Buzzkill | Pest Control, Integrity, and Building a Business that Lasts with Richard Mancias - The Plant Movement Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:00):
Let's go.
Let's go.

Willie Rodriguez (00:24):
What is up guys?
Welcome to another episode ofthe Plant Movement Podcast.
Thank you guys for tuning inand listening wherever you're at
guys.
This episode is special for abunch of different reasons.
One, we have Mr.
Richard here from BuzzkillInsect Control and
Fertilization.
But besides that, this isepisode 80.
And on top of that beingepisode 80, if you are watching
us on YouTube, we have a newstudio for the industry.

(00:47):
Something fresh, somethingdifferent to really kick it up
10, 20 notches from where wewere and bring just beauty to
the to the, to, you know, towhat we do.
So with that being said, guys,I want to introduce Mr.
Richard to you guys.
What he does is insect controloutside.
So pest control outside.
So thank you guys doinglandscapings, all the outdoor
stuff.
You guys need someone that cancome through this home point.

(01:09):
This is someone that we canappoint to be able to do that
type of work for you.
And we're going to hear hisstory today.
We're going to hear all abouthow he got into it, what he's
learned and what he touchesexactly.
So what's up, my bro?

Richard Mancias (01:20):
Thank you for having

me.
Thank you, bro.
Thank you for coming.

I didn't see the old studio, but I mean, this
is It looks beautiful.
It's nice.
Thank you.
It's really nice.

Well, we can take you to the old one.
No, out with the old.
Yeah, out with the old and withthe new.
No, the old one now is anoffice for someone else.
Of course.
So talk to me, bro.
Repurpose.
Repurpose.
You've been doing insect pestcontrol for a while, for 20
years.

About 15 years.
About 15 years.
About 15 years.

15 years.
You got in it by going andworking at another landscape
company.

Speaker 01 (01:49):
Yep.

Speaker 03 (01:50):
They said, hey, we want to start doing insect
control outside.
And you're like, hey, I want tojump in.

Speaker 01 (01:54):
They already had the crew, the team, but one of the
technicians ended up causing alot of damage on one of the
properties.
A lot of

Speaker 03 (02:03):
damage in which way?

Speaker 01 (02:04):
So I guess he must have sprayed the wrong thing.
Like a

Speaker 03 (02:08):
roundup on all the plants?
Something like that?

Speaker 01 (02:10):
A lot of people don't realize that even the
selective herbicides that we putdown on the grass to kill those
weeds, if you're not carefuland you tank mix on top of that
mix, you can cause damage toshrubs and all that stuff.
And I think that's whathappened.

Speaker 03 (02:24):
Oh, wow.
Yeah, guys, once you have onetank that has any type of weed
kill,

Speaker 01 (02:30):
that is what that tank is married to.
That's it.
Be careful.
Be careful.
Oh, wow.
I was pushing a weed eater.
They came up to me.
I was one of the only guys onthe crew that spoke English.
And they said, hey, Richard, doyou want this shot?
Do you want an opportunity?
And I said, well, what do theirpaychecks look like?
They showed me one of thepaychecks, and I said, let's do
it.
Let's go.
And that's it.
I haven't looked back.
Yeah, the rest is history.

(02:50):
So you

Speaker 03 (02:50):
fell in love with it, and this is your niche.
Like you said, I don't doinside homes.
I don't do none of that.
I only stick to the outdoorpests.

Speaker 01 (02:57):
Lawn and ornamental.

Speaker 03 (02:58):
Which is all aphids and thrips and whitefly.
Whitefly.
And all that type of stuff.
Basically what we deal withhere.
We deal with the same type ofstuff here.

Speaker 01 (03:06):
We deal with everything in South Florida.
It's crazy.
The year that I started, that Idecided to do the pest control
was the year that the figwhitefly hit South Florida.
Okay.
Big time.
Which was, I want to say 2007,2008.
That

Speaker 03 (03:23):
was when Ficus, the poor The Ficus Benjamina.
I did a post on it the otherday.

Speaker 01 (03:26):
That's when the Ficus just took a...

Speaker 03 (03:28):
They took a dump.

Speaker 01 (03:29):
Took a dump, man.
Took a dump.

Speaker 03 (03:30):
Everybody was ripping them out.

Speaker 01 (03:31):
We used to do properties on the beach with
that company I worked with.
And you would see everybody onthe beach had a Ficus Benjamina
as a privacy hedge for the frontof the house.
Beautiful.
Easy to trim.
Tight.
Very tight.
Tight hedge.
And when this hit and we drovedown the beach, it was

(03:52):
skeletons.
You could see straight through.
And the people were like, hey,wait a minute.
This isn't what I signed upfor.
And yeah, it was bad.
But that was the year that Istarted doing pesca.

Speaker 03 (04:02):
So what did you do during that time?
Did you fight to...
Well, no, that was you workingat this place.

Speaker 01 (04:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 03 (04:09):
What did you guys do to like, let's say, what was
your strategy to try to getclients in to be able to take
care of the problem?
Was it all spray?

Speaker 01 (04:15):
No, that was an easy...
It was an easy sell becausepeople...
Remember, this was brand new.
We had never dealt withsomething like this It was like
a pandemic.
It was exactly like a pandemic.
So people just wanted to hear,I can fix it.
They didn't, for the most part,didn't care about the price.
When this happened, I rememberthe company, Bayer, came down

(04:39):
because they're the ones thatsell merit.
They came down and they weregiving us price points.
Oh, you can sell $7 per linearfoot to do a systemic root
drench.
And we're thinking, well,that's crazy.
You know, a hundred foot ficuswhich would literally take you
20, 30 gallons of product, 700bucks.
Like nobody's going to paythat.

Speaker 03 (05:00):
Oh, it was too much.

Speaker 01 (05:01):
Yeah, it was ridiculous.

Speaker 03 (05:03):
Yeah, but when you look at what it costs to replace
the hedge,

Speaker 01 (05:06):
it's a lot cheaper.
Of course, of course.
But, you know, we found othermethods.
There's other chemicals thatwork.
Can you guys use

Speaker 03 (05:13):
Criterium or

Speaker 01 (05:14):
no?
No, no, no.
I don't know if Criterium islabeled for residential.
Residential?
Yeah.

Speaker 03 (05:19):
Because we can use it.

Speaker 01 (05:20):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 03 (05:21):
And that's a little powder.
It's real cheap and we apply itat the bottom of the plant.
Yeah.
And they'll never have whitefly.
Oh.
Yeah.
And we use it, too, on, like,Maburnum Otos.
Okay.
Maburnum Suspensum.
Okay.
All of those, it's for aphidsand thrip and the white fly.

Speaker 01 (05:38):
And it's a, what is it?
It's a powder.
It lasts that long?
Yeah,

Speaker 03 (05:41):
it turns into, like, a little cake

Speaker 01 (05:42):
on top of the water.
Okay.
And it just sits there for,like, a

Speaker 03 (05:45):
couple months.
Okay.
And then you can put more, andyou can

Speaker 01 (05:48):
put as you need.
Nice, nice.
No, we, yeah.
And the biggest issue thatwe're having now is that
Everybody fell in love with theimidacloprid.
Everybody fell in love with it.
So everybody's using it.
So now you have a resistancebuildup.

Speaker 03 (06:05):
So the white fly, they like it now.

Speaker 01 (06:06):
They love it for them.
It's like Cheerios.
Yeah, they love it.
They love it.
It's not as effective.
Before, you used to be able todo a systemic root drench, and
that drench would last sixmonths, depending on how much of
the product you put in yourtank.
But now, if you get a month,two months, months if you get
any control you're lucky so nowyou

Speaker 03 (06:28):
guys are switching between

Speaker 01 (06:29):
chemicals you have to yeah and a lot of times
people don't understand theimportance of alternating your
products okay they don't know

Speaker 03 (06:35):
but I guess that's not their job

Speaker 01 (06:37):
no job for sure that's for sure for sure

Speaker 03 (06:39):
your job is so you know you set up a maintenance
plan yeah and that's it is theynever deal with the problem
again that's it yeah that's thedeal with that so you guys you
do you do a lot of landscapeoutdoor

Speaker 01 (06:50):
yes

Speaker 03 (06:50):
so a landscaper does a beautiful landscape install
and they want to maintain it thelandlord wants to maintain it
or the maintenance crew wants tomaintain it you guys come in
yep and you offer a what is itlike a monthly package yeah how
does that work

Speaker 01 (07:03):
it so the way i do it is i don't like contracts i
don't like forcing people intostuff so everything i do is a la
carte if i come to your houseand i tell you or if i come to
your job site and i tell youlook This is going to be the
price to do everything.
That doesn't mean you have todo everything.
If you want to just do thegrass, let me know.

(07:25):
We'll make your grassbeautiful.
If you want to just treat theficus hedge, let me know.
We can keep the ficus hedgebeautiful.
You have the spirulina whiteflyand the phantasma scale.
That's what you're

Speaker 03 (07:35):
seeing right

Speaker 01 (07:35):
now?
That's what we're seeing rightnow.
What's the phantasma scale?
It's very similar to thespirulina whitefly as how it
looks on the bottom of the leaf,especially with the coconut
palms, but your You've seen iton Eureka's and other palms.
You'll see just like some whitespots on the bottom of the
frond.
And when you put it closer,you'll notice that there's no

(07:56):
spiral, which is what we wereused to with the spiraling
whitefly.
So there's no spiral.
Yeah, no whitefly, but it's thescale.
And that's pretty much whatwe're dealing with.
Is that a residue

Speaker 03 (08:04):
or is that a bacteria or what is that?
No, it's an insect.
It's a scale insect.
Similar treatment.
What do they do to the plant?

Speaker 01 (08:10):
You can see the bottom of the leaves start
turning yellow.
Like they'll start justsucking.
So scale insects, whiteflies.
aphids they do to the plantmaterial what mosquitoes do to
us so you know they they hitthey hit the you know the leaf
they hit the leaflet with thepiercing sucking parts and then

(08:31):
they suck out the nutrition sothen you start to see yellow
right where they're at and thenthey spread like wildfire wow
yeah yeah yeah

Speaker 03 (08:38):
so now you need to learn also like you you need to
know when they when theymultiply oh yeah when you know
when all that happens so youknow when to spray when to come
You know what I mean?
All of that.
I've learned a lot of that now.
We have a grower on site andhe'll be like, look, man, this
is how we're going to attack it.
They have babies at night.
They do this at this time.
I'm like, for real?
He's like, yeah, we're going toget them right now.

Speaker 01 (08:58):
Yeah, but that's the best way to do it.
You have to nip it in the bud.
There's a science.
If it gets out of control, thenyou're talking big money to
fix.

Speaker 03 (09:06):
That's what's interesting because there's a
lot of guys that do outdoor pestcontrol.
But do they know what's reallyhappening?
Do they know the insect?
I feel like you've got to beobsessed with the insect.

Speaker 01 (09:16):
You have to.

Speaker 03 (09:17):
and you know how to treat them.
Because it's not just go andapply.
Because you can go and apply,but you might be applying at the
wrong time, the wrongtemperature, the wrong rate, the
wrong everything.
And you have, you know, that's

Speaker 01 (09:29):
why you got to hire a professional.
Yeah, exactly.
100%.
I agree 100%.

Speaker 03 (09:32):
Yeah.
So someone that doeslandscapes, like those landscape
guys that, let's say, buyproducts from us and from other
nurseries, they can reach out toyou.
Of course.
And say, hey, dude, we havethis house.
I want you to jump on.
This is what it is.
And then, like, problems, allof that stuff.
You got have what do you guyshave you have trucks that go and
spray

Speaker 01 (09:50):
yeah drench yep right now right now it's just
one truck right now it's just meokay i'm getting my my new
truck uh i've been lucky enoughthat i've been in business for a
year now with this companycongrats uh thank you uh
licensed for 15 years so i don'twant anybody to think that he's
only been in business for ayear but in that year i've made
a lot of good connections with alot of good landscapers so i'm

(10:12):
now going to be upgrading mytruck i ordered it about eight
eight weeks ago so it should behere within the next week or so.
What is it, like an Azuzu orsomething?
The Azuzu, yeah.
That's what I've been waitingfor.
I plan on probably dropping atier when I get the truck in my
hands.
Who'd

Speaker 03 (10:26):
you get it from?
TruckMax.
TruckMax?
Okay.
They set it up for you?

Speaker 01 (10:30):
They're setting it up, yeah, which is what I like
about them because you tellthem, oh, I want 100-100 split
tanks.
I want the storage cabinets.

Speaker 03 (10:36):
And you can finance everything.

Speaker 01 (10:38):
Yeah, everything you finance through them.
That's going to be awesome,bro.
It's going to be great.
What

Speaker 03 (10:43):
have you learned in this past year?
Now you, let's say, going onyour own versus how things were
where you were.
Yeah.
Because you were at one companydoing this for 15, 14 years and
now you're doing it on yourown.

Speaker 01 (10:53):
Yeah.
Well, I've been with a varietyof different companies.
Okay.

Speaker 03 (10:56):
So what are you doing differently that you've
seen or what have you learnedthat today you're set up so much
better than where you were?

Speaker 01 (11:03):
You know, it's different.
It's definitely different.
When you're on your own, youcan actually take the time to
diagnose something as opposed towhen you're working with a
company, like there time crunch.
They want you, hey, hurry up.
You haven't figured that outyet.
What are you waiting for?
What's wrong?
What's this?
What's that?
And I can't work that way.

(11:24):
I like to take my time to makesure the job gets done right
because the last thing you wantis a callback.
The last thing you want as alandscaper dealing with your
customer, the homeowner, is ahomeowner saying, hey, you sent
this guy over here, but we'restill seeing problems.
Nothing's changed.
And then now you look bad asthe point of contact.

(11:46):
The homeowner Homeownerthemselves, I don't come in
contact with, but I treat everysituation like if I'm dealing
with the homeowner.
Because the landscaper is mycustomer.
So most of

Speaker 03 (11:57):
your clients are landscapers?

Speaker 01 (11:58):
Yeah, I have a good amount of landscape customers
that I deal with them directly.
If a homeowner has a question,call me.
No

Speaker 03 (12:07):
problem.
Well, they see your truck, it'swrapped,

Speaker 01 (12:09):
you can't hide.
Yeah, you can't hide that.
But it's a good relationship,man.
The relationship between...
the landscapers, the lawn andornamental pest control, even
the irrigation guys.
It's important.
It's key.
It's crucial.

Speaker 03 (12:23):
It's crucial.
That everybody works

Speaker 01 (12:25):
seamless.
Yeah, and not just pointing thefingers because you have
irrigation guys that will tellyou, oh, no, it's too much water
or you're not putting enoughwater or it needs to be this, it
needs to be that.
If you can work together andunderstand the situation like,
hey, look, let's turn this zoneon.
Let's start the system at fivein the morning as opposed to
three in the morning becausethree in the morning, that

(12:46):
water's sitting in that grass

Speaker 03 (12:48):
too long

Speaker 01 (12:48):
too long and you're gonna get brown patch fungus
which we're getting to theseason

Speaker 03 (12:52):
yeah

Speaker 01 (12:54):
exactly and we're getting to the season fungus
season is almost

Speaker 03 (12:57):
here no bro it's here

Speaker 01 (12:58):
yeah it's yeah we

Speaker 03 (13:00):
have we have rain you know five hours straight
yeah dude it's rough man wegotta spray and blow the whole
nursery yeah i bet and you knowit's rough yeah it's a lot of
work to go into i bet i bet sothat that what you said bro is
so important man you know likethink about it you're just doing
you know bug control andfertilization making sure that
plants are good.
You're basically the doctor outthere.
You're the doctor, but you gotto still work with the

(13:22):
irrigation guy because you can'tgo touch his clocks because
then he's going to get upsetbecause now it's off of what he
put or whatever it may be.
So having that point ofcontact, even to the point where
you can build a relationshipwith them where now, let's say
they have it set up throughRainbird or they have it on an
app.
Now you can tap into the appand now you have access to it.
That gives you access to beable to just have more control.

(13:43):
You know, having that, let'ssay brotherhood in a way where
There's that trust.
Yeah.
There's that respect.
There's all of those things.
And now you can come in and dowhat you have to do

Speaker 01 (13:52):
as your business partners.

Speaker 03 (13:53):
Basically.
Yeah.
Basically, you know, and youguys all run your own operations
out of your own LLCs or yourown S corps or C corps, but you
guys can work together

Speaker 01 (14:01):
and you still depend on each other.

Speaker 03 (14:02):
Yeah.
No, I've seen that a lot.
I've seen that in like wesupply different landscapers
that the guys that they used todo the hardscape lighting, the
guys that they used to do thedriveways, the pools,
everybody's the same.
It's a, it's all the samepeople.
They just bounce from house tohouse to house because they work
very, very well together.
And it's one dude thatbasically put them all together.

Speaker 01 (14:20):
Exactly.
Exactly.
One bad job can make or breakyou.

Speaker 03 (14:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 01 (14:24):

Speaker 03 (14:24):
No, definitely.

Speaker 01 (14:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 03 (14:26):
So, so now also you do a fertilization.
That's another big thingbecause landscapers can go and
throw fertilizer.
You guys can go do all thatstuff, but are you doing it
correctly or you're applying theright amount?
Is it the right fertilizer?
Is, does it work for everyplant?
Like there's a lot that goesinto it.
And one thing that we teachhere is accountability.

Speaker 01 (14:44):
Yeah.
Big time.

Speaker 03 (14:45):
So especially when you have clients spending
$10,000, $20,000, $50,000 yearlyon maintenance for their
properties, you want to makesure it's done right and you
have to have someoneaccountable.
You have to.
You don't want to have it fallon yourself just to make that
extra buck right now.
It ain't worth it.
Trust me.
That quick money is gone

Speaker 01 (15:01):
fast and it hurts.
It hurts later.
Big time.
So

Speaker 03 (15:05):
having someone you can have accountable is
priceless.
So you come in and you canbeautify an existing landscaping
that maybe is not up to par orit's been a little neglected,
you can come in and say, allright, maintenance guys, trim
all this back.
We're going to fertilize this.
I'm going to do this.
You're going to do this.
And like that, you guys canteam up and revive something.

Speaker 01 (15:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I will never go to a propertyand tell the landscape guys,
hey, trim this down.
I stay in my lane.
I know.
I know.
But I'm saying, if you

Speaker 03 (15:36):
guys are coming together to make something
happen for the client, and let'ssay they're not, let's say, so
clinically coordinated when itcomes to how to revive
something, because not everylandscaper knows how how to
revive a plant I agree or whatyou know we get landscapers that
they buy shaded product for thesun

Speaker 01 (15:52):
yeah

Speaker 03 (15:53):
you know and then two weeks later it's sunburned
and then it's like hey man nothat came from the shade yeah so
like us we expect them to knowthat yeah but that's not how it
is it's not how it is what weknow or what you know someone
else doesn't know and you can'texpect anything so that's where
education comes in yeah andthat's why I'm saying like you
can call somebody out and saylook man I can't fertilize this
you gotta turn it back firstlet's wait two weeks yeah and

(16:15):
then we'll fertilize it becauseit's not worth

Speaker 01 (16:16):
It's, you know, opening up the trees, letting
more sunlight in.
You know, customers, you'd besurprised.
The majority of homeowners lovegreen, lush grass.
Like, that's what they want.
And the beauty of Miami is thatEvery homeowner is competing
with their neighbor or the guydown the street.

(16:37):
Yeah, they want a nice house.
His grass is a little bitgreener than mine.
What is he doing?
Nobody sprays his yard, so whydoes his look good?

Speaker 03 (16:44):
For me, it's so when your friends come over or the
kids' parents come over,

Speaker 01 (16:48):
the house looks crispy.
Yeah, and they say, man, I wasdoing a lady's house a couple of
weeks ago, and another lady,the house is in Coral Gate, was
walking her dog, and she goes,oh, the landscape looks
beautiful.
And I'm like, thank you.
That's what we do.
Yeah, that's what we do.

Speaker 03 (17:04):
What does something like that run on a house like
that?

Speaker 01 (17:07):
So it really depends on how much landscape you have.
Yeah, everything depends.
Because, you know, you have,you know, if I'm using one,
let's say I'm using one fulltank,

Speaker 03 (17:16):
100 gallons.
You try it by tank

Speaker 01 (17:19):
and time.
I try to, you know, I know Ican do about 20,000 square feet
of lawn with my tank, with 100gallons.
With everything that I add intomy tank mix, what sets me apart
is that not a lot of the otherpest control landscape
fertilization guys like toinvest the money into what they
put down on that ground andthere's a lot of little

(17:42):
additives that you can add intothat tank aside from just insect
control aside from just funguscontrol at the same time at the
same time you know um when youhave fungus in your grass the
only thing you want to reallymake sure you don't do is add
nitrogen because the nitrogenwill feed that fungus and cause
that fungus to explode but Youcan add nutrients to the grass.

(18:05):
You can add manganese or iron,stuff like that.
That's not going to enhancethat fungus.
There's a lot of little thingslike humic acid.
I mean, it's vital.
But everything you add costsmoney.
So whereas a standard tank mix,let's just say, might be $50.
I'm just throwing that numberout there.
If you add all the littlethings that you should be

(18:27):
adding, the potassium, the extrathis, the extra that, I mean,
now you're at about $90, $100 inyour tank.

Unknown (18:33):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 01 (18:34):
Not a lot of guys want to do that because they're
either scared to charge whatthey should be charging.
And, you know, they're scared.
People are going to say, no,that's too much money.
I can have true green, come doit for 65 bucks, but true green
is going to come put 20, 20, 20down and maybe a little bit of
cross-check and you're not goingto be happy.

Speaker 03 (18:50):
And I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
You know, I've dealt with allthose big companies and at the
end of the day, when you're,when you're dealing with an
owner operator, it's anothergame, the passion you have and
the knowledge you have.
withstands any tech.

Speaker 01 (19:05):
Big time.

Speaker 03 (19:06):
I'm sorry not to knock any techs out there.
I'm sure there's a lot of verygood smart

Speaker 01 (19:10):
ones.
I was a tech at one point.
Yeah,

Speaker 03 (19:11):
a lot of good smart ones, but it's different when
you're risking your future in adifferent way.
It's different when you'retech.
It falls on the company and youget fired, you go get another
job tomorrow.
That's it, yeah.
It's different.

Speaker 01 (19:25):
It's definitely 100%.
It's different, man.
100%.
It's just like, you know.
It's your reputation.
Yeah.
It's your reputation.

Speaker 02 (19:31):
I'm sure it's

Speaker 01 (19:32):
right.
Your integrity, yourreputation.
Yeah.
You know, it means something toyou.
When I pull up to a yard that Istarted, you know, didn't look
as good as it could look.
And then I pull up after sixmonths and I see the difference,
I feel good.
You know, especially with thegrass because, like I said,
grass is something you can see.
You know, when you're treatinga damaged lawn, the bounce back

(19:54):
is a lot quicker than, you know,a palm that may have some
micronutrient deficiencies.
You know, royal palms shoot outmaybe, what, two or three new
fronds per year.
you have to wait for those newfronds to come out before you
start to see the improvement.
So you're talking three, fourmonths before you see any
improvement.
And you got to hope if thatspike had already started while

(20:15):
you do the treatment, now youhave to wait for that spike to
come out and the next one.

Speaker 03 (20:19):
See, this is the thing.
So those little things, whatI've come to find out and learn
is the little things make allthe impact.
Big time.
So you knowing that and yousaying that, now you go and say
that with whoever you'restanding in front of.
either the landlord or thehomeowner or the guy that
contracted you, the landscapecompany.
Dude, it's going to put you onanother level, man, because you

(20:40):
might save them money and say,hey, look, we can't do it right
now.
We've got to wait two months.
When that front shoots up, callme.
Yeah.
For real.
And you know this because youcan make the money today to bang
it out and make money for you,but that's not what you're
after.
You're after doing the rightthing and compounding.

Speaker 01 (20:55):
The longevity.

Speaker 03 (20:56):
The compounding positivity.
Yeah, that's it.
So, man, I really like that.
That right there, hands down,is...
Yeah,

Speaker 01 (21:04):
I did a...
So I have a house on the beach.
Very prominent figure.
You know, big house, big job.
The guy's got Ficus Benjaminaall around his house.
A guy that I helped out before,he does the pest control for
the neighbor.
I'm not going to say every oneof my customers is a high-end

(21:26):
customer, because that's not,you know.
But I do have a handful, andI've learned that customers,
they like that privacy aspect ofit.
Like, you know...
When I go to service theirhouse, I'm not looking in the
windows, even as I walk by tospray.
I focus on what, yeah, bigtime.
I focus on what I'm there to doand that's it.

(21:47):
And if they let me into thatnext level, great, you know, no
problem.

Speaker 03 (21:51):
How did you get into that prestige top 1% client?

Speaker 01 (21:54):
How did that happen?
So I used to work at SiteOne, Iwas telling you.
Working at SiteOne reallyhelped me out because I got to
meet a lot of the landscapersthat are on, you know, ground
zero that are working.
And I got to meet a lot ofproperty men that were doing the
work before.
So he would come in and buyproducts and I would say, hey,
what are you dealing with?
Okay, well, use this, try this,do this, do that.

(22:16):
And he was getting results.
What happened at this place wasI applied for an assistant
manager position, but they hadstarted out some initiative
where they wanted us to callcustomers that hadn't come in,
cold call.

Speaker 03 (22:29):
Okay.
Existing customers, but theyhaven't bought in a while.
Correct.

Speaker 01 (22:33):
Yeah.
Cold call.

Speaker 03 (22:34):
Okay.

Speaker 01 (22:35):
I've worked in call centers before.
I don't like cold callings.
I know how I act when people.
Yeah, you're busy.
I'm busy.
I don't want time.
Exactly.
So I said, no, I'm not going tocold call.
That's not part of my jobdescription.
That's not what I applied forbecause of that decision.
I got overlooked for theassistant manager position
because of that.
Okay.
So that kind of catapulted meto start my own business.

(22:56):
So I said, forget this.
And when this gentleman foundout that I was starting my own
business, he said, when youleave, call me.

Speaker 03 (23:03):
So the reason, the reason he gave you an
opportunity is because you cameto every time for him.

Speaker 01 (23:07):
Because every, yeah, every time.
Yeah.
And, um, so

Speaker 03 (23:10):
with no intention for yourself.

Speaker 01 (23:12):
Yeah, no, no, no, never, you know, because you
were working somewhere.
Yeah.
You know, and it's, it'shelping, you know, plus at this
time in my I'm thinking, okay,I'm going to move up in this
company because my customerservice is impeccable.
My product knowledge is fairlydecent.
I fit in, you know, and I'mhelping these customers.
I'm an asset.

(23:32):
I thought I was an asset.
So I'm helping them just so Ican continue moving up this
corporate ladder just to findout that corporate said, no, no,
no, you didn't want to makeoutgoing calls.
Go back down.
So he looked out and he took achance, brought me onto this
property.
And so one of the guys that Iwould help out does the other
side of the other property.
So I'm spraying my ficus once amonth.

(23:54):
He sprays that ficus everyseven to 10 days.

Speaker 03 (23:58):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 01 (23:59):
But he's using a, an oil-based product.
I'm not sure if you're used, ifyou've heard of or ever used
Bifin XTS.
No.
So it's just a Bifin product,right?
But it's oil-based.
Okay.
It's 90 something degreesoutside.
If you're spraying anyoil-based product, every 7 to 10
days, you're going to burn thehedge.

(24:21):
You're going to burn whateverit is you're

Speaker 03 (24:23):
spraying.
It's like putting the tanningoil.

Speaker 01 (24:26):
That's it.
Exactly.

Speaker 03 (24:28):
On your skin.

Speaker 01 (24:29):
They don't realize it.
Yeah.

Speaker 03 (24:31):
And that was a tech doing it or that was an actual
guy?

Speaker 01 (24:33):
That's another owner.
Another owner.
It's an owner of anothercompany.
Yeah.
So his property, I guess he hada conversation with his
property manager.
Mind you, these two housesshare one ficus down the middle.
Yeah.
The rest of the ficus on theproperty looks great.
That one down the middle isstruggling.
So he got a hold of hisproperty manager who got a hold

(24:56):
of the property managers on myside.
They had some powwow and they,they, the ones on my side called
me for a conference call andthey say, well, you know,
they're saying they're sprayingevery seven to 10 days.
And I said, listen, it doesn'tbenefit me to tell you this.
It benefits me to tell you,yeah, we need to spray every
seven to 10 days because thatmeans I get to

Speaker 03 (25:14):
charge you.

Speaker 01 (25:15):
Yeah, definitely.
Definitely.
I get to bill you every sevento 10 days, you this dollar
amount to do this.
I said, but you don't need todo that.
Trust me when I tell you whatwe're doing on our side is the
right thing.
We don't need the seven to 10days.
And listen, they were ecstatic.

(25:35):
The guy who brought me inthere, the property manager,
he's like the grounds manager.
He said, man, they're superhappy with you.
They are so happy with you.
Thank you, Rich.
And for me, that's great.
Because now I know that Themain office believes in me.
So I haven't met the owner.
I haven't met this gentleman.

(25:56):
But I'm sure that if everybodyaround is happy with the work
I'm doing, when they don'tspeak, when you don't hear
anything, that's a good thing.
Yeah, that's a good thing.
It's when you hear about themevery day.

Speaker 03 (26:12):
No, but that's good.
That's what I'm thinking.
That's what I'm talking about.
It's not about you guyslistening, man.
It's not about the today.
No.
It's about the tomorrow and theforever.
And relationships and comingthrough and not looking out for
your pockets today is what makesa huge difference in building
positive strong relationships

Speaker 01 (26:28):
big time

Speaker 03 (26:29):
you know i lose i told the guy the other day he
came to the nursery looked ateverything and he's just in
shock and i told him i said manyou know to get here i've lost
twice as much as what i've madeand he looks at me yes he's
probably still thinking aboutwhat i told him yeah because you
have to lose to get here or youhave to give up or you know
give up what let's say what yourpocket would want or what

(26:50):
someone else would tell you yougot to go after

Speaker 01 (26:51):
big time

Speaker 03 (26:52):
to come through for the people

Speaker 01 (26:53):
around you in different ways

Speaker 03 (26:55):
so like i don't know man when it comes to what you
do the knowledge that youprovide and just being you know
the way you are is what helpsyou stand out amongst everybody
else big time back to what youwere talking about starting the
first year what else have youlearned this first year because
you're a new business there's alot of guys listening that are
new they're trying to grasp fireinformation to continue to grow

(27:17):
what they got going on otherthan just making contacts

Speaker 04 (27:20):
yeah

Speaker 03 (27:21):
and having contacts on their list what else have you
learned man you jumping in fromworking out on the field for
somebody else learning andseeing the things that you liked
and disliked and now you get toimplement that into your own
thing how's that been

Speaker 01 (27:35):
so i'll do you one better uh before jumping into
what i've learned in my firstyear anybody that is playing
with the idea of starting theirown business but they're scared
to make that jump like do itdon't be scared like don't
second guess yourself don't youknow there's always going to be
you know good and bad don'tsecond guess yourself it you

(27:57):
feel that strongly about what itis you think you can bring to
the table do it because theperson you're working for took
that leap and look at them nowyou know and they might not know
which usually is the case theymight not know half of what you
know and and so you can be thatmuch better it took a while for

(28:18):
me to Take that leap.
You know, like I told you, I'velicensed probably two of the
bigger local landscape companiesdown here in South Florida.
And then I licensed a prettybig company down in the Keys.
And they will never appreciateyou as much as you will

(28:38):
appreciate yourself once you'redoing it for yourself.
So, you know, any new businessor anybody that's thinking of
starting a new business, just doit.
Don't fight yourself too much.
Sometimes our biggest downfallis ourselves.
Like our biggest enemy isourselves and our negative
thinking.
And you have to fight thatperson off.

(29:00):
You have to fight yourself inorder to achieve what you want
to achieve.

Speaker 03 (29:04):
It's a mental battle.

Speaker 01 (29:06):
Big time.
The biggest battle you willever face is going to be that
mental battle in your headbecause your subconscious is
going to tell you, man, but whatabout this?
You got to pay that $900 truck.
You got to pay your $1,600,$1,700 truck.
a mortgage.
You got to pay this.
You're comfortable at a jobthat you know 40 hours a week
you're going to get that checkat the end of the week.
So it's scary to leave that andgo for a maybe.

(29:31):
But that maybe could become thebiggest thing that you ever do.
In my first year, there's nooff button.
That's what I've learned.
I've worked Saturdays.
I've worked Sundays.
I do work for another biglandscape company that they do a
lot of work in Key West.
They landscape houses and Butcommunities and stuff like that.

(29:51):
And a lot of times, if thebuilders are still there,
they're painting the outside,they're doing final touches, you
can't really go spray.
So I'll take it upon myself andsay, hey, listen, can I go on a
Sunday and take care of it?
Because nobody's there.
The only one out there workingis me.
And they'll say, it's Sunday,but go for it.
No problem.
And I'm out there.
There is no off button.

(30:12):
If a customer calls me at eighto'clock at night because
they're worried about something,my phone doesn't stop.
They text me all the time.
and they call me all the time.
No problem.
Call me.
I'm going to answer becausethat customer is going to
appreciate that.

Speaker 03 (30:27):
What's your responsibility?

Speaker 01 (30:28):
Well, after hours, my responsibilities are done.
Well,

Speaker 03 (30:31):
it depends who it

Speaker 01 (30:32):
is.
It depends.
It depends on how far you wantto go and how good you want to
do.
If you want to be great, youhave to answer that call.
If you just want to get by,they can wait till tomorrow.
For the most part, yourcustomers are going to be okay
waiting for tomorrow.
But I'm trying to be great.

(30:52):
So my calls get answered, youknow, If I'm asleep and I don't
hear it, hey, sorry.
I'll get you first thing in themorning.
But for the most part, no, Iget messages 8 o'clock, 9
o'clock, 10 o'clock atnighttime.
And if I'm awake, yeah, I'llrespond.
No problem at all.

Speaker 03 (31:07):
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 01 (31:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 03 (31:08):
Yeah, that's just how it is, man.
Like for me, a lot of thesepeople that I get to still
service and I'm still takingcare of those accounts, they're
my boys, man.
Yeah.
You know, so if they call me at9 o'clock at night, it's
because there is a problem.
Yeah.
Because they're not just goingto call me at 9 o'clock at night
just because.
Just because.
It's going to be an issue thatthey think is relative enough to
call me at that time.
So I have to respect that.

(31:30):
Also, one thing that I want tojust bring up right now, you
know, I don't know where you arementally when it comes to
hiring staff because one day youwill have to.
Everything that you dislikedand the fact that you had to
make cold calls and you weren'tappreciative that you didn't get
that next managerial positionand you didn't get to climb, all
that happened for a reason,bro.
And one of the biggest reasonsthat I see, you know, just from

(31:52):
hearing your story is you'regoing to be able to impact other
kids lives yeah that jump onboard with you you know you said
you're a father of four yourgrandfather now think about the
impact that you're going to beable to give where even if
someone wants to like you sayjump jump and just go maybe it's
not jump and just go maybe it'sjump and go work somewhere
where you're appreciated

Speaker 01 (32:11):
sure of course you

Speaker 03 (32:12):
know go jump and work somewhere where now you can
make an impact as an employeeand now open a whole nother
stream you know like there'sthere's so much more than what
we think yeah you know and thengoing through like let's say
that darkness that's why you'rego negative mode

Speaker 04 (32:26):
yeah

Speaker 03 (32:27):
your mind goes into what what what can happen
because you don't know what'sgonna happen so it instantly
negative when you can literallyhave a bright light lit from the
second you start if you thinkthat way I know that whoever
comes and works with you they'regonna be taught well just by
sitting next to you butlistening to how you are you
can't fake this yeah

Speaker 01 (32:43):
yeah

Speaker 03 (32:43):
it's true you know so like someone can reach out
and and get a job even if you'renot ready this is gonna grow
you man

Speaker 01 (32:49):
yeah

Speaker 03 (32:49):
you're gonna grow because now you're gonna have to
be accountable for someone elseyeah for the what they're doing
the mistake they might make andthen how do you how do you
treat that

Speaker 01 (32:58):
yeah yeah

Speaker 03 (32:59):
you know yeah

Speaker 01 (33:00):
yeah it's it's scary man because again working at at
site one techs come in and outall day these companies come in
and out all day i've never

Speaker 03 (33:08):
switched they switch staff

Speaker 01 (33:10):
well they switch staff but they always come in
and buy and whatnot okay

Speaker 03 (33:13):
people coming into the stores

Speaker 01 (33:14):
yeah you're selling them these products you know
people see hearing what they gothrough out there you know i had
a guy tell me i'm looking tohire somebody but you know i'm
gonna start him at $14 an hour.
And I'm thinking, $14 an hourto do what?
To do pest control andfertilization?
I said, man, that's rough.
That's rough, bro.
Well,

Speaker 03 (33:34):
think about the errors he's going to have.

Speaker 01 (33:36):
I

Speaker 03 (33:36):
was just talking with Eddie right now during
lunch.
I was like, dude, less than$200 a day, it's hard to live.
It's crazy.
I'm saying, less than $200right now, a day as one human,
you have to, that needs to belike a minimum.

Speaker 01 (33:49):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 03 (33:50):
Which at $14, you got to work, you know, 14 hours.

Speaker 01 (33:53):
I was talking to another technician.
I said, bro, this guy came intoday and he was like oh I gotta
start somebody I'm gonna starthim at 14 and the guy looks at
me and goes well this guy paysme 12 and I said wow man I have
a helper right now on my truckthat he just helps me pull the
spray hose he puts the flags outfor me I start him at 15 but
he's young he lives with hisparents he's good but he doesn't

(34:15):
do any of the spraying hedoesn't do none of that stuff

Speaker 03 (34:18):
he doesn't have the high risk

Speaker 01 (34:19):
he doesn't have any of that stuff he just helped me
pull this 300 foot hose and putthe flags before I spray the
grass.
I'm at the point now where I'mgoing to be bringing in
somebody.
My son does AC work.
He's an AC tech.
I put him through the AC schoolwhen I realized college wasn't
for him.

Speaker 03 (34:38):
Make him a blue collar, baby.

Speaker 01 (34:40):
Yeah, because AC work is always going to be
there,

Speaker 03 (34:42):
right?
Especially in Florida.

Speaker 01 (34:44):
Exactly.
But now he's in a positionwhere he's not happy what he's
doing.
I want him to start his ownbusiness.

Speaker 03 (34:50):
Why is he not happy with where he's working

Speaker 01 (34:52):
at?
Yeah, yeah.
He's not happy with that.
I mean, again, when it'scorporate world, there's a lot
of hoops that you have to hopthrough you know i know

Speaker 03 (34:59):
but that that's put on a pedestal bro

Speaker 01 (35:01):
yeah well you know

Speaker 03 (35:02):
think about american dream is you go work at a big
corporation and that's wherethey got it wrong the white
picket fence that's where theygot it wrong bro

Speaker 01 (35:09):
that's where they got it wrong so i want him to
start his own business so i toldhim i said listen come work
with me This is what I can payyou.
Since you know AC work, createyour business.
Create your business cards.
Create your shirts.
Get yourself going.
But work with me so you'remaking money while you're
building your business.
And I think that's going tohelp me out a lot.

Speaker 03 (35:31):
Does he have bills and stuff?
How old is he?

Speaker 01 (35:32):
Oh, yeah.
No, he's 23 years old.
He lives in an efficiency up inBroward.
Okay, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
No, he's… He's

Speaker 03 (35:39):
got his own thing rolling already.

Speaker 01 (35:41):
Yeah, and he's the one that made me a grandfather.
Oh, okay.
He has a daughter.
Yeah.
It's very important.
We were talking outside abouthow kids change us.
And it's true.
Kids make you

Speaker 03 (35:56):
a man.

Speaker 01 (35:57):
They make you a man.
And every kid after that makesyou a little bit better.
My son was my first.
And I probably wasn't the bestnumber one parent.
I did the best that I could.
But with every kid, you learn alittle bit.

Speaker 03 (36:09):
It makes you more responsible.
It does.
And then it also teaches youhow to sacrifice.

Speaker 01 (36:14):
Big time.

Speaker 03 (36:15):
Big time.
Yeah.
Because sacrifice.
You're no longer first.
Yeah, yeah.
And you should never be first.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, let's get that right.
Yeah.
You know, we're here.
We're put on it to serve.
Yeah.
If you follow, you know, if youfollow Jesus, we're here to
serve others.

Speaker 01 (36:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 03 (36:27):
So we're, you know, it is.
But kids for me have taught mediscipline.
They've taught me that I amlast on the list, bro.

Speaker 01 (36:33):
Yeah, big time.
You know, as long aseverybody's eating, I'm happy.
And I take that into thebusiness too.
Because if the landscaperbrings me onto their property
and I do a good job, thatcustomer is going to be happy
with that landscaper and givethem more work so that
landscaper keeps eating theybrought me to that table so now
I get to eat from that table andif as long as I keep doing good
work everybody keeps eatingeverybody gets to eat to me

(36:56):
that's very important

Speaker 03 (36:57):
you are you're a part of something that's bigger
than yourself big time And whenyou realize that, then that's
when work becomes a way to giveback.
Yeah.
A way to bless others.
Yeah.
For real, man.
No, I love helping landscapers.
That's what it's all about,man.

Speaker 01 (37:11):
I

Speaker 03 (37:11):
love it.
It's not about you and whatyou're going to make.
It's about the impact you canmake and leave.
Just like when you getemployees, dude, you can change
their lives.

Speaker 01 (37:18):
Yeah.
For real.
No, you were talking about thefertilizing.
And so it's easy for alandscaper to get a fertilizer
license.
All you have to do is take yourbest management practice
course, University of Florida,if any I know you probably know
about the IFAS office rightthere on, what is it, 187th and
288th Street.
Any landscaper can go there,take this class.

(37:40):
It's a BMP class.
They have it in English and inSpanish.
You take the class, you takethe test, and you get your
fertilization license.
So now you can have fertilizeron your truck, you know, as long
as you're within the, you know,not the blackout periods and
you're fine.
you're good to go.
And, and I'll tell landscapersthat like, Hey man, go get this
license.
That's another avenue ofrevenue for you because now you

(38:03):
can charge for fertilizing, youknow, fertilizing.
I do it.
I don't mind doing it.
It's part of what I do, but myfavorite thing about what I do
is the spring, like seeing theresults of the spray.
You know, the granularfertilizer is really maintaining
the beauty of a plant, butfixing it, getting it to that
point is where I thrive.

(38:24):
So I'll tell the landscapers,look, go get this license, which
other guys in this industrythat do what I do won't do that.
They want all of it.
No, no, no.
I'll fertilize.
I'll do this.
No, no, no, no.
You want to fertilize?
You've been doing it.
Keep doing it.
But do this that way.
If an inspector stops you,you're safe.
You're legit.
You're legit.
You don't have any problems.

(38:44):
Take this class.
Go do this.
And they love it because it'srare that you come across
somebody like that.
You know, that's going to pointyou in the right direction of
how to do stuff the right wayyourself.

Speaker 03 (38:55):
Well, all of that is what I was talking about.
Compounding positivity.
You know, you go doing thattoday over here and tomorrow and
every single day you do that.
And by time 10 years go bytimes 365 days.
Oh yeah.
You have done, you have made animpact three, four, 5,000 times
in 10 years.
And what do you think is goingto happen?

Speaker 01 (39:13):
Yeah.
And I do it because it wasn'tdone for me.
So

Speaker 03 (39:16):
that's, that's something like a gen, like
something that you want to breakand you

Speaker 01 (39:19):
want to.
Yeah.
There's one guy out there that,that, that I appreciate.
I mean, there's a bunch of guysthat I work with that I
appreciate, but there's agentleman out there, Douglas
pest control.
Very good.
And when I was working for allthese different companies, No
matter what company I workedfor, he would answer the phone.
Hey, Doug, another buddy ofmine, Martinez Spray Service.
Fred, what is this?

(39:40):
What is that?
And those two guys alwaysanswered the phone for me.

Speaker 03 (39:44):
They always helped you

Speaker 01 (39:44):
out.
Always helped me out.
They were always on their own.
They owned their ownbusinesses.
To this day, they still owntheir own businesses.
But they always answered thephone.
They always answered the phone,gave me solid advice.
So I do the same thing for...
for all my buddies that do whatI do.
There's a few guys out therethat if they call me, I won't
answer the phone.
And there's a few guys outthere.

(40:06):
That's all

Speaker 03 (40:06):
reputation.

Speaker 01 (40:07):
It's reputation.
But there's guys out there thatwhen I left site one, where I
was the guy giving them advicebecause I was getting paid to do
that.
Once I left, that's it.
Their whole demeanor changedwhen it came to Richard.
Now Richard wasn't the nice guyat the store that was giving
them advice.
Now Richard's competition.
Now he's competition.
And there's so much work outhere like There's more work.

(40:29):
than any one man company canhandle.
There's plenty,

Speaker 03 (40:34):
bro.

Speaker 01 (40:35):
Plenty.
There's enough for

Speaker 03 (40:36):
everybody.
And what you do is what guidesyou to have either more work or
less work.
That's it.
What do you see for the futureof the industry when it comes to
pest control?
What issues do you see or whatthings do you see when it comes
to technology,

Speaker 01 (40:51):
staffing?
A lot has happened in the pasttwo years with a lot of big
companies.
You have big companies like...
I don't want to plug nobody.
What about big companies?
Well, you have like One TwoTree.
You have Plant Healthcare.
You have Eastern Exterminators.
Those are the three biggercompanies, Power Exterminators.

Speaker 03 (41:10):
Plant Healthcare got purchased.
I heard they got purchased.
That's

Speaker 01 (41:13):
exactly where I'm going.
Plant Healthcare got purchasedby the same company that
purchased Eastern Exterminators.
And somebody told me that thatsame company purchased Power
Exterminators.

Speaker 03 (41:25):
Okay, so this is a private equity firm?

Speaker 01 (41:26):
This is a big, yeah.
Like a big

Speaker 03 (41:28):
group?

Speaker 01 (41:29):
Big group, yeah.
So

Speaker 03 (41:30):
that's common.

Speaker 01 (41:31):
Yeah.
And then you have anothercompany that bought 123, which
is another big company.
And what's been happening is agood thing for people like me.
It's been a trickle down.
When these big corporationscome in and buy, they don't care
if the customer's grass looksgood.
They care about that margin.
Are we making 50%, 60% margin?

(41:53):
We're not.
This is where I was tellingyou, okay, don't put this
product in there.
Don't put this in there.
When you go do this yard, juststick to the basics and that's
it.
The customers start to see thedecline, you know, and.

Speaker 03 (42:06):
Oh man, my mind's going, my mind's going.
They are going to be, they'llrun the middle class market,
dude.

Speaker 01 (42:13):
Oh

Speaker 03 (42:13):
yeah.
Those people will run themiddle class market.
So if you guys are in a middleclass market doing what you're
doing, spraying or anything likethat, it's going to be easier
for you to climb up higherbecause the people at the top,
they know what type of servicethey're getting from who.
Yeah.
And it's going to be easier foryou to stand out and be become
higher in the niche and touchthat top three percent earner

(42:34):
you know portfolio yeah becauseyou're that hands-on

Speaker 01 (42:37):
yeah it's different man big time it's

Speaker 03 (42:39):
a

Speaker 01 (42:39):
big big time they're taking that that true green
sorry man they're taking thattrue green model the majority of
customers that come to me froma true green all have the same
story oh i had the little ticketon my door that they were here,
but my ring camera didn't gooff.
So they didn't do nothing.
All they did was put the tag onthe door.

(43:01):
Sure, it's only 50 bucks aspray.
Or

Speaker 03 (43:03):
let's say they spray.
Let's say they spray something.
It might not be appliedproperly.

Speaker 01 (43:07):
Oh, big time.

Speaker 03 (43:07):
You know, are they going to circle back around?
Did the guy that applied lasttime, did he check to see if,
you know, next 30 days, if itworked?
Yeah, and usually it's not eventhe same guy.
Yeah,

Speaker 01 (43:18):
it's not.
They rotate.
I know why they rotate theirtechnicians on these properties
because they don't want thesetechnicians technicians to build
up a following from thesecustomers.
You know, if I'm a technicianat a company and I've been
spraying your house for a yearstraight and you're happy with
my work and I tell you, hey, I'mstarting my own business,
you're going to be inclined tosay, hey, well, Richard, sign me
up.
I'm going to stay with you.

(43:39):
So to avoid that, to go againstthat, they just rotate
technicians.
And now they don't want therelationships.
They don't want you building arapport with your customers.
So

Speaker 03 (43:51):
that's one of the biggest things you're seeing now
in the future now

Speaker 01 (43:54):
and i think it's going to be great for for the
technicians like myself becauseas long as we keep that as long
as we stay true to to what we doyou know every good technician
out there is a technicianbecause they love what they do
you know they enjoy seeing thegreen plants they enjoy seeing
the trees they they enjoy seeingall that stuff as long as we

(44:17):
don't lose sight of that We'regoing to excel in what we do.
You'll stand out.
Big time.

Speaker 03 (44:22):
Yeah.
You can't be scared of what'sgoing on.
You got to pivot and beconfident and move strongly.
Yeah.
Change with the change.
Yeah.
Change with the change.
So that's the biggest thingyou're seeing.

Speaker 01 (44:31):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Big time, right?
That's been the news that haskind of rocked my side of the
industry lately is all thosebuyouts, man.
And we're seeing that a lot.
My buddy Patrick, he ownsTrimscape, now just sold that
pretty decent sized land companyto another big landscape
company.

(44:51):
So a lot of buyouts.
There's a

Speaker 03 (44:54):
lot of non-competes too, like a three-year period.

Speaker 01 (44:57):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 03 (44:58):
Where if you do get bought out, because I know a few
people that have already beenbought out, they're getting good
money, man.
They're getting a few milliondollars, two, three, four
million dollars, but you can'tgo back into the field.
You can't even touch theindustry for three years.
So it basically kills a lot ofopportunity.
You can go into the industry,but through a different stream.
You can't go direct with whatyou were doing.
You can't build thatcompetition with them out of

(45:19):
respect.
But I see a lot of opportunity,man.
I see a lot of opportunity forpeople like yourselves to really
grab a hold of differentclients.
Because as these, let's say,plant healthcare, they buy
plants here.
I know them very, very well.
They're not there anymore.
That hands-on service might notbe the same.
Staff is going to probablychange.
The guy that's been there for15 years is not going to be

(45:39):
there anymore.
After two, three years, becausethey're going to squeeze them
like they squeezed you.
And that's going to giveopportunity for people like
yourselves to go out and reallygrab a hold of a lot of those
clients

Speaker 01 (45:50):
and be happy.
And it's happening already.
Yeah.
Customers are calling, thelandscapers.
Hey, I need you to come look atthis house.
They were using such and such.
They're not happy.
And I'll go to the house andI'll say, man, this is crazy.
How did they let it get thisbad?
It doesn't make any sense whenyou think about the reputations
that they had.

(46:10):
I only knew one of the ownersof Plant Healthcare.
I knew Ian.
I know Ian.

Speaker 03 (46:14):
That's the one I know.

Speaker 01 (46:16):
Ian tried to get me to go to Plant Healthcare.
Any big company, the onlycompany that didn't give me an
opportunity was 123 and when Imet with Mark the owner well the
former owner 123 he didn't giveme the opportunity because I
had a tattoo on my neck whichblew my mind because at that
point I was already licensed todo them you're talking 12 years

(46:36):
ago you know I was alreadylicensed and he bypassed me

Speaker 03 (46:40):
and he told

Speaker 01 (46:41):
you that yeah he didn't tell me but his next guy
in charge told me he said heyRichard look uh Mark didn't like
the fact that you had a tattooon your neck and I said okay no
problem I'm not going to say,oh, but, but no problem.
I, you know, and I think I toldyou this, I'm going through
right now, tattoo removal forthe same tattoo.

(47:01):
Yeah.
And it's, it's a process, youknow, it's, it's, it's a, it's
an uncomfortable process.
You know, it doesn't feel good,but walls build when you go to
a customer and the first thingthey see is a tattoo on your
neck.
You know, that's the firstthing they look at is that they
judge, they judge you byunfortunately they judge.
Yeah.
Don't get me wrong.
Once I start talking andeducating the customer, the

(47:23):
tattoo by itself starts to fadeaway.
But it's that initial wall thatI have to crawl over to get to
that point.
With

Speaker 03 (47:31):
every client.

Speaker 01 (47:31):
With every client.
This is part

Speaker 02 (47:34):
of your

Speaker 01 (47:35):
evolution.
No, no, no, you're good.

Speaker 02 (47:37):
Yeah, this is part of your evolution.
This is your past, now you'rebecoming the man that you are
today.
So that removal, yeah.
And if you feel you need to doit.
It's fading away of the past orwhatever.
Not that it's a problem, butsome people see it as a bad
thing, even though It's

Speaker 01 (47:54):
art.
It's your art.
It's your piece.
It's your life.
Which is why I don't get upsetwhen I deal with that because I
can't expect everybody to thinklike I think.
Before I started my business, Imade a lot of changes in my
life just because I knew howimportant those changes were
going to be for the growth of mycompany.
Like I was telling you, I usedto have a music studio in my

(48:16):
house.
Invested a lot of money intothat music studio.
I like Jordans.
Since I started my business,I've reestablished my
collection.
But before I started thebusiness, I sold off like maybe
10 pairs of Jordans that I hadthat were brand new in the box.
I sold off my entire studio.
My wife was an avid Coca-Coladrinker.

(48:36):
I mean, for breakfast, lunch,dinner, never failed.
Coca-Cola.
I don't think she touched abottle of water unless it was
handed to me.
I love beer.
Beer to me tastes good.
People that say, oh, beertastes like crab.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I love it.
Right.
But in order for her to quitdrinking Coke, I made a deal
with her.
I said, look, you quit drinkingsoda.

(48:57):
Now quit drinking beer.
Let's do it.
So she said, okay.
Cause she didn't think I coulddo it.
I've never been, you know, thetype that I needed to drink a
beer every day.
I can't, you know, but when Iwould go into that studio, man,
oh man, crack open a box, youknow, a hole easy.
Luckily for me, I've never hadan addictive personality.
So I've always been able to,you know, just if I needed to

(49:18):
let something go, I could let itgo.
I've been sober for about ayear.
Okay.

Speaker 03 (49:22):
Congrats.
Thank you.
Thank you.
God bless you.

Speaker 01 (49:23):
Thank you.
And she's been without soda fora year.
At least I think so.
I think so.
She's got a

Speaker 03 (49:28):
hidden

Speaker 01 (49:29):
stash.
I think so.
I think so.

Speaker 03 (49:33):
Listen, I know it's tough.
I had a buddy back in the day.
His girl did not want him todrink.
She was pregnant.
So he would call me and belike, Hey bro, can you buy me
cigarettes and beer?
And I'll give you, I'll giveyou, I'll sell you.
I'm like, dude, are you there?
You're at this point.
I'm sorry, bro.
I can't do this, bro.
What do you mean?
Cause he couldn't have it onthe, on the debit card.
Yeah.
I'm like, bro, I'm not going todo this, bro.
I'm going to have to callsomebody else.

Speaker 01 (49:56):
No, for me, it was easy, man.
Because like I said, I've beendoing this for so long.
I licensed some landscapers.
I have a landscaper out therethat he'll deny it forever.
And that's what it is.
But he owes me about $20,000,$30,000.
He'll never admit to it.
And that's fine.
That's between him and theLord.
I've been dealt a lot of badhands.

(50:17):
So I said, you know what?
I'm not doing that no more.
So I said, I'm going to quitdrinking.
The studio music was...
a big part of my life.
You know, like what you weresaying with the tattoos and
stuff, like it was a big part ofmy life.
Your

Speaker 03 (50:32):
journey, your past.

Speaker 01 (50:34):
I enjoyed it.
It was a past time, but it wassomething I enjoyed doing.
You know, I have a, there is alarge underground hip hop scene
in Miami.
And, you know, I have a lot oflove for a lot of those guys
that do it and still do it.
They're making big moves andit's great.
But I came to a point where Isaid, all right, that's it.
I'm done.
You know, so I let go of music.

(50:55):
I let go of beer.
When I say beer, I say alcoholbecause alcohol never really
drew my attention.
Beer was the one that I wouldalways gravitate to.
Alcohol, none of that stuff.
And then I took the step andit's probably the best decision
I ever made because the mentalclarity of being sober and You
know, the ability to wake up,even though I've always been the

(51:17):
type, if I go to sleep at 2 inthe morning drunk, I'm still
waking up at 5 in the morning togo to work.
Just because I saw my dad doit,

Speaker 03 (51:24):
you know.
Generational curses, baby.
That's it.
You're breaking them.
That's it.
You're not going to show thatto your kids.

Speaker 01 (51:28):
I don't feel that no more.
Like, I don't have thatsluggish morning where it's
like, oh, my gosh, and I had allthat beer.
I shouldn't have did this.
I shouldn't have.
That's gone.
Like, it's just.

Speaker 03 (51:40):
You wake up ready.

Speaker 01 (51:41):
Ready to go.
Ready to go make this money.
Like, I tell my wife, you Iused to enjoy, I used to look
forward to the weekends togetting hammered.
Yeah, big time.
Now I look forward to gettingthose deposit slips.
Now I look forward to gettingthose checks.

Speaker 03 (51:53):
And coming through for people.
And coming through for people.

Speaker 01 (51:56):
Being able to tell her, oh, let's go out to eat.
Come on.
My wife loves Samurai.
That's her place.
She loves Samurai.
Well, the

Speaker 03 (52:02):
triple, man.
The triple.
Big time.
You have to.
The triple used to be 36 bucks.

Speaker 01 (52:06):
You have to.
Yeah, not no more.
We were talking about that theother day.
Not no more.
That triple has doubled.
Yeah.
That We were talking

Speaker 03 (52:14):
about that the other

Speaker 01 (52:15):
day.
Yeah, and I just got my couponbecause my birthday is now in
August.
My birthday is now in August,so I just got my coupon.

Speaker 03 (52:21):
Listen, if you live in Miami, you know about the
birthday coupon.

Speaker 01 (52:24):
Yeah, her birthday is in July, so she just spent
hers.

Speaker 03 (52:27):
I know, but you got to buy a meal to get a meal for

Speaker 01 (52:30):
free.
Yeah, yeah.
No, no.
But, hey, it comes in clutchwhen you have all these kids.

Speaker 03 (52:36):
Oh, bro, yeah, you go with the whole family, it's
$300, $400.

Speaker 01 (52:39):
Listen, my kids don't want chicken tenders.
No, no, no.
My kids want...
a meal.

Speaker 03 (52:44):
They want the triple daddy.
I want the lobster on the side.

Speaker 01 (52:48):
Well, I'm lucky they haven't gone for the lobster
yet, but my little one, theshrimp and the steak, oh, and
she's eight years old.

Speaker 03 (52:54):
No, but that's good, man.
I have a son that's seven andtwin girls that are six.
I don't want them to eat fromthe kid menu because the food is
just frozen garbage.
Eat from the appetizers becausethe appetizer, you get a whole
quesadilla.
You get something really good.
You get chicken wings.
Order something like that.
And I'm for that.
They order whatever the heckthey want.

Speaker 01 (53:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 03 (53:16):
Man, that's crazy, bro.
Dude, thank you.
You have anything else you wantto say?

Speaker 01 (53:19):
Thank you for the opportunity.
I appreciate you bringing me onhere.
I don't know if you were goingto be plugging the business
info, but everything

Speaker 03 (53:27):
will be there.

Speaker 01 (53:27):
Yeah, if any landscaper out there, if you're
having any issues and any ofyour properties, just give me a
call.

Speaker 03 (53:34):
Or you see an issue.

Speaker 01 (53:35):
Yeah, just give me a call.
If you're not sure of an issue,give me a call.
I don't try to go in there andget to the customer.
I deal directly with landscaperI keep it at their comfort
level.
You bring me on.
How do you want me to attackit?
What do you want me to do?
And that's how I do it.
Don't be afraid if you want tocall me just for a question.
Shoot me a picture.
My phone number, I'm sure, willbe attached here.

(53:56):
So shoot me a picture.
Text me a picture.
Hey, Richard.
Saw you on the podcast.
Yeah.
Can you tell me what this mightbe?
What the issue is?
What can I do to treat it?
Is there something I can do?
Or do I have to have you comein?
Whatever the case may be, don'tbe afraid.

Speaker 03 (54:09):
One of the biggest things is I see you as an asset
when it comes to a landscaperthat does doesn't have someone
like you in their portfoliowhere now you guys can pull them
out like a sword, right?
Because we're ninjas out here,right?
Dugging it out.
So now you can be confident andtell the landlord or whoever it
is that you're dealing with,you can tell them, hey, look,
these plants we don't need toremove.
Let me call my boy.
He's awesome.

(54:29):
He's a doctor.
He's very known in what hedoes.
And let him come over here, lethim see what it is, and let's
see what makes more sense.
And I'm telling you, when youdo things like that, guys, it
stands you out.
Everyone's trying to figureout, how do I get in the 20% of
market share that's left?
Because that's really what'sgoing on right now because the
economy is just suckingeverything out of everybody oh

Speaker 01 (54:47):
man

Speaker 03 (54:47):
yeah it's rough out here so how do you touch that
market share standing out andbeing different and looking out
when you look out for someoneelse's pockets that's normally
how god blesses you and he fillsup yours yep so man dude god
bless you my bro god bless youthank you bro thank you guys for
tuning in and listening if youmade it to the end of the
episode you already know you canbe sitting here too on this
side all right come and pouryour heart out into the mics

(55:09):
we've talked about finding lackand fulfilling with abundance
this is what 2025 is is a yearof respect.
We said it in the last episodeof 2024, and we're bringing it
to the table, guys.
We're going to hold ourselvesaccountable.
We're going to hold youaccountable.
We're going to hold this guy,Mr.
Richard, accountable, and we'regoing to make an impact.
All right, guys?
God bless you.
Let's go.
Stay strong, 2025.
Let's

Speaker 00 (55:28):
go.
Minds to elevate, thrive, anddemonstrate.
Plant in a movement.
Sow the seeds.
Educate to flourish.
Building up the team.
Our network with purpose.
Industry is green.
Only scratch the surface.
No, this call is deep.
Nobody going to work us.
Yeah, we chasing greatness.
Trying to give the code.
Moving up with patience.
Foundation stone.
Doing what it takes.
We're here to break the Let'sgo.

All Episodes

Buzzkill | Pest Control, Integrity, and Building a Business that Lasts with Richard Mancias

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Buzzkill | Pest Control, Integrity, and Building a Business that Lasts with Richard Mancias