January 2, 2025 • 31 mins
Hi This is Brad Weisman - Click Here to Send Me a Text Message
A transformative conversation centered around the innovative leadership style of Brad Stephenson, CEO of New Castle Lawn and Landscape. Stephenson shares insights on building a supportive culture that values employee empowerment and personal growth, all while striving to improve the lives of 20,000 people.
• Emphasizing the importance of cultural leadership within the workplace
• Discussing the high turnover rate in landscaping and strategies to reduce it
• Using DISC assessments to enhance communication and connect with employees
• Focusing on personal growth through seeking discomfort and overcoming fear
• Setting the goal to impact 20,000 lives through positive change
• Experiencing vulnerability to foster deeper connections in leadership
• Creating an engaging work environment that motivates employees
• Recognizing the significance of personal stories and challenges in defining leadership
If you have any landscaping needs, call New Castle Lawn and Landscape today! 610-796-7818
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Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show, where we dive into the world of real estate, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! 🎙️ Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! 🏡🌟 #TheBradWeismanShow #RealEstateRealLife
Credits - The music for my podcast was written and performed by Jeff Miller.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
from real estate to real life and everything in
between the brad weisman showand now your host, brad weisman.
All right, we're back.
Whether you like it or not, weare back.
Uh, yeah, we got a good guesthere.
This is gonna be fun, you know.
The good thing about this guestis that he has the same name as
(00:23):
mine, so I can't forget hisname and his last name's easy,
because a lot of times I messthose up too.
But no, we have a guest thatwas on here before.
He was on here about a year ago, year and a half ago, something
like that and he is back.
He is a mover and a shaker inyou're not going to believe it
in the landscaping business, butalso in the leadership, in
(00:44):
cultural leadership.
I mean, he's just doing allkinds of stuff and his name is
Brad Stevenson.
He's the CEO of Newcastle Lawnand Landscape and he's also a
certified behavioral analysisconsultant.
That's a tough one to say.
How are you doing, brad?
Doing really good.
Thanks for having me.
You're very welcome.
This is an easy one.
It's Brad and Brad, bradsquared.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Not much has changed around here.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Not much, right, right.
No, it's probably more dust onthings, but otherwise it's
pretty much the same.
Pretty much the same Our hairis coming in in different places
.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, thanks for noticing, butno, so you know.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
The first thing I'm going to say is that you know
you started at the companyyou're at in a beginning like a
laborer yeah, yeah, just pushingwheelbarrows and grew my way up
through the company and broughta lot of people to the company
too, so helped grow throughpeople.
How long ago was that?
That was about 18 and a halfyears ago, 18 and a half years
(01:38):
ago, wow, and I kind of rememberthat.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Actually, I kind of remember when you came into the,
into the, the company, uh,through social media and things
like that.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I did a show with you .
Uh, we did.
Uh, I forget what it was, ohthat's right.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
We did this show from a BCTV.
We did the real estate showthat I had on there.
Was that real estate and you?
That might've been real estateand you also, I can't remember,
but you're right, we did thatover in green Valley.
Yes, there was a house in greenvalley that you guys were doing
, yeah, and the tree guy wasthere.
Is he the same tree guy?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
no, that was different tree guy.
Different is say they came atthe same time.
Okay, it's his partner.
Yeah, nick moved on and hestayed.
Okay, there we go those treeguys.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You gotta watch.
You just grow and grow and growit's amazing, yeah, yeah he
branched out to a differentbusiness right?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
yeah, just gonna say, he didn't leave.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
He didn't leave, he left checking.
Oh boy, yeah, so so, no, sothat's incredible.
And now you're the CEO of thecompany.
There's a story there Like howdoes that happen?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I'm not so sure how it happened to be honest with
you.
It just I kept building myself,but building people around me,
yeah, and the more you growpeople, all of a sudden, before
you know it, you're the ceo ofthe company and it was something
it was a dream I always had,yeah, so I was always pushing
towards it.
But it's the about the peoplearound me and helped me get to
(02:53):
that point and really, you knowthe the partners, my partners at
that time allowing me to comein and and do that and have
ownership uh, again, it was agoal of mine before I started
there, but allowing me to dothat was super grateful.
I'm super grateful, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
It's that story and you know.
It just shows you that, I thinkalso, you know you look at
people when they come into a jobor into an occupation for a
company.
You did more than what you weresupposed to do, you.
You didn't sit there and go.
Oh well, I was supposed to getthis and I should have gotten
that.
You just kept going forward,but you created probably leaders
around you too.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah it's about building people up.
But my dad always told me, youknow, put 100% in, no matter
what you get paid, it doesn'tmatter.
I remember working at OrangeJulius and I was like top, top,
wait, I worked at Orange Julius.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh, in the.
Yeah but I think I'm older thanyou.
You are.
Yeah, thanks, boy, I'm losing myhair and I'm older than you.
Oh, I don't know.
I'm full of compliments.
You're full of complimentstoday?
No, but seriously, I did.
I worked at Orange Julius.
I don't think I've ever hurtanybody in my life.
Orange Julius and DJing oh myGod.
(04:00):
See, yeah, you're too young,all right, so keep going with
the landscaping thing.
So no, so you.
You basically kept doing whatyou're supposed to do, but more
than you're supposed to do.
Always do more.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Always do more.
It's amazing.
It's not about the paycheck,it's about changing people's
lives, doing what, what you'resupposed to do, which is
everything you can, no matterwhat.
Yeah, and that's why I I meanit's hard to like understand
that, but our people atNewcastle, I mean we have over a
hundred, a hundred employeesnow and they're all really,
really good people, hugo beingone of them, but there's really
good people.
(04:30):
I just want to want to make adifference.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
You have over a hundred employees.
Yeah, that's incredible.
Yeah, it's grown.
That's big.
Yeah, that's big.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
We can still consider ourselves small.
Yeah Well, it's.
It's amazing, unbelievable.
So going've been working withthe DISC assessments probably
for about six years now.
I just love reading people andunderstand what makes people do
what they do, and it just linedup with me.
So I'm like you know what?
I'm going to get thecertification and now all of our
(05:21):
employees get the DISCassessments.
And it's all aboutcommunicating.
It's understanding how peoplereceive communication If they're
a detailed person.
I'm not going to blow them upwith a bunch of stories.
I'm going to talk about detailsand it's just really
understanding who you're talkingto and what your audience is.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I was just going to say it's knowing your audience.
You know, if there's one thingthat I can say to people that
are in the sales you know asales industry of some sort is
knowing your audience.
Don't talk like an engineer infront of the artist.
You know what I mean.
They're going to sit there likeglassy.
They're going to be like areyou out of your mind?
Like what are you even talkingabout?
You know?
And the other way around.
(05:58):
Don't be like oh, this isawesome, this is cool to the
engineer.
You know you got to talk inmore detailed terms.
It's, it's.
It's amazing how it's a being achameleon, really and not being
fake, it's just going wherethey
are?
Yes, meet them where they're at.
Yes, exactly, and that's howyou communicate better.
That's how you connect.
Yeah, we talked about that.
Most people can communicate,but they can't connect.
John Maxwell Good stuff, man,my boys, all right.
(06:21):
So let's get.
Yeah, exactly Same here.
I listen to him all the time.
So let's get a little deeperhere.
So how does it come about thata landscaping company becomes a
cultural heritage company, acompany that is there, really
caring about the employees andcaring about the team that's
there?
You know you could go throughthis business and landscaping
(06:42):
business and not do that, notreally care about the people
that are on your team, but so,but I think obviously it makes a
difference.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, I mean, our turnover ratein the last five years is 5%,
so it's, I think in the industryis 30%.
So but it's not just to keepyour turnover.
It's really to to lead people.
So even where I used to workbefore Newcastle, I was leading
people and I always wanted tobuild people up and and just
give them an opportunity thatmaybe they didn't have somewhere
(07:12):
else.
And it's about giving somebodya chance.
And you know, the more goodpeople you bring in and the more
you give them a chance, theystart flourishing you back away.
Let them grow and then they'llmultiply.
And it's like gremlins.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, so it was amazing yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And then you, you bring good people in, they
attract other good people andbefore you know it, you're
surrounded by a hundred greatpeople and that's what.
That's what it is at Newcastle.
If you, if you hire us, you'll,you'll, you'll see the
difference.
I mean, they're just reallygood people.
We've had people, we've had anHOA, that let us go because we
were too expensive.
Two years ago, or actuallythree years ago, the residents
(07:51):
were going to pick it, uh, toget us back, because they were.
They just wanted our guy and itwas all about our guys.
It wasn't like, listen, we'reselling the projects and the
product and everything, but it'snot our, it's about our people.
Like, it's just different andI'll put our people up against
anybody in any industry, notputting anybody down, but
they're just good people.
And, man, when you love to cometo work because you're around
(08:12):
good people, there's nothingbetter than that.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
And we're not perfect .
There is no perfect but that'sactually good, because then
you're constantly striving to bebetter, to make people's lives
better, to really care about thepeople.
We're a big culture companyAlso.
Keller Williams is known forthat nationally and also here
locally, it's a big part of ourbusiness is culture, and it is
amazing that we have a lowturnover.
(08:34):
Here too.
It's good for real estatecompanies.
We have a very low turnover.
We have great people that workhere.
We have great leadership teamin place and it means a lot.
You know, and and we care abouttheir kids, we care about their
families, we care about what'sgoing on behind the scenes.
You know, because it'simportant you know to, to care
about people.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
And it is way more than just the employee it to
care about people.
And it is way more than justthe employee.
It's their family.
Oh, absolutely, definitely andreally so, brian, my partner.
The reason why he wants to bethe owner of the business is
just he wants to create a placethat is that people love coming
to work, which is what we'redoing, and I want to just change
people's lives, not just theemployees, also other families
(09:12):
as well.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And that trickles down to the customer, to the, to
your clients.
Your customer, because here'sthe thing If you're treating
them in a certain way and and,and the respect that you treat
them with and and also givingthem the right to make choices,
to make their own choices andnot always have to be
micromanaged, it's amazing howthey can flourish and also how
they'll treat your clients.
Yeah, because that comes.
(09:34):
That's what happens If you'vebeen around companies where the
owners are idiots and you andthen the employees treat the
customers like, like idiots.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
you know it's terrible.
We're grading IQ here.
I don't know, I don't know if Iwant to be here.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I didn't say anything about that, I mean, but it's
just.
It's funny, though, but youfind that that it's a trickle
down from the top.
If you, if you don't treatingthem right, they're going to
treat your customers crappy too.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And one thing you said too is, you know, not being
fake like you got to live court.
The core value.
So our leadership team they have, like everybody that's in
leadership, has to live our corevalues.
If they don't, they're notgoing to be in leadership.
Yeah, because if you're justfaking it when you're at work
and then you leave and go dosomething else, man, nobody's
going to believe you.
So wherever I'm at, where I'mat, if I'm at work, if I'm at
(10:17):
home with my wife, if I'm withmy kids, I'm the same person
wherever I'm at, and it's justcaring about people.
Do I make mistakes?
Yes, I do.
Nobody's perfect.
And it's good to make mistakes,because then you can pick
yourself back up and you you canmeet people where they're at
when they make mistakes,absolutely, and it's one of the
things that um it's in that book.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
The new um John Maxwell book talks about.
Leadership is one of the mostimportant things you could ever
do is tell people what yourfaults are.
Yeah, let them know what yourweaknesses are, because then
they realize that, that, thatthat you know, and then they're
okay with picking up on thosethings and saying you know what?
What's okay, I can help you onthat.
You know, if you don't admit toit, they think you know
(10:56):
everything and it doesn't.
Nobody wants that.
Yeah, I sure don't.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, it's, it's.
Simon Sinek says it too.
It's about being the idiot inthe room.
Yeah, ask those dumb questionsthat always like here's, here's
a story.
I was at a cause, I'm on someboards and stuff and I had no
clue like how it actually worked.
So you know, when they say, uh,they go around and talk about
Robert's rules.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I don't know what.
I don't even know what it'scalled.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Do I have somebody?
Do I have a yes or whatever?
Okay, hold on.
So I had to stop the meeting.
I was like guys, I really don'tunderstand what's going on here
.
I said can I raise my my handand say you know, I'll give the
first?
Year I just didn't know how itworked.
I could have Googled it, butyou know.
But then it it.
It loosened everybody up and Iand I can feel that tension
(11:42):
wherever I'm at.
It's usually board meetings.
I'll, I'll just flip insomething just to loosen up the
group to, for everybody to to.
I did it at Vistage the otherweek and blew up the meeting a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
But that's good, it's being honest and open, and also
it does loosen things up.
Humor always works.
Humor always works, that's oneof your nine keys of leadership
was incorporate humor or humorincorporated.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I mean, I don't know which way.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
I'm not sure which way that goes there, but
incorporate humor is a big one,and you had nine keys of
leadership and growth, which wason a blog that you did or
something that you wrote.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, it was my first article that was published that
I wrote for Lawn and Landscapemagazine.
Awesome, very cool.
I have another one coming outin December about drug addiction
in our industry.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Wow, Wow, that's a big thing.
Huh yeah, wow, incredible.
Well, you are in the weeds alot, so I just you know, but
you're not supposed to smokethat stuff.
I don't think.
I'm pretty much sure thatyou're not supposed to.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Oh yeah, sometimes I say things that are just just
not good and we and we don'tedit, so it's good, it's all
good.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
So let's into those nine keys of leadership and
growth.
There was some really goodstuff in here.
Be vulnerable, tell the truthabout yourself, and that was
kind of about what we justtalked about.
Is you know?
We just talked about is youknow?
Don't be afraid to admit yourfault.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
No, like if you and I do some speaking as well and I
always go in because nobody ifyou go to a speaking event or an
event to watch a speaker andthey're just telling you how
great they are like you can seeright through it.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
They're full of crap.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
So if you can get that out of the way first and
lower everybody's guards andthen you can start building them
up from there, because it'sabout your failures, not your
wins.
It's how many times have youfailed?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
it's exactly what have you done to get past it?
You're so, so right about that.
And then, uh, don't care aboutwhat people think, I, you know,
I, I'm definitely onto that one.
I mean, you can't look at mygreen shirt.
Yeah, I'm surprised that hugodoesn't have his on.
Hugo, you're like camouflagetoday.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Well see, he always tells me that my shirt has a
little dimmer in it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I said there should be a dimmer on the back of that
damn shirt.
It's so bright, I'm going tostart wearing sunglasses.
I'm going to wear sunglassesone of these times.
Holy mackerel, I'm not sure ifyou're doing landscaping or
where you work for PennDOT.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I didn't know what was going on.
Somebody told me that and I wasa little offended by that.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
But I'm good, I'm sorry, no, no, I don't really
care.
I hope you got over that.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I really don't care what you think.
No.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I like the shirts.
To be honest, I love them.
You know why.
It was an accident, actually.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
It was an accident?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, they wasn't mean, it's like well, your shirt
, I'm like oh, come on soeverybody picks on the shirt,
but that's good Cause.
You know what it means.
They're talking about it, it'smarketing, that's you got that
right.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
You can't miss it.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
So true, so uh.
Well, the other one here isseek uncomfortable situations.
I love that.
Um, I mean even back in when Istarted doing Facebook videos.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I hated it, like absolutely hate it.
It was uncomfortable, butthrough being uncomfortable
you're going to learn aboutyourself, you're going to put
yourself up against the wall,you're going to stretch yourself
and then you start gainingconfidence.
And I mean, heck, back in theday I was scared.
I would be scared to deathdoing this back in the day.
Uh, and I just started talkingat Christmas parties, doing the
(14:59):
speeches at Christmas parties.
I used to have a couple ofdrinks before I did those
speeches, but just to get pastthat, because Brian and Brian
didn't really want to talk infront of everybody at that point
and we were just a smallcompany.
But I always wanted to do itbecause I want to inspire.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I want to help people , and if you to help people, and
if you can't speak, if youcan't talk to people, it doesn't
work.
Yeah, uh, it's pretty hard todo the sign well, unless you did
sign language or something, butI don't know otherwise it's
there are quiet.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
There are quiet leaders, though oh, this is true
, there's true, that's very true.
But yeah, being uncomfortableand and seek those uncomfortable
, it doesn't mean take risksthat you're you're not gonna
live.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Don't jump out of a plane without the parachute.
That's not gonna work so well.
You're not gonna work well.
Yeah, that's really dumb.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
That's way outside your comfort zone, yeah, I I did
hear in your, in your, and readin your article that it's
meaningful, yes, meaningful,discomfort right, yes, explain
that difference.
But yeah, I think you know youdon't want to just be
uncomfortable like drinking 15beers.
You know that's uncomfortable,you know run into walls, fall
over, throw up.
You know beers.
You know that's uncomfortable,you know run into walls, fall
over, throw up.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, that's not very uncomfortable.
That's not what I'm talkingabout.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I talk about meanings .
That's a different podcast.
It's going to build you up, uh,those, that's the type of of
uncomfortable situations thatyou should be in and and what
are you scared of and how canyou do a little bit more of that
?
I was just talking to one ofour employees that left.
I went out to breakfast withhim and he has a.
He had a hard time like talkingto clients and stuff because
he's shy.
But just talking to him, like,what are you doing to improve
(16:24):
yourself?
And, and that's the thing, likeour employees are family.
So if we have to let somebodygo or if they, they move on.
There's no hard feelings.
Yeah, like I'm not.
We don't have people workingfor us and holding them down and
saying you got to make moneyfor us or we don't like you.
No, they're people.
So I had a person I had a fireyears ago.
I still have breakfast with Um,so like they are part of the
(16:48):
family.
So sometimes it doesn't workout, it's all right and maybe
it's actually good for them.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, and I think a lot of times we look at.
We look at when we're we'reletting somebody go, that it's
that we're we're ruining theirlife.
No, maybe you're making theirlife.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Maybe this is the maybe you're in the way for them
to be great.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, and sometimes people have to hit rock bottom,
yeah exactly.
And I think challenging peopletoo and I don't know if I have
that in the article or not, butchallenging people to want more
for themselves.
And I actually was asked thisyou know, how do you know if
it's enough or not, whatever.
And I'm like you have to, youhave to keep pushing even though
somebody says, okay, I don't, Idon't want any more.
(17:26):
They really don't know.
Like, how do you know if it'senough?
And I always, I always say isit is it.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
my wife tells me too much breath yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, my wife does too.
Okay, enough.
Yeah, enough, I know you wantedI told you I wanted you to open
up about work, but now it'sbeen an hour and a half.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
It's enough now.
Yeah, let's, let's stop.
Yeah, no, that's the only onethat says it's enough, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
So, but they don't, people don't know.
So if you can read them andunderstand who they are and then
see something better for themand try to push them a little
bit, pull them, whatever you cando, but it's all about them,
it's in kindness, it's it's youwant to be, you want to be good
to them.
You don't want to care for them.
You have to challenge them.
If they're not challenged,they're just going to go down.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And that's the thing, the key thing there is it's all
about them, yeah.
I think, I think when you andit's the another quote is people
won't care what you know untilthey know that you care.
And, um, you know.
That's so true.
Once people know that it'sabout them and it's not about
your bottom line, they're muchmore open to the suggestions or
to the guidance or the tocoaching from from you.
(18:27):
Yeah, because I think a lot oftimes people think right away
well, it's going to, it's what'sbenefiting you, that's exactly
you know, and that's a and then,and then it's a complete
shutdown.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, it's tough because the more people you you
bring on, you have to retellthat story and they don't know
you, and it's just well, you'retheir experiences from some
other boss.
Now they're going to put thaton you and that's not us.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
So, and the good thing is, though, I think this
cultural leadership, it'sbecoming contagious.
I'm definitely seeing it moreand more on Facebook when you
see people talking about theircompanies or whatever.
I think that we definitely haveturned a page a little bit.
In companies as a whole, Ithink it used to be I'm the
owner, you're the employee, andthat was it Kind of like.
(19:18):
You know, I'm the dad, you'rethe kid, that's it, you know it.
It was.
It was more like that, whereasnow it's like wait a minute, if
I can instill leadershipqualities into everyone, it
makes everything better, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Instead of leaders.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Exactly, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I agree with that and I think I think a lot of it
changed with the whole mentalwellness thing when that became
okay.
Yeah, that's when this started.
This started flipping about.
I I did this years.
I mean, heck.
I started when I was threeyears old with my mom.
She was by still is but bipolarmanic depressive three years
old up to 14.
(19:47):
I was the only one that wasable to talk her off the ledge
of just going don't go nuts.
So I thank her now because shehelped me train for what I'm
doing now.
But it really is a trainedskill Like it's not.
You're not born with it.
You have to learn how to dealwith people and how to want more
for them, and it just itstarted with my mom.
(20:08):
It was.
I was actually thinking aboutit on the way over.
I started getting a littleemotional.
I'm like, oh gosh if I startcrying.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I'm Brad White.
This is not the show to cry on.
I saw a Christmas speech whereyou actually cried online
somewhere it's all right,crying's all right.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Oh, I love crying.
I cry every night.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Good, that's good, that's good.
He cries every night.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Oh my gosh emotion.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I love emotion.
There's nothing wrong with them.
You gotta you just gotta bringit on and do it, and that's the
way it is.
The other one on here was um, Ithink this is what the obstacle
is the way.
I liked that the obstacle isthe way, so we should be looking
.
I mean, when you see anobstacle, that's not a bad thing
, that's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yeah, that means you're, you're pushing forward,
exactly.
Yeah, I mean you're standingstill.
Yeah, that's not good.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, Not good at all .
So there was, like I said,there was some in there that I
wanted to touch on.
This is one that you didrecently.
It says turn your failures intofuel.
Can you, can you?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
expand on that a little bit.
Well, it comes back to theobstacles too, because failures
can be obstacles.
But where are you learning?
What are you learning from thatfailure?
You know, I, I always say Idon't lose.
I don't because I'm going tolearn something through any
failure, so I'm not going tolose, I'll make sure I do not
(21:21):
lose, I will find a way.
But if you turn that into fuel,into fire in your belly, to
push through and, just you know,break through those barriers,
that's I mean, that's what droveme like in my twenties I mean
it's the failures and and andjust the, the, the fire in my
gut to just go out and push anddo whatever, whatever I need to
do.
There's so many naysayers outthere.
Uh, it'll go back to theFacebook videos.
(21:43):
When I started doing Facebookvideos, I people were coming up
to me saying oh, what are youtrying to do?
You're trying to be a coach,and this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah I am, and thiswas my thanks for noticing.
I didn't tell him that at thattime, but I had the plan of what
I wanted to do.
I wanted to speak, I want to be, get out there and just
influence more people.
It started off with justhelping my employees and just
(22:04):
through covid, but I just keptdoing it and any people mocking
me, whatever, yeah it's fine,yeah I put fuel in my belly.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
But you're exactly and also you're breaking through
a barrier which makes youstronger.
And they always say you know,discomfort who you are after.
Discomfort is a differentperson.
Yeah, you grow in those moments.
So whenever there's a painpoint where there's something
that that you're really like, oh, the last thing I want to do is
this or whatever it is, orthere's something you hate doing
or whatever it is, on the otherside of that, you're no longer
(22:34):
the same person you were before.
That and that, to me, is justamazing.
So that's why and like you said, these were all positive things
we're talking about I'm goingto talk about doing stupid,
crazy things.
You know, I have down herecompany, uh, company, company.
Comfort is the enemy ofprogress.
That was another quote.
That, uh, that that I've heard,and it's true, because that's
what happens A lot of times.
We become very comfortable andyou, you become comfortable.
(22:55):
What happens?
Nothing.
You know you live in thislittle box and you stay there.
So you know that's the enemy ofprogress Progress.
You can't be comfortable.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, and comfort.
You know, sometimes it's thethey call it the upper limit
problem.
So you get to a certain pointyou feel you feel a little
uncomfortable, so you get backdown, so you self-sabotage and
now you start doing things thatyou're comfortable with and
sometimes those aren't goodthings and it's like climbing
Everest.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah, you know what they do.
They go up, yeah, they comeback down.
Yep, they go up a little bitmore and then they come back.
That's that's how they climb,because they acclimate that way.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah it's crazy, yeah it's interesting forward.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Absolutely, always, always.
I'm trying to think if there'sanything else we want to cover
here.
Is there anything else that youwanted to cover?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I had you know.
You said in your website thatyour goal is to change 20,000
lives.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I have it on my list here.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yes, tell us about that.
Yeah, I kind of pulled thatnumber out.
Do you wish you would havepicked a lower number?
No, no actually I don't, butI'm at 86 right now.
I have it in my phone.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Oh, it was 65 before.
Yeah, look at that, you'removing up.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
It's funny.
I was talking to my wife theother night and we were looking
at the list and she's like I'mnot even on the list.
I'm like whoops.
So I fast tracked her up to thenumber one.
She's fast tracked, she had thefast pass I forget who was
number one, but they got pusheddown.
No, it's a goal for our company.
It's 100,000 lives we want tochange and it's impacting lives
(24:21):
and really shattering thestereotypes of the landscape
industry as well is our goal andour vision.
And you know, again, it's aboutgiving people opportunities.
I'm in a stage in my life andI've said this for for years
that it's about giving back.
Now it's not about it's notabout me, it's about how much
can I give.
Whatever I learned, whatever Iwent through, how can I give
(24:42):
back?
And you know, just doingcoaching as well, like I, you
know, we start talking about thefather, son and I'm.
I get involved with withcompanies that you have the
founder and then the son, andthe founder is more of the
micromanager and and the son isjust with these companies and
more like you know the detailsand and and and process and that
(25:04):
sort of thing where the dad'slike, well, you just, you know,
grab a shovel and go digsomething, don't sit in the
office, and they don'tunderstand that.
That.
That, that mentality is so oldschool and it's not going to
bring anybody else home.
But I see these young kids it'snot even the ones I consult.
There's other ones.
But I see these young kids thatare super great people and
(25:25):
they're just not given thechance and I'm just hoping that
they hang on long enough andthat we can mend the fence a
little bit to to grow, becausewe have some really good
entrepreneurs out there in thelandscape industry.
It's just a matter Are theygoing to stick around?
And that's that's part of mygoals as well.
But you know, again, I it comesback to my mom back in the day
(25:45):
but also just with me in highschool and stuff just not really
given a chance.
I wasn't, I wasn't great inschool.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I mean, heck if I go with the name Brad.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
I.
I wasn't great in school.
I mean heck if I let's go withthe name Brad.
Well, I failed the seventhgrade, so the second year of
seventh grade I failed firstgrade, Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, see, look at that.
I could not color inside thelines, it was so tough.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I'm not sure what to say.
Not a good color.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
It just wasn't a good color.
No, I'm kidding, I couldn'tread oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Oh well.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I failed summer school too, oh wow.
No, I failed first grade, wentback and did it again and did
well.
It was the best thing that everhappened.
It taught me how to makefriends at a young age.
Yeah, yeah, because I had towatch everybody leave.
Yeah, all my first gradefriends went bye-bye.
They went to second grade and Ihad to stay there and do it
again.
Didn't you remember the traumaof Now?
You were older, I was younger.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I was, you know, seventh grade.
I remember, you know, summerschool.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Did you like seventh grade?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I did.
That's what I did twice.
You liked it a lot.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
But no, I was a little bit of ahellion.
So I remember my mom coming in.
It was summer school, but Iremember my mom coming in after
she got the mail and she'scrying.
She's like you failed summerschool.
I'm like, oh, my God, oh wellyou know?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Oh, because if you would have passed summer school,
you wouldn't have had to doseventh grade again.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
This is how stupid I was, because, listen, I try to
be a problem solver wherever I'mat.
But I had the grades mixed up.
So, history I was supposed toget a C and I forgot the other
one I was supposed to get a Dand I flipped them.
So I got d in history and so Ididn't.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I didn't pass and I thought I did just enough to get
by and yeah, that was yeah, Ilearned through it, but you
learned well, look at that,because you didn't do just
enough when you started atnewcastle now, or you wouldn't
be where you are right, but youknow, back I have adhd.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I wasn't medicated.
Yeah, they tried getting me onmedication and I I felt like
they were calling me stupid.
It was just just a lot of stuffthat was going on in seventh
grade.
So, yeah, and it's funnybecause my friends moved to
eighth grade and then that nextyear they failed to be back with
me.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Oh, there you go.
That was nice, that's very nice, very kind yeah, that's very
nice, very kind, yeah.
But one question I have aboutthat changing people's lives.
How do you qualify change?
I know that's a tough questionbecause that's a, that's a
subjective.
You know it's an opinion, butwhen you say change people's
(28:00):
lives, how do you qualify that?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, they have to tell me that I changed their
life.
So I can't just put them on thelist.
They have to say something tome that, hey, what you did.
It was funny, it was a um.
There's a podcast I was on afew years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Not near as good as this one.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
No, absolutely not.
There's a podcast.
I was on a couple of years agoand I watched the podcast before
and I saw that this person wasin rough shape, but I could see
something wasn't, wasn't right.
I went on the podcast and andafter the podcast, um, I talked
to the host and he said nobodyknew that I was going through
(28:37):
any of the problems I was goingthrough.
But you and you know, just tohave that that's life changing
right, I could do.
If it was one, if that was theonly person that was able to
change, uh, I'd be fine.
So 20,000 is a lot, but again,it's just that push to try to do
more.
Doing tours for kids, it's,it's a purpose thing.
Like why do I get out of bed?
(28:58):
Yeah, getting out of bed fornet profit, not going to do it,
I'm not going to do it, it's not, it doesn't mean anything to me
.
But if I can use the net profitto help other people all day
long, you know, and and that'sthat's when you know if you live
purpose and you live yourvision, you want to get out of
bed, you want to push to thenext level.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, yeah, no, I agree, 100%.
Good stuff, man, good stuff,that's really good.
Hugo, do you have anything else?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
I'm going to wrap this up.
No, no, that's good.
I feel inspired.
Now I know I'm going to gobuild something.
Do something, right, holymackerel, Gotta do something now
.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah, you don't want to see me do landscaping though
it's pretty ugly.
I'm not a good landscaper.
You know what it is.
The soil around here just sucks.
It does you shale.
It's just terrible.
Did you get a lot?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
of grubs.
This year I didn't see a wholelot, but our lawn treatments
take care of grubs.
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So much for my lawn treatment, I guess.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
All right.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Guess I'm not doing a good job, that's right.
All right, I need to callNewcastle, so I got to end this
podcast.
So thanks a lot, brad, forcoming out.
I really do appreciate it Ifyou have any landscaping things
that you need to do.
Call Newcastle Lawn andLandscape.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
You can ask for, brad , if you want to.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
I'm pretty sure that he would take Exactly All right,
there you go.
Oh my God, what a great show,brad Stevenson here from
Newcastle Lawn and Landscape,and we hope to see you every
Thursday at seven o'clock.
We're having a good time here,so please come back.
All right, thanks?
from real estate to real life and everything in
between the brad weisman showand now your host, brad weisman.
All right, we're back.
Whether you like it or not, weare back.
Uh, yeah, we got a good guesthere.
This is gonna be fun, you know.
The good thing about this guestis that he has the same name as
(00:23):
mine, so I can't forget hisname and his last name's easy,
because a lot of times I messthose up too.
But no, we have a guest thatwas on here before.
He was on here about a year ago, year and a half ago, something
like that and he is back.
He is a mover and a shaker inyou're not going to believe it
in the landscaping business, butalso in the leadership, in
(00:44):
cultural leadership.
I mean, he's just doing allkinds of stuff and his name is
Brad Stevenson.
He's the CEO of Newcastle Lawnand Landscape and he's also a
certified behavioral analysisconsultant.
That's a tough one to say.
How are you doing, brad?
Doing really good.
Thanks for having me.
You're very welcome.
This is an easy one.
It's Brad and Brad, bradsquared.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Not much has changed around here.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Not much, right, right.
No, it's probably more dust onthings, but otherwise it's
pretty much the same.
Pretty much the same Our hairis coming in in different places
.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, thanks for noticing, butno, so you know.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
The first thing I'm going to say is that you know
you started at the companyyou're at in a beginning like a
laborer yeah, yeah, just pushingwheelbarrows and grew my way up
through the company and broughta lot of people to the company
too, so helped grow throughpeople.
How long ago was that?
That was about 18 and a halfyears ago, 18 and a half years
(01:38):
ago, wow, and I kind of rememberthat.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Actually, I kind of remember when you came into the,
into the, the company, uh,through social media and things
like that.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I did a show with you .
Uh, we did.
Uh, I forget what it was, ohthat's right.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
We did this show from a BCTV.
We did the real estate showthat I had on there.
Was that real estate and you?
That might've been real estateand you also, I can't remember,
but you're right, we did thatover in green Valley.
Yes, there was a house in greenvalley that you guys were doing
, yeah, and the tree guy wasthere.
Is he the same tree guy?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
no, that was different tree guy.
Different is say they came atthe same time.
Okay, it's his partner.
Yeah, nick moved on and hestayed.
Okay, there we go those treeguys.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You gotta watch.
You just grow and grow and growit's amazing, yeah, yeah he
branched out to a differentbusiness right?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
yeah, just gonna say, he didn't leave.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
He didn't leave, he left checking.
Oh boy, yeah, so so, no, sothat's incredible.
And now you're the CEO of thecompany.
There's a story there Like howdoes that happen?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I'm not so sure how it happened to be honest with
you.
It just I kept building myself,but building people around me,
yeah, and the more you growpeople, all of a sudden, before
you know it, you're the ceo ofthe company and it was something
it was a dream I always had,yeah, so I was always pushing
towards it.
But it's the about the peoplearound me and helped me get to
(02:53):
that point and really, you knowthe the partners, my partners at
that time allowing me to comein and and do that and have
ownership uh, again, it was agoal of mine before I started
there, but allowing me to dothat was super grateful.
I'm super grateful, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
It's that story and you know.
It just shows you that, I thinkalso, you know you look at
people when they come into a jobor into an occupation for a
company.
You did more than what you weresupposed to do, you.
You didn't sit there and go.
Oh well, I was supposed to getthis and I should have gotten
that.
You just kept going forward,but you created probably leaders
around you too.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah it's about building people up.
But my dad always told me, youknow, put 100% in, no matter
what you get paid, it doesn'tmatter.
I remember working at OrangeJulius and I was like top, top,
wait, I worked at Orange Julius.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh, in the.
Yeah but I think I'm older thanyou.
You are.
Yeah, thanks, boy, I'm losing myhair and I'm older than you.
Oh, I don't know.
I'm full of compliments.
You're full of complimentstoday?
No, but seriously, I did.
I worked at Orange Julius.
I don't think I've ever hurtanybody in my life.
Orange Julius and DJing oh myGod.
(04:00):
See, yeah, you're too young,all right, so keep going with
the landscaping thing.
So no, so you.
You basically kept doing whatyou're supposed to do, but more
than you're supposed to do.
Always do more.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Always do more.
It's amazing.
It's not about the paycheck,it's about changing people's
lives, doing what, what you'resupposed to do, which is
everything you can, no matterwhat.
Yeah, and that's why I I meanit's hard to like understand
that, but our people atNewcastle, I mean we have over a
hundred, a hundred employeesnow and they're all really,
really good people, hugo beingone of them, but there's really
good people.
(04:30):
I just want to want to make adifference.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
You have over a hundred employees.
Yeah, that's incredible.
Yeah, it's grown.
That's big.
Yeah, that's big.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
We can still consider ourselves small.
Yeah Well, it's.
It's amazing, unbelievable.
So going've been working withthe DISC assessments probably
for about six years now.
I just love reading people andunderstand what makes people do
what they do, and it just linedup with me.
So I'm like you know what?
I'm going to get thecertification and now all of our
(05:21):
employees get the DISCassessments.
And it's all aboutcommunicating.
It's understanding how peoplereceive communication If they're
a detailed person.
I'm not going to blow them upwith a bunch of stories.
I'm going to talk about detailsand it's just really
understanding who you're talkingto and what your audience is.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I was just going to say it's knowing your audience.
You know, if there's one thingthat I can say to people that
are in the sales you know asales industry of some sort is
knowing your audience.
Don't talk like an engineer infront of the artist.
You know what I mean.
They're going to sit there likeglassy.
They're going to be like areyou out of your mind?
Like what are you even talkingabout?
You know?
And the other way around.
(05:58):
Don't be like oh, this isawesome, this is cool to the
engineer.
You know you got to talk inmore detailed terms.
It's, it's.
It's amazing how it's a being achameleon, really and not being
fake, it's just going wherethey
are?
Yes, meet them where they're at.
Yes, exactly, and that's howyou communicate better.
That's how you connect.
Yeah, we talked about that.
Most people can communicate,but they can't connect.
John Maxwell Good stuff, man,my boys, all right.
(06:21):
So let's get.
Yeah, exactly Same here.
I listen to him all the time.
So let's get a little deeperhere.
So how does it come about thata landscaping company becomes a
cultural heritage company, acompany that is there, really
caring about the employees andcaring about the team that's
there?
You know you could go throughthis business and landscaping
(06:42):
business and not do that, notreally care about the people
that are on your team, but so,but I think obviously it makes a
difference.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, I mean, our turnover ratein the last five years is 5%,
so it's, I think in the industryis 30%.
So but it's not just to keepyour turnover.
It's really to to lead people.
So even where I used to workbefore Newcastle, I was leading
people and I always wanted tobuild people up and and just
give them an opportunity thatmaybe they didn't have somewhere
(07:12):
else.
And it's about giving somebodya chance.
And you know, the more goodpeople you bring in and the more
you give them a chance, theystart flourishing you back away.
Let them grow and then they'llmultiply.
And it's like gremlins.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, so it was amazing yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And then you, you bring good people in, they
attract other good people andbefore you know it, you're
surrounded by a hundred greatpeople and that's what.
That's what it is at Newcastle.
If you, if you hire us, you'll,you'll, you'll see the
difference.
I mean, they're just reallygood people.
We've had people, we've had anHOA, that let us go because we
were too expensive.
Two years ago, or actuallythree years ago, the residents
(07:51):
were going to pick it, uh, toget us back, because they were.
They just wanted our guy and itwas all about our guys.
It wasn't like, listen, we'reselling the projects and the
product and everything, but it'snot our, it's about our people.
Like, it's just different andI'll put our people up against
anybody in any industry, notputting anybody down, but
they're just good people.
And, man, when you love to cometo work because you're around
(08:12):
good people, there's nothingbetter than that.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
And we're not perfect .
There is no perfect but that'sactually good, because then
you're constantly striving to bebetter, to make people's lives
better, to really care about thepeople.
We're a big culture companyAlso.
Keller Williams is known forthat nationally and also here
locally, it's a big part of ourbusiness is culture, and it is
amazing that we have a lowturnover.
(08:34):
Here too.
It's good for real estatecompanies.
We have a very low turnover.
We have great people that workhere.
We have great leadership teamin place and it means a lot.
You know, and and we care abouttheir kids, we care about their
families, we care about what'sgoing on behind the scenes.
You know, because it'simportant you know to, to care
about people.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
And it is way more than just the employee it to
care about people.
And it is way more than justthe employee.
It's their family.
Oh, absolutely, definitely andreally so, brian, my partner.
The reason why he wants to bethe owner of the business is
just he wants to create a placethat is that people love coming
to work, which is what we'redoing, and I want to just change
people's lives, not just theemployees, also other families
(09:12):
as well.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And that trickles down to the customer, to the, to
your clients.
Your customer, because here'sthe thing If you're treating
them in a certain way and and,and the respect that you treat
them with and and also givingthem the right to make choices,
to make their own choices andnot always have to be
micromanaged, it's amazing howthey can flourish and also how
they'll treat your clients.
Yeah, because that comes.
(09:34):
That's what happens If you'vebeen around companies where the
owners are idiots and you andthen the employees treat the
customers like, like idiots.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
you know it's terrible.
We're grading IQ here.
I don't know, I don't know if Iwant to be here.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I didn't say anything about that, I mean, but it's
just.
It's funny, though, but youfind that that it's a trickle
down from the top.
If you, if you don't treatingthem right, they're going to
treat your customers crappy too.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And one thing you said too is, you know, not being
fake like you got to live court.
The core value.
So our leadership team they have, like everybody that's in
leadership, has to live our corevalues.
If they don't, they're notgoing to be in leadership.
Yeah, because if you're justfaking it when you're at work
and then you leave and go dosomething else, man, nobody's
going to believe you.
So wherever I'm at, where I'mat, if I'm at work, if I'm at
(10:17):
home with my wife, if I'm withmy kids, I'm the same person
wherever I'm at, and it's justcaring about people.
Do I make mistakes?
Yes, I do.
Nobody's perfect.
And it's good to make mistakes,because then you can pick
yourself back up and you you canmeet people where they're at
when they make mistakes,absolutely, and it's one of the
things that um it's in that book.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
The new um John Maxwell book talks about.
Leadership is one of the mostimportant things you could ever
do is tell people what yourfaults are.
Yeah, let them know what yourweaknesses are, because then
they realize that, that, thatthat you know, and then they're
okay with picking up on thosethings and saying you know what?
What's okay, I can help you onthat.
You know, if you don't admit toit, they think you know
(10:56):
everything and it doesn't.
Nobody wants that.
Yeah, I sure don't.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, it's, it's.
Simon Sinek says it too.
It's about being the idiot inthe room.
Yeah, ask those dumb questionsthat always like here's, here's
a story.
I was at a cause, I'm on someboards and stuff and I had no
clue like how it actually worked.
So you know, when they say, uh,they go around and talk about
Robert's rules.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I don't know what.
I don't even know what it'scalled.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Do I have somebody?
Do I have a yes or whatever?
Okay, hold on.
So I had to stop the meeting.
I was like guys, I really don'tunderstand what's going on here
.
I said can I raise my my handand say you know, I'll give the
first?
Year I just didn't know how itworked.
I could have Googled it, butyou know.
But then it it.
It loosened everybody up and Iand I can feel that tension
(11:42):
wherever I'm at.
It's usually board meetings.
I'll, I'll just flip insomething just to loosen up the
group to, for everybody to to.
I did it at Vistage the otherweek and blew up the meeting a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
But that's good, it's being honest and open, and also
it does loosen things up.
Humor always works.
Humor always works, that's oneof your nine keys of leadership
was incorporate humor or humorincorporated.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I mean, I don't know which way.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
I'm not sure which way that goes there, but
incorporate humor is a big one,and you had nine keys of
leadership and growth, which wason a blog that you did or
something that you wrote.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, it was my first article that was published that
I wrote for Lawn and Landscapemagazine.
Awesome, very cool.
I have another one coming outin December about drug addiction
in our industry.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Wow, Wow, that's a big thing.
Huh yeah, wow, incredible.
Well, you are in the weeds alot, so I just you know, but
you're not supposed to smokethat stuff.
I don't think.
I'm pretty much sure thatyou're not supposed to.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Oh yeah, sometimes I say things that are just just
not good and we and we don'tedit, so it's good, it's all
good.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
So let's into those nine keys of leadership and
growth.
There was some really goodstuff in here.
Be vulnerable, tell the truthabout yourself, and that was
kind of about what we justtalked about.
Is you know?
We just talked about is youknow?
Don't be afraid to admit yourfault.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
No, like if you and I do some speaking as well and I
always go in because nobody ifyou go to a speaking event or an
event to watch a speaker andthey're just telling you how
great they are like you can seeright through it.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
They're full of crap.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
So if you can get that out of the way first and
lower everybody's guards andthen you can start building them
up from there, because it'sabout your failures, not your
wins.
It's how many times have youfailed?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
it's exactly what have you done to get past it?
You're so, so right about that.
And then, uh, don't care aboutwhat people think, I, you know,
I, I'm definitely onto that one.
I mean, you can't look at mygreen shirt.
Yeah, I'm surprised that hugodoesn't have his on.
Hugo, you're like camouflagetoday.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Well see, he always tells me that my shirt has a
little dimmer in it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I said there should be a dimmer on the back of that
damn shirt.
It's so bright, I'm going tostart wearing sunglasses.
I'm going to wear sunglassesone of these times.
Holy mackerel, I'm not sure ifyou're doing landscaping or
where you work for PennDOT.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I didn't know what was going on.
Somebody told me that and I wasa little offended by that.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
But I'm good, I'm sorry, no, no, I don't really
care.
I hope you got over that.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I really don't care what you think.
No.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I like the shirts.
To be honest, I love them.
You know why.
It was an accident, actually.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
It was an accident?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, they wasn't mean, it's like well, your shirt
, I'm like oh, come on soeverybody picks on the shirt,
but that's good Cause.
You know what it means.
They're talking about it, it'smarketing, that's you got that
right.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
You can't miss it.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
So true, so uh.
Well, the other one here isseek uncomfortable situations.
I love that.
Um, I mean even back in when Istarted doing Facebook videos.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I hated it, like absolutely hate it.
It was uncomfortable, butthrough being uncomfortable
you're going to learn aboutyourself, you're going to put
yourself up against the wall,you're going to stretch yourself
and then you start gainingconfidence.
And I mean, heck, back in theday I was scared.
I would be scared to deathdoing this back in the day.
Uh, and I just started talkingat Christmas parties, doing the
(14:59):
speeches at Christmas parties.
I used to have a couple ofdrinks before I did those
speeches, but just to get pastthat, because Brian and Brian
didn't really want to talk infront of everybody at that point
and we were just a smallcompany.
But I always wanted to do itbecause I want to inspire.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I want to help people , and if you to help people, and
if you can't speak, if youcan't talk to people, it doesn't
work.
Yeah, uh, it's pretty hard todo the sign well, unless you did
sign language or something, butI don't know otherwise it's
there are quiet.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
There are quiet leaders, though oh, this is true
, there's true, that's very true.
But yeah, being uncomfortableand and seek those uncomfortable
, it doesn't mean take risksthat you're you're not gonna
live.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Don't jump out of a plane without the parachute.
That's not gonna work so well.
You're not gonna work well.
Yeah, that's really dumb.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
That's way outside your comfort zone, yeah, I I did
hear in your, in your, and readin your article that it's
meaningful, yes, meaningful,discomfort right, yes, explain
that difference.
But yeah, I think you know youdon't want to just be
uncomfortable like drinking 15beers.
You know that's uncomfortable,you know run into walls, fall
over, throw up.
You know beers.
You know that's uncomfortable,you know run into walls, fall
over, throw up.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, that's not very uncomfortable.
That's not what I'm talkingabout.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I talk about meanings .
That's a different podcast.
It's going to build you up, uh,those, that's the type of of
uncomfortable situations thatyou should be in and and what
are you scared of and how canyou do a little bit more of that
?
I was just talking to one ofour employees that left.
I went out to breakfast withhim and he has a.
He had a hard time like talkingto clients and stuff because
he's shy.
But just talking to him, like,what are you doing to improve
(16:24):
yourself?
And, and that's the thing, likeour employees are family.
So if we have to let somebodygo or if they, they move on.
There's no hard feelings.
Yeah, like I'm not.
We don't have people workingfor us and holding them down and
saying you got to make moneyfor us or we don't like you.
No, they're people.
So I had a person I had a fireyears ago.
I still have breakfast with Um,so like they are part of the
(16:48):
family.
So sometimes it doesn't workout, it's all right and maybe
it's actually good for them.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, and I think a lot of times we look at.
We look at when we're we'reletting somebody go, that it's
that we're we're ruining theirlife.
No, maybe you're making theirlife.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Maybe this is the maybe you're in the way for them
to be great.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, and sometimes people have to hit rock bottom,
yeah exactly.
And I think challenging peopletoo and I don't know if I have
that in the article or not, butchallenging people to want more
for themselves.
And I actually was asked thisyou know, how do you know if
it's enough or not, whatever.
And I'm like you have to, youhave to keep pushing even though
somebody says, okay, I don't, Idon't want any more.
(17:26):
They really don't know.
Like, how do you know if it'senough?
And I always, I always say isit is it.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
my wife tells me too much breath yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, my wife does too.
Okay, enough.
Yeah, enough, I know you wantedI told you I wanted you to open
up about work, but now it'sbeen an hour and a half.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
It's enough now.
Yeah, let's, let's stop.
Yeah, no, that's the only onethat says it's enough, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
So, but they don't, people don't know.
So if you can read them andunderstand who they are and then
see something better for themand try to push them a little
bit, pull them, whatever you cando, but it's all about them,
it's in kindness, it's it's youwant to be, you want to be good
to them.
You don't want to care for them.
You have to challenge them.
If they're not challenged,they're just going to go down.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And that's the thing, the key thing there is it's all
about them, yeah.
I think, I think when you andit's the another quote is people
won't care what you know untilthey know that you care.
And, um, you know.
That's so true.
Once people know that it'sabout them and it's not about
your bottom line, they're muchmore open to the suggestions or
to the guidance or the tocoaching from from you.
(18:27):
Yeah, because I think a lot oftimes people think right away
well, it's going to, it's what'sbenefiting you, that's exactly
you know, and that's a and then,and then it's a complete
shutdown.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, it's tough because the more people you you
bring on, you have to retellthat story and they don't know
you, and it's just well, you'retheir experiences from some
other boss.
Now they're going to put thaton you and that's not us.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
So, and the good thing is, though, I think this
cultural leadership, it'sbecoming contagious.
I'm definitely seeing it moreand more on Facebook when you
see people talking about theircompanies or whatever.
I think that we definitely haveturned a page a little bit.
In companies as a whole, Ithink it used to be I'm the
owner, you're the employee, andthat was it Kind of like.
(19:18):
You know, I'm the dad, you'rethe kid, that's it, you know it.
It was.
It was more like that, whereasnow it's like wait a minute, if
I can instill leadershipqualities into everyone, it
makes everything better, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Instead of leaders.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Exactly, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I agree with that and I think I think a lot of it
changed with the whole mentalwellness thing when that became
okay.
Yeah, that's when this started.
This started flipping about.
I I did this years.
I mean, heck.
I started when I was threeyears old with my mom.
She was by still is but bipolarmanic depressive three years
old up to 14.
(19:47):
I was the only one that wasable to talk her off the ledge
of just going don't go nuts.
So I thank her now because shehelped me train for what I'm
doing now.
But it really is a trainedskill Like it's not.
You're not born with it.
You have to learn how to dealwith people and how to want more
for them, and it just itstarted with my mom.
(20:08):
It was.
I was actually thinking aboutit on the way over.
I started getting a littleemotional.
I'm like, oh gosh if I startcrying.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I'm Brad White.
This is not the show to cry on.
I saw a Christmas speech whereyou actually cried online
somewhere it's all right,crying's all right.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Oh, I love crying.
I cry every night.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Good, that's good, that's good.
He cries every night.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Oh my gosh emotion.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I love emotion.
There's nothing wrong with them.
You gotta you just gotta bringit on and do it, and that's the
way it is.
The other one on here was um, Ithink this is what the obstacle
is the way.
I liked that the obstacle isthe way, so we should be looking
.
I mean, when you see anobstacle, that's not a bad thing
, that's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yeah, that means you're, you're pushing forward,
exactly.
Yeah, I mean you're standingstill.
Yeah, that's not good.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, Not good at all .
So there was, like I said,there was some in there that I
wanted to touch on.
This is one that you didrecently.
It says turn your failures intofuel.
Can you, can you?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
expand on that a little bit.
Well, it comes back to theobstacles too, because failures
can be obstacles.
But where are you learning?
What are you learning from thatfailure?
You know, I, I always say Idon't lose.
I don't because I'm going tolearn something through any
failure, so I'm not going tolose, I'll make sure I do not
(21:21):
lose, I will find a way.
But if you turn that into fuel,into fire in your belly, to
push through and, just you know,break through those barriers,
that's I mean, that's what droveme like in my twenties I mean
it's the failures and and andjust the, the, the fire in my
gut to just go out and push anddo whatever, whatever I need to
do.
There's so many naysayers outthere.
Uh, it'll go back to theFacebook videos.
(21:43):
When I started doing Facebookvideos, I people were coming up
to me saying oh, what are youtrying to do?
You're trying to be a coach,and this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah I am, and thiswas my thanks for noticing.
I didn't tell him that at thattime, but I had the plan of what
I wanted to do.
I wanted to speak, I want to be, get out there and just
influence more people.
It started off with justhelping my employees and just
(22:04):
through covid, but I just keptdoing it and any people mocking
me, whatever, yeah it's fine,yeah I put fuel in my belly.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
But you're exactly and also you're breaking through
a barrier which makes youstronger.
And they always say you know,discomfort who you are after.
Discomfort is a differentperson.
Yeah, you grow in those moments.
So whenever there's a painpoint where there's something
that that you're really like, oh, the last thing I want to do is
this or whatever it is, orthere's something you hate doing
or whatever it is, on the otherside of that, you're no longer
(22:34):
the same person you were before.
That and that, to me, is justamazing.
So that's why and like you said, these were all positive things
we're talking about I'm goingto talk about doing stupid,
crazy things.
You know, I have down herecompany, uh, company, company.
Comfort is the enemy ofprogress.
That was another quote.
That, uh, that that I've heard,and it's true, because that's
what happens A lot of times.
We become very comfortable andyou, you become comfortable.
(22:55):
What happens?
Nothing.
You know you live in thislittle box and you stay there.
So you know that's the enemy ofprogress Progress.
You can't be comfortable.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, and comfort.
You know, sometimes it's thethey call it the upper limit
problem.
So you get to a certain pointyou feel you feel a little
uncomfortable, so you get backdown, so you self-sabotage and
now you start doing things thatyou're comfortable with and
sometimes those aren't goodthings and it's like climbing
Everest.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah, you know what they do.
They go up, yeah, they comeback down.
Yep, they go up a little bitmore and then they come back.
That's that's how they climb,because they acclimate that way.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah it's crazy, yeah it's interesting forward.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Absolutely, always, always.
I'm trying to think if there'sanything else we want to cover
here.
Is there anything else that youwanted to cover?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I had you know.
You said in your website thatyour goal is to change 20,000
lives.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I have it on my list here.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yes, tell us about that.
Yeah, I kind of pulled thatnumber out.
Do you wish you would havepicked a lower number?
No, no actually I don't, butI'm at 86 right now.
I have it in my phone.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Oh, it was 65 before.
Yeah, look at that, you'removing up.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
It's funny.
I was talking to my wife theother night and we were looking
at the list and she's like I'mnot even on the list.
I'm like whoops.
So I fast tracked her up to thenumber one.
She's fast tracked, she had thefast pass I forget who was
number one, but they got pusheddown.
No, it's a goal for our company.
It's 100,000 lives we want tochange and it's impacting lives
(24:21):
and really shattering thestereotypes of the landscape
industry as well is our goal andour vision.
And you know, again, it's aboutgiving people opportunities.
I'm in a stage in my life andI've said this for for years
that it's about giving back.
Now it's not about it's notabout me, it's about how much
can I give.
Whatever I learned, whatever Iwent through, how can I give
(24:42):
back?
And you know, just doingcoaching as well, like I, you
know, we start talking about thefather, son and I'm.
I get involved with withcompanies that you have the
founder and then the son, andthe founder is more of the
micromanager and and the son isjust with these companies and
more like you know the detailsand and and and process and that
(25:04):
sort of thing where the dad'slike, well, you just, you know,
grab a shovel and go digsomething, don't sit in the
office, and they don'tunderstand that.
That.
That, that mentality is so oldschool and it's not going to
bring anybody else home.
But I see these young kids it'snot even the ones I consult.
There's other ones.
But I see these young kids thatare super great people and
(25:25):
they're just not given thechance and I'm just hoping that
they hang on long enough andthat we can mend the fence a
little bit to to grow, becausewe have some really good
entrepreneurs out there in thelandscape industry.
It's just a matter Are theygoing to stick around?
And that's that's part of mygoals as well.
But you know, again, I it comesback to my mom back in the day
(25:45):
but also just with me in highschool and stuff just not really
given a chance.
I wasn't, I wasn't great inschool.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I mean, heck if I go with the name Brad.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
I.
I wasn't great in school.
I mean heck if I let's go withthe name Brad.
Well, I failed the seventhgrade, so the second year of
seventh grade I failed firstgrade, Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, see, look at that.
I could not color inside thelines, it was so tough.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I'm not sure what to say.
Not a good color.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
It just wasn't a good color.
No, I'm kidding, I couldn'tread oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Oh well.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I failed summer school too, oh wow.
No, I failed first grade, wentback and did it again and did
well.
It was the best thing that everhappened.
It taught me how to makefriends at a young age.
Yeah, yeah, because I had towatch everybody leave.
Yeah, all my first gradefriends went bye-bye.
They went to second grade and Ihad to stay there and do it
again.
Didn't you remember the traumaof Now?
You were older, I was younger.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I was, you know, seventh grade.
I remember, you know, summerschool.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Did you like seventh grade?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I did.
That's what I did twice.
You liked it a lot.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
But no, I was a little bit of ahellion.
So I remember my mom coming in.
It was summer school, but Iremember my mom coming in after
she got the mail and she'scrying.
She's like you failed summerschool.
I'm like, oh, my God, oh wellyou know?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Oh, because if you would have passed summer school,
you wouldn't have had to doseventh grade again.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
This is how stupid I was, because, listen, I try to
be a problem solver wherever I'mat.
But I had the grades mixed up.
So, history I was supposed toget a C and I forgot the other
one I was supposed to get a Dand I flipped them.
So I got d in history and so Ididn't.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I didn't pass and I thought I did just enough to get
by and yeah, that was yeah, Ilearned through it, but you
learned well, look at that,because you didn't do just
enough when you started atnewcastle now, or you wouldn't
be where you are right, but youknow, back I have adhd.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I wasn't medicated.
Yeah, they tried getting me onmedication and I I felt like
they were calling me stupid.
It was just just a lot of stuffthat was going on in seventh
grade.
So, yeah, and it's funnybecause my friends moved to
eighth grade and then that nextyear they failed to be back with
me.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Oh, there you go.
That was nice, that's very nice, very kind yeah, that's very
nice, very kind, yeah.
But one question I have aboutthat changing people's lives.
How do you qualify change?
I know that's a tough questionbecause that's a, that's a
subjective.
You know it's an opinion, butwhen you say change people's
(28:00):
lives, how do you qualify that?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, they have to tell me that I changed their
life.
So I can't just put them on thelist.
They have to say something tome that, hey, what you did.
It was funny, it was a um.
There's a podcast I was on afew years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Not near as good as this one.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
No, absolutely not.
There's a podcast.
I was on a couple of years agoand I watched the podcast before
and I saw that this person wasin rough shape, but I could see
something wasn't, wasn't right.
I went on the podcast and andafter the podcast, um, I talked
to the host and he said nobodyknew that I was going through
(28:37):
any of the problems I was goingthrough.
But you and you know, just tohave that that's life changing
right, I could do.
If it was one, if that was theonly person that was able to
change, uh, I'd be fine.
So 20,000 is a lot, but again,it's just that push to try to do
more.
Doing tours for kids, it's,it's a purpose thing.
Like why do I get out of bed?
(28:58):
Yeah, getting out of bed fornet profit, not going to do it,
I'm not going to do it, it's not, it doesn't mean anything to me
.
But if I can use the net profitto help other people all day
long, you know, and and that'sthat's when you know if you live
purpose and you live yourvision, you want to get out of
bed, you want to push to thenext level.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, yeah, no, I agree, 100%.
Good stuff, man, good stuff,that's really good.
Hugo, do you have anything else?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
I'm going to wrap this up.
No, no, that's good.
I feel inspired.
Now I know I'm going to gobuild something.
Do something, right, holymackerel, Gotta do something now
.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah, you don't want to see me do landscaping though
it's pretty ugly.
I'm not a good landscaper.
You know what it is.
The soil around here just sucks.
It does you shale.
It's just terrible.
Did you get a lot?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
of grubs.
This year I didn't see a wholelot, but our lawn treatments
take care of grubs.
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So much for my lawn treatment, I guess.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
All right.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Guess I'm not doing a good job, that's right.
All right, I need to callNewcastle, so I got to end this
podcast.
So thanks a lot, brad, forcoming out.
I really do appreciate it Ifyou have any landscaping things
that you need to do.
Call Newcastle Lawn andLandscape.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
You can ask for, brad , if you want to.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
I'm pretty sure that he would take Exactly All right,
there you go.
Oh my God, what a great show,brad Stevenson here from
Newcastle Lawn and Landscape,and we hope to see you every
Thursday at seven o'clock.
We're having a good time here,so please come back.
All right, thanks?
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