Delivering Community Value Through Meaningful Ecological Solutions

Are you an ecologically minded landscaper, excavator, environmental consultant, or tree services company? Do you want more customers who pay, stay, and refer?

Customers who are interested in sound ecological and environmentally friendly services. This message extends to solar contractors, HVAC, and home services contractors.

I summarize a mastermind call with ecological solutions providers in today's episode. Discover a six-point foundational approach to selling more ecologically minded solutions.

Contractors who practice earth care to reduce modern problems associated with energy use, landscaping failures, and erosion control.

Deliver value to the community rather than create more permaculture consultants. Use teaching to get consulting and services clients, not more advocates.

The activism approach doesn't offer practical solutions. That's where the income opportunity exists. You can grow your contracting business by filling this demand.

At the end of this episode is an excerpt from a mastermind call (2015) discussing your ecology-based business. The key themes are community building, Ecological solutions, and Food security.

The free consultation mentioned is still available for qualified individuals at https://www.prosperityhomestead.org/wf6d/?utm_source=001-n0302a&utm_medium=spreaker&utm_campaign=o0227b&utm_content=community-value-through-ecological-solutions

Do you want greater food security? Grow abundance on your family homestead. Learn how at https://www.prosperityhomestead.org/newsletter/?utm_source=001-n0302a&utm_medium=spreaker&utm_campaign=o0227b&utm_content=community-value-through-ecological-solutions

#PermacultureDesign #ServiceContractor #EcologicalSolutions #ClimateSolutions

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/prosperity-homestead--3659183/support.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Are you an ecologically minded landscaper,excavator, environmental consultant, or tree services
company? Do you want more customerswho pay, stay and refer, well,
you're in the right place. Thisis just a hit from Prosperity Homestead
And at the end of this episodeof the podcast, I'm going to share
with you an excerpt from a twothy fifteen Mastermind program where we had ecologically

(00:23):
sounded contractors on a call and wewere discussing how to grow their business.
And I'm going to summarize some ofthe things that we talked about here so
that you'll have the benefit of theseinsights that are just as practical today as
they were so many years ago.So customers who are interested in sound,
ecological and environmental friendly solutions tend tobe affluent customers. They tend to be

(00:46):
people who see the news about climatechange, they see the impact in their
community. They're outdoor enthusiasts, they'reexcited about improving the environment, but they're
a little bit scared. Now.This message extends to solar contractors, HVAC
companies, and home services contractors becausethe mainstream media scares people with climate change

(01:10):
but doesn't offer any practical solutions,and so the reason I was on a
call in twenty fifteen talking with landscapersand excavators and environmental consultants at tree services
companies and solar contractors and HVAC companiesand home services companies is because they and
companies like them offer practical solutions tothe fears associated with climate change. See

(01:33):
as a political motivation, the talkof climate change helps pass laws and build
incentives, and it doesn't really doanything. Even the Paris Accord, if
implemented as written today, would notactually change the planet's temperature. Now it's
quite possible that there are other factorsother than human influence. I'm a very
practical business person. I'm not hereto discuss the merits of climate change.

(02:00):
What I'm here to do is helpyou, as a contractor or as a
services provider, fill a need ina community for affluent homeowners who want climate
friendly solutions more than ever before.They're scared, they don't know what to
do, and in fact, theydon't even know what a good environment looks
like. I have a situation we'vetalked about for years where I removed the

(02:22):
trees from the property. I redid earthworks, so the retaining walls were
replaced, and then there were certaincharacteristics of this implementation that moved it towards
a Virginia natural grassland because that's thehabitat that biological conservationists and the Department of
Resources and the experts that I consultedwith recommend it for my area. And

(02:45):
in fact it was put in placeto lower my costs and to improve the
ability to maintain the property as wellas property value and all of my neighbors.
I had to get permission from myneighbors to implement this project, and
for four years the city has beenon my butt about the project because one
neighbor complains. In fact, thisone neighbor, I did the design for

(03:07):
that neighbor, and so their landscapeis exactly the same as my landscape,
except they chose ornamental grasses rather thannative grasses, and they have other considerations
that were done, like, forexample, their backyard is not as visible
as my backyard is. But mypoint being is that the high income professional,

(03:30):
the business owner that had this serviceis done and then later paid twenty
two thousand dollars in landscaping costs tohave an ecologically sound landscape put in place.
Doesn't know what ecology looks like.And in fact, I have had
conversations with their landscaper and with otherpeople who service the property and they agree.

(03:50):
And I didn't even bring it upthat the people don't know what they're
looking at. So, for example, they had bamboo in their yard and
they asked a licensed applicator of herbicideto do something to remove the plant.
And the recommendation was a treatment programover multiple weeks, and they said,

(04:11):
no, we just want you tospray it and kill it. Well,
because this property, this particular batchof bamboo was within two hundred and fifty
feet from a creek. The licensedapplicator knew he could not do certain things
to that thing, and that's whyhe recommended mechanical removal. And the homeowner
did not want to do that,told the contractor no. And then guess
what I see the next week.I see them bring out some other non

(04:34):
licensed applier of herbicides to just drenchthe area with herbicides. There's a giant
brown patch in the yard. Yes, it did kill the bamboo, but
no sooner than a few like afew months later was the bamboo back.
Because again, the right solution inthe customer's mind, cost too much,
it wasn't the right, it wasn'tquick, it wasn't within their constraints,

(04:58):
and it turned out to be abig mess. And so that's where you
come in as a professional with theright selling system, with the right approach,
can help these individuals not only dowhat is required by law when it
comes to the application of herbicides andpesticides, but you can apply, like
for example, my bamboo system,to remove the bamboo without any herbicide or

(05:19):
pesticide at all, or in factdesign the landscape so that the bamboo is
clumping bamboo, for example, becausepeople do like the design of bamboo,
but they put in that running bambooand next thing you know, it takes
over their yard. But again,many of the professionals mentioned earlier in this
excerpt, they have asked about interestin permaculture design, reginative agriculture, realistic

(05:43):
land management because the chemicals are gettingexpensive, because they know the solutions are
causing cancer, because they know it'sharming wildlife and delicate ecosystems. And so
when they invest in a master naturalistprogram, when they invest in a promoculture
design program or reginative agriculture, andthey educate themselves, which by the way,
is far more than your consumers aregoing to ever educate themselves. I

(06:06):
commend the activity, but how dowe reimburse or rebuild or gain a return
on that investment. Again, atthe end of this, I'm going to
make you the same offer I madethe folks in twenty fifteen, with your
permission, and so let's get intosix key points that you need to know
in order to increase your income,because again you can't just go out and

(06:30):
do this for free that you're nota charity, but increase your income associated
with ecologically sound solutions. So,first off, contractors who practice EarthCare to
reduce modern problems tend to work inareas of energy use, landscape failures,
and in erosion control. Now thesearen't the only areas because again I've hired

(06:55):
an ecological consultant or an environmental consultantto do the pre work necessary to remove
an oil tank from underground. Andthen of course in the business applications there's
all kinds of things like how thebuilding's designed, so there's architects involved,
there's general contracting work. But again, these six principles help position you in
the marketplace, so you get theseaffluent customers so you can bridge into commercial

(07:18):
contracts and ultimately deliver solutions that havelong term value. Now, first thing
I'm assuming is that you're not oneof those pump and dump contractors who understands
that the solution is not sustainable,who hasn't invested in the ecological education or
even have an interest in the outdoors, and is kind of like the spray

(07:38):
and prey contractor. And if you'rethat type of person, pay close attention
because I'm going to show you howthere's actually more revenue over a longer period
of time with ecologically sound solutions.If you're also one of those run and
gun landscapers, for example, whoisn't licensed, who doesn't have professional equipment

(08:01):
or anything like that, I'm nottalking to you. You need to step
up your game and you need toget into the professional services world because folks
who implement these three points. Andby the way, the original Mastermind we
spent two hours on the phone,We went over all the details, we
did case studies with individuals on thecall. This is an excerpt of that
larger program of which I can't findall the recording, but eventually we'll find

(08:22):
the recording. But anyway, let'sget into those six points. First off,
you want to deliver solutions that matter. If you spray and prey,
if you go in and just runninggun. For example, a solution that
matters would be a green lawn thatreduces temperatures around hard scapes so that you

(08:43):
have a more even environment and overallyour landscape plants survive. So a lot
of landscapers will just plant new stuffevery year, where if you plant perennials
or you have dry landscapes or wetlandscapes, you plant appropriately. Those solutions
are going to deliver beauty year round, and they're going to be less maintenance
over time. Now, if you'rea landscaper, you might be concerned about

(09:07):
that because it means less work orper se, it actually turns into more
referrals because when visitors to an affluenthome see the beautiful, low water rock
landscape, they desire these things.When they see appropriately sized trees that don't
require nightmares with tree services companies orhuge prices to remove those trees, they

(09:30):
feel better about that environment. Whenthe environment is holistically designed to work with
the landscape, you're going to tendto get more referrals. Now, this
means that you can price higher upfrontbecause these people are pre sold, but
also the solution has increased and improvedthe lifestyle of the person living in the
home, and so they're more likelyto refer now. This can also go

(09:50):
for solutions like, for example,under pavement heating or porous pavement. So
we've talked about this in a numberof video. Is the payment that allows
water to flow through the asphalt.It could mean never having to shovel your
snow again, basically driving in andoff the property without having to ever shovel
snow or plow snow. This worksfor long driveways and short driveways. What

(10:13):
it is is an ecological solution thatdesign the driveway in order to use solar
energy or geothermal or some kind ofa radiant system underneath the pavement in order
to eliminate a job that would haveto be done year after year, month
after month. It reduces the costassociated with the risk of slipping and falling.

(10:35):
You're going to have better vehicle accessfor the teenage driver, better vehicle
access for the elderly couple. Again, deliver solutions that matter, so we're
not selling the solution that you provide. We're selling the aspirational desires of the
homeowner. So landscape that looks goodyear round increases property values. A driveway

(10:56):
that never has to get shoveled,reduce this is the cost of equipment that's
necessary to maintain that. It savesthe homeowner time. They're safety factors.
So again we're not selling the solutionas much as the aspirational lifestyle, the
money saving, the increased value ofthe home, the lower maintenance, the
impression that you make upon people whenyou hold a party at your house.

(11:20):
See this is very important. Now, how do you know what needs these
folks have? Well, we're goingto look at the practice and number two
is the practice of consultative services.So you're not going in there and just
throwing on some gutter guards and movingon. You're building a consultation to understand
the needs of the homeowner. Andthen you're so they don't want to clean

(11:43):
their gutters out. Well, theywouldn't have to clean their gutters out if
they hired a gutter cleaning company thatactually showed up year after year, which
could be a service you add onto your landscaping. But why are the
trees, putting leaves in the gutters. Are the trees over size for the
home? How do they use theirhome? What are they interested in doing

(12:05):
with their home in the future.Will they be downsizing in the future and
wanting to sell their home to anew homeowner, and they want to have
the maximum appreciative value of their property. See so rather than running and gunning
and coming in there and saying,oh, well, mow your grass,
you develop a package solution that includes. Now I hear what you're saying that

(12:26):
you don't do all these services,but you can subcontract in the right people
to do what is necessary for thehomeowner. And so now you're a home
management company or a home services company, and then every time they have a
need, you're getting a slice ofthat. Now it could be referral relationships,
that could be joint ventures. There'sa lot of ways to handle it.
But again, because you're doing aconsultative service and you've come in to

(12:48):
help them with ideas and concepts,and you've helped them make good buying decisions,
you now are the what they callthe toll booth position between the needs
of affluent home own owns and theservices that are typically provided. So in
this way, you can actually screenvendors for their ecological profile, for whether
they're using harmful chemicals, whether they'rechemicals, or their applications or their methods

(13:11):
are pet safe, whether they're takinginto consideration the design of the land.
So if you're a promoculture designer,if you're an architect, if you're a
lead in any of the companies thatdescribed earlier, again the consultative approach is
going to help you understand what motivatesthese customers, and then you could really
end up with a share of customer. And now, if you have a

(13:33):
copy of my established instant credibility,you could be doing presentations at country clubs,
you could be doing presentations at communityassociations. You could be doing presentations
at community groups or the farmer's marketand reach these high affluent customers long before
they see the big corporate ad that'sbasically spraying manufacturing waste on people's yards or

(14:00):
basically spraying the chicken waste from commercialfactory farms on people's yards. A lot
of folks don't understand this stuff now, So number three, you want to
position yourself as an expert, andwe're going to start using a little bit
of information. We're going to marketjust slightly differently, so that we're educating
customers about why your approach not yoursolution, because again we have a consultative

(14:22):
approach. You can deliver any solutionthat they want. You're going to own
the share of customer, but whyyou're the expert, in the advisor,
in the go to person, theonly person they should approach in the marketplace
about your topic of interest. Positioningyourself as an expert gets you customers faster
who can pay, stay and refer. Now, it's easier for a customer

(14:43):
to refer somebody who is an expertin their field than it is to you
just basically hire the guide that happensto show up. And we know there
is a lot of landscapers, whichis basically a guy in a pickup truck
with a mower showing up in yourneighborhood. If you're going to own that
customer, they have to feel comfortablethat doing business with you is the best

(15:03):
solution, and so you're going toposition yourself as an expert. There's a
variety of ways of doing that,but let's get into number four. Number
four is you're going to sell againstthe chemical industrial complex, like I said
earlier, And what you understand fromthese reginitive methods, from these permaculture design
methods, is that very often thesolutions in the marketplace are recycling chemical waste,

(15:28):
and they are putting on people's lawntoxic and harmful chemicals. And the
homeowners don't know this because there's agiant and I won't go through all the
ad companies, and I won't gothrough all the seed chemical and biological companies,
and I won't go through all thepharmaceutical companies who benefit from people spraying

(15:50):
garbage on your lawn, stuff withhigh metal content, stuff that harms animals
and pets. I want you toinstead sell against that industrial co complex because
this is waste they can't get ridof otherwise. So they said, well,
how do we got to make moneyfrom it? And instead look at
commercial solutions that you can establish ina community, such as recycling systems so

(16:14):
you can actually take We have alandscape client for a while back, and
they would take all of the grassand the leaves off the lawns. So
there were homeowners that didn't understand thatthose leaves are protecting the grass over the
winter. They didn't understand those leavesor creating food for birds. They didn't
understand those leaves had other habitat inthem. So he'd carefully remove all that

(16:36):
and he'd take it to a propertythat he owned and he'd put it out
on the property so that he hadthe beneficial insects. But he would also
take all of the grass clippings andthe leaves that were mode up and turn
it into compost and then sell thecompost back to the homeowners to use his
top dressing when he did his seating. And so what his clients ended up

(16:56):
with is thick, beautiful, lushlawns that were typically green all year round.
We're in the midd Atlantic region,so we do have seasons, but
it is possible to have a nicelooking lawn year round. And he sold
into them package programs where he'd comeback every month throughout the year. Now,

(17:17):
during the winter he'd do snow removal, but during the spring and summer
he'd do the appropriate land management orthe appropriate household management that was within the
scope of his skills. Now,again selling against the chemical industry, he
can come in and bring the studiesthat show that this type of chemical or
This type of herbicidics calls in cancer, so why would you want us to

(17:37):
spray that on your lawn? Andhere's the and you start educating them about
the new solutions. See number five. You don't want to fall for the
climate change hype, but you dowant to understand the realistic hazards that are
happening frog habitat, stream health,air quality, noise pollution. All of

(17:59):
these things are hard individuals. Yetwe continue to invite those services into our
homes because as a consumer, mostconsumers don't know about appropriate solutions. They
don't understand the solutions because they haven'tbeen educated. And your role is not
to educate them and make them advocates, but instead to help alleviate that fear

(18:22):
by plugging in your solutions. Again, we're not selling the solution. We're
selling the elimination of fear and hazardthrough properly managed homes. So we're not
selling them the climate doom. We'rebeing helpful and selling them again. Number
six, practical solutions. So what'smore practical than a reducing rate on gas?

(18:48):
A building foundation that's secure and dry, low input landscaping, roofing technologies
that keep your house warm in thewinter and cool in the summer. Energy
efficient buildings, especially for you buildingcontractors out there, there's building solutions today
that could eliminate the need for HVAC. There's designs. We've talked about that

(19:10):
with our courtyard designs. So thesesix points aren't the only points we discussed
in the original Mastermind, but it'sagain we're determining value to the community.
And rather than creating advocates, ratherthan creating permaculture designers, rather than hyping
people up about the potential for solutions, we're teaching them in a way to

(19:32):
get consulting and service clients who youcan basically serve, who you can deliver
your products and services. Now,maybe you don't have a bylot a biologist
on staff, but you go andoffer a consultation and you bring in a
biologist as a subcontractor. Many ofthem are available ten ninety nine. And
then you have your twelve steps thatyou go through to evaluate a property.

(19:56):
And you look at maintenance needs,and you may look at household needs,
and you look at recreational needs withthe property, and you look at lifestyle
and you look at recreational spaces onthe property. And next thing you know
you've got bigger homes, more affluentcustomers. You're also helping them with their
hunting land or their farm properties,their homesteads, and this means you have

(20:18):
clients who can pay a premium.You have clients that have bigger transactions.
You have clients who have social networks. So rather than creating activists, you're
offering practical solutions. But the incomeopportunity comes that these people are connected.
So again, you could end upat the country club. More than being
a member of the country club.You can be the resident expert on the

(20:40):
golf course maintenance. As your companyis contracted on the consulting side, but
maybe you're not set up to dothe maintenance side. You could subcontract,
subcontract people in for that. You'regoing to be more on a state homes
and you're going to be delivering ecologicaland environmental solutions to affluent families. Whether
it's broad acreage or small, itdoesn't matter. This is a position in

(21:03):
the marketplace that creates affluence in yourbusiness, that grows your business. Now
again, you can bring food securityto communities and you can build a garden
like paradise in the community. Butyou're not a nonprofit, so you're gonna
have to offer valuable services. There'ssix points that I shared here is the
foundation to doing this. Now again, we're going to leverage for the largest

(21:30):
market opportunity. And it doesn't meanyou can't serve just the regular middle class
family. It's okay. They hirelandscapers too, they hire basement foundation and
dryer basements, and they remodel anddifferent things. You can still serve those
people. But now in your marketingcampaigns you have demonstrations of credibility and authority

(21:55):
showing that you're the provider for thebig, high class neighborhood down the street.
And so anybody who's aspiring to bein that new high class neighborhood is
going to look towards you versus somebodyelse. They'll be willing to pay the
premium price. This also bridges youto commercial opportunities where you're serving schools,
businesses, even manufacturing facilities who haveoutside pressure when it comes to climate change

(22:22):
to implement these kinds of solutions.So now, if you have questions about
what I cover here today, youwant to visit us at www dot prosperity
homestead dot org. What you're aboutto hear afterwards is the closing of the
twenty fifteen Mastermind call, And likeI said, I pulled the highlights out
of that call, the transcript ofthat call, and if you want more
details, we can definitely meet.But the key themes here is building a

(22:45):
community, ecological solutions and food security. Through example, there are more and
more affluent homes who have chickens andgardens and basically like a homestead setup,
and they need contractors who can helpthem with the infrastructure and the design,
and they need contractors who can dothe actual work. You're the right person

(23:06):
to be doing this. So again, if you're an ecologically minded landscape or
excavator, excavation company, environmental andtree services company, solar contractor, HVAC
company, home services contractor, there'san opportunity and a different approach. It's
not the same approach, it's notan approach you're familiar with, but it's

(23:26):
a different approach covered by these sixtechniques that are going to help you get
results. I look forward to hearingfrom you again. I'm just in hit
with Prosperity Homestead And just a reminder, the next segment is from twenty to
fifteen, still valid. Today andis still a powerful way to supercharge your
business as you start delivering community value, as you start building communities to ecologically

(23:51):
minded solutions, there's a value toyour community. Now. I see a
lot of perma culture consultants going outthere teaching and creating other per culture consultants.
I'd rather you do that inside yourbusiness. That's what Prosperity Homestead is
about. Now, if you wantto get involved as a member, we
have a small number of people thatwe accept. And the reason we only

(24:12):
accept the small number of people isbecause I want equity interest in your business.
I can't be in every community.I can't have a farm in every
part of this country or part ofthe world. But what I can do
is share with you my strengths.See, that's what you're doing for your
customers. You're sharing with them yourstrengths. And your strengths is permaculture.

(24:37):
Your strengths is sustainable living. Yourstrengths is erosion control without heavy construction to
costs. Your strengths is water management. Your strengths is healthier livestock, better
forests, higher quality food. Mystrength is marketing and business development. I'll
connect you with land grants I'll connectyou with local resources. I'll connect you

(24:59):
with financial resources, like in Virginia, for example, the tobacco money.
If your family has been displaced bythe changes and use of tobacco, if
you are recovering from the agricultural messthat was commercial farming, there's money available
to you. Why not use itto build communities, to build a livelihood

(25:23):
for you. And there's all kindsof folks out there as examples. We'll
recycle a lot of the materials thatare already working. You'll hear interviews with
people who are doing this. Rightmy property alone, I recycle twenty seven
hundred pounds of organic materials, mostlycoffee grounds, turned it into compost,

(25:45):
turned it into more vegetables than myfamily could eat. We gave a lot
of it away, a lot ofit was canned up, a lot of
these are demonstration sites, a lotof it was barreed and traded. But
there's so much more possible, andyou can benefit from the marketing I'm doing
for people here. It's exclusive geographically, so we limit the number of people

(26:10):
in the program because we don't Obviously, you can't have like ten people in
a community all doing this because you'llrun out of customers that are willing to
step away from the commercial poisons thatare put on the yards and stuff today,
and it will take You're not goingto have perfectly green yards the first
time around because you've got to takecare of the underlying issues soil health,

(26:32):
fertility, things like that. Soyou may only be able to you may
top out at one hundred customers inyour community. And that's okay because when
you do this right, and youstack in these layers, and you get
the resources lined up, and youdo the right partnerships, you can earn
more than a living and have prosperitywith your homestead. I'm just in hit

(26:56):
with Prosperity Homestead. There's more informationabout our programs below and talk with you
soon, oh, in a freeconsultation for fifteen minutes. I know people
have been asking