'm like okay,maybe I have you doing the wrong
thing right now but she stilltakes care of all our
houseplants and does all that.
But you know, I mean we've got,um, we've got a really good team
(36:04):
and everybody kind of you know,um, we all work together and
you know use our unique.
You know strengths and luckilyI have people that take up for
all my weaknesses.
You know a lot of the time.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
You've got to surround yourself with those
sort of people you know, exactly, definitely, a good sign of
like a good business, a goodteam, good leader, whenever you
can navigate things like theflood in 2002 you're talking
about, like COVID.
You know, like you're having to.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
some things are out of our control and it's just
figuring out how you get aroundthat, yeah Well, and we've
always said the weather and thegovernment are the two things
that my dad said.
As I always said, you'll neverhear me bitch about, you'll
never hear me bitch about thecompetition, you'll never hear
me bitch about the competition,you'll never hear me bitch about
the economy, but I can't doanything about weather and I
(36:57):
can't do anything about, uh, youknow, the government, except
one time.
One time tdot had shut down ourexit four weekends in a row
during spring, and this is backin the day, I mean, and we were
way more seasonal then than weare now.
Yeah, um, and so I mean, it was, it was very, very trying, but
(37:18):
you know, um, outside of, youknow things like that, and it
raining every weekend.
Other other than that, ourbiggest competitions are
ourselves and people's time, youknow yeah, wow now.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Now some of the nonprofits that you're involved
in.
I know you guys started Lena'sLove in honor of your sister,
yeah, and I'd love to hear someabout that, because that's been
around for quite a while.
When did you guys start that?
Speaker 2 (37:43):
So it started in 06 when my sister passed away.
I had just turned 16.
My brother was, uh, had justturned 19 when she passed and he
had went away to college, uh,west Georgia, where I ended up
going and, um, anyways, at thattime my parents kind of saw, um,
(38:08):
you know, and and got to giveboth of them credit.
You'll never hear me not givethem credit, but the vision that
they had for Land is Love andseeing all these other families
that they can't do some of thethings that we could do.
So now we have monthly largeevents, uh, for the families.
(38:34):
We also, uh, jennifer Greerbrings uh food into the clinic
on a weekly basis.
We also have taken over um, aum, this is actually a really
cool story, uh, I'll come backto it.
But, uh, you know, we havemonthly events.
We also uh dad's group about ayear and a half ago, which is
(38:58):
really great.
Every other month we get thedads together.
Once a month the moms gettogether and there's a grief
group for mothers that theirchildren have passed and then
there's an active mothers groupthere that we do.
(39:18):
So what we try to do is we tryto love on the whole family and
that's one of the things that Isaw there when one of the
reasons why my parents got theidea is we had went to Disney
World with a group of familieswhen my sister was getting
treatment in New York and theymet at the Ronald McDonald house
(39:40):
and there was a guy that tookdown all these families every
year and he collected donations.
Uh, he was a super of abuilding in um uh, new York with
a lot of really wealthy peoplethat donated to that.
But what I saw out of it and mypassion in Lana's Love and
that's one of the reasons whyI've been involved in the Dads
(40:02):
group is and I'm a hugenetworking guy, you know that,
you know that.
But you know, and I meanstrength in numbers and just
having other people there, Imean, is what makes me happy in
life, but also what we've beenable to do there is kind of
create a network for thesefamilies.
(40:23):
I remember when I went to Disneyand I met the other siblings of
children that are going throughcancer, I didn't have to
explain to them what, what I'mgoing through, and we could kind
of just like it's likeinstantly.
I mean, you know, every now andthen you meet somebody and
maybe y'all really loved amountain bike or whatever.
But you just click, you know,or you know maybe you like the
(40:44):
same football team or whatever,and you know real quickly, hey,
we're pretty much, you know, uh,we're in this thing together or
we're cut from the same clothor whatever it may be.
And you know, having thatexperience with those kids was
really important for me because,you know, being a teenager,
being a kid's tough, and thenwhen your sibling gets, you know
(41:11):
a deadly, um, you know a, adeadly, uh, illness, you know, I
mean it, it's tough enoughbeing being a kid and then you
know filling, you know takencare of or whatever.
And then, obviously, uh, I meanmy parents are wonderful people
but you know they a lot of theattention has to go to to the
(41:33):
child that's sick and and so oneof the things that we, that my
parents saw I mean they alwaystook a lot of time with us but
they also, you know, saw thatand we're like you know, we want
to make this about the wholefamily.
So, whether we're at LakeWinnie, whether we're at Ruby
Falls, rock City for theChristmas lights, the aquarium,
(41:56):
the zoo, all these partners thatalso a lot of them are Creative
Discovery Museum, a lot of themare also clients at the Barn
Nursery and it all kind of.
You know, it's been reallyinteresting to kind of get to
work with these people on alldifferent fronts and I mean we
(42:16):
just have amazing communitypartners and these families
don't have to pay for anything.
And so back at the beginning ofthis year I don't know if you
know Clay Kistner, kistnerPaving, I know that name, I
don't know him personally knowClay Kistner Kistner Paving.
I know that name yeah, I don'tknow him personally.
Well, we had went to lunchtogether and we went to Common
(42:40):
House and he was like, you know,I want to be involved in Lana's
Love and you know, I'verecently got a little bit of
money from a bonus coming in forfinishing a project quickly.
And he said, you know, I wantto donate that to Lana's Love.
(43:02):
And he's like, but I don't know, you know, if y'all have
something specific y'all want todo.
And I was like, well, you know,I mean, we're going to talk
about it at some point.
How much is that?
And he said it's $10,000.
And what he didn't know is abouta month previous to that there
(43:27):
was a, a family that had startedsomething called Sarah's Snacks
where provide snacks in theclinic for children that are
going through treatment andtheir families.
And they've got it set up,they've got a vending machine
that has fake coins to put in itso they can, you know, get
(43:48):
their snacks out, somerefrigerated, some not
refrigerated, and so have thatas drinks and everything.
And the family came to me andHolly Scholl and was like hey,
holly's our director and said wecan't do this anymore.
You know, it's taken up a lotof our.
(44:09):
You know a ton of our time andhas for years, and you know
we're getting of our.
You know our ton of our timeand has for years, and you know
we've we're getting older andyou know it's getting outside of
our wheelhouse.
And I said, sure, we'll take itover.
Like you know we'll, we'll dowhat we have to do, like you
know.
And we got the numbers back.
It was like right around$10,000 a year that they were
spending on this and I was likewe'll fund it.
I was like, nah, I don't knowyou know whether you know we
(44:32):
have to, uh, you know, dip intosomething or like.
And I said, or maybe we'll evenfind a donor that wants to do
this.
And I told Clay what we weredoing and he goes that's what I
want to do.
And so I mean, there was thisvoid for a month and then
(44:53):
somebody steps up to the plateand does that.
And that's been one of thereally cool things because, you
know, we have such a directimpact on it and we don't have
like a crazy overhead.
We don't have a crazy you knowlike board process that you know
where everything has to gothrough this, this and this.
You know I could kind of youknow like board process, that
you know where everything has togo through this, this and this.
(45:14):
You know I could kind of.
You know, do what I do and youdo every day is like, okay,
that's, that aligns with ourmission.
Why would we not do that?
You know like we can't not dothat, right, um and so, um, you
know that that things like thatare, you know, super fulfilling.
(45:35):
But it's incredible how much ofthe time you know Lana's love
and the barn, like we kind ofoverlap, overlap, or you know
somebody will call me and be, uh, holly or jennifer will call me
(45:57):
about, uh, you know somethingwith the lookouts or something
like that.
I'm like, well, we just didtheir planners, you know, this
week, and you know, let me talkto somebody or something, and
you know, and then they're likeyeah, you know we would love to
help with this or that, and youknow, and it's just uh, uh, I
know a lot of people are likeyou know, why did you take on
that role?
I know you've got too much onyour plate anyways, and it's
actually been one of thosethings that it's actually
(46:19):
simplified some things, becauseI can kind of, you know, a lot
of the time the right people aretalking you know yeah.
And, as you know, that's adifficult thing a lot of the
time, especially withorganizations.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah, especially nonprofits.
Difficult thing a lot of thetime, especially with
organizations.
Yeah, especially nonprofits.
You know we're talking earlierbefore this and I'm not going to
go into all the negatives of it, but there's a lot of
nonprofits out there.
Just too many chefs in thekitchen in my opinion.
You know, that's just theepitome of inefficiency, and I
know we've met on some boards oron some organizations in the
past that I won't mention.
(46:51):
But it just gets frustrating aswe're both technically running
small businesses.
Which small businesses?
I had to look this up the otherday because it always changes
with inflation, depending on whoyou ask between $1 million to
$40 million.
Some say $1 million to $100million revenue and under 250
employees.
So a small business is still asizable business, but
independently owned, operated.
(47:11):
There's a lot of things wegotta do, we have to be
efficient, and then sometimesyou get part of these
organizations and you try togive your time and it's just so
frustrating to watch like allthe people that are collecting
paychecks and nonprofits aremaking great money, yeah, and
then they sit on these boardsand they all just have ideas and
they micromanage everyone, theybring in and it's like, yeah,
yeah, if you let some peoplejust do some work without the
(47:32):
professional non-profit hiresand I know I'm kind of shitting
on them, but man, they get.
There's some great ones outthere, but there's some that are
very frustrating to watch.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Yeah you know well, I mean that there are so many
great non-profits out there.
But you know, it makes me thinkof something that, uh, when I
first got on planning commissionfor City of Chattanooga in
Hamilton County which I'mactually rolling off of this
next month and going into adifferent role but at that time
(48:05):
I had a conversation withsomebody that was also on
planning commission, uh,somebody that uh was also on
planning commission, and uh, we,we started talking and he, he
was down at the barn on a busySaturday and I forget what three
decisions I had to make realquick, but it was, I think,
opening up some additionalparking, uh, opening up an
(48:28):
additional register.
And you know, just quick little, you know things that you do on
a on a given.
And you know just quick little,you know things that you do on
a on a given day.
Or you know giving somebody awarranty that didn't have a
receipt or whatever it was.
And he saw me do all that overthe radio and two minutes.
And he's like you know so howare you enjoying this?
And I'm like, really like I'mloving it, but it's so different
(48:50):
for me and what I do.
And he said he's like well,he's like.
The most efficient businessyou'll ever see is one guy with
a pickup truck, a mower and aweed eater.
There's no hierarchy, justcutting grass.
We're doing what we need to doin every level of business, that
(49:13):
it gets bigger, because ithappens in my business, the, you
know, the bigger you get, themore bureaucracy you have.
And he said, and the mostinefficient is government.
And so, and since he said that,it's really kind of put things
into perspective for me and eventhough you know I knew that it
(49:36):
kind of solidified that in mymind of hey, well, you know.
I mean, you know there's an HOAfor a reason, there's checks
and balances for a reason, butthere are some times where those
reasons still seem insane.
You know, it's like the billingball.
It's like, you know, whenthere's a stupid rule, somebody
somewhere did something stupidalong the way to make it, where,
(49:58):
hey, oh yeah, we have to havethese checks and balances in
place, but it can be completelydebilitating and if you're
somebody that you cut the headoff the snake is what we say and
one of those things going backto a conversation we had earlier
about us kind of having thesame meeting every year, one of
(50:23):
the things that my dad alwayssays he brings up a Ross Perot
story of talking about cuttingthe head off the snake Perot
story of talking about cuttingthe head off the snake and Ross
Perot.
He was talking about why,general Motors?
Are you familiar with RossPerot?
okay, yeah, yeah and so he wasserved on the board for General
(50:45):
Motors and they were talkingabout General Motors at that
time had lost money and Hondawas just killing it at the time.
And they said, you know, he'slike, well, it's just
inefficiencies.
And they said what do you mean?
He's like okay, well, forinstance, he's like if somebody
sees a snake in the GM plant,they'll see it.
(51:10):
And somebody will be like, hey,somebody needs to kill that
snake.
And they're like that's not myjob description.
And uh, which is when he alsosays, well, that's one of the
one things that can get youhired around here is saying
that's not my job, because Imean, I, I've scrubbed a toilet
this week, I've plunged a toiletin the past month.
You know if, if it's, uh, if Ican do it, you know anyone else
(51:31):
can do it and there's not a jobthere that I haven't done.
But the story goes on to say sothey have to talk to management,
and then management has to talkto the board to approve funding
, to hire an outside service.
So by this time they get theoutside service to come in.
(51:53):
And you know it's bob's pestcontrol.
They come in and they look atit and they say uh well, this is
a poisonous stent snake, it'sgoing to cost extra.
And because of the bylaws uh,you know the company bylaws
because it's a venomous snake.
They then have to hire anexpert.
So they they hire an expertthat comes in and by this time
(52:18):
they identify the snake.
They say well, it is apoisonous snake, so they have to
shut down the factory.
The union goes on strike andthey all want on a raise because
they're working in hazardousconditions, and so they have to
hire this company to come in.
And then they determine thatthey have hatched eggs and now
there's a ton of snakes.
So you have to renegotiate thecontract, because we only have a
contract to kill one snake, not20 snakes.
(52:39):
And by the time they kill thesnake and get them out of there
and the union has to get theraises approved and everything.
It's cost General Motors over abillion dollars.
And when they saw the snake inHonda, the janitor sees the
(53:00):
snake, he goes over to his tools, he grabs a square-pointed
shovel, cuts the head off thesnake, puts it in the dumpster.
Nobody ever hears about it again, and I know that that's a
really you know convoluted story, and I don't tell it as good as
Jim Webster, I'll tell you that.
But it's so true, though, aboutyou know the boards that you're
(53:28):
talking about and government orwhatever.
You know the greatest thingabout a small business and I
know a lot of the companies thatI use my vendors that you know
we outsource I don't know if youknow Andy Shy with Time and Pay
(53:50):
you know we outsource ourpayroll to them.
And I had talked to Paychex, wehad previously been with ADP
and we had already been with allthe big outfits, and I talked
to somebody locally and theywere kind of a franchise of
(54:13):
another company and I wasn'treally sure that guy was going
to be with the company for verylong.
And the next meeting I went to,I had a meeting with Andy.
We went up to Sugar Shrimps forlunch and he explains he
sounded pretty much exactly likeme at the time.
He's like yeah, he's like youknow my dad started the company.
He's like I'm taking it over,I'm doing this, this and this
(54:35):
and I go, okay, and you knowwhat's your degree in whatever.
And I'm like so you don't wantany other options, do you?
He's like no, this is what I'mgoing to do.
(54:57):
I'm like do't you want to knowpricing, don't you want to know
this?
And I was like, I mean, as longas it's somewhat in line, and
it was.
But it's like you know, I wantto deal with people I want to
deal with and and when there's aproblem there needs to be
somebody I can call and that'lltake care of it.
And there's no reason why youknow problems, issues have to
get all complicated, because ifyou keep it simple, stupid, I
(55:19):
mean that's just the best way todo it, because most issues just
aren't that complicated whenyou really kind of dumb it down
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Absolutely, and that's really a shift I've seen
right now in marketingadvertising for our clients and
for businesses that I work withand, just I think, as a nation,
when it comes down to what wecall local businesses, you know
like we're a local businessbecause we sell mainly to our
local populations surrounding us.
You know, if you look us up onGoogle, we're going to be in
that map area because we'reproviding a service locally,
(55:48):
whether it's plants or marketingadvertising services or
whatever.
We see this a lot in, of course, blue collar world, and
whenever you came to the officeearlier, I was getting finally
someone to go to my house with anew plumbing company.
Last night I spent close to 30minutes between automated AI
bots and text messages.
Someone called me.
I missed the call and the phonenumber went back to a automated
voice person.
(56:09):
That put me in a a loopindefinitely.
After I gave all my informationfor a second time, then more
text messages came through andput all my information again.
Then this morning a person saidoh sorry, we were closed.
I need all this information andnone of its relevance to
anything.
I just needed a real simple job.
It's going to take an hour.
Someone come out.
They're probably going tocharge me a few hundred dollars
for it.
Whatever it's, in and out, it'seasy, easy money for them.
(56:32):
And finally, after all of it,they would add the same
questions again and I was likehey, I've already answered all
these questions and I know AI ishandling this and we do it for
our customers too, but can Ijust get someone for a quote?
You can call me and they'relike no, thank you for wasting
(56:57):
my time.
You know that's, at this point,close to 45 minutes.
I know I'm sounding a littlepretentious saying it, but we're
as busy as we are and it's 45minutes.
And it's like if they wouldhave just said, hey, hold on,
let me call you right now, andsomeone would have been on the
phone and be like hey, I'm sorryabout all that, let me get you
booked right now.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
You know like hey, it's going to be a $50 call.
Visit, go ahead and do it, noproblem.
Speaker 1 (57:13):
Like whatever you know, just make it easy for me.
So what did I do?
I said you know what, nevermind, and I'm going to let
people know about my experiencebecause this is frustrating, you
know, and I hate to be thatKaren and they picked up the
phone.
It was a real person and thatfelt so good.
Because it was like a realperson.
(57:33):
I was like, hey, this is a smalljob.
I understand you may not wantit, but I need a dishwasher
reconnected or a rental propertyand a disposal put in because
we had floors and cabinets.
It's already there plumbed.
It's not going to be a big one,but it's just something you
guys understand.
Oh yeah, we'd love to take outthere tomorrow.
And it felt so good.
You know it's in and out offthe phone, it's easy.
Like I'm going to give them agreat review because that was
(57:54):
such a good experience.
So anyway, all that to say, likeI'm noticing this across a lot
of our clients, especially inthe home service space, because
you know, if people want to deallocally, they would rather have
that personal experience versuslike that big corporate feel
where you're on hold for a longtime and all that, you know.
Just it kills that personaltouch.
So sometimes I'm seeing likethis new technology, especially
(58:17):
the AI buzzword, everyone'susing.
It's kind of messing things upfor companies.
You know you're losing that.
Of course, every company needsto work on being more efficient
and you can use AI in great ways.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Well, I think that you just hit the nail on the
head.
You can use it in great ways.
You can do certain things verywell, and I think that there's a
lot of things that people aregetting a little far ahead of
themselves with this or that,and I can think of some good
(58:51):
examples, but I think it wouldbe too revealing.
Uh, but um, you know, I thinkthat there's a lot of people
that, um, you know, I mean youjust overcomplicate things or
you think hey, uh, you know like, and a lot of the time, I mean
I think that the reason whywe're not uh in my business and
sounds like in the plumbingbusiness, why real people are
(59:15):
not very easily replaceable, isbecause it's a case by case
basis.
You know, 80 percent of yourcalls may fill into this one
area, but you know that's still20 percent of your calls where I
mean that you need to talk tosomebody and just talk through
the issue, and it's really notthat complicated, but a lot of
(59:36):
times everybody wants tobottleneck everything.
Okay, I need all yourinformation, I need all this
from you, I need all this andyou're like no, you don't.
You just need to know theaddress of the job, my name, my
phone number and I'll pay you.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
And if you get in there and and you have to, you
know you have to order anotherpart or you have to get another
part off the truck.
You just have to call me andget it approved.
I mean it's just, it's reallynot that complicated.
And I think that a lot ofpeople, more than anything, I
think people are afraid ofcommunicating and I think that
uh, and I'm not a great, youknow, I'm not the best
(01:00:11):
communicator in the world,because I mean, you know there's
so many different things goingon that some of the time I know
I fall flat on my face in thatcategory, but I think that
people are afraid to pick up thephone.
I think that you know thatthere are a lot of people that
are afraid to do that and Ithink that that is one of the
reasons why a lot of things arekind of funneled into one place.
(01:00:34):
But I mean, how much more canyou do with people that you know
when you have a lastingrelationship?
How many of your clients ownother businesses you didn't even
know that they owned, thatyou're now doing more business,
more work for that business thanthe first one you started with.
I find that on like mycommercial end.
All the time.
(01:00:54):
You know we're talking aboutone project and I'm like, yeah,
this is going to be pretty good.
And they're like, hey, I needyou know, I need you on this
over here, and I'm like whoa,whoa, I had no idea you were
involved in this or whatever Imean.
And that's the other thing.
I mean you never know who's onthe other end of the phone and
(01:01:14):
that's why you've got to treateverybody, I mean the same.
And great, you know, because itdoesn't matter if they're
spending $5 or $50,000.
I mean, every dollar counts.
Every customer, every person isimportant.
Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Yeah, Well, it seems it's definitely paid off for you
guys.
You know you've done well, soit's awesome to see Got any big
plans for the 60th.
I don't, haven't, haven't, evenreally thought about it yet,
but I've got a year and a half.
Yeah, it needs to be a bigparty or something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Yeah that's a great idea yeah, I think we need to
start planning yeah so yeah,absolutely um anything else you
want to say, it's been a goodconversation no man, I I'm just
happy you you invited me out anduh happy that uh I was able to
to spend some time with you andit's just been been really cool
(01:01:59):
to see you know you uh grow yourbusiness and the things you do
and uh in the community as well,and uh just happy to be uh be
able to call you a friend.
Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for coming on.
It's awesome to hear the storyand all the information.
Awesome, you guys have been sosuccessful.
It's good to see you grow.
I like seeing all your socialmedia posts.
That's definitely been a goodpart of the business and you
guys are crushing it.
It's awesome.
Thanks, man Cool.
Well, thanks again, absolutely.
Restaurant at that time was was it 212 Market?
(00:03):
Yeah, that finally closed.
I think that was the onlyrestaurant.
Then Big River came in yeah,that was kind of the first big
one, the brewery and then whenthe aquarium hit it was just
like it started blowing up,right, yeah, now you fast
forward 20 years and it'scompletely different.
I mean the Riverwalk,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Having to expand the interstate for all the traffic
coming in in and everywhere welook like, see you guys plants
now I mean for yeah, seems likecommercial properties and you
mentioned earlier, like I meanhunter museum, ruby falls, rock
city, like yeah, so, and a lotof that.
You know, excitement of seeingthat is over the years.
Uh, because our industry ispretty small.
We've always known the bigplayers and bigger cities and
things like that and went andseen friends in DC or the Boston
area or, you know, even up inMichigan, california, all these
(00:55):
different places and you seeareas where you know the whole
downtown is revitalized.
You have all these planners,all these hanging baskets and
you know it would be.
I mean traveling.
I've always been like man, thatwould be great.
Or you know I'm always takingpictures of plants, nice hotels,
(01:15):
all these different things andwe're getting that.
You know.
And you know we're.
We work a lot with VisionHospitality and you know they're
building that new hotel and youknow they're building that new
hotel and you know they havethat one.
They have all these differentproperties and tons of other.
You know developmentsthroughout town, like Cambridge
Square.
I mean who would have thoughtsomething like that?
(01:35):
I remember the first time Iwent to a friend's house out in
Udawah, you know, in the sixthgrade, I was like man, this is
out here.
And then now I mean, and so nowI mean a lot of those
developments we would see, youknow, in bigger markets.
It was like man, I wish wecould see things like this.
(01:56):
Even when I was in high schoolI would go on some of those
trips with my parents and andthen now, you know, knowing that
we have a few hundred hangingbaskets and I don't know a few
thousand pots downtown, you know, with our flowers in it, every
year is pretty special to seeand it's a point of pride for us
(02:17):
.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, it's got to be, and you break up a good point,
Like whenever you think aboutthe bigger cities, like usually
it's just more and more concrete, right, Like?
More buildings, more concrete,less greenery.
They really have to fight forthose greenscapes and those
green places.
So that's really wherelandscaping comes into play.
You've got to bring that backinto it.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Absolutely, and it is exciting seeing the National
Park City movement.
I know you and I have talkedback and forth on social media a
little bit.
I've seen a few of your posts,you know and commented, and you
know we've talked back and forth, you know, via text or
curiosity about it.
Yeah, and, but you know, Ithink that one of the biggest
(02:55):
things is that there's morebiodiversity than anywhere in
the world other than one placeliterally on the opposite side
of the map in China, other thanone place literally on the
opposite side of the map inChina, in like a 30-mile radius
of Chattanooga, tennessee,because we have all these little
microclimates and stuff so youcan grow more species of plants.
You can also grow more weedsthan anywhere else.
(03:17):
So I bet everybody knows that,but it's really cool.
There's not many places thathave the mountains, the river,
and then you know our downtown,all the small businesses, and
you know, for a town our size,you know the amenities.
You know we fight outside ourweight class and that's, you
(03:39):
know, something we actuallytalked about a little bit
earlier and that's, you know,something we actually talked
about a little bit earlier, butit's you know, to be able to
have.
You know rock climbing,mountain biking, hiking, and you
know a great downtown, like wehave Water sports.
Yeah, the river right throughdowntown, right.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, I mean, and yeah, we have our boat right
there on the river.
I mean it's always a great timeand it's just and the and uh,
it's just and the secret's out.
You know, uh, I guess everybodyknows now, chattanooga is a
pretty great place.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Um.
So it's wild to talk about allthis now and like the thousand
of plants you know just on, likethe commercial side and
downtown.
But then you've got all the youknow.
You've got like the B2C side,business to consumer side, where
you're of course sellinghouseplants, you know people in
apartments, condos, homes, andthen you've got like the
landscaping side where you'reselling for whether it's
residential or commercialprojects.
(04:32):
But all this started was atnight.
I was reading some articlesabout you guys.
What 1968?
And it was you guys bought 1967.
1967.
It was $1,500.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You bought the barn and it was a stand right.
So it was a side-of-the-roadfruit stand in Rossville,
georgia, that my grandparentsbought for $1,500.
But I will say there wasn't aPublix, there wasn't a Food City
to go get your produce from.
So my granddad and then my dadsold a lot of produce.
I actually was talking to a guythe other day, that or
(05:10):
yesterday, and he was working ona project somewhere where I was
and he saw my shirt and stoppedme and talked to me and he was
like I remember going to thebarn when it was in Rossville.
He was like you remember thatand I go.
It'd be hard for me to, becausewe moved our location the year
before I was born and at thattime we were actually renting
the space from Carter Fowler andtheir family and then in the
(05:36):
early 2000s my parents purchasedthe property and tore down a
building, built the biggreenhouses and you know we keep
plugging away there.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, I mean, that's great property because you're in
2475, and I forgot the trafficcount there, but it's
substantial, it's very high,yeah, and it's perfect because
the Missionary Ridge is acomplete, you know, disaster for
traffic and it just backs upand they all sit there right in
front of your place, you knowExactly.
It's kind of the perfectscenario for you all.
You have so much frontage.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
It's great.
You know we get a lot of peoplefrom out of town that you know
stop in.
A lot of people make us, youknow, one of their stops on
vacation.
You know they're like it's agood place to stretch our legs,
use the restroom and, you know,maybe buy a plant or some
pottery.
It's like we're in traffic.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Let's go buy an orchid.
Yeah, we need a new plant.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean, I would do anything other than sit in
traffic, you know.
So that's uh.
Yeah, we definitely uh havesome, some positives there.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
So that's come a long waysbecause you went from $1,500 and
now all these plants and eightfigure business, you know, and,
um, I mean obviously there's alot more to you know, I was
thinking through this as wellbefore he came in, like if I was
trying to manage a businesslike this.
I know nothing about what youguys do in the management, but
it seems like the supply sidecould be.
I mean, there's a lot of hoopsto jump from.
(06:57):
You mentioned that you'rebuying plants all the way out as
far as Oregon and then shippingthem across the country.
Absolutely, and the way youguys pick the suppliers, like
you were telling me earlierabout, like they're all the way
down to the seeds, like they'revery selective.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, the tissue culture and everything.
So a lot of our growers one ofour growers that we buy a good
bit from, is Monrovia.
We're one of their large singlecustomers, customers, and we
work with them a lot.
But when you go to theirfacilities I mean they have
(07:32):
their R&D departments, they'relike you know, turn your phone
off and you know you have tohave like authorization to go in
there.
But it's because I think theyhave a hundred different types
of soil medium that they grow in.
So like they're not puttingaloe in the same soil that they
grow coneflowers in, they're notputting the house plants in the
(07:56):
same thing, they're putting awoody shrub in, and so you can
see all that out there andthey're managing that.
They're managing all the inputsof that.
But they're also managing wherethey're getting their liners
and you know who's growing thatfor them, whether they're doing
it or they're working, you knowwith another vendor on that.
(08:19):
But you know I liken it a lotof times to I mean, it's like a
champion breed hunting dog, youknow.
And so sometimes people will belike well, you know, I want
this locally grown.
I'm like, well, a lot of whatwe have is grown in the state of
Tennessee or in GeorgiaMonrovia has a Georgia location
as well.
But you know there's certainthings that are grown better in
(08:45):
certain climates, Like Oregonfor instance, because of the
temperate climate there you getso many more days where things
can push growth and grow and Ican walk through somewhere and
tell you where something's beengrown and so if you get it grown
to you know a good size outthere, I mean it's set up for
(09:06):
success just like.
But I mean they start down tothe genetics.
Genetics to the soil, to thecare, to the pruning, and you
know, and that's that's what youknow, that's the quality that
you get.
And I know we have some spiralsthat you'll see at the barn.
(09:30):
We kind of have them displayedup front, a bunch of different
topiaries and things like that,and they actually will have them
sectioned off in the fields andshow how many years it takes to
get to the big spiral.
A lot of times it's about aseven-year process.
You go through and you'll seejust the liner.
(09:52):
That's a two-year-old plant.
Then you go to the next block.
They're three years old,they're starting to take shape,
then on up to five and sevenyear where they're mature and
they look perfect.
And then you look at it andyou're you know, you realize how
much time, labor andeverything's been spent on it
and you're like, ok, this isactually a very, very good deal
(10:15):
for what.
You know what is going into it,compared to you know other
things.
We don't sell a manufacturedproduct, right, you know, it's
grown, it's cared for and verythoughtfully selected by us and
our growers, and we only workwith people that stand behind
their product because we'resatisfaction guaranteed.
(10:37):
And if you've got a problem,and if you've ever had a problem
at the barn, we want to takecare of it, we want to deal with
it, and that's been.
The key to our success is, ifsomething ever goes wrong,
something ever goes awry, we'regoing to make it right, and I've
(11:01):
got tons of stories aboutthings that haven't went exactly
right.
But we made it right and that'sthe only way you can do good
business, I believe.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah, absolutely, and I was reading one of the quotes
.
I think you had an article inthe CityScope magazine.
But, talking about how youstart, I think you had a meeting
.
You said big meetings twice ayear and you start the meeting
by identifying who the big bossis, and that's your customers,
you know, and exactly that's sotrue because you've got to get
that one referral business,which you guys have done a great
job, you know, like between allthe different organizations
(11:32):
you're part of here locally, theevents you go to, the people
you help raise money for, butthen also like even the way,
like the messaging, all thatlike it's, um, you know a lot of
humility to it, to where, like,the customers are always right,
sort of thing.
You know it's, yeah, obviouslyworked great for amazon you know
works great for companies,works great for you guys too,
and it's got to help thatsuccess.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
You all have seen well and, and you're right, I
mean we in the meetings that, uh, we have, because the article
that you were talking about wastalking about, you know, being a
third generation person and youknow, and I think that, well,
one of my friends that's aCatholic said, you know, like,
(12:13):
you know, our church is the sameevery week and he's like, well,
it's like a love poem to your,to your girlfriend.
If it's good enough right now,it should be good enough.
You know, love poem to yourgirlfriend.
If it's good enough right now,it should be good enough, you
know, five years from now.
And I kind of, when he saidthat I actually, the way my
brain works, I thought I'm like,well, you know what?
(12:37):
I opened the same way of thosemeetings that my dad always has,
because it's the reason why weare where we are.
And I know some people that youknow they want to put their own
stamp on the business and youknow I've done that in a lot of
ways.
But the old saying, if it ain'tbroke, don't fix it, and you
know, when it's certainly notbroken, it's working.
You know we want to do it thesame, because I mean, I also
(12:59):
tell our employees that and ourteam.
I say if everybody pulls out ofthis gate on a daily basis
happier than they came in andthat can't happen every day with
our employees, sure, but as ageneral rule rule if people are
fulfilled at the end of the day,if our customers leave here and
they feel like they've gotten agood value, they've gotten good
(13:20):
service, they've gotten servicethat they're not going to get
everywhere else, then it's asuccessful day and it will
always provide a good bottomline because we're making sure
we're buying right, we're makingsure we're doing all the things
that we need to do as operators.
So, you know, as long as we'retreating our customers, our
(13:42):
employees, right, you know, Ithink that it always translates
in a healthy bottom line.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, I mean, it's been what it'll be 60 years,
then in two years, yeah, 60years.
So it's obviously paid off.
So many businesses fail in thefirst couple of years, let alone
.
10 years, is a big mark, andnow you're about to be six times
that.
I mean, how many employees doyou guys have now?
Roughly, I'm sure, probably.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
So right now I've got 64, but we still stay under 50
employees for our full-timeequivalent for the year.
So we usually, out of season,are around 40.
And then we go up in the falland then in the spring, spring's
(14:23):
by far our busiest season, okay, and then that property, our
busiest season.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Okay, and then that property you got there is pretty
substantial.
So for those that haven't seen,it might be watching or
listening.
That's what an acre, two acres7.6.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Wow, that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
I'm bad at judging acreage, obviously.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Well it's a long kind of pizza pie-shaped piece of
property.
It doesn't get quite thatnarrow at the end, maybe one
that has a bite taken out of it,but yeah.
So it's kind of more like aflag shape, okay, and so,
anyways, it's kind of hard tosee all of it.
(15:00):
But yeah, we've got a couplehundred parking spaces, which
you know is good, and we've got1.5 acres under roof.
Almost one of those acres isdestroyed right now.
You know, with the hell, I mean, we're still open for business
and still able to house ourproduct in there and everything,
(15:20):
but the roof has a lot of holesin it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, man, I saw that we were talking about it
earlier, but I saw the newschannel through.
That was the first thing I sawof it, of the drone footage, and
, man, that was crazy.
This is the most hail I've everseen.
I also mentioned this earlierMost hail I've ever seen in my
entire life in Chattanooga.
In one year Maybe all the yearsof me living here combined.
It's hailed like, yeah, it'sheld at least, I would say, a
(15:47):
dozen times at my house thisyear.
So bizarre, but it destroyedthat roof you guys have and
you're showing me photos ofhundreds of pounds of ice.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
It looked like like, yeah, in the net broke a steel
cable and the shade clothnetting.
So we have, like you know,something for shade for the
plants.
Uh, that's right outside ourgreenhouse and I mean it was
weighed all the way to theground and had broke a steel
cable.
So I mean it's pretty insane.
And what's also crazy about itis I live like 1.2 miles away
(16:19):
and I showed you like ourdoormat had a few pieces on it
and I took a picture of the sizeof it.
Little did I know the damagethat was you know, yeah, just
less than a mile and a half away.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
You think my buddy doesn't have a joke now.
Well, at least I have a joke.
My buddies just probably laughat me, but I, I think cloud
seating, I think we're stuck incloud seating now this is the
rainiest may I think we've everhad, is what they say, you know
and I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
But I will say that, like I have had times where I
mean it just kind of pops up outof nowhere and I don't remember
that happening other times.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
We've definitely been stuck in a rain cloud, which
that's got to affect you guys,because you hand water
everything, right, all theplants.
Yeah, when you're getting thismuch rain, does that's got to
affect you guys, because youhand water everything, right,
All the plants.
And when you're getting thismuch rain, does that affect your
inventory and affect planningit does, and you know we know
how to handle a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know, not having a roof over certain areas has
been exceptionally challenging,but yeah, I mean it affects all
that.
It affects, uh.
But but yeah, I mean it, itaffects all that.
It affects, uh, I mean customerpatterns.
I mean that the worst thingthat you can have on a saturday
is the cloud emoji, you know, orum, motocon or whatever it is
(17:36):
on your weather app, becausewhen people see that there might
be a 35 chance that it rains atsome point during the day in
Hamilton County, right, and youknow it doesn't.
But when people see that,they're like, okay, well, let's
plan on, you know, doingsomething different.
And we, we find a lot of timethat our, our biggest
(17:57):
competition isn't reallynecessarily Lowe's Home Depot,
another garden center, fairly,lowe's Home Depot, another
garden center.
It's people's time, because Iknow you guys are busy and we're
busy, but I mean there's acouple weekends for you to
(18:19):
really put your tomatoes in andthings like that.
When you take into accountweddings, other activities,
graduations, all these differentthings that you know take your
time away.
I mean time's our most valuableasset.
And then you put a couple rainydays in there and you may just
not grow a tomato garden thatyear, you may just not do as
(18:43):
much as you would have done hadyou had a whole weekend to, as
we say, play in the yard.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Right, that's a really good point because you
really make your money.
Like you said, spring's thebiggest time of year.
Oh yeah, by far, and so yourinventory you've got to front
that.
I mean, how many months out areyou planning for that?
Is it six months out, a yearout?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Nine months to a year out, yeah, so, um, yeah, I mean
we're, we're pretty dialed inon on what we do and so, um, you
know it, it takes a good bit ofshuffling when you do have, you
know that, rain and stuff.
But I will say that, uh,gardeners are pretty determined,
uh, because we might have a badweekend and then we have a
(19:22):
Tuesday that's like a Saturday,because we might have a bad
weekend and then we have aTuesday that's like a Saturday,
um, where everybody, especiallythese days, is uh, working from
home.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
But I don't you know really they're at the barn and
it's convenient for you guys.
Hey, good, good for me.
But yeah, so I mean, that's solike that's kind of a good
variable to think about.
Like, I mean, when you'reordering nine to 12 months out,
uh, do you like taking overmeetings where you guys as a
team are talking about likepercentage of growth for chad
nigga, because if you don't getenough inventory you kind of
(19:53):
leave profit on the table, right?
Yeah, I mean, are you basicallyordering more each year or can
you add quickly?
If you sell out for some reason, can you add more inventory,
inventory quickly?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
So there is flex space for that.
But especially like ourcommercial clients a lot of our
commercial clients we get themon a schedule and it helps us
planning-wise, it helps themcost-wise.
But I mean, I have blocks ofstuff that are grown
(20:24):
specifically for you name thedevelopment in Chattanooga.
We have probably two dozen thatwe literally have them grown
from tissue culture seed tofinished product and we have a
target date on when they'regoing to land and we tell our
(20:47):
growers that in August and wesay, hey, this is how many they
need and everything.
But the other thing there isthey all show up in the same
stage of growth, so they're allperfectly uniform and look great
.
(21:08):
So could I find 1,200 sunpatients?
Absolutely, but they'reprobably going to be from three
different growers, and even fromthree different growers, they
could be in seven differentgrowth stages.
So you could have their May 1crop, their April 20th crop, and
you know, you have some thatare this tall, some that are
this tall, and so you know, Imean, there's a lot of planning
(21:31):
that goes into it and a lot oftime.
Um, you know, I mean it takes alearning process.
Uh, you know, on our side, butalso working with our clients
and making sure we're gettingthem, you know what they need.
But and that's another reasonwhy it's important to work with
the right growers, becausethere's, you know, I've tried
(21:51):
working with other people andthey're like, well, it'll
actually be ready in two weeks.
And I'm like, well, it's a goodthing, I'm not counting on you
guys, because my customers havea clear forecast this weekend,
yeah, and they're going to buyit from somewhere.
So you know, and that's whyit's important to always work
with good partners that have,you know, good integrity.
(22:13):
They have, you know, they havea good product.
They stand behind what they'regoing to do and they do it.
And you know, and then, whenyou get that, that winning
combination, you, you do rinseand repeat, um, and then try to
make it better.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
So out of curiosity.
You know how many plants youguys move on?
An average year A lot.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Uh, no, I, I mean it.
It would be, uh, well, over amillion plants, wow, um, you
know, I mean well, if you justthink about, uh, a lot of the
flats they have, you know, 36 onthere, uh, 36 plants.
And then we sell 17,000 hangingbasket ferns a year, uh, which
(23:03):
which is a pretty amazingstatistic right there.
But you know, I mean the weekof Masters week.
We sell about 2,000 azaleasthat week alone, which you know,
and that's been one of thethings also that I've really
enjoyed doing.
You know, this year we didsomething for Run the Roses.
(23:23):
We, you know, got some shirts,put the team in some some shirts
.
Everybody really enjoyed uhthat.
And then we had uh heart andhive came out and did uh some uh
mint julep tea and uh somebourbon balls and stuff like
that.
So, you know, anything that wecan do to kind of, uh, you know,
create some excitement, Cause Imean, it's it, I think it was.
(23:48):
Henry Ford said if you want tomake everybody happy and go sell
ice cream, well, we sell thenext best thing.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
We sell plants.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
So you know, we can't make everybody happy, but we
can damn sure try.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah.
So, I mean, clearly you guysgot a good recipe of like
marketing advertising, and itseems like I mean the networking
.
For sure you seem to likereally network well over
Chattanooga, but obviouslythere's some and the placement,
I mean the placement of thebusiness, that's a huge part.
Great location, greatvisibility.
Obviously, customer service,people come back.
But what else are you doingmarketing advertising-wise, like
(24:21):
any sort of traditionaladvertising, like print,
billboard, tv, radio, likedigital advertising?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
So we're doing a little bit of TV right now.
We have done some radio, butthat's one of the kind of the
interesting things that we'vekind of went through over the
years, because I mean, you'refrom Chattanooga, you know I
mean my dad spent a ton of moneyon radio TV billboards and I
(24:48):
mean that's what really put uson the map, and you know a lot
of my dad's slogans.
I know the free press did athing where they said, uh, they
had top 10 most iconic ads, andI think my dad was either two or
three of those.
Uh, and you know they it was.
It was really cool, uh, to seethat.
But I mean, you know, I, I meanwhen I grew up I would ask my
(25:10):
dad, hey, what time is it?
And he'd say it's springtime.
And I'm like I mean seriously,Dad, what time is it?
And then you were getting itspringtime or it's fall,
planting time and you can forgetanything else, and so, anyways,
(25:31):
so we had such a vast marketingscheme there but we had done,
you know, kind of the same thingfor so many years, and actually
during COVID, you know, I meanCOVID changed our business
forever and I think it changedmost everybody's business.
That's still in business.
You know, you know forever oneway or the other, I mean whether
(25:51):
it's working from home or it'sa different way of selling or or
what.
And during that time, um, it wasat the beginning of covid, and
somebody said, uh cole,somebody's here to see you.
And I mean we were cranking, wehad, you know, we had already
(26:12):
decided we were going to buildsome out outdoor cash registers
to help kind of set people'ssocial distance.
Uh, cause, you know, we're likewe're coming up on spring, If
you know, if we don't have agood spring, we're we're in
trouble.
You know, I mean every year, Imean if we don't have a good
spring, if we, you know's that'smoney making season, I mean
that's like having a huge cropfailure in a big farm, it's.
(26:34):
It's not good.
Um, and so I mean we werealready trying to do the things
that we could do.
And uh, somebody from HamiltonCounty and uh, the health
department and we're out in theparking lot and I mean we are
jamming.
I mean we've got 150 plus carsin the parking lot.
Yeah, times are good, sun's out.
(26:57):
I'm happy, yeah.
And I see his badge and I'mlike I don't like the looks of
this.
And he goes uh, you got aminute.
I go.
I mean, yeah, I, I think that Ineed to make a minute even if I
don't.
And so we went up to the officeand he said you can't draw a
(27:18):
crowd.
And I'm like, well, that's kindof what we do here.
I mean, like you know, that'syou know, that's like, you know,
that's not what we want to do.
And I was like, okay, well, andhe was like, you know, you got
to create distance.
I was like, well, we'rebuilding these outdoor cash
registers and everything.
And he's like, well, that'sgreat, you know that's.
You know something I hadn'treally thought about, you know,
(27:42):
and I'm like, well, you know,we're going to close every other
register and that way we'llhave it spread out and all these
things.
But the next thing that broughtup was well, I guess we're not
going to be buying our marketingthe same way that we do,
because, you know, he literallytold us you know, that's the one
(28:03):
thing that we don't need to do.
And so we pulled back on a lotof things that I don't know that
we would have ever pulled backon, because, I mean, customers
are the lifeblood of yourbusiness.
Yeah and uh.
I mean you're just going to quitmarketing the way that you have
.
That's put you on the map forthis many years.
(28:24):
And so when we did that, youknow we switched to a lot more
social media and then, you know,still some billboards and
things like that, and, um, wewere able to kind of reallocate
those funds to a lot ofdifferent things, and one of
those was, uh, you know, we wereable to, uh, you know, do a lot
(28:46):
more charitable donations andthings like that.
That you know, um, uh, you knowthings that we feel really good
about doing and you know also away to get our name out there
too, but it's, you know, thereare always causes that you know
align with our values, and so,you know that really shifted the
(29:07):
way that all that went.
And then also, having thoseoutdoor, outdoor cash registers
we did that out of necessity.
We didn't realize it was goingto make us more efficient on, uh
, saturdays, and it was kind oflike um, having a to-go window
at, um, a restaurant.
So you have this kind ofrolling in, you know, and
(29:27):
sometimes we think about ourparking spaces in the parking
lot, like tables at a restaurant.
You want to turn those tablesto get more people in and so
people could come in grab whatthey want and check out quicker
doing that, and so it actuallymade our big days bigger.
So I mean there were some happycoincidences that happened
(29:50):
there, coincidences thathappened there, but that also
helped expedite some of thetransition between the barn
being my dad's and Jim Webster'sand then it being more more me.
I mean it's still, you know, myparents are still owners and you
(30:10):
know, and Gabby and I areowners as well, but, um, you
know, up until to that point, atthat point, I wasn't an owner.
Um, but uh, you know it, itreally it it forced that
transition.
You know, cause I don't knowthat, I mean my, my dad, with
the trailer load after trailerload, all those different things
(30:32):
from my advertising end, Iwould have never done it the way
that he did it, and so it kindof naturally segued to social
media things and I didn't reallylike public speaking or
anything.
And then fast forward a coupleyears and I can't shut up.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I mean that's definitely an awesome silver
lining.
From that, you know, and andhearing that story, god, it gets
me fired up.
The first part of it, you know,the whole health department,
the badge in the first placejust fires me up.
But then you think about, like,did they even show?
Not that I want to steer us inthis direction, but I got it.
I got to open my mouth about itfor a second.
You think they showed up toLowe's and Home Depot and they
were cracking down on them.
Like those guys never stoppedadvertising.
(31:10):
They were deemed essential.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, you know and I mean and that was one of the
first things that I knew theywere going to talk about and one
thing people don't realize iswe sell at least a half a
million dollars worth ofvegetable plants, seeds and
soils that then yield millions,millions of dollars worth of
(31:37):
fresh produce to people in theChattanooga area.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
And that just sounded like a really good soundbite.
I was like you know, if that'swhat we have to hammer away,
that's what we will.
Yeah, because the other thingis, I mean you can't operate a
business like ours without that.
It's like operating six flagswithout the summer.
I mean it ain't gonna happenfor long.
You know, fright Fest onlybrings in so much.
(32:01):
But you know, I think that youknow it was I mean and it was I
mean it was very trying and youknow pivoting and doing it.
But you know, one of the thingsthat we've always done is we've
been opportunistic at a lot oftimes in, you know, purchasing.
(32:23):
That's how we got in thepottery business so big.
You know we buy deals, weextend deals to our customers.
You know we also have ourhigh-end side, but you know
we've always adapted and that'swhere, a lot of times, where we
thrive, I mean you know, likewith this health storm, with
(32:45):
COVID, I mean you know, see achallenge and I'm like you know,
try to stop us.
And I mean our team isresilient, our family's
resilient, and I mean we've gotserious, serious friends and
partners.
I mean I had landscapers comeand help clean up.
(33:07):
Um, you know, from the hell.
Storm damage, no questionsasked.
I mean mean they were therewith blowers and ready to go.
We were open 10 o'clock in themorning when, I got there at 5
am and it looked like a war zoneman.
So I mean things like that areobvious points of pride.
It gets my, you know, bloodpumping talking about it.
But you know, between COVID andyou know, it's just another
(33:29):
thing I mean my dad, he had ahundred year flood the week of
Mother's Day like like we didthis year back in uh oh two.
And you know, and at that time Imean it was devastating.
I mean could have been the nailin the coffin for us because uh
, you know he had just boughtthat property, just did a big
expansion, all these things, anduh also didn't have flood
(33:50):
insurance at the time.
He didn't even know he didn'thave it.
So I mean that was like, youknow, half a million dollar loss
at that time.
And so you know, for us, I meanyou know we've.
You know, if our customersstart saying one thing we have
to try to, you know, adjust toit, and you know, so far, that's
one of the things that we cando that Lowe's and Home Depot
(34:13):
can't do.
We can change our wholecampaign, you know quickly yeah.
Very quickly, within within anhour if we need to.
And and you know, and I've gota great in-house team that you
know, uh, uh, makes all oursignage and everything.
And you know, makes all oursignage and everything.
And you know, one of the mostamazing things and you know, I
(34:39):
do believe that God puts theright people in your life and
your business at different times.
And I mean the lady that doesall my in-house signage, she was
.
She came to work part time forus.
Now she's a manager.
(34:59):
But she came to work part timebecause she had a marketing
company where she does mainlyprint stuff and things like that
.
But one day we had just lostsomebody that was making all our
signs.
And I'm in there and I'm juststubborn enough to figure it out
(35:20):
.
But you know the sign, like youknow, the price on the sign was
this big, the picture was thisbig.
I mean it did not look right,but you could tell what planet
was at what price.
And she goes do you want me todo that?
And I mean, like I said, she'sworking part-time, as you know,
helping in our houseplant roomand I'm like knock yourself out,
(35:40):
yeah.
And then she goes, fixes it.
You know everything looks howit.
You know she's a graphicdesigner, it looks like it's
supposed to and I'm like how didyou know how to do that?
She's like well, I've had myown graphic design company for
30 years and I'm like okay,maybe I have you doing the wrong
thing right now but she stilltakes care of all our
houseplants and does all that.
But you know, I mean we've got,um, we've got a really good team
(36:04):
and everybody kind of you know,um, we all work together and
you know use our unique.
You know strengths and luckilyI have people that take up for
all my weaknesses.
You know a lot of the time.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
You've got to surround yourself with those
sort of people you know, exactly, definitely, a good sign of
like a good business, a goodteam, good leader, whenever you
can navigate things like theflood in 2002 you're talking
about, like COVID.
You know, like you're having to.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
some things are out of our control and it's just
figuring out how you get aroundthat, yeah Well, and we've
always said the weather and thegovernment are the two things
that my dad said.
As I always said, you'll neverhear me bitch about, you'll
never hear me bitch about thecompetition, you'll never hear
me bitch about the competition,you'll never hear me bitch about
the economy, but I can't doanything about weather and I
(36:57):
can't do anything about, uh, youknow, the government, except
one time.
One time tdot had shut down ourexit four weekends in a row
during spring, and this is backin the day, I mean, and we were
way more seasonal then than weare now.
Yeah, um, and so I mean, it was, it was very, very trying, but
(37:18):
you know, um, outside of, youknow things like that, and it
raining every weekend.
Other other than that, ourbiggest competitions are
ourselves and people's time, youknow yeah, wow now.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Now some of the nonprofits that you're involved
in.
I know you guys started Lena'sLove in honor of your sister,
yeah, and I'd love to hear someabout that, because that's been
around for quite a while.
When did you guys start that?
Speaker 2 (37:43):
So it started in 06 when my sister passed away.
I had just turned 16.
My brother was, uh, had justturned 19 when she passed and he
had went away to college, uh,west Georgia, where I ended up
going and, um, anyways, at thattime my parents kind of saw, um,
(38:08):
you know, and and got to giveboth of them credit.
You'll never hear me not givethem credit, but the vision that
they had for Land is Love andseeing all these other families
that they can't do some of thethings that we could do.
So now we have monthly largeevents, uh, for the families.
(38:34):
We also, uh, jennifer Greerbrings uh food into the clinic
on a weekly basis.
We also have taken over um, aum, this is actually a really
cool story, uh, I'll come backto it.
But, uh, you know, we havemonthly events.
We also uh dad's group about ayear and a half ago, which is
(38:58):
really great.
Every other month we get thedads together.
Once a month the moms gettogether and there's a grief
group for mothers that theirchildren have passed and then
there's an active mothers groupthere that we do.
(39:18):
So what we try to do is we tryto love on the whole family and
that's one of the things that Isaw there when one of the
reasons why my parents got theidea is we had went to Disney
World with a group of familieswhen my sister was getting
treatment in New York and theymet at the Ronald McDonald house
(39:40):
and there was a guy that tookdown all these families every
year and he collected donations.
Uh, he was a super of abuilding in um uh, new York with
a lot of really wealthy peoplethat donated to that.
But what I saw out of it and mypassion in Lana's Love and
that's one of the reasons whyI've been involved in the Dads
(40:02):
group is and I'm a hugenetworking guy, you know that,
you know that.
But you know, and I meanstrength in numbers and just
having other people there, Imean, is what makes me happy in
life, but also what we've beenable to do there is kind of
create a network for thesefamilies.
(40:23):
I remember when I went to Disneyand I met the other siblings of
children that are going throughcancer, I didn't have to
explain to them what, what I'mgoing through, and we could kind
of just like it's likeinstantly.
I mean, you know, every now andthen you meet somebody and
maybe y'all really loved amountain bike or whatever.
But you just click, you know,or you know maybe you like the
(40:44):
same football team or whatever,and you know real quickly, hey,
we're pretty much, you know, uh,we're in this thing together or
we're cut from the same clothor whatever it may be.
And you know, having thatexperience with those kids was
really important for me because,you know, being a teenager,
being a kid's tough, and thenwhen your sibling gets, you know
(41:11):
a deadly, um, you know a, adeadly, uh, illness, you know, I
mean it, it's tough enoughbeing being a kid and then you
know filling, you know takencare of or whatever.
And then, obviously, uh, I meanmy parents are wonderful people
but you know they a lot of theattention has to go to to the
(41:33):
child that's sick and and so oneof the things that we, that my
parents saw I mean they alwaystook a lot of time with us but
they also, you know, saw thatand we're like you know, we want
to make this about the wholefamily.
So, whether we're at LakeWinnie, whether we're at Ruby
Falls, rock City for theChristmas lights, the aquarium,
(41:56):
the zoo, all these partners thatalso a lot of them are Creative
Discovery Museum, a lot of themare also clients at the Barn
Nursery and it all kind of.
You know, it's been reallyinteresting to kind of get to
work with these people on alldifferent fronts and I mean we
(42:16):
just have amazing communitypartners and these families
don't have to pay for anything.
And so back at the beginning ofthis year I don't know if you
know Clay Kistner, kistnerPaving, I know that name, I
don't know him personally knowClay Kistner Kistner Paving.
I know that name yeah, I don'tknow him personally.
Well, we had went to lunchtogether and we went to Common
(42:40):
House and he was like, you know,I want to be involved in Lana's
Love and you know, I'verecently got a little bit of
money from a bonus coming in forfinishing a project quickly.
And he said, you know, I wantto donate that to Lana's Love.
(43:02):
And he's like, but I don't know, you know, if y'all have
something specific y'all want todo.
And I was like, well, you know,I mean, we're going to talk
about it at some point.
How much is that?
And he said it's $10,000.
And what he didn't know is abouta month previous to that there
(43:27):
was a, a family that had startedsomething called Sarah's Snacks
where provide snacks in theclinic for children that are
going through treatment andtheir families.
And they've got it set up,they've got a vending machine
that has fake coins to put in itso they can, you know, get
(43:48):
their snacks out, somerefrigerated, some not
refrigerated, and so have thatas drinks and everything.
And the family came to me andHolly Scholl and was like hey,
holly's our director and said wecan't do this anymore.
You know, it's taken up a lotof our.
(44:09):
You know a ton of our time andhas for years, and you know
we're getting of our.
You know our ton of our timeand has for years, and you know
we've we're getting older andyou know it's getting outside of
our wheelhouse.
And I said, sure, we'll take itover.
Like you know we'll, we'll dowhat we have to do, like you
know.
And we got the numbers back.
It was like right around$10,000 a year that they were
spending on this and I was likewe'll fund it.
I was like, nah, I don't knowyou know whether you know we
(44:32):
have to, uh, you know, dip intosomething or like.
And I said, or maybe we'll evenfind a donor that wants to do
this.
And I told Clay what we weredoing and he goes that's what I
want to do.
And so I mean, there was thisvoid for a month and then
(44:53):
somebody steps up to the plateand does that.
And that's been one of thereally cool things because, you
know, we have such a directimpact on it and we don't have
like a crazy overhead.
We don't have a crazy you knowlike board process that you know
where everything has to gothrough this, this and this.
You know I could kind of youknow like board process, that
you know where everything has togo through this, this and this.
(45:14):
You know I could kind of.
You know, do what I do and youdo every day is like, okay,
that's, that aligns with ourmission.
Why would we not do that?
You know like we can't not dothat, right, um and so, um, you
know that that things like thatare, you know, super fulfilling.
(45:35):
But it's incredible how much ofthe time you know Lana's love
and the barn, like we kind ofoverlap, overlap, or you know
somebody will call me and be, uh, holly or jennifer will call me
(45:57):
about, uh, you know somethingwith the lookouts or something
like that.
I'm like, well, we just didtheir planners, you know, this
week, and you know, let me talkto somebody or something, and
you know, and then they're likeyeah, you know we would love to
help with this or that, and youknow, and it's just uh, uh, I
know a lot of people are likeyou know, why did you take on
that role?
I know you've got too much onyour plate anyways, and it's
actually been one of thosethings that it's actually
(46:19):
simplified some things, becauseI can kind of, you know, a lot
of the time the right people aretalking you know yeah.
And, as you know, that's adifficult thing a lot of the
time, especially withorganizations.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah, especially nonprofits.
Difficult thing a lot of thetime, especially with
organizations.
Yeah, especially nonprofits.
You know we're talking earlierbefore this and I'm not going to
go into all the negatives of it, but there's a lot of
nonprofits out there.
Just too many chefs in thekitchen in my opinion.
You know, that's just theepitome of inefficiency, and I
know we've met on some boards oron some organizations in the
past that I won't mention.
(46:51):
But it just gets frustrating aswe're both technically running
small businesses.
Which small businesses?
I had to look this up the otherday because it always changes
with inflation, depending on whoyou ask between $1 million to
$40 million.
Some say $1 million to $100million revenue and under 250
employees.
So a small business is still asizable business, but
independently owned, operated.
(47:11):
There's a lot of things wegotta do, we have to be
efficient, and then sometimesyou get part of these
organizations and you try togive your time and it's just so
frustrating to watch like allthe people that are collecting
paychecks and nonprofits aremaking great money, yeah, and
then they sit on these boardsand they all just have ideas and
they micromanage everyone, theybring in and it's like, yeah,
yeah, if you let some peoplejust do some work without the
(47:32):
professional non-profit hiresand I know I'm kind of shitting
on them, but man, they get.
There's some great ones outthere, but there's some that are
very frustrating to watch.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Yeah you know well, I mean that there are so many
great non-profits out there.
But you know, it makes me thinkof something that, uh, when I
first got on planning commissionfor City of Chattanooga in
Hamilton County which I'mactually rolling off of this
next month and going into adifferent role but at that time
(48:05):
I had a conversation withsomebody that was also on
planning commission, uh,somebody that uh was also on
planning commission, and uh, we,we started talking and he, he
was down at the barn on a busySaturday and I forget what three
decisions I had to make realquick, but it was, I think,
opening up some additionalparking, uh, opening up an
(48:28):
additional register.
And you know, just quick little, you know things that you do on
a on a given.
And you know just quick little,you know things that you do on
a on a given day.
Or you know giving somebody awarranty that didn't have a
receipt or whatever it was.
And he saw me do all that overthe radio and two minutes.
And he's like you know so howare you enjoying this?
And I'm like, really like I'mloving it, but it's so different
(48:50):
for me and what I do.
And he said he's like well,he's like.
The most efficient businessyou'll ever see is one guy with
a pickup truck, a mower and aweed eater.
There's no hierarchy, justcutting grass.
We're doing what we need to doin every level of business, that
(49:13):
it gets bigger, because ithappens in my business, the, you
know, the bigger you get, themore bureaucracy you have.
And he said, and the mostinefficient is government.
And so, and since he said that,it's really kind of put things
into perspective for me and eventhough you know I knew that it
(49:36):
kind of solidified that in mymind of hey, well, you know.
I mean, you know there's an HOAfor a reason, there's checks
and balances for a reason, butthere are some times where those
reasons still seem insane.
You know, it's like the billingball.
It's like, you know, whenthere's a stupid rule, somebody
somewhere did something stupidalong the way to make it, where,
(49:58):
hey, oh yeah, we have to havethese checks and balances in
place, but it can be completelydebilitating and if you're
somebody that you cut the headoff the snake is what we say and
one of those things going backto a conversation we had earlier
about us kind of having thesame meeting every year, one of
(50:23):
the things that my dad alwayssays he brings up a Ross Perot
story of talking about cuttingthe head off the snake Perot
story of talking about cuttingthe head off the snake and Ross
Perot.
He was talking about why,general Motors?
Are you familiar with RossPerot?
okay, yeah, yeah and so he wasserved on the board for General
(50:45):
Motors and they were talkingabout General Motors at that
time had lost money and Hondawas just killing it at the time.
And they said, you know, he'slike, well, it's just
inefficiencies.
And they said what do you mean?
He's like okay, well, forinstance, he's like if somebody
sees a snake in the GM plant,they'll see it.
(51:10):
And somebody will be like, hey,somebody needs to kill that
snake.
And they're like that's not myjob description.
And uh, which is when he alsosays, well, that's one of the
one things that can get youhired around here is saying
that's not my job, because Imean, I, I've scrubbed a toilet
this week, I've plunged a toiletin the past month.
You know if, if it's, uh, if Ican do it, you know anyone else
(51:31):
can do it and there's not a jobthere that I haven't done.
But the story goes on to say sothey have to talk to management,
and then management has to talkto the board to approve funding
, to hire an outside service.
So by this time they get theoutside service to come in.
(51:53):
And you know it's bob's pestcontrol.
They come in and they look atit and they say uh well, this is
a poisonous stent snake, it'sgoing to cost extra.
And because of the bylaws uh,you know the company bylaws
because it's a venomous snake.
They then have to hire anexpert.
So they they hire an expertthat comes in and by this time
(52:18):
they identify the snake.
They say well, it is apoisonous snake, so they have to
shut down the factory.
The union goes on strike andthey all want on a raise because
they're working in hazardousconditions, and so they have to
hire this company to come in.
And then they determine thatthey have hatched eggs and now
there's a ton of snakes.
So you have to renegotiate thecontract, because we only have a
contract to kill one snake, not20 snakes.
(52:39):
And by the time they kill thesnake and get them out of there
and the union has to get theraises approved and everything.
It's cost General Motors over abillion dollars.
And when they saw the snake inHonda, the janitor sees the
(53:00):
snake, he goes over to his tools, he grabs a square-pointed
shovel, cuts the head off thesnake, puts it in the dumpster.
Nobody ever hears about it again, and I know that that's a
really you know convoluted story, and I don't tell it as good as
Jim Webster, I'll tell you that.
But it's so true, though, aboutyou know the boards that you're
(53:28):
talking about and government orwhatever.
You know the greatest thingabout a small business and I
know a lot of the companies thatI use my vendors that you know
we outsource I don't know if youknow Andy Shy with Time and Pay
(53:50):
you know we outsource ourpayroll to them.
And I had talked to Paychex, wehad previously been with ADP
and we had already been with allthe big outfits, and I talked
to somebody locally and theywere kind of a franchise of
(54:13):
another company and I wasn'treally sure that guy was going
to be with the company for verylong.
And the next meeting I went to,I had a meeting with Andy.
We went up to Sugar Shrimps forlunch and he explains he
sounded pretty much exactly likeme at the time.
He's like yeah, he's like youknow my dad started the company.
He's like I'm taking it over,I'm doing this, this and this
(54:35):
and I go, okay, and you knowwhat's your degree in whatever.
And I'm like so you don't wantany other options, do you?
He's like no, this is what I'mgoing to do.
(54:57):
I'm like do't you want to knowpricing, don't you want to know
this?
And I was like, I mean, as longas it's somewhat in line, and
it was.
But it's like you know, I wantto deal with people I want to
deal with and and when there's aproblem there needs to be
somebody I can call and that'lltake care of it.
And there's no reason why youknow problems, issues have to
get all complicated, because ifyou keep it simple, stupid, I
(55:19):
mean that's just the best way todo it, because most issues just
aren't that complicated whenyou really kind of dumb it down
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Absolutely, and that's really a shift I've seen
right now in marketingadvertising for our clients and
for businesses that I work withand, just I think, as a nation,
when it comes down to what wecall local businesses, you know
like we're a local businessbecause we sell mainly to our
local populations surrounding us.
You know, if you look us up onGoogle, we're going to be in
that map area because we'reproviding a service locally,
(55:48):
whether it's plants or marketingadvertising services or
whatever.
We see this a lot in, of course, blue collar world, and
whenever you came to the officeearlier, I was getting finally
someone to go to my house with anew plumbing company.
Last night I spent close to 30minutes between automated AI
bots and text messages.
Someone called me.
I missed the call and the phonenumber went back to a automated
voice person.
(56:09):
That put me in a a loopindefinitely.
After I gave all my informationfor a second time, then more
text messages came through andput all my information again.
Then this morning a person saidoh sorry, we were closed.
I need all this information andnone of its relevance to
anything.
I just needed a real simple job.
It's going to take an hour.
Someone come out.
They're probably going tocharge me a few hundred dollars
for it.
Whatever it's, in and out, it'seasy, easy money for them.
(56:32):
And finally, after all of it,they would add the same
questions again and I was likehey, I've already answered all
these questions and I know AI ishandling this and we do it for
our customers too, but can Ijust get someone for a quote?
You can call me and they'relike no, thank you for wasting
(56:57):
my time.
You know that's, at this point,close to 45 minutes.
I know I'm sounding a littlepretentious saying it, but we're
as busy as we are and it's 45minutes.
And it's like if they wouldhave just said, hey, hold on,
let me call you right now, andsomeone would have been on the
phone and be like hey, I'm sorryabout all that, let me get you
booked right now.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
You know like hey, it's going to be a $50 call.
Visit, go ahead and do it, noproblem.
Speaker 1 (57:13):
Like whatever you know, just make it easy for me.
So what did I do?
I said you know what, nevermind, and I'm going to let
people know about my experiencebecause this is frustrating, you
know, and I hate to be thatKaren and they picked up the
phone.
It was a real person and thatfelt so good.
Because it was like a realperson.
(57:33):
I was like, hey, this is a smalljob.
I understand you may not wantit, but I need a dishwasher
reconnected or a rental propertyand a disposal put in because
we had floors and cabinets.
It's already there plumbed.
It's not going to be a big one,but it's just something you
guys understand.
Oh yeah, we'd love to take outthere tomorrow.
And it felt so good.
You know it's in and out offthe phone, it's easy.
Like I'm going to give them agreat review because that was
(57:54):
such a good experience.
So anyway, all that to say, likeI'm noticing this across a lot
of our clients, especially inthe home service space, because
you know, if people want to deallocally, they would rather have
that personal experience versuslike that big corporate feel
where you're on hold for a longtime and all that, you know.
Just it kills that personaltouch.
So sometimes I'm seeing likethis new technology, especially
(58:17):
the AI buzzword, everyone'susing.
It's kind of messing things upfor companies.
You know you're losing that.
Of course, every company needsto work on being more efficient
and you can use AI in great ways.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Well, I think that you just hit the nail on the
head.
You can use it in great ways.
You can do certain things verywell, and I think that there's a
lot of things that people aregetting a little far ahead of
themselves with this or that,and I can think of some good
(58:51):
examples, but I think it wouldbe too revealing.
Uh, but um, you know, I thinkthat there's a lot of people
that, um, you know, I mean youjust overcomplicate things or
you think hey, uh, you know like, and a lot of the time, I mean
I think that the reason whywe're not uh in my business and
sounds like in the plumbingbusiness, why real people are
(59:15):
not very easily replaceable, isbecause it's a case by case
basis.
You know, 80 percent of yourcalls may fill into this one
area, but you know that's still20 percent of your calls where I
mean that you need to talk tosomebody and just talk through
the issue, and it's really notthat complicated, but a lot of
(59:36):
times everybody wants tobottleneck everything.
Okay, I need all yourinformation, I need all this
from you, I need all this andyou're like no, you don't.
You just need to know theaddress of the job, my name, my
phone number and I'll pay you.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
And if you get in there and and you have to, you
know you have to order anotherpart or you have to get another
part off the truck.
You just have to call me andget it approved.
I mean it's just, it's reallynot that complicated.
And I think that a lot ofpeople, more than anything, I
think people are afraid ofcommunicating and I think that
uh, and I'm not a great, youknow, I'm not the best
(01:00:11):
communicator in the world,because I mean, you know there's
so many different things goingon that some of the time I know
I fall flat on my face in thatcategory, but I think that
people are afraid to pick up thephone.
I think that you know thatthere are a lot of people that
are afraid to do that and Ithink that that is one of the
reasons why a lot of things arekind of funneled into one place.
(01:00:34):
But I mean, how much more canyou do with people that you know
when you have a lastingrelationship?
How many of your clients ownother businesses you didn't even
know that they owned, thatyou're now doing more business,
more work for that business thanthe first one you started with.
I find that on like mycommercial end.
All the time.
(01:00:54):
You know we're talking aboutone project and I'm like, yeah,
this is going to be pretty good.
And they're like, hey, I needyou know, I need you on this
over here, and I'm like whoa,whoa, I had no idea you were
involved in this or whatever Imean.
And that's the other thing.
I mean you never know who's onthe other end of the phone and
(01:01:14):
that's why you've got to treateverybody, I mean the same.
And great, you know, because itdoesn't matter if they're
spending $5 or $50,000.
I mean, every dollar counts.
Every customer, every person isimportant.
Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Yeah, Well, it seems it's definitely paid off for you
guys.
You know you've done well, soit's awesome to see Got any big
plans for the 60th.
I don't, haven't, haven't, evenreally thought about it yet,
but I've got a year and a half.
Yeah, it needs to be a bigparty or something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Yeah that's a great idea yeah, I think we need to
start planning yeah so yeah,absolutely um anything else you
want to say, it's been a goodconversation no man, I I'm just
happy you you invited me out anduh happy that uh I was able to
to spend some time with you andit's just been been really cool
(01:01:59):
to see you know you uh grow yourbusiness and the things you do
and uh in the community as well,and uh just happy to be uh be
able to call you a friend.
Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for coming on.
It's awesome to hear the storyand all the information.
Awesome, you guys have been sosuccessful.
It's good to see you grow.
I like seeing all your socialmedia posts.
That's definitely been a goodpart of the business and you
guys are crushing it.
It's awesome.
Thanks, man Cool.
Well, thanks again, absolutely.
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