NerdBrand Podcast
Nerd culture isn't just for a select few anymore; it's everywhere! It's in the movies we watch, the games we play, and the tech we use every day. Join us as we share our thoughts on how visual design, branding, and advertising shape our favorite movies, comics, books, video games, and other nerdy interests.
NerdBrand Podcast
Beyond the Blades: What Growing a Business Really Means
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Episode Introduction
Speaker 1It's cold , Jerry .
Speaker 2It's cold .
Speaker 3We're recording now . So you know , welcome to the dumpster fire . That is the NerdBrand Podcast . I'm all in , yeah , we're all in . We're here today with Mike Mason from the Lawn Pro and we're going to chat about well , it's going to be all about him and , you know , dig into the . You're going to be a little punny on this show . So we're going to dig into the roots of the successful landscaping business with you and it's over two decades of experience . You've been at this for a while . Oh , my goodness .
Speaker 1Almost three . It'll be three next month , in September .
Speaker 3All right . Well , all right Three decades , 30 years .
Speaker 3Yeah , stay tuned in for about 30 years worth of entrepreneurship and landscaping from Mike up next . We're back
Mike Mason's Landscaping Journey
Speaker 3. Welcome to this episode of the NerdBrand Podcast . We dig into the roots of successful landscaping business with our guest from the lawn pro , mike Mason . With over two decades of experience , we just now learned it's almost three , and you've grown from a local lawn care service to a trusted name across louisville and southern indiana . So , uh , we're gonna talk a little bit about branding , building trust and the not so pretty side of entrepreneurship . Whether you're a business owner , marketer or just love a well-kept yard , this show might be for you . So welcome , mike . Thank you for coming on the show .
Speaker 1It's your first time yeah , thank you for having me .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , Welcome to the madness . And you're like well , what's this thing y'all been doing for like 255 episodes like this , this right here . So this theme is growth from the ground up Again to our audience . I told you this would be punny and I think that's a word . I don't know if it's a word , if you can spell it it is now it is .
Speaker 3Now we're going to uncover how you navigated some changes in the industry , because I think with any business there's so many freaking changes that happen now week to week . I mean , we all pivot is like that meme that's on the episode of Friends . I think we're all screaming pivot .
Speaker 1Trying to get the couch up the steps .
Speaker 3Yeah , that's how it is right . It's like , how do I get the couch up the steps today on Tuesday , Because then I've got to figure start all over again on Wednesday .
Speaker 2If you go through one more pivot , you might end up like Chandler and just go shut up , shut up , shut up .
Speaker 3Oh my gosh . Anyways , tell our audience a bit about you , to kind of open us up , give us a little bit of your origin story and then , yeah , we'll get some . We'll ask you some questions here . We're kind of curious about the know .
Speaker 1Yeah , so we we , Mike Mason , married got two kids , three grandkids . I started working at Lawn Pro . Lawn Pro was started by my brother-in-law and my father-in-law company in 1995 . My sister-in-law came on board kind of in the sales role . I was more operations . My brother-in-law sort of exited the company . He went to work for Ford Motor Company and so , yeah , I took over the operations in 2000 .
Speaker 1And then my wife , Dana , and I purchased the company from my father-in-law March 20th of 2020 , which is , as most know , the height of the COVID or the pandemic and yeah , so we've been off and running for a long time and
From College to Career Growth
Speaker 1we have seen a lot . The industry has changed a lot , Business has changed a lot . The industry has changed a lot , Business has changed a lot . And yeah , so we're just trying to pivot and figure it out every single day , right , Like every single day . So , yeah , we have about 27 team members . We do work , like you said , Jason , we do work in the Louisville area all the way down to E-Town and then as well as into Southern Indiana , probably as north as about Sellersburg , something like that kind of a you know geography of where we operate , if you will .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah . Well , it's like you said . I mean , I think the mantra I've had a lot of conversations with business owners . We , you know , we picked up a new client . It's a , she's a nurse practitioner and , um , you know she does direct primary care and you know she asks a lot of questions . I said that's fine , that's kind of what we're here for . It's like we're consultants as well as we are as creatives , so it's like an amalgamation of the two in our agency . But it's like the number one rule of uh , I've been telling business owners lately and I think it gives them a little bit of comfort at least I hope it does . It's like figure it out is your mantra . Like you're never going to leave that state of figuring and trying to figure it out , because there's always something to come . Um , yeah , so that is . I didn't know you were papaw .
Speaker 1I uh , yes , yeah yeah , I've got um , two , two , uh , fosters and one biological and uh , so we're navigating that and that is interesting , to say the least , frustrating . It's every emotion that you can possibly imagine . But yeah , so there are three boys under the age of three . The oldest is three and there's three , two and Mason is eight months now . So yeah , it is . It is interesting when they come over to coach and DD's house and as they wear us out , so they my , my , you know , at 40 , when I was , I was in my forties and you know I wasn't going to be called grandpa and so my , my name is called Grandpa and so my name is Coach . And then my wife Dana's name is Dee , dee , yeah , yeah , so they call me Coach . Yeah , so it's not Grandpa . I couldn't do that . I'm sorry .
Speaker 2That's how my mom . She didn't want to be called Granny or Mama . My mom's name is Joni and she took the J name and they call her Jama . Yeah , Nice .
Speaker 1I didn't know it was such a hard thing . You know what I mean . Like I had a Meemaw and Peepaw and a Granny and Grandpa when I was a kid , you know . So that was that was all I knew , I guess , if you will . And then it's like hold on a second , I'm not going to be called Grandpa , I'm not going to be gonna be , you know , it's like I'm not . Yeah , I'm still in my 40s right now , bro , come on , now I'm in my 50s , so maybe it gets a little easier , I guess right , yeah , yeah , I kind of now understand why .
Speaker 3Uh , of course mitch is in his 60s and I kind of understand now why he's like cool with it , because he didn't seem . He seemed proud of it when he got his hat , and it makes sense now when you were like what you're in for . Grandkids are awesome .
Speaker 1Kids are okay . Grandkids are fantastic , though , yeah .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , yeah , exactly .
Speaker 2That's about being an auntie and mine are about to be about three hours away . They my brother's in the military , so it's constantly like we see him every once in a while . But now that he'll be within a three hour drive , they'll be coming over to my house and running amok probably .
Speaker 1Oh yeah , yeah , they're awesome , they're fun , they're a lot of fun , a lot of fun for sure what was your you know ?
Speaker 3do you remember your first client and what that experience was like ? You had to name names .
Speaker 1Yeah , Not really Because , like I said , I joined the company . So my daughter , she just turned 30 . So when she was born , dana and I weren't married . It was , you know , it was a , it was a thing . And so I was working two jobs and going to school full time , but I was not in , not during the summer . So I kind of had a traditional college path where I was taking college , you know , in UofL , for , you know , in the , in the fall and spring semester and then I would work full time , you know , through that at the end . And so I was working at UPS and at a , at a place called Ezra materials over in Sellersburg , indiana , which is not a , not a happy place there's nothing pretty about that , but it you know . So I was in school , my dad was the operations manager , our production manager over there , and they had a program for college students of employees , and so , yeah , I did that in 1993 , 1994 , and the summer of 1995 .
Speaker 1And McKenzie was born in summer of 1995 , um , and mckenzie was born in in june of 95 , and so I was working at ups and at asrock . So I go to asrock from 7 to 3 30 and then go see mckenzie and dana spend an hour or two with them and um , and then would go to ups for four hours and unload , package cars and get home 930 , 10 o'clock at night , get up at six in the morning and do it again . So , yeah , well then my brother , that's where my brother-in-law and father-in-law came to me . It's like , hey , you know , we need help , we're starting to grow this business it's it's getting some legs and you know , can you know we'll work around your school , all that , and so that was a big deal for me because I was determined and you know my mom was adamant that I finish school and you know , school probably was for me .
Speaker 1I don't think it is for everyone and you know , as a person of the trades , like you know , we have a lot of , we have a lot of team members that , um , that do really really well and don't have a formal education but are are very bright and very talented and um , yeah , you know , and I think sometimes we miss that , uh , in society we've always been where we have to . You know , that was when I was growing up . It was like you got to go to college , you've got to go to college , you've got to go to college , you got to go to college . You got to go to college . You won't have a future if you don't . And I don't think that's true any longer .
Speaker 1But yeah , so that was an interesting summer . That summer of 95 was probably it was like the best and worst summer of my life . It was the best because my daughter and she has just turned into this fantastic human being and I'm so proud of her . But the work was brutal . I mean brutal . Yeah , I run Jackhammer and do things like that all morning and afternoon and then go unload the brown package cars for four
The Value of Trade Skills
Speaker 1hours , learn to drive a stick moving those trucks around .
Speaker 3So all was not locked yeah , skill sets you're gonna get in the classroom , that's for sure that's right , that's exactly right yeah , I mean because I know , I know like , uh , you know , I think we all know mike rowe and and and how he is sort of like forging and has been for years about trades and and going to schools and getting a , you know , not necessarily a degree but just a skill set . You know there's like 8 million positions open , I think is what I last heard him say about , you know , the trade market and that just seems to be growing . It seems like a lot of people , kayla's age especially , are kind of starting to drift toward that way , because I mean , it's sort of I think it provides a little bit more meaning . I mean I I remember when I remember you said 1995 and I was just like I think I was 18 .
Speaker 2I wasn't even thought of yet I was 20 .
Speaker 3I was 20 in 1995 .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 3Yeah , maybe I need to go back and see . I graduated high school in 94 . And Mike and I are old enough that we actually were around when email came out , so that says something .
Speaker 1the internet oh , it's like I'll leave out the name of the person that invented it , but I remember the advent of the internet as he did yeah , that you remember .
Speaker 3Like dude you're getting adele , you remember all those things , all those .
Speaker 1Oh yeah .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , yeah . And then when we were kids , like there was a commercial that was for our parents and it was like it's 10 o'clock , do you know where your children are ? Yeah , literally they were in that at 10 am . Yeah .
Speaker 1Oh man .
Speaker 3Do you know where your kids are ? Yeah , oh man , do you know where your ?
Speaker 1kids are yeah . Have you hugged your kid today ?
Speaker 3Yeah , it's like my word , like the 90s were crazy . Oh they were awesome though .
Speaker 1Yeah , they were awesome .
Speaker 3Oh yeah , you didn't have anybody's fire hose , nobody cared . You know , you just walk up in the yard , turn the thing , do that . Don't do that today , kids . That's not a good idea . The kids are watching this . I hope that would be very embarrassing . Anyway , so you've been . Here's a big question for you . You've been in business for 20 years , no-transcript people and cash .
Speaker 1Amen , right , and maybe not in that order depending on the day , but but yeah , I mean just you know , we have obviously been in business over 20 years , almost 30 . We , we've , we've made a lot of mistakes and , and I guess the biggest challenge and I hope that at the end of the movie , when they talk about me long after I'm gone that we did it the right way and we made a lot of mistakes but we owned them , and so I think that was a big challenge and it's just keeping your integrity through , through it all Right , like doing the right thing , no matter the expense , no matter what it costs , like right , you know . And one of my favorite sayings is like you know , as long as we're still breathing , we can always make more money . Yeah , you know , and so , but we , you know , and we can just yeah and like , so we just yeah . I guess that's I'm trying to kind of summarize that . You know , isn't it like you know , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 3We don't really necessarily , and it sounds out this sounds weird to say and I'm sure it's going to be even weirder to hear , but hey , you know , this is the Nerd Brand podcast . This isn't you know . This isn't you know . This isn't . Like you know , sean whatever his name was , it just had governor newsome on um . It's like you know , we literally are um , like I've said before , where you just are in the business of just always trying to figure it out and as entrepreneurs , we don't necessarily know how something or need to know how something works . We just know how to take it and make money from it .
Speaker 1That's cold .
Speaker 3Yeah , it's kind of like the way it is with entrepreneurship , like a true entrepreneur .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , and you know , and we have , as entrepreneurs , we have such a high level of responsibility , right , I mean , like we are , we're shepherds of our team and we need to lead them well . And so you know , when I had said people , you know , we've been in business 30 years , we have 20 , a team of somewhere we fluctuate between 25 and 30 . We probably need to be about 30 full if we're full force . But you know , we've employed over 500 through the years . Maybe I think we might even be pushing up on 1,000 . Maybe something cool That'd be a cool stat to know is if I could figure that out . You know what I mean , I don't know where I get some of those records from , but just growing , learning , when I was in my 20s I thought I knew everything .
Speaker 1When I was in my 30s , I began to plot and formulate plans for future , and then in my forties , you know that got better and in my fifties now it's like it's serving others , right , like so you just kind of you walk those stages of life , which has been cool , uh , but it's challenging , right .
Speaker 1I mean , you know , not everybody's , not everybody buys into what you're selling , even when you're selling to your team , what we do and who we are and how we've become very , very picky about the people that are on our team . We had to let a guy go last week and it's like you just can't be on our team . I'm sorry it's not working . I grew up in sports , so from an entrepreneurial , from a leadership perspective , I do things like a coach . That's why my grandkids call me coach and I try to lead that way , because I feel it's my obligation to steward this company to the best of my ability , because it's not mine and yeah , so just leading people and learning how to do that and navigate through the generations , because it was very different in the 90s than it is in the 2020s .
Speaker 3Oh yeah , I mean it's amazing over the last five years how things have changed . I remember when I you know , I think my first company I started was in . It was in 2008 . I have this weird thing about starting things during crises , so I don't know .
Speaker 1Yeah , it was one of our best years ever .
Speaker 3It was a terrible year , right , I mean yeah , I don't want to think maybe I'm gonna take this lesson and have this epiphany on the show right now . I'm going to hold on to NerdBrand for a while because I don't know if I can do another crisis .
Building Trust Through Mistakes
Speaker 3It's like , hey , economic collapse , start an agency . Yeah , I mean it worked out . It got absorbed by another one in 2014 . But then , after taking a break and then starting another one during a pandemic , I'm like I got bad . I feel like I got bad timing sometimes .
Speaker 1Yeah , Well , that's key to life is timing . Timing is everything it's an element that is impeccable timing . Like I , just I don't , Like I do not have good timing , that's for sure .
Speaker 3Yeah , you know , but you know you learn a lot of like hard lessons in that way of like what not to do . I've always learned that way . I don't know if that's how you think , but for me I've always been um sounds weird to say this , but thinking negatively , not not pessimistic negatively , but kind of like an inverse of logic of um , like what not to do , learning from lessons of what not to do in order to figure out what to do , instead of trying to do things and then learn from the mistake . You know what I mean , yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah , I know A hundred percent Right . I mean it's was it Einstein , right ? That , like he figured out or Edison , I think , whoever it was the light bulb like ? What is it Like ? 1500 , 2000 . It's like I've learned 2000 ways and 3,000 ways not to make a light bulb . You know what I mean , and that's one of the things I like to say is , if it stings , it sticks , right . So when you're in business and something happens that hurts , I mean like it stings , you feel it , you feel it in your core , that sticks with you and you adjust right . That sticks with you and you adjust right . And so the entrepreneurs and the excuse me , the leaders that win are able to take those negative things , learn from them , overcome them and make sure they do not get repeated right . And then , in the inverse is also true the things that do work , you work to repeat them over and over again . And uh , yeah , like that's another favorite saying of mine if it stings , it sticks , and . And if it isn't , wasn't for bad luck , I wouldn't have any luck .
Speaker 3So like , yeah , that was , um , that that is most of my experience and learning and my growth has come through failures and challenges for sure because I've always had the philosophy like we're learners , you know , like you know , some people say I'm a teacher , I think you're a learner , you're always a learner . There was actually a book on this . Um , I think it was like seven principles of learning or something . I had it back when I was in school in my 30s and , um , yeah , you're always a learner and I think , like , in our season of life , you know , you become that person where you are a steward , you're still learning . How do you like , for example , I watch a lot of podcasts done by veterans .
Speaker 3You know they're in their 30s , they're younger than you and I , but they served in Afghanistan , they were in Iraq , they were , were in you know a lot of these fields and now they're podcasting and I guess their ndas with the pentagon have expired because they face stuff and I hear I'm like , like whoa , that seems scary because , uh , an example of that was one guy said that we have a system and SCRAM or something like that . Basically , if a battleship fires a Patriot missile and we have an F-35 in the air 100 miles out , it can take over the telemetry of that missile and guide it to a destination , much like a baton runner will pass a baton to another runner on a track to get to the goal . We've been doing this since the 90s , right , I'm like . So what you're saying is the Pentagon's been messing with AI for way longer than we want to all say , right ?
Speaker 1Very , very scary Right , very scary .
Speaker 3But I watch these guys . They've become masters at content creation . They've become masters at marketing and branding . One of them I'll give a nod to is fat electrician . Um , you know he has made a channel out of teaching historical stuff . He is a great guy .
Speaker 3Fat electrician is so fun to listen to in the stories , especially war stories , where he told the story of when Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his team , the president , they went to sail across the ocean in a ship . And then another battle , another destroyer was escorting them across , you know , to watch out for U-boats , and they decided to have a little war game . And so they would like ping the other ship and go ha ha ha , we got you , we shot you . And then the ship that the president was on was like , yay , whatever , you hit us . And then they went for a while and they said , ok , and it's a sub Actually it was a submarine , yeah , sub , that was actually shooting at him , one of ours or something .
Speaker 3And they were like launch torpedo to number number two . And he's like ping . And he's like , yeah , we got you again , ha , ha . And then the guy goes launch torpedo two , number three . And the captain's like white , what ? No , that's live . And they actually shot a live torpedo at the president of the United States . Oh boy , atlantic Ocean . This is World War II . Oh boy , somebody's losing their job , right ? Somebody's losing their job , right , somebody's losing their job , somebody's like man . You'll never guess what I did today . I shot at the president with a torpedo um , and they may keep to themselves though .
Speaker 1Yeah , but yeah that's the kind of information you share , right ?
Speaker 2their own buttocks but he talks .
Speaker 3He talks a lot about like how these guys were strategists and and what they did , what they built on the fly . As an entrepreneur , it's inspirational to me , just because you know you , you kind of like to see like , okay , well , it sometimes feels like we're imposters . You know imposter syndrome , you know . So I don't know how often you struggle with that , but I kind of go back to these stories and what these stories of these vets and everything , and that's kind of how I turn off that noise in my , in my head . How do you handle imposter syndrome ? Is there an outlet you go to to listen to or learn from or , you know , gets you out of that ? Or do you ever struggle with imposter syndrome ?
Speaker 1Yeah , no , no , yeah
Adapting to Different Generations
Speaker 1, I mean it's . I'm a human Right . So , you know , am I worthy ? Am I good enough ? Can I do it ? You know , when I think about where our company is today and , and you know , can I lead it to the next level ? Because growing a business is levels , and it doesn't matter what industry you're in . I believe that to be true , that there's breakthroughs and there's levels and that kind of a thing that you have to work through .
Speaker 1I probably shouldn't say this on a podcast , but I'm not a big podcast guy . I probably shouldn't say this on a podcast , but I'm not a big podcast guy . So I listen to and I hate to read , but I do listen to a lot of audiobooks . I spend a lot of time traveling around the area and in my truck , and so I try to take advantage of that time and I'm the same way . I listen to a lot of books that were , you know , former navy seals . Um , jocko willick is a bit . I'm a big fan of his , and just his voice is kind of sounds like a seal , kind of like a , like just somebody . I'm trying to . I don't , I want to make sure I'm clean , you know my language , but like somebody you don't have somebody you don't want to mess with Somebody you don't want to mess with .
Speaker 1But yeah , and then like , and then in the strategy , because you know it's , I think there was an old , it was an Asian thing that like businesses , war or something like that . I don't remember the exact all of the terminology or who said that , but there's a lot to it . Right , it's strategy , it's . It's it's moving on the fly , it's having a plan , a very well thought out plan that is executed very well , that you can adjust on the fly right . Like , because it's not nothing ever is ever going to go the way that you think about . Like that you think it's going to go Right . I'm trying to think of the you'll probably , you could probably know this one . It's like . That went different in my mind In my head .
Speaker 1Right , yeah , yeah , I forgot . There's a . There's a , there's , there's a reference somewhere that I can't remember what it is , but it's like , yeah , and that I think that's business . Right , I mean , I genuinely do , and it is . It's combat , right , and and like it was . Every day is combat , and you know .
Speaker 1And so you , you devise a plan , you have a plan , you communicate it , you train on it , and then then you have to adjust because it's something's gonna go , am amiss , right , and just , every day is something different . Right , like we blew a rock through a window last week . We got a text yesterday . It's like , hey , here's my light bulb on my yard that is blown out . Like , did you all do this ? Like probably , I mean , because that's everything , but you know what I mean . But you know and and so things happen . You have to adjust . But even through that you learn . Going back a minute there , you learn from that .
Speaker 1And so , guess what ? I've got a great company , a great local company , that does emergency glass repair specifically on commercial properties . And when I call them at eight o'clock at night and I've got to secure the owner's private entry to his office because we just threw a rock through his door , like , I got to get that secured tonight and they did right . And so now we've created a relationship , you know , through again , that's kind of through those struggles and through those challenges , where you kind , of , through those struggles and through those challenges , where you can really forge relationships and partnerships and things like that . We're a huge relationship company and , um , yeah , so like when we threw it through , threw one through a window , a double pane window that was safe , that wasn't it's . We didn't break the inside , blah , blah , blah , and but we had somebody that they knew , us , we could contact and they helped us through that transition and make sure that that property was safe and that you know the glass wouldn't fall out or you know that it was just , it was safe .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah , I mean . So it's again taking a challenge and turning it into a win right , like , as business owners , our biggest success comes from when we take a very , very negative situation and we handle it well . And that creates trust . And every business , in my opinion , has to start . The foundational cornerstone of the business has to be trust that we trust one another , that we're going to do everything we can to service our team and to service our clients and to service our community . And so that is forged is forged when life is good and everything's going just as you planned .
Speaker 1It's not like trust is built , but not like it is . When we screw them right , like when we mess it up , how are you going to respond ? And we had a situation that I won't get into too dirty of the details , but we had a situation where we screwed up . I mean big time , big time screwed up to the tune that it cost us about $50,000 to remedy . Yeah , yep , but I promise you that we came through that better , but I promise you that we came through that better . What was interesting , one of the clients that we did not service well was so impressed how we handle it .
Speaker 1No-transcript , it's because we owned it , we faced it , we learned from it . Number one we made some significant changes in our operation to ensure that can never happen again . It's okay . It's okay to make a mistake , but you can never make the same mistake twice because if you did , then going back again you didn't learn from it and we have to learn . We have to learn from our mistakes and I think that's the key Learning from your mistakes . And number one ownership of your mistakes , ownership of your role . In anything right , and these are the things we preach to our team . It's like you're going to screw up , but let's make sure your mistake , we know about your mistake before the client knows about your mistake , right ?
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 1If you threw a rock through a window right , make sure that we know that you threw the rock through the window first so that we can get in front of that . And it went perfectly . It was , I mean , like within five minutes of it happening . I was on the , you know , he was on the phone with the operations manager . Operations manager is like hey , we've got a problem , I'm communicating with our account manager for that site , I'm on the phone with our window repair people , our glass people , and so within 20 , 30 minutes , we've communicated with the client , we've communicated what happened , we communicated the fix , we had a plan and within an hour they're on site . And it's like that's where you win . Right , it's not the we made a bunch of money on this one . The growth and the win comes from .
Speaker 1How do you handle a mistake and can that client trust you when you do ? Because we all screw up . Right , we all screw up . We're people , we're human , we make mistakes . But if you own that and deliver upon that and so like , it's like what you know , they were so impressed . It was like , by the time we let them know that it happened , we let them know , hey , we let them know . Hey , here's what happened , here's what we're doing , here's what you can expect . Let us know if something's . If there's anything else , let us know what that is . If there's another problem , let us know what that is and we will solve that . Yeah , and they're like , you guys are fantastic . We just threw a rock through your window . What do you mean ? We're fantastic .
Speaker 3I know People are afraid to tell those kinds of stories . It's like don't bring . My very first job in engineering I worked in an office . My supervisor , danny , was great . He said look , I just got really one rule as your supervisor . He said don't bring me problems , bring me solutions . He said , because that's none of your job . And he said as long as you do that cause , he said , as the supervisor and lead of the team .
Speaker 3He said I already know the problem . I'm relying on you and everyone around me that I brought into this circle to help me fix the problem . So I already know the problem . I don't need you to tell me what the problem is , but tell me how you're going to fix it . What are we going to do to course correct that ? And I think that's the yeah , people don't . I think everybody like you said I think it's a really good point to make . It's like not every win is because you got the project or you got the check . The win sometimes comes out of that arduous thing of that relationship like , yeah , this happened , but out of the 90 good that we did that , 10 was wrong , but% now has become the entire relationship because of the way we modeled it and now we have a client for life .
Speaker 1Yep .
Speaker 3That's it when you own it .
Speaker 1We were doing an organic program for , at the time , our largest client , his home . It's acres , it's acres . We added his home and it's acres . Right , it's it's acres . And we we added a product that is basically equate . It's , it's a sticker , so it's it basically equates to like soap . I mean it's really it's . It doesn't have anything to do with anything , but when you in in the mix with the heat and the timing , blah , blah , blah . So we smoked his entire yard Like acre and a half , two acres worth of turf grass Dead . We killed it and we went in . It's like okay , you know , this is not good , this is not good .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean this client , like this owner . It represents about a million dollars worth of business to our company . And um , and we went in and we receded it and that one was only like 20 grand . But they , they will , they refer us because it's like , because it's they just know they can trust us Stuff happens .
Speaker 1That's it . Stuff happens . We're really trying to serve them and getting into a space early on in the organic world and trying to figure some things out . We made a mistake . We made a mistake and um didn't consider the temperatures and didn't understand the way this product reacts with temperature changes and uh , it was bad , it was bad .
Speaker 1Yeah , but like early on he still tells me that , though he still is like , still brings it up like in a positive way , yeah , and tells his friends , lions , run with lions , and this guy has his own airplane and blah , blah , blah , very well off , does very well . That solidified . After that our relationship grew . I had not had much interaction with this person . It's a big company , it's whatever . I didn't really deal with the owner , but now I deal with the owner . He even called me a couple of weeks ago , maybe a month or two ago , and he's like congratulations On what he's like , congratulations on the list . He's like you're in my favorites on my phone .
Speaker 1I don't know I have arrived , right , you know what I mean . But also that's not easy to share . It's not easy to share , right , like it's not easy to share . But for somebody listening that just has has their company , their team has done something . Sarah , that's made a big time mistake . Face it , own it , and I probably , like it'll be like be the Buffalo , go through that storm , face it head on , get through that storm and get on the other side and get to sunnier skies .
Speaker 3Yep , I'm going to turn the show over to Mikayla . Mikayla's got a lightning round . She's going to take you through real quick , so , mikayla did you get those ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I did so nerd lightning round , uh-oh
The Nerd Lightning Round
Speaker 2. So what is your favorite tool in your lawn pro truck you ?
Speaker 1had to pick a favorite my truck . Yeah , it's air condition , it's climate control and I like to be in it yeah that's fair .
Speaker 2I don't see it , so I'm right there with you . It's my favorite exception . Uh , worst weed to deal with . I actually want to know this one too okay , worst weed to deal with ?
Speaker 1uh , probably crabgrass . Everything is everything we do is focused around keeping crabgrass out and preventing it Right , and so , once it went , if you , if you miss the prevention or you still have breakthrough all the time , but it's really hard to control . It's really hard to control . We can do it , but then we start talking about things that people that don't like to talk about anymore , about things that people that don't like to talk about anymore . We need products that , yeah , that are , uh , that are on the radio that there's so much misinformation around it that I'll just I'll stay away from it but yeah , let's not .
Speaker 3Let's not get any like cease and desist yeah , yeah , exactly , exactly my least favorite is , uh , pigweed .
Speaker 2My dad and stepmom have a farm and it's the ones with the thistles on them .
Speaker 1Oh , okay , is it thistle ? Yeah , because pigweed I'm not familiar with , I don't know that term .
Speaker 2Because it comes with buttercups . Sometimes too , my stepmom would hate buttercup like the yellow flowers that would just pop out in the pigweed , what they call it . It has these thistles on it and I remember I usually wear like a pair of boots or something when I'm going out in the field , but one of these days I just had flip-flops on and those thistles got in my toe and it hurt high heavens , so that's my least favorite weed , yeah , but it'd be like thistle there is a thistle , bull thistle or something like that's .
Speaker 1That's probably pigweed is probably , is probably a uh kind of a , a vernacular like or not a vernacular like a , you know what I mean . Like I don't . I'm too I'm not smart enough to know the term vernacular of it like a pseudonym for it . Yeah , like a common name that people refer to . Yeah , it's a common name . I think is probably what I'm looking for .
Speaker 2One song you always play while working . What's that song ? Like your anthem , pick one .
Speaker 1Brothers Osborne . Good for some , but not for everyone .
Speaker 3Can I do that loyal listener payoff ? Yeah , just saying mike is not looking for sponsorships , but if you're out there , maybe and here's my last one .
Speaker 2Uh , favorite kind of lawn to work on .
Speaker 3How do ?
Speaker 1you mean Like type of turf grass or I don't know .
Speaker 2I think that was . I don't believe that Like what kind of style of grass to plant , or as far as like terrain even . I guess it could be , a question .
Speaker 1Yeah , slat with fescue is the best . Yeah , so I know we're the bluegrass state , but bluegrass does not do well in Kentucky , that's weird , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1And we have some bluegrass lawns and in the spring , like April , and then again in , like October , they're gorgeous but in between the heat and humidity they don't hold up , you know . So I've got friends in the north that they use bluegrass for their sports fields . Like we would never use bluegrass down here for sports fields , we would . We're in a what's called a transition zone . Bluegrass down here for sports fields , we're in what's called the transition zone , so we would use in my opinion we would use warm season turf grasses like Bermuda and Zoysia , things like that . So my favorite would be a fescue lawn , a full fescue lawn that's relatively flat , because it's easy to mow , it's easy to maintain , it does well and suits our climate well .
Speaker 2Since .
Speaker 1I have a push mow .
Speaker 2I too like non-hill lawns . I'm pushing a 200-pound sled across a gym studio floor . I'm like but good a gym studio floor .
Speaker 1I'm like but good workout yeah , for sure it is a workout , that's for sure yeah , well , we have .
Speaker 3I want to put on the screen there . If everybody is on YouTube , you can see like you can visit the lawn pro at lawn procom . And you know , you know , uh , you know , see , check out uh , mike and his team , his projects and things like that , and mike appreciate you being on the show . Um , you know , I've been working with you now for quite a while and it's uh what three years , three , two , I don't know I've lost , lost count . It's good .
Speaker 1I have to rely on my wife . I was like that was like two years ago . She was like that was seven years ago , dummy .
Speaker 3Dang it .
Speaker 1Yeah , I know my concept of time gets worse and worse the older I get . I will say that yeah , it feels like yesterday .
Speaker 3It's getting worse for everybody . I mean , we're in July and we're still thinking internally like isn't it June ? Like , no , it's not June , it's July . It's trucking up , but yeah , yeah , we've been , we love working with you , your brand and everything I mean it's . It's it's like a quiet beast that's in the community that's been doing things , and for years , like you said , for 30 years , I mean that's a long , long time and you've really established yourself in the market in many ways , even for , like , off season services , which you know , a lot of landscapers haven't figured that one out , and you have Um and so you know that's one of the things about you apart and uh , so we're really happy to have you on the show . I'm sorry we didn't get to talk about superman . If mitch was here , we would have talked about that or some other comic related thing which would have been like why
Nerding Out on Comics and Films
Speaker 3, why are we ?
Speaker 1doing this like I wouldn't even have known how to answer like yeah , I know , like yeah , yeah , we all have our specialties and and I will say marvel and comics , and I know it's that's you guys like , y'all love that . Like , for me it's like huh what ? Like yeah , I'm an idiot to that , that's for sure yeah , we're watching that unfold right now .
Speaker 3That's going to be on a future episode , because we do have to dive into that , because that world has gotten really weird , wild and I think it's going to get crazier .
Speaker 1Um , you know that's a dc marvel competition . Is that right's all ? That's the extent of my knowledge on that . Yeah , it's like I watch that like OK , who's going to win this ?
Speaker 3You remember ? Do you remember this ? You remember HBO ? Like , remember that grand , like opening ? Yeah , so HBO , they relabeled it Max for their streaming and then now they just put it back . They went backward and they rolled back all that branding from max . Now it's again , it's hbo max , and one of the leading shows they're going to have is a space cop show , and the space cop show is the green lanterns . It is going to be hal jordan and john stewart . Not john stewart from the comedian . There's actually a green lantern who's a marine and his name is John Stewart . So it's a live action show . Now Nathan Fillion , who plays another Green Lantern , will have likely an episode with them on that show as well . So yeah , and Homelander , which has John Cena , nathan Fillion , he will make an appearance as the Green Lantern that he's playing in the Superman movie . He will make an appearance on there in an episode as the Green Lantern there . So yeah .
Speaker 3I did , yeah , well , it was really funny . I was watching an interview and you know this is really sidetracked . This is the part where we actually got this far in going off the rails . So good job , everybody , especially me . But it was like they interviewed James Gunn and they asked him . He said yeah , how'd it go ? And he said well , he said I got a text message from Ryan Reynolds and he said man , congratulations . And then he said after that I asked him . I said would you want to be Green Lantern ? And Ryan Reynolds said F . It went so poorly the first time understood , yeah , yeah , but I guess that's the new era we're going into . So , finally , something different . Besides , you know , the same old , same old . So it's like we've had chicken sandwich long enough , let's get some meat .
Speaker 1And um , yeah , there's no , uh , no originality in hollywood , I think everybody's so scared to do anything , so we've lost comedy . Stuff's not even funny anymore , you know what I mean , Mike . We're going to offend somebody . Suck it up , buttercup . You know what I mean .
Speaker 3Well it's like all the characters that James Gunn is playing with are properties that our generation actually remembers , like Supergirl . I'm not opposed to a Supergirl movie at all . I'm like it kind of feels overdue , really really overdue . I'm very curious as to who's going to play Wonder Woman . Yeah , maybe .
Speaker 2I'm going to have to get my ass into the gym . No sleeping , workout , workout , running constantly Cardio .
Speaker 3I think DC's strength . They'll have their feature films here and there , but I think that they put more of their effort into streaming shows and episodic stuff . I think they'll do much , much better .
Speaker 2I think that's what Marvel's doing , because Marvel did the same thing with She-Hulk WandaVision . They added to the timeline .
Speaker 3Yeah , it's like every other show they put out hit and then it's sort of like Star Trek . You know the Star Trek pictures , the motion pictures . You know the Star ?
Speaker 3Trek pictures , the motion pictures , I don't know if you're . So . The very first movie is boring as hell , right , because it's just like a bunch of stuff with a ship , you know , and it was like the first time they got to use a full-scale model in a feature film . So they're like Like everything was a ship . Then you had Wrath of Khan , a complete flip on its head and that's the one that stands out . And then you got Spock . You know the search for Spock , another snoozer . And then you had a hit with Thor Voyager . It was like it was only the even numbers that worked well for them in that franchise and it's almost like Marvel .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's interesting .
Speaker 3Yeah , it's like Marvel's sort of in that vein . Yeah , because Star Trek 5 sucked , star Trek 6 , yeah , it was a little better . And then they did the next one and it was like look , kirk died . We know you really need to have a movie about that , and so I think Marvel's kind of that way . It's like every other one . It's just kind of the thing . It's in the movie industry , it's in the nerdverse , it's hit and misses , it's like what we talked about today , but anyhow . But yeah , we did spare you a bit of that with Mitch not being with us today , so he's going to miss out on this . He regrets not being with us .
Speaker 1All I got is Wrath of Khan .
Speaker 3That's all I know on the Star Trek thing .
Speaker 1My dad was a big Star Trek , so I remember watching it on Saturday mornings , I think , if I'm not mistaken .
Speaker 3Is that right Was ?
Speaker 1it Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings ?
Speaker 3Oh no , I think it was Sunday . No , because we would have been in church .
Speaker 1Yeah , I think it was Saturdays . Yeah , we used to watch the show .
Speaker 3I guess I remember watching the reference one yeah , yeah , next Generation was . I believe it was . Yeah , was it NBC ? Or is it ABC ? Maybe I don't know . That's so long ago . No , it was CBS , because that's Paramount , that's Viacom , that's who owns the property is Paramount . So yeah , but yeah , yeah , we get into that . I got a friend , she's got a studio and we're going to go down to Ornsboro . She's filming a sci-fi feature . So she's like you should come down and check it out . We're doing a sci-fi film . She's got a 50,000 square . I've known her for years and she's just like , yeah , just come on down here . And I'm like , oh yeah , you just just shoot .
Speaker 3Just shoot a sci-fi feature . Yeah , sure , I'll just roll up to the studio and the guard will be like , yeah , you know the owner , great , come on in . I'm like that's not how it's going to go . That's not how it's going to go . I'm going to be in like the sheriff's , rolling up and saying like he knows that , yeah , so , anyways , what's for that in the news , everybody ?
Speaker 3Anyways , if you like this episode , subscribe to the nerve brand podcast at nerve brand agencycom slash podcast . You can sign up for our newsletter . We don't spam . You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram and all the other places . And , you know , make sure that you also do the same for Mike . He's out there as well , at the lawn pro . The handles that you'll find for him and all of our handles are at nerd brand agency . This episode will be on YouTube . So I do have to give the little YouTube thing where you have to subscribe and notification bell to those watching on YouTube . You know , I know you're probably looking for that little graphic down there . Um , we's poor , we hadn't got that yet , so you got me saying it . So , anyways , if you do enjoy this episode , do please let us know and be sure that you always remember to keep your nerve bands strong .
