FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #69 Inside Lyndale’s Honey Do List: Craft, Care, Community
A new house with bare walls and a long to-do list doesn’t just test your patience—it can spark a business that serves a whole neighborhood. That’s how Lawrence Adams turned a personal need for TV mounting, blinds, and furniture assembly into Lyndale's Honey Do List, a trusted local service built on speed, care, and integrity. We walk through his path from helping friends in Embrey Mill to creating a repeatable, professional process that saves homeowners time, stress, and surprise costs.
Lawrence breaks down the biggest DIY myth: if a video makes it look easy, your walls will agree. He explains the unseen steps that keep projects safe—finding studs, choosing the right anchors, protecting wiring, aligning brackets under load—and why patience and the right tools are non-negotiable. Along the way, he shares practical tips for knowing when to call a pro, how to prep a space so the job takes minutes instead of hours, and the simple checklist that prevents damage before it happens.
We also dig into what sustains a local service business beyond the work itself. Lawrence’s philosophy is clear: enjoy the craft, plan like a pro, and lead with integrity. His story about returning a duplicate payment to a client with dementia reveals the values behind the brand—and why his reviews sound the same for a reason. Outside the job, faith and family keep him grounded, from supporting his daughter’s marching band to making time for church, the gym, and weekly date nights. It’s a portrait of service that feels both practical and personal: dependable help, done right, by a neighbor who cares.
If you’re weighing DIY vs. hire, starting a home services business, or just need a reliable hand for the next project, this conversation will help you act with confidence. Subscribe, share this episode with a neighbor who’s been staring at a TV mount, and leave a quick review to help more locals find us.
Lawrence Adams
Lyndale's Honey Do List
contact@lyndaleshoneydolist.com
+1 540-227-7078
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 02:Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today. Joining me, we have Lawrence Adams with Lyndale's Honey Do List. Lawrence, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 01:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 02:I'm excited to get to know you and learn more about your business. So let's start there. Can you please share with the listeners a little bit about your business?
Speaker 01:Yes. Originally I'm from Texas. I moved here in 2014, came up here for a job interview. What happened was me and my wife and my wife had a great, great marriage. So we wanted to purchase a home. When we purchased a home, uh we noticed that here in the Embry Mills area, uh, we noticed that we purchased a new home. There was nothing in there. So we I had to physically do everything. I had to put up the ceiling fans, window blinds, mount the TVs, assemble furniture. And I was like, hey, no one's here to help me with my honey do list. So next thing you know, I said, okay, I got pretty good at it. I enjoyed it. Next thing you know, we had other friends who purchased homes in the same area, and I went to help them. And hey, can you do this? I said, Of course. I'm used to this because I've already done it already. So it just became a passion of mine. I just enjoyed doing it, and it's just turned into a business. And that's how Lyndale's Honey Do List was formed, wanting to help others. Because I know if I was by myself, I'm pretty sure there's a ton of people who were by themselves. So that's how I kind of started. And for me, when I when I do business, it's like a freedom for me because it's it's fun for me. So I just enjoy doing it. So let me start a business, and here I am.
Speaker 02:I love that so much. And so let me ask you this can you tell us what is your range of services that you offer?
Speaker 01:The main thing I do now are are TV mounting, um, furniture assembly, and window blinds. Um, I will help out with other things, um, just small tasks around the house. Um, believe it or not, yesterday or Monday, I helped someone take a old air conditioner out of their wall that's been there since for 20 years. So little things like that, nothing major. Um, again, I just love helping people. So that's my range, mainly TV mounting, furniture assembly, window blinds, just small tasks around the house.
Speaker 02:Such a needed service. We moved into our house uh a little over a year ago. And oh my goodness, hanging that TV. That was not fun. So the fact that you enjoy that, you have a gift. That was not fun.
Speaker 01:It's about the tools and understanding what you're looking for. It's about repetition too. With the more repetition you do it, the better you get at it, and the better tools you get too. So it's a little bit simpler for me. Streamlining for me, the Mount TV is probably 30 minutes now. If that, it's just finding the studs, then doing my thing.
Speaker 02:All right, you hear that, homeowners. Instead of us trying to figure it out and go into Home Depot and buying all the tools and figuring it all out, just call Lawrence, he can get it done in 30 minutes. I love it.
Speaker 01:Exactly. If you got everything prepared, though, a lot of people don't have stuff prepared. It's everywhere. So I get it.
Speaker 02:Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. What a needed service. Okay, so thank you for sharing that. And so let me ask you this are you finding that there are any myths or misconceptions about what you do or about the industry?
Speaker 01:100%. One misconception is like you just said, the DIY. Anybody can do it. That's not true because you have to be patient. And a lot of people look at YouTube and think, okay, I can do it. Then they get involved. I hate to say it like this. This is one of my one of my biggest clientels is that people call, hey Lawrence, I need this done. I started, then I get there, I have to redo everything they've done to start all over because I got stuck in the middle or whatever, or they screw something wrong. So it's the the biggest myth is I can do it by myself without the proper tools and the proper research because it looks easy on YouTube when others are doing it. Even looking at me do it, hey Lawrence, I can do that. Then next thing you know, you done tripped the electrical cord or the power line or something like that. It's done gotten out of hand. Some people just get frustrated in the middle of the process, and that's what I love about my job. You can't skip a step because if you skip a step, you'll mess everything up down the line. And that's what I've been really been uh making a lot of business on was people calling me saying, Hey Lawrence, I tried, but I can't do it. Then I get there, I have to, it takes longer to undo the problems than it takes to actually build the problem. So that's one of the biggest myths that DIYs is simple and easy. It's easy if you're patient and you have the proper tools. And I always say this to people if you've never done it before, get someone like me to come in to at least look at what I'm doing. That way you don't mess something up because a lot of times people mess up the product, they can't return product or it's it's crooked or it's damaged because they just didn't take the time to do it. So a big myth is I can do it because they did it, it doesn't work like that.
Speaker 02:So that's why it's never as easy as it seems ever.
Speaker 01:If you get a box, let's say a uh a table something or even a dresser, it's at least 50 parts in there, and each part has an intricate detail where it's supposed to go. And if you mess one thing up, you can mess the entire thing up. So that's why I'm saying it's not as easy as it looks, but if you be patient, take your time. Most people don't have patience. That's why I'm in business, by the way. Uh it's just if you be patient and do it, anyone can do it, but it just takes patience and time. And most people don't have time or patience if that makes sense.
Speaker 02:So you were really smart and you saw a need and you started a business from that need. And so tell me, if someone were to come to you and ask you for some advice, because they're thinking about starting a business, what advice would you give them?
Speaker 01:For me, um, I would want people to understand that to start a business, it takes planning. Anyone can just pop up a business, but it's about being successful. And if you're not successful in life, in business, it's going to fail and you won't enjoy doing what you're doing. So the first thing I say is that you want to enjoy doing what you do, what you're whatever it is, whatever business you're in. So with me, I enjoy mounting TVs, I enjoy furniture assembly, I enjoy uh hanging window blinds, I enjoy helping people, you know, such as yourself. You would call me, you'd kind of be stress-free. Lawrence got to get out the way. That's what most people do. But I would just say enjoy doing what you're doing uh first. And I think the second thing is you want to have business integrity because we're lacking that in in a lot of areas. And let me give you an example. Uh, one day I went to assemble a recliner and a table for a lady, and she was dealing with dementia and uh Alzheimer's disease. I'm sorry about that. And she paid me cash when I first got there. And I was like, Thank you, XYZ. I did the work, she was satisfied. She gave me a glowing review. Um, I left, and when I got home, she paid the invoice. I have an invoicing system that I send electronically to you know document stuff, but she paid me with cash, so I couldn't update it right then and there. But she ended up paying me twice with the invoice and with cash. So I was like, okay. And again, if I was didn't have business integrity, I would have just kept it and said, hey, you know, played it off. But my conscience wouldn't let me do that. And so what I did was I actually went, drove back to the lady's home. Um, I gave her her cash back. I said, You've paid me once already. Um, I don't need this. And I told our people, you know, whoever was there, I said, You got to be careful because someone can take advantage of her. So the fact that I'm in business, it doesn't mean that I'm chasing dollars to make to make me rich. It's I want to help people. And I think that's what's more important than anything. You want to help people solve a problem that they can help, and you don't want to take advantage of people. So in business, you got to have that business integrity and you you should love and enjoy what you're doing because if you're not doing that, it's gonna turn to a job. And when it turns to a job, you'll be looking elsewhere in a year or two. Just that's that's my two sense.
Speaker 02:Yeah, no, that's such great advice, and it's so important in business to have a strong why. You know, for me, it's it's my why is I love helping businesses grow. And when I see them grow, I get I get a lot of satisfaction. And so you, you know, your why is you know, you want to you want to genuinely help people and um for all business owners remembering why you got in this to begin with, then it doesn't start to feel like a job. So that's really great advice. Thank you for that.
Speaker 01:No problem.
Speaker 02:So you are clearly working hard and taking care of your customers. So when you're not working, tell me, what are you doing for fun?
Speaker 01:Oh, I'm a fun person. Uh, I'm loving the place. Uh me and my wife, we love to travel. My wife, Kenya, and I, we love and my daughter Michaela. We love traveling. Um, we love going to see the grandkids. We have four children, seven grandchildren. Uh, well, one's on the way, a little boy. I got six girls and one boy on the way, so I can see him in December. But we love traveling. Um, I love going to the gym working out up here in uh Stafford at One Life Fitness. That's a shout out. I love that gym. I love the hot tub more than anything. It's more just relaxing and just get to relax my body, but just staying healthy, stuff like that, as we all should. Uh, I love going to church. Uh, my church is Mount Olive Baptist Church in Woodbridge. Um, I love my church family. Uh, my pastor's Pastor Clyde W. Ellis Jr. Um, I enjoy going to church. It gives me peace, it gives me purpose, it gives me just clarity of why I'm here. You know, it's a greater call, if you will. Um, I love helping with projects. I love playing cards, I love playing games. Um, me and my wife have date nights. We try to have date nights every week. We're getting good at that, we're getting better at that. Um, and also love supporting my daughter. She's um the drum major at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, and she's a drum major, and I'm in the pit. So, and my wife's in concession, so I'll be running the pit with the guys, props and stuff like that. And my wife does concessions, feeding the kids and stuff like that. So we just enjoy spending time as a family. Um, I just love hanging with my friends and just having good times. Um, I love a great conversation, by the way. Uh, my grandmother is 92 years old. I get to see her in a couple days. So just love talking with her just about the Lord and just about work. She loves what's here I'm doing, and she's in Texas. So just things like that. Just love a great conversation. So life is what you make. Yep.
Speaker 02:You're you're very rooted in faith and family, and that's what keeps you grounded when, especially in business, when it starts to get crazy. I love that.
Speaker 01:Exactly. Yep.
Speaker 02:So tell me, what is something that you wish the listeners knew about Lyndale's Honey Do list?
Speaker 01:That's a great question. Um, what I want our listeners to understand is that you have help in your community, and I'm here to help homeowners, businesses, senior citizens, veterans, single parents, single mothers, single dads, uh, married husbands, married women, especially the married men, we've got to stick together. So I guess my point is you have help in your community, and you don't have to go far to find it. And again, I'm very flexible in my community. If you if you go to my website, read all my reviews, they're pretty much the same, you know, good, good, good, good, good. But it's just I'm very flexible and I love helping people. So if you just have some some other small minuscule task, if I can't do it, I can find someone who can. So with me, you have help. You don't have to sit there and struggle or try to figure something out and mess something up. So that's my main thing is understanding that we have local help in our community. Um, and I have a crew that comes with me, takes care of everything. Everything is always, always, always approved by you until you're satisfied. If you're not satisfied, I have not done my job. And if I haven't done my job, I want to hear from you and saying, what can I do to make it right? So it's more so about customer satisfaction. Uh, I've been a retail for about five years, so I understand customer satisfaction. And a lot of my customers are repeat customers. I have customers up here where I live, uh, two ladies in particular said, Lawrence, if ever I have something going on, I'm going to call you first. So, and I love it. So, it's just customer satisfaction, but just knowing that you have help here in the community to with your projects.
Speaker 02:Amazing. Amazing. And if the listeners want to connect with you and learn more from you, where can they find you?
Speaker 01:Easy. Um, my website is lyndaleshoneydolist.com. I'm on uh social media platforms, uh, I'm on Angie's List, um, I'm on Nextdoor Neighbor. You can find me anywhere. Even my phone number is 540-227-7078. You can call or text. You can book appointments online also too. Um, we're we're here whenever you need us here, if that makes sense. So all it is, just a text message or phone call. And again, if you have a problem with something, just give us a call, text, or whatnot, and we'll answer to the best of our ability. So that's how you can reach out to me.
Speaker 02:Amazing, amazing. Well, Lawrence, I really appreciate you joining me on the podcast today and sharing your business with us.
Speaker 01:All right, sounds good. Thanks, Dori.
Speaker 00:Thanks.
Speaker 01:All right.
Speaker 00:Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.