Blue Collar Business Podcast
Welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast with Sy Kirby. Dive deep into the world of hands-on entrepreneurship and the gritty side of making things happen. Join us for actionable tips on scaling your blue-collar business, managing teams, and staying ahead in an ever-evolving market. We'll also discuss the latest industry trends and innovations that could impact your bottom line. If you're passionate about the blue-collar world and eager to learn from those who've thrived in it, this podcast is a must-listen. Stay tuned for engaging conversations and real-world advice that can take your blue-collar business to new heights.
Blue Collar Business Podcast
Ep. 40 - Ditching Corporate America to Build a Landscaping Empire
What happens when your body knows what your mind won't admit? For Matt Keller, it took chest-tightening panic attacks in his corporate office to recognize he was on the wrong path entirely. Despite managing a $250 million budget at Walmart by age 26, something was deeply wrong.
"I used to sit at Sam's home office, looking out the window, thinking if I could, I'd rather be digging a trench than looking at another spreadsheet right now," Matt reveals in this raw conversation with host Sy Kirby. This admission kickstarted a remarkable transformation from corporate executive to landscape business owner.
The journey wasn't without humiliation. Matt shares the gut-wrenching story of a former colleague secretly photographing him mowing lawns, a moment that could have crushed his spirit but instead fueled his determination. "That lit a fire under me," he explains, his voice still carrying the emotion of that day.
Drawing on his horticulture background and corporate skills, Matt methodically built his business by converting one-off jobs into steady contracts, focusing on commercial clients over residential headaches, and leveraging his professional communication abilities to secure apartment complex contracts. His corporate experience, once seen as irrelevant in his new field, became his secret weapon.
This episode offers practical insights for anyone contemplating a career pivot, especially those considering trading white-collar comfort for blue-collar fulfillment. Matt's advice on finding your vision, staying focused, and not diversifying too quickly applies universally to entrepreneurs at any stage. For those staring out office windows dreaming of something different, this conversation might just be the push you need to make your move.
Have you been feeling that same restlessness in your corporate role? Maybe it's time to consider what's on the other side of the window. Subscribe to the Blue Collar Business Podcast for more stories of transformation and practical business advice from those who've done the work.
Click the link above for a free marketing audit with insights to boost your blue collar business!
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Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast, where we discuss the realest, rawest, most relevant stories and strategies behind building every corner of a blue collar business. I'm your host, cy Kirby, and I want to help you in what it took me trial and error and a whole lot of money to learn the information that no one in this industry is willing to share. Whether you're under that shade tree or have your hard hat on, let's expand your toolbox. Welcome back, guys, to another episode of the Blue Collar Business Podcast presented and sponsored by podcastvideoscom today. These guys I've been a part of their team for the past year. They have amplified this show Probably the reason you're watching right now. They have reached out through our social media campaign. On any of the socials, look up blue collar business podcast so you're making sure you're seeing all the shorts before they come out on the major long episode on blue collar business podcastcom Totally free. You can watch or listen from the website. You do not have to have a subscription. But if you do and you have a subscription to Spotify or podcast or Apple or any of them, make sure you're following along with Blue Collar Business Podcast. Give us a follow and a rating there Today bringing you another, some more Blue Collar Summertime Action. Action for dang sure I've got a long time good friend of mine that is, uh, sitting down with me on the show today that I'm very excited to shine a little light on.
Speaker 1:He is wandering off into the landscaping world and he is starting to actually really catch, catch a uh, catch a moving train, I guess. Guess, you would say, because he has not only figured it out, but he's not all over the place in the landscapers. A lot of times I see a lot of these landscapers that either come on the show or that I know of. They want to be in every single market and there's so many things that these guys get involved with. But he has been growing very strategically. I'm very proud of his growth because he's been very steady, but none other. Let's get into it. Matt Keller, southern Turf and Landscape Company. Thank you for joining. Yes, thank you Appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Landscape, landscape. We achieve this and that's actually gonna be changing soon to a five grounds, five star property management. Five star property management, sorry, five Star Property Management, five Star Property Management, sorry, five Star Grounds Management. So I screwed up the name, you screwed up the name. I screwed up the name.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, that's the way we're starting the day, but literally man. So me and Matt, when I immigrated to this country I started going to school. Me and another one of our buddies was just kind of in a small friend group and anyways, went through high school and knew him all the way through there. But after high school we kind of drifted and kind of did our own thing. Well, we worked together, I guess, for just like a summer right after high school. It's probably one of my favorite summers of my life working at the golf course together. But since then, dude, kind of give us the rundown and as far back or as soon as you want to start um, the timeline to get where you're at, and so that way the show kind of has an idea who you are and where you're coming from yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:I, uh, I started let's go back to to college after post uh, golf course maintenance, that was. That was about a five-year experience from uh high school through college, and then I, I, uh, he's a really dang good golfer. I'm 40 more dude, um. So, yeah, uh, I went to uva for uh in horticulture, turfgrass management, landscape and design for um a few years and and did that. And then I, I decided to uh to take a 180 and go into corporate America right out of college. So I went and worked for Walmart and then I bounced back and forth from Walmart to Sam's Club for the next six years. Did you love it? Oh man? Yeah, I just loved it. Every seat they had between you, right, it's living the dream.
Speaker 1:So we found out the white collar wasn't your world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, white collar wasn't my world. I was associate buyer, 26 years old, at walmart, managing 250 million dollar budget, and, um, it was one day I I had had all these dizzy spells and and I just kept, kept having these dizzy spells. Well, one day I was, uh, I was at the layout center for walmart and I had a real bad one. My chest started getting real tight and I was like man, I know I'm 26, but I, boss, I'm like I think I'm having a heart attack. And so I went to the ER and he's like okay, bud, you don't look very good, you look wise, it goes. I'm like I guess I don't know what's going on. So I turns out, you know, I was freaking out and I went to the ER and just had a bad panic attack, but it was kind of then that just kind of like snowballed you know what am I doing here? And I went from, you know, enjoying my job there to just hating every day of it. And I used to sit at Sam's home office. I had a nice window, you know, looking out, third story of the home office and like man, if I could, I'd rather be digging a trench rather than looking at another spreadsheet right now.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of when the next few years uh just went downhill in white collar world and and uh, I went work for a couple suppliers covid hit, um, my job was axed at right out of uh sam's club with a four month old and so, um, I just got to a point to where I was like I'm sick of updating my resume every freaking, you know, six months to a year, and handing out and just going for these jobs. I didn't want just to, you know, chase money, yeah, just to chase money up here from Houston. Had a food manufacturing business down in Houston where they made spices and and uh had, you know, have a 15, 20 million dollar business in Houston called Consolidated Mills, and so he came up here and, uh, he kind of he knew that I was wanting to get off into um, into my own business and and, of course, talking to my dad and stuff and and, uh, he had always kind of brought me up and told me I had work ethic and everything, and so, um, I love your folks, but, yeah, shout out, thanks. Uh, so we went.
Speaker 2:I started looking on businesses to buy on on uh biz by cell and found this, this business down in West Fork where they manufactured fake wood for hot tub surrounds. It was made out of HDPE, okay.
Speaker 1:You're talking my world.
Speaker 2:And it was a big business. He wanted over a million dollars for it and we went down that road. I went to the bank and, you know, got very close to to getting that, that loan, and and was ready to go. And then I was like man, I just don't feel like, um, feel like this is where my heart wants to be. And so, uh, just chase some money. Yeah, just chase some money.
Speaker 2:Again, I was like you know, know, and I sat down and had some good conversations with my dad and Chuck and they were like you know, if you could do anything in the world, what would it be? I was like you know, I used to drive by big commercial locations when I was early 20s and, be like man, I could make that place look so much better. And so I just From all the golf course days, true, yeah, I just from all the golf course days, true, yeah, yeah, from all the golf course days. And and, uh, now is it? Is it as fun as what we had back then? No, absolutely not.
Speaker 2:You know, it was all of our best buddies who would. We'd be stealing beer at seven in the morning. I probably shouldn't say that, but it's the truth. At seven, a shotgunning here at 7 am with our buddies, and yeah, we had a lot of fun. God, it was so fun. But that's what generated the passion and the drive for the industry. And so I was like, you know, yeah, if I could be doing anything, I think landscaping is kind of where that mindset went. Not just landscaping, but general property, slash grounds, maintenance and management, so, um, taking, you know, massive apartment complexes or or whatever, and you know, just keeping them beautiful is like there's there's a, there's a, there's a need for that yeah, it's a definitely an odd passion.
Speaker 1:Absolutely it is an odd passion. You're right, it is an odd passion. You're right. I can go right to you, man, there's not a lot of guys out there that have number one the eyeball. But if you've looked at a golf course every day for six years, seven years, you get kind of an eye for hey, why is all that grass looking way taller than it just sticks out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, weeds stick out, everything sticks out. And you know, and something where someone looked at him, they go that looks okay. I'm like, no, this looks terrible, it's covered in weed, it's covered in in all this stuff that shouldn't be there. And, uh, so, yeah, I had the, the. Uh, that's so cool man, yeah, yeah, so it's been. It's celebrate that dude, yeah for sure. And so I, uh, in a nutshell, I had the opportunity to take over a guy's business, um, right, almost four years ago, uh, three and a half years, and, uh, he was just, he had residential, um, he had about 40 residential customers and then about 10 commercial customers. That really, um, you know, was a good foundation for my business. And so, uh, the first two years, you know, it sucked I, I worked my tail, my tail off. I was out there Saturdays, sundays, breaking my back at these commercial locations, just trying to get them you know where I knew they need to be. And then All while your friends, don't, nobody understands Exactly.
Speaker 2:They're the entrepreneurial friends right. I went from literally sitting in associate buyer meetings with VPs SVPs at Walmart and Sand Club I had at SHOT Show in Las Vegas. I sat in three different meetings with the C-suite executives of Winchester, bedron and Rennington You're talking about billions of dollars to stepping up on a mower on day one. You know, and I'm like man, this is what the bottom of the barrel feels like Like you're treated, like you are scum of the earth.
Speaker 1:You do 100%. It's the stigma behind what exactly you're highlighting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I actually had a guy who I worked with, worked for at ConAgra, who he saw me mowing his neighbor's lawn. And I'm turning around and I'm looking at this tree and I see this guy sitting back there and I'm like what is this dude doing? He's taking pictures of me, like mowing. And I realized that's the guy I worked for at ConAgra. I'm like why would you do that? That's so weird. Yeah, that is so Demoralizing, just demoralizing. Yeah. So that lit a fire under me to where I was like okay, you know now, like I don't have to prove anything to anyone but other than myself and my family, that's crazy dude.
Speaker 1:for a guy to stand there and take pictures of you. What to share with his other white-collar buddies. Yeah, oh look, yeah.
Speaker 2:I just hate everything about that. Yeah, absolutely, it was demoralizing. Anyways, monday through Friday, I would work and have, you know, me and two other guys helping me, and uh, and then after I get done working, I would go solicit business at apartment complexes and, dude, I'd hit. I'd hit, you know, 30 apartment complexes in a week just trying to to get them to see my face and and to to get my foot in the door. And finally, um, through lots of prayer and faith you had, I got called on, my apartment complex led to another one. Then, within three to four months, I had four apartment complexes.
Speaker 2:That To domino effect, yes, and it was awesome. And so that was definitely driven by help through prayer and stuff and faith. And so that's where of that's where I've, I'm growing and it's not easy. It's not not an easy growing pain, but, no, I still have a lot that I'm learning and a lot that I I take away on a weekly basis and, um, I just feel like it's a time game at this point. So it's like you ain't lying, buddy, getting, I'm getting website built, I'm, I'm rebranding my business, I'm, I'm doing all these things now to where it's like, okay, all of a sudden it's. You can see this new business come out. It's gonna be like dang. They just kind of popped up one day, and so good for you, man yeah we'll see what happens maybe, maybe once uh to rebrand and everything.
Speaker 1:Maybe we'll have you back on the show, or maybe we need to talk more about the YouTube stuff that we've got coming with the channel and how we're going to celebrate other businesses. It's some really cool stuff in the works behind the scenes, but anyways, man, what an embodied story to sit there and what you guys don't understand. Here in Northwest Arkansas we are covered up with corporate America. You have the largest global retailer in the entire world's just built a 345 acre campus and, it's funny, the retail layout center. The uh fire suppression over your head. We did all the underground fire suppression for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we did five of the buildings out there and figured out that during that construction is not something we want to be a part of. It wasn't set up for us. But man, to be sitting there, I think you can be so relatable, my guy, to a guy that could be sitting there looking out his cubicle, listen to this podcast and go man, all these guys, what's the difference? You know, you got obviously like go from a the corporate America grind. But that's literally from what I understand. I've never walked in it myself, but it's literally every three to five years. You're well, this pathway of advancement. Uh, are we getting axed or are we moving to a different unit or are you going to a different company?
Speaker 1:And in this area, guys, northwest Arkansas is home of Walmart. It's home of JB Hunt, one of the largest trucking companies in the lower 48. We've got Tyson Chicken and all their headquarters are right here in these two counties. There is a lot of executive, which is great for guys like us in the blue collar world because it drives money into the market, right. But at the same time, I know there's got to be one or two folks and I hope you guys reach out to me. They're sitting there going. Man, I am so tired of looking at spreadsheets, I am so sick and tired of looking on a 70 degree day, looking out my window, wishing I was out there and let's talk to those, those people. Now that you're on the other side of this, matt, you've, you've, I guess, got forced into that leap of faith. But isn't that funny how god just closes doors to open one, absolutely, and spin around. Talk to that person that's sitting in that cubicle. That was you that hasn't just done it yet. Yeah, yeah, what do you say to them, man? It's hard.
Speaker 2:Um, you gotta have. I had somebody who, who helped push me off the ledge, um, backing financially, which was it was critical, but it wasn't like, oh, here I'm gonna, I'm gonna pay for your, I'm gonna give you a salary for the next. No, I wish, push me off the ledge by helping me take over this guy's business. Um, and it wasn't much money, but he helped me take over this guy's business, who we all have to. Yeah, to get a start, and Mark had built a great foundation, um, you know, but he, I knew where my vision was going and and what I wanted. So, yeah, that that first couple weeks into that job with a child, and it was scary, but I buckled down and you gotta know where to put your money in the right place. And you gotta, all of a sudden it was like, oh, wait a minute, I just drained all my money to buy equipment. But then give me two or three weeks. I'm like, oh, all a minute, I just drained all my money to buy equipment. But then give me like two or three weeks. I'm like, oh, all that money is right back where it was. Isn't that funny?
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so it kind of figured out real quick in that first winter and actually I took over the business in October, which was dumb, right Like I'm taking over this guy's landscaping business. All the businesses are going to die in December. And so October, november, I sat there and I took all of his commercial customers that were. You know, he was in his early 60s and he would just bill them for the work that he did as he went, so he'd do something and then write them an invoice for it and they pay well.
Speaker 2:So I got all those commercial clients on contract so that I had money coming in in January, february, march and so, and then that kind of gave me time to digest everything and figure out. You know, here's what I need to do next and all the next steps. So when I look back at it was like man doing this in october was stupid, but it was really a uh, it worked out. So I don't know, just a leap of faith and yeah, it was. Yeah, yeah. Now you know, january, february comes and we get get a foot or two of snow and you got to be out clearing apartment complexes and and it's not very fun. Those are the times where I'm like dang it, I miss my corporate life.
Speaker 1:Should I put a freaking additive in my diesel to start it up in negative 20? Yes, sir, you probably should have. Damn yeah, we learned one there.
Speaker 2:I did it the same way, dude, I had no idea.
Speaker 1:Nobody taught me these things.
Speaker 2:You just go out and do it and you fail exactly. You figure it out, you don't let it happen again, it's a corporate america man.
Speaker 1:Listen, you're another year, you're another three years or five years away from a demotion, promotion or getting your jab axed. You could deal with the demoralizing. You know it's funny that guy's leaning out. I can literally picture this guy leaned up against a tree trying to be sneaky, trying to take pictures of yeah, and he fired me from ConAgra.
Speaker 2:That was the first job I'd ever been fired from. I was on Upward Progression in corporate America and six months into that ConAgra role I was hired as a sales analyst on their biggest desk. It was a multi-billion dollar desk on ConAgra. You know, is it me Like what? What happened here? And it was just, you know, looking back, I'm like that. That was. I was just in the, in the wrong place.
Speaker 1:You were probably threatening a few individuals. Maybe so, maybe I don't know so, but isn't that funny. That dude who probably sat there in the same desk this is so full circle probably sat there in the same desk at 26 years old and went. Man, this really sucks, but if I don't buckle down and stay in this, I can't go do anything else. And here he is, 30, 40 years, whatever, through corporate America schmuck let's call him Poussey who jumped off on a leap of faith, literally walked this road that nobody, nobody excepta resource like Blue Collar Business, is here to help you navigate getting from okay, working in corporate America to owning and operating a blue collar, any type of skilled trades business you know, including landscape.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I would agree with you, october, wouldn't? I would not advise october. But at the same time, dude, we don't always get dealt at double aces on our first texas hold'em draw, you know what I mean. Like sometimes you gotta go through a couple of hands of seven deuce and bluff your way through it, fake it till you make it, and then you finally you do get a couple of pocket aces and you play the handout and it works out for the first time and you're like yeah what did I just do?
Speaker 1:because I need to do that again. Man, this, this is working out, and but it's you know. Instantly you forget about the nine months that I wasn't working out. Yeah, you know, and it's just grinding. So, uh, to corporate america, if you're sitting there in that desk, take a leap. I hope you go jump on a plumbing crew or a freaking electrician's crew, or I just had, uh, jerry hoy with jerry's plumbing in here. I mean, these guys will pay for their schooling and we need new guy, new farmers making a fortune. Oh, my god, dude, if you're a master in a fortune, master electrician in this area it's ridiculous, they can pay. This is what blew my mind're a master electrician in this area? It's ridiculous, they can pay. This is what blew my mind. I had an electrician buddy, two masters or a master in a journey. He can bill by the hour more than I can bill for an excavator and an operator.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Because people, two electricians, $150 an hour, whatever, whatever it takes, you'll get it done in four hours but a guy in a machine charging you $150, what do you mean? This machine, I'm like dude's got an S10 full of pickup, full of tools, and I've got $300,000 worth of machines in your yard.
Speaker 2:Right what? That's actually a really good way it's so. I never thought about it that way.
Speaker 1:But, like to these guys that are listening, that could be in a corporate America in four years. If you're like Matt, that you were younger and you got in it younger and you struck on the opportunities and went through that advancement train, that's great. But in four years you could have your master's license in just about any skilled trade. But circling back here, man, let's talk a little bit about landscaping and the seasonal work. It sounds like the old I shouldn't say old the prior owner of your business essentially would just do a bunch of work, bill for it, collect when he could, kind of thing. There wasn't really any fluidity to it. But how, how did you walk us through and some and some of the audience members, how you made that transition Cause you briefed over that really quick. But let's shine some light on that because you took a business that was contract based meaning hey, invoice, pay me to a contract-based business and spread that out over 12 years. So talk about a little bit about that if you don't mind, and why you did that.
Speaker 2:Obviously, we understand cashflow, but yeah, so now, okay, remember, I took over, say, give or take, you know 40 to 50 customers from him. Now I have zero of of his customers.
Speaker 2:That's how I took care of that understood okay, you go in, you build your own business and because those customers who have been paying him for 20 years, like you know, thank you guys for helping me get to where I did, but you know they they're so used to to X, for Y and for service, times have changed my guy. I'm just not a guy who's gonna take on work just to take on work like I did it. I did the hustle six, seven days a week and it got to a point where I'm like, man, this just isn't, this isn't and worth it, man, it's not worth it. Nope. So you gotta learn how to say no.
Speaker 2:But that takes time. You can't do that at first. You gotta, you gotta do, you know, you gotta do whatever it takes at those first two, three, however many years just to to keep stay floating. And, uh, my ex-wife, we used to, she used to. Well, you're working all the time, you know, because I'd get off work, I'd go home, I'd invoice, I would, you know, do the bids and estimates and I'm like, no, I'm not, I'm not working all the time, I'm really not, I'm, I'm trying to keep my business alive, yep, and so keeping, keeping it's a hard viewpoint.
Speaker 1:Yeah it versus working all the time is those are. Those are two different things Working in the business, working on the business. And there is, you're right, you can't work in the business and on the business at the same time. I've tried to do it, bro. It drove me literal to an point of insanity and I couldn't do it anymore. But at the same time, there's so many guys listening, just like yourself. You didn't know any other way than just to do it, yeah, yeah, just do it.
Speaker 2:Just get out there and do it.
Speaker 1:Or you know there is resources. You know when you're first starting early. Not to cut you off, you're my guy but like I see so many guys that sit there and go home, and especially with a business like yours, you're more invoice heavy and transactional heavy than we are at PsyCon. Like we may do 10 invoices a month and we bill out on the 20th. That's what we do. It's a 30 day cycle. It's anyways don't get me started on that, but anyways. So you were running invoice style business and keep keep walking us through how you transition into contract.
Speaker 2:Sorry, contractual business. Yeah, so I just took what he was essentially here's what, I think, mark, you're paying him and these commercial guys, they knew they could run the spreadsheets and tell me exactly how much they paid him last year. And so I said, okay, let's just break that over 12 months and you just pay me that over 12 months. And so year one worked, it was fine. Year two I'm like oh, this is, you know, you start learning, you really learn and, uh, you know, learn what things are worth to you and how much you need to to keep survive and keep growing. And you learn your costs too. Um, yeah, maybe going back saying that I don't have any of those customers anymore probably didn't sound that good. But on the flip side, yeah, you got to go in and grow your. You got to build your own reputation, your own business.
Speaker 1:Anybody that's been in three or four years man, they know exactly what you mean, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:So, um, yeah, it's just a, it's just a balance between, uh, keeping those people and if, if you can, can, if you can raise that price with that current clientele, awesome, great are you, you know? Good luck yeah, but it's a hard conversation because they've been paying well, mark, hadn't raised my prices in 20 years and you're coming and raising my price. I'm like, oh man, yeah, I'm sorry, oh my gosh to say, but I mean other than so, following that along.
Speaker 1:It's funny, man. Year two, year three, you start. You just think me this is speaking about me, not mad here. I literally thought if I could revenue millions of dollars, it didn't matter what the cost was. Yes, you know, there was enough money that yeah. Oh boy, was I so freaking wrong?
Speaker 2:and it was it?
Speaker 1:more money on the top, the more I had to concentrate on the pennies. And so I thought, chasing revenue and pushing revenue, well, that ain't for nothing. What you make on the bottom line and all those numbers in between can't grow anyways. But literally, my dude, second year it sounds like you figured out your cost and you figured out that, oh, obviously I probably can't do it for what you're trying to do it for, because he gave you that price in 1997, my guy, it's 2023. Gallon of gas is 350 a gallon, not $1.10 anymore. I'm sorry, and it's not like you don't want, because it's weird.
Speaker 1:As a business owner you want to capture everybody, you want to help everybody. But in the first year or two you're like you can't say no to your point man. You're just like yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. But then you start learning through your experience of running through all these yeses, of what's soaking up all of your time and what's eaten up you know, basically the majority of your revenue that's not turning into profitable revenue. And so through the second year, third year, you really start to build your cost and you know that if Jose and Marcus are there to mow this lawn and you've been sending it for a hundred bucks and they can do eight of them a day.
Speaker 1:You know for a fact that in a year's time, as long as they're doing that again, they're hopefully being profitable. You know what I mean. But then you start looking at it and you're like well, this cost has changed. Well, we added a person indirect here, oh, to help manage the fluidity of our systems and all this. Well, man, actually our price needs to go up to cover our just year month to month costs. So how do you do that? Well, you have to do that to your customer or lower your costs, vice versa, right? So anyways, I just wanted to point out literally, do that and grow.
Speaker 1:there's to do that and grow exactly you know, you bottleneck yourself as a business owner and literally I'm literally going through it. Nine years in, I'm bottlenecking again because of how people I think the word would be affected me personally through business and damaged me mentally and emotionally as a business owner that I didn't want to go back down and open my heart into that path again. So but if you cut the bottleneck off and just let and let the river flow, man, and get out of your own way, man, the places you can go, but real quick guys here. I just want to jump in here and shine a little light on blue collar performance marketing. These guys, I have man. We have got some really cool things in the work at blue collar performance marketing. These guys, I have man, we have got some really cool things in the work at Blue Collar Performance Marketing. I'm actually going to be getting involved there. Stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1:Coming down the pipe, saikhan is going to be kind of blending some lines with Blue Collar Performance Marketing. So if you want to hear a little bit more about that, reach out to them. You can get them at bcperformancemarketingcom backslash bcb podcast. You'll get a free, comprehensive discovery call checking out your entire marketing campaign. So, essentially, if you got a website and you're in. Everybody told you to get a website, but your website's not doing anything. Give us a ring. We're going to tell you, number one, why it's not doing anything and number two, what direction, and build you some strategy and hopefully point you guys in the right direction. So give Ike and them boys a call over there, and I'm excited to hear about your story and how they can help you further your business in the marketing game. So give them a ring. So, matt, how many crews we got now let's talk about now Three crews now.
Speaker 1:Average crew three guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So we got nine guys.
Speaker 2:You got anybody in the office Me? Oh, I just hustled all myself.
Speaker 1:Oh so do you?
Speaker 2:I would love to see your personality test.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it goes from one to the other? Oh, because you know what I did. The same thing, man. I did the same thing for years. But I will tell you right now, I could not do what I do today without the ladies in my office. I would be host. But when I was sitting in the same seat that you are going, what's less important than I can pass off, because it's all so important in, especially in your head too? You're like, well, okay, if, if this is marked a little bit differently on the invoice than Tim the accountant's not going to see it and not pay it and push it out 15 days and I know that they're not going to know that and or it's, uh, I, it's a supply house, I'm checking whatever it is, man, but you don't ever know what you can actually start to pass off yeah sure you know and how many like you're probably doing.
Speaker 1:Probably 40, 50 invoices a month, I would assume.
Speaker 2:Right for sure yeah, maybe not that much. Mine's pretty, uh, reoccurring business invoices. Okay, um, yeah, back to that. The springtime it gets heavier because I do, we do some one-off jobs and I always take those one-off jobs. I'm like, why did I do this? You know, just stick where I'm I'm good at. And so, um yeah, the definitely springtime gets heavier. And then as I grow and, and you know, continue to prove myself, then then we do get more business from my core customers outside the contract. So, and that's great to have, for sure, so, but not super, most of my invoicing is is, you know, reoccurring.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I just kind of said it. You use the software. Yeah, I use QuickBooks.
Speaker 1:You. Okay, I think I'm going to start asking that question. By the way, episode number 40, guys, this is insane. I just thought of that. Sorry, I just saw it on my paper, but I think from here on out, I'm going to start asking every guest that comes in here in the skilled trades business, because we're so scared to death of software and you know what I mean. And you, coming from corporate America, you understand the utilization of an Excel spreadsheet. You already have a jumpstart on me and all these other guys that literally are just like well, I'm good at digging, let's do a digging business.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, like we didn't know what a spreadsheet was yeah, I took my analyst experience and I'm like building let's do a digging business, you know what I mean, like we didn't know what a spreadsheet was. Yeah, I took my endless experience and I'm like building out all these different spreadsheets to the start and I still run off those today and it's like it's simplified. It's amazing dude.
Speaker 1:That is so cool that you're already to that level, buddy, because you're not only for you but for the people that you're going to train. You're going to be able to build them systems and processes and be able to show them on paper. And that's where a lot of us blue-collar guys straight up out of high school, we fail because we think systems and processes and spreadsheets are for the white-collar folk. We don't need them. But you can't move without those telling you where to move to. But it takes time. So, just, there's so much value you have that God put you through the corporate America grind and the mess of what that is. But man, you've got such a professionalism on emails Like I've got guys that are 24, 25 years old scared to death to send a damn email, scared completely to death to send a damn email, scared completely to death, and I'm. But here you are been talking with billionaire board members and having to email traffic and understand the professionalism, and here now you are representing yourself. You're already a level above some of the guys in your market, my guy. So I just wanted to shine some light on that, but literally so from here, I heard you reference to another really good highlight that I want to shed light on is keep the main thing, the main thing. And as soon as you, I do the same dang thing too, because we struggle with saying no and we're like, yeah, dude, we can do that, ain't no big deal, that's going to slide perfect in this little schedule hole.
Speaker 1:And then it rains for seven weeks and you're all your other customers are backed up, but you told them you were going to hit this week. So you're like all right, look guys, it's rained a little bit. I got to back up two weeks. Whoa, what do you mean, man, I've done all this other stuff. Well, I have other customers that I, you know, that I adhere to first and I need you to know. Well, we'll just find somebody. Sorry, guys, we'll just find somebody else. Come on, dude, you know what I mean. It's like, why did I? And it's those it's always those jobs that you get so involved with to pre-contract that you're like all right, this is what we're going to do, this is the simplest. You guys are going to be so happy when it's done. It's going to cost you a little bit of extra money, but trust me, it'll get there. This is exactly what you need to do and then you have a little scheduling conflict or, god forbid, it rains in our world, right bub, and then spin around. They act like you have just literally killed their dog because you need to move a schedule back.
Speaker 1:Now it's on us to ensure that we're communicating. We're not doing that the day before. Anybody's going to be frustrated about it the day before. But if we're sending an email out, hey guys, two weeks beforehand, we're going to have to move. Work with us guys, just spreadsheet guys, like I understand we're a totally different breed, but there's got to be some flexibility. And especially residential customers like homeowners. They seem to be the worst. Yeah, yeah, how many resi clients are you running?
Speaker 2:I hate it. It's not to me. It's just not worth it. It's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why.
Speaker 2:Why in your world it's too much of a headache.
Speaker 2:I'm running around like a headless chicken and there's too much commercial business here who, because of my professional background, I can go in and secure those contracts and not have to deal with the general public.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, those guys who do deal with the general public like, yeah, you can go out and make a bunch more money dealing with them, but that's the guys that you go and I turn down a lot of work because I'll get to a job estimate and the homeowner will be like you know, I was a civil engineer. They start talking to me about grading and perfect, and it's going to drain this way and it needs to be four degrees that way, and I'm like you need to call someone else. I this way, it needs to be four degrees that way, and I'm like, uh, you need to call someone else. Yeah, I don't want to deal with you. Yep, and so the, the, the commercial people, they, you know, the only time that they want to talk to me is when they are at work. They don't want, they're not going to call me when they leave work, because that's their job while they're at work is to take care of that stuff, and so um, that's exactly.
Speaker 1:And the the the other reason for me shedding the residential world was in the commercial world. And you may, as I have, done that clear scope of work. You have to pay me. Yeah, there was no. Well, jimmy's wife down the road said it needed to be different.
Speaker 1:And let's go ahead and redo this section because Jimmy's wife knows more than you do. But didn't you hire me as a professional? And then it would be oh, I can't tell you how many times Karen would get home. And you know you and Johnny had got all this figured out for the past three weeks. Well, he didn't even tell Miss Karen that this was happening. And Karen comes out there, pissed off that you got a machine in the middle of her freaking daisies. What do you mean? I asked Johnny about the daisies six times. Well, he never taught. And then you're in the middle of a marital argument and you're like I'm just trying to freaking dig your septic up, sis. Like I'm sorry, yes.
Speaker 1:So when I found out that the commercial world had a set of prints and I can train guys to look at the prints and hand the prints over and go hey, go do this and we get paid, that's a repeatable model for me, right? Yeah, for sure. All right, buddy, I've got one last question for you. The same question I ask every single person that comes here and I think you may have a pretty eclectic answer here. My guy, for the blue collar worker who is just stuck and is just sick and tired of being stuck in the mud man, mentally, emotionally, what is he doing? Man? Or maybe that corporate America schmuck that we were talking about earlier? No offense to anybody, but how do they keep going and change direction and get out of where they're at?
Speaker 2:Man, have a vision of the know where you want to go and what you want to do. Number one, number two, don't try and do you know, 80 different things to get to that vision. Have one set vision and then, if you have to do 80 different things to make that happen, then do it. But you know, at the end of the day, whenever you get, find what you're really good at and stay focused and call vision in on that. And so you know, that's why I always go back to, like Sam Walton, you know, he started with one grocery store and then he had a thousand. Why? Because he was really good at the grocery store.
Speaker 2:Point. He was the richest man in the world. He was in the grocery store business. He could, but didn't, you know, diversified into 50 different businesses, but he did. He stuck to the grocery store business and they became really good at it and that's why they're the largest brick and mortar retailer in the world today. And so, um, have a vision, surround yourself with people who are like-minded with you, um, and then, and then talk to people and, and, and, you know, talk to older people who have more wisdom and, and, you know, have experience and, and you know, build those relationships with the right people, who can, who can help you jump into what you want to do, and so sometimes just a little push is all it needs.
Speaker 1:Literally yeah, literally, I think I talk about it. I have probably said the word relationship in all 40 episodes of BlueCollarBusinessPodcastcom, but it's so key, dude, yeah, it is so key. Business is relationships. Isn't it funny that you got that one first contract and all of a sudden you got three or four more, because it's probably Karen saying man, I got this new kid on the block, man, and I signed him up and man, we're about three months in and he's flat killing it. Who you got over there? Well, well, here's his contact. And then you're already in this group. You're right, man, if you can use that professionalism to get up to a different table that most people can't sit at, or they can sit but can't speak at, man, you're already ahead of the game and and you're just going to keep growing. I can't wait to watch you. I'm so freaking proud of you, dude.
Speaker 2:And you also, you know. Another thing too is you gotta be, you gotta be able to juggle Like you can't be afraid to wear every single hat in your business uh, no matter what. So you're, you're not just going into one business, you're going into multiple different things. So that's why that's why I don't I I'm not to a point yet to where I feel like I need to hire another office person. It's like because I've juggled it, I can juggle it, as long as I can continue to juggle it. And at some point in time within the next year or two, I will need more help with it, but until then, then, we'll just take one day at a time.
Speaker 1:No, I feel you. I got to bring up one point there that most blue collar folks don't know. I've had some fractional folks here on the show but most of us we just don't understand. But fractional CFO, fractional project management, fractional system builder like you can go out and hire experts in their field that fractionally help you with your business and man, I've done that with four different folks in the first part of this year, six months in, and I can tell you I wish I would have done it five years ago. Yeah, tell you avoid burnout.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, if it wasn't for them, I would be.
Speaker 1:Yeah man, but it also stemmed and led from my own ego and my own not wanting to self-reflect in the fact that, you know, I'm damaged from how people personally treated me through what I was trying to do for them or the company or whatever that may be, reflect and go. I can't let this stop us from growing Right. So, anyways, these fractional folks have come in and not only have they helped me do things, but they've also sharpened iron man. They call me out when I start. Well, I can do this. Well, can you? Though? Here's these numbers that you said you could. And I'm like dang, you know that entrepreneurial visionary that most of us are. You have to be you kind of wheel that back just a little bit.
Speaker 1:But, man, I could not even fathom where I could be sitting here in this seat right now in a different position, if I would have dialed back that ego and pushed off and delegated some more tasks to the experts so I can go out and do what I'm supposed to do, and that's sell, Literally. I'm hiring an operations manager, right, freaking now. Hey, go to psychonexccom if you're at the last little bit of this episode. If you're a heavy civil-minded relationship builder, I am looking for an operations manager. Shoot your resume in over at psychonexccom A small little shameless plug there. But I'm telling you that because I have so much other crap and I'm passionate about in my life that I'm now being drug into. It's not fair to my crews, to the ladies up front, to my estimators up front, that I'm the cog in the wheel that slows everything down. That's not fair, and I had good conversation with everybody in the team. Is this the direction we need to go? And, man, the feedback I got was insane. Yes, we kind of do, and it's hard for them to look at me and go hey, we need to replace your ass. You know what I mean. That's difficult and it was difficult for me to hear, but it was the reassurance from them that I'm like, oh my God, I am the bottleneck and it was just this relevating experience.
Speaker 1:So hiring an ops manager so I can stick over here in the sales lane, be that people's person, be the person that folks want to deal with and get their real estate development done or their commercial project done with and know that I'm going to help them walk through the whole process and that's what I'm good at, my guy. Don't get me wrong brother. You have to be, as an entrepreneur, a good operations manager or you fail. But there comes a point. Are you passionate about operations? Are you freaking passionate about the numbers coming out? Or are you passionate about reading the numbers at 30 days from now and analyzing and strategizing where the business and developing where it's going to go? Man, that's all deep stuff to chew on, you know. And yeah, it's tough and I'm getting force-fed this crap right now. And then when your team shows up and they're like Cy, it's time, Like thank you for concentrating on each and every one of our roles and building job descriptions and systems and processes and SOPs, but it's time to replace you or none of this is going to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm like but anyways, I'm in the middle of that, so I'm trying to practice what I preach because, man, the bottleneck in business is so hard and once you cut the bottleneck off of it, it's just let the river flow. But, guys, where can we find you at Website Facebook?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my website's Facebook on Southern Turf and Landscape. But my website's being built at the moment. That'll be www.5stargroundscom. Love it, and so that should go live within the next week or two, hopefully sooner than that. And then I got some things going with marketing and some other things to try to ramp up a little bit more. Bet I got some things going with with marketing and and some other things to, to try to ramp up a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Bet, bet, I love it. Um, go check them out. Southern turf and landscape. Yeah, thank you for saying that. With it I screwed that lawn scape. I'm sorry, it's the first name I think I've ever messed up. But go check them out. Go check out number 40 episode here, guys. Go check out all 39 other episodes at bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom.
Speaker 1:If you have a product or a service that you think needs highlighted here on the show, become a sponsor there on the tab on the website. Shoot that over to us. I'd love to get in talks with you guys. We've got some big things coming in that realm for you, for all of the audience, moving forward. I'm pretty excited for that. Leave us a like and a follow here at the end of the episode. Appreciate you guys so much and until then, be safe and be kind. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like. Share it with the fellers. Check out our website to send us any questions and comments about your experience in the blue collar business. Who do you want to hear from? Send them our way and we'll do our best to answer any questions you may have. Till next time, guys.