Ep 72 - De Bizzell - Building Better Fields and a Better Sikeston

A perfect football field does not happen by accident, and it definitely does not happen on a tight deadline after a tornado. We sit down with De Bizzell of Green Grass Guys to get the real behind-the-scenes story of how Sikeston’s athletic fields are built, repaired, and kept game-ready when the weather, the calendar, and traffic all work against you.

De takes us through his third-generation business background, why he and his wife chose to move back to Sikeston, and what it looks like to modernise a long-running local company without losing its soul. We talk turf management at a level most fans never hear: compaction, drainage, crowns, aeration, topdressing, route density, and the tech that makes it measurable, including scouting tools that reveal moisture and growth patterns beyond what your eyes can catch.

Then we zoom out from grass to community leadership. De shares what pushed him to run for Sikeston City Council, why economic development and making it easy for businesses to grow matters, and how small wins add up when a town decides to pull together. If you’re into lawn care tips, athletic field maintenance, small-town Missouri success stories, or practical civic leadership, this one delivers.

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Transcript

Welcome To The Doghouse

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Alright, Bulldog Nation, it's time to get in the dog house. This is where Sykes and Pride lives, where we tell the stories that make this town special. From the legends of the past to the faces shaping our future. Whether it's basketball, community, or just that good old Bulldog grit, we've got you covered. You're listening to the doghouse, the voice of Sykes. What is up, Bulldog Nation? Thanks for checking again, checking in again with us this week. Episode 72, season two, episode 31. Refrigerator Perry. Oh, it is. Look at you, 72. Wasn't Ed Too Tall Jones number 72? Play for the 2019.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

I think he was he 72? Yeah, I think he might have been 72. Yeah, there's a lot of football players. Yeah, there's a lot of linemen, a lot of linemen, defensive linemen. The refrigerator. Refrigerator.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

I like it. I like it. You are Micah Harris. I'm Matt Tanner. Thanks for joining us again. We'll get rolling here.

Sponsors And Local Shout Outs

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Shout out to our partners that we have. Mercy Phoenix, M-E-R-C-I, and Mr. Jody Cheney. They are your health care solution partners. They can provide nurses, EMTs, EMS, LPNs, all the alphabet of medical field. Medical field folks that they can help you with that. Or they are also, they can also help you prov help uh employ you, which I saw again actually today. They're hiring some folks. They needed four or five. It was a Facebook post I shared it for Mercy Phoenix. Again, it's Mercy M-E-R-C-I-Phoenix and it's spelled like the city, P-H-O-E-N-I-X. And you can reach them on their website at mercyphoenix.com or reach out and send them a message through their Facebook page and they will get back to you. But we are proud to partner with them and we're we're glad that they are part of uh part of who we are and what we do. And our next partner is uh Greengrass Guys, Mr. D. Bizzle and Mr. David Bizzle, and you will get the opportunity to hear Mr. D. Talk about his favorite thing, one of his favorite things, I guess. What's that? Growing grass. Oh, yeah, absolutely. He's got we've got some funny stories, some stories of how he got started in this business, uh his city council, all kinds of JCs, the hospital board, just an absolute all-around, just a just an outstanding person from an outstanding family who are icons of our town. They are a huge supporter of our school, of our city, the JCs, the hospital, and and fortunately for you and me, Micah, they support us. Support us. They do. Not just in yeah, we'll pay you something, but they are supporters of us and they they help promote us, but but and not just of the doghouse, but of what we do. Right. Of of rising tide lifting all boats.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

You'll you'll see as as you listen to him today that he is very well a Sykstonian. 100%.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

100%. Come and and and it comes from way back. Again, it's just it's been he's he's he's been trained in that. He's he he's learned that, he's been he's grown up with that, and it's certainly a part of who he is and who he wants his his family to be. His family to be, too. Matter of fact, he talked about choosing to come back here. That is correct. That is correct. He had other opportunities, he and his wife had opportunities elsewhere, and they wanted to come back here. And our town is better because they're here. Right. There's no question. But again, green grass guys, turf management, and now what he called he called it exterior pest or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Talking about like ants and mosquitoes and stuff, exterior.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

And you have to have licensing and pest control. Yeah, you have to have licensing.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

He'll explain that better than we can. Yeah. But but yes, if you have exterior license to do that, and they're able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

That's correct. That's correct. And they are we're proud to be partners with them. And you can reach them on their Facebook page or there's a number. You'll hear actually an ad a little bit later in our in our podcasts that we have for them. And please reach out to them. They are they are the absolute best. They are it will get your yard, as they say, looking right. And they're it's economical too. It should, you know, it they'll have it to where it can fit your budget. Give our shout outs to Luke for our cool graphics. He got all of our stuff done you see on the TV behind us. We appreciate him doing that each week. Shout out to Aaron, my wife, for uh putting up with us and allowing us to get this done. Shout out to Justin, my brother and Micah's brother-in-law. And the general nuisance. He's our general nuisance and our general counsel. Shout out to him, Tucker Cheney, son to the aforementioned Mr. Jody Cheney of Mercy Phoenix. Thanks for him giving a lot of help on our video editing, and it's growing and it's getting better each time. And I'm very thankful that he was willing to do that. Shout out to Derek James, Brian, Derek James, Brian James for all their help and their stats and their history of all things bulldogs and bulldog basketball and southeast Missouri sports as well. And certainly last but not least, Mr. Tyler Anderson, twisted over woodworking for a cool sign on the wall. Appreciate that. How about your shout-outs?

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Oh, my wife. I I appreciate her so much. Let me come and be here tonight and enjoy doing this. So shout out the support. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Yep. Appreciate that, sis. Please like, follow, share the doghouse on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. And we would be very much appreciated if you would do that. But it it helps us so much to help continue getting this content put out there and for other people to hear it. And we are reaching people outside of here. We'll we'll have we got some upcoming guests from neighboring communities that I think you're really going to enjoy that as in a in a funny way have some ties back to Sykston. Yeah, it's really cool how that stuff will play out. You can catch our podcast and all the episodes on Apple, Spotify, Instagram, Amazon, iHeartRadio, and a whole list of others. And you can catch them on our website at thedoghouse.buzzsprout.com. There's an embedded player on there, and you can listen to the past episodes. And again, we have two separate Apple streams. Again, it's a long story, but one of the Apple streams goes all the way back actually to episode one. The other one starts at episode 15 with Coach Howlerfield when Micah started. So there are two out there. You can uh you can go all the way back to the first one, and we appreciate you listening to the ones that you missed. Please go back and check them out. And if you need to reach us, you can reach us at doghouse.sykston at gmail.com. You can send us an email there, reach out to Micah or me if you've got any suggestions, somebody you think we need to get on here. We're always we're always up for that. If you're interested in partnering with us, reach out to us, let us know. And if you want some swag, give us a

Bulldog Summer Sports Check-In

SPEAKER_03 7:50

shout too. But as we talked about in the podcast coming up that you don't know that we've already recorded, I mentioned that I was gonna talk a little bit about Bulldog basketball. Today the Bulldogs traveled to Dexter and played in Rib City. They played Leopold, Rector, Arkansas, and Mayfield, Kentucky. And interesting tie back to Sykston. I need to get him on here. That just made me think of that. Mr. Jimmy Lincoln. Okay. Jim Jimmy is the I'm writing this down so I don't forget. He is the head coach at Leopold. But Jimmy, Jimmy was he graduated from Sykston in '83, I think. 832, 83, 84, but I think it's 83. Coached at Richland for a while. Coached high school, obviously, coached some up toward Lake of the Ozarks, but he's also been a college coach with Corey Gibson, like at Austin P. Yep. And uh maybe a couple other spots. Well he was a he was assistant at Charleston for a while. He was assistant at Charleston, that's correct. So guys got terrific basketball knowledge. I saw Jimmy today. I see him. We stay in touch. Not we're not we'll text every day, but I I see him enough to talk to him, and we we talked for a little while today, and it didn't even occur to me, but I I need to I need to throw him on list. He would be, he's got just some really great stories. Again, he's been all around the United States coaching basketball. And he loves the basketball. Do what?

SPEAKER_01 9:30

He loves basketball.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Oh, he loves it's obvious. Yeah, loves basketball. It's his passion. Got a lot of cool friends that he might talk about on here. I know he's friends with some some professional athletes and things like that. So he would be somebody to have on here. But the Bulldogs beat Leopold, beat Rector Arkansas 10, 12, 15, something like that. And then uh the third game, when you and I mentioned this off the air, I was like, he go, you go, oh man, that third game. And I'm like, yeah. They Mayfield's really good. And uh it was like nine or ten points. Mayfield won. Was their second game, Bulldogs third game. Wish we would have seen them second game. I mean, it's it's summer. Again, go back to Pussyclay.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

If I looked at the schedule, they were all almost but they were pretty close. They were.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

And it actually that one ended up being even sooner because there was a game that got cancelled for whatever reason, and so the court was open, so they were both open, so we hadn't played. And so that was just their second game, but that was the third game, it was almost back to back. I mean, it was really, really cool.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

I was just looking at the schedule because it looked like it looked like they started on one court and then moved to another court, that's correct, and they were like real close. Yeah. I mean, within like probably playing three games in less than a three-hour period.

SPEAKER_03 10:49

Oh, yeah. They they they played in quarters. I mean they don't play full full 15-minute halves, running clock, kind of all that stuff. So it's but you still get to that third game and they're tired. Not making excuses. It's summer. Again, we've talked about Pucksco. Talked about it last year. None of that matters. It's okay. We're getting kids, you're putting them in Well, you're you're teaching. You're learning, they're coaching, they're teaching, they're learning how to deal with some fatigue.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Coaches are learning the players, too.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

I mean, and we and again, we've talked about this earlier. We got we got three guys coming back, and actually, Sean didn't play and didn't play the other night. He twisted his ankle, and he he's walking around and doing but There ain't no sense in putting it. There's no reason to push it. It's summer, and of course, you know, he's wanting to help and wanting his team to win, of course. But don't there's no reason to push it. They play next Tuesday down in Dyersburg, it'll be just fine. It he'll and he'll be really good.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Well, they went a couple years ago, remember didn't uh PJ had some kind of injury during the summer and and he kind of pushed through it and pushed through it, and it lingered most of his junior year.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Right. It was just yeah, it's just not necessary. It just just let it heal. And and Sean understands that. You know, of course he won to play, and but he understands, and that's but that but that's the right call. Let it heal fully. He'll be back next Tuesday. They got two. Now down at Dyersburg, they'll play two like full full games officials, clock stopping, shooting free throws, yeah, counting fouls, all that stuff. So they'll get plenty of basketball.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

I know basketball's going. I've I've seen look like pretty good numbers at wrestling.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

Yes. I talked to a couple of the kids today that pla that play football too, Lane Meyer and Adam Green, and I said, How's workouts? They said we lift in the mornings at six or seven.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

I think they do like lifting and they do some skill work and yep, yep.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

And he said next week is their that Dexter camp.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Dexter camp where they do the the big man camp and all or the and Adam said that's my favorite camp.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

So yeah, so that's coming up. Even though it's quote unquote off season, it's busy season. Right, right. Our kids are playing baseball, you know, kind of all that stuff together. Right. And so it was it's certainly not quote unquote off season. It's this is get better season. That's exactly right, Micah. That's exactly right. Now is the time that you improve. That's exactly right. And you can see it in a lot of the kids that are working hard, you know, even though they play Rib City, coach will still have them. They still do some workouts and stuff. You know, you get I think 20 days a year. I'm sorry, during the summer.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

I mean, I and I know baseball and and like basketball, especially. These kids, this is a busy time of year for them because a lot of them play not with only with the school, but they play AAU ball all weekend.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

I mean, like typically June the AAU dies down a little bit because that's that's kind of the high school deal.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Kind of builds up in May and then kind of dies. And then ramps up in July or August. Yeah. Yes. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

That's they have that peach tree classic down there. I think peach trees in July. Right. Peach jam, peach tree. I'm sorry, peach jam, that's right. Peach jam.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Now that's the E Y B L though.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that's AAU is kind of a generic kind of term for that. Right. There's different leagues in AA. That's right. That's right. But that all kind of ramps up and then kind of finishes in August, too. So and in baseball, you know, there it's summertime.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

I mean, you got treble ball, you got travel all this stuff.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

Kids playing for the squirrels, they're playing for the the bulls, and I think I can't remember what all the names are. Yeah, I don't know. They it it was totally different than when we played. So well, with that being said, guys, just stick

Guest Setup And Transition

SPEAKER_03 14:40

right with us. We got a really, really good guest coming up. You're you're really going to enjoy this. Even though you might know D, there's gonna be some things in there that you don't know that he's you can you you'll see his passion and he is maybe maybe learn a little bit something that he likes that we didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

We definitely didn't know he liked.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Absolutely. Would have he could have knocked me off the couch with a feather when he told me that. So stay with us, please, and we'll be right back after a quick break. Hey, thanks for sticking with us through the break. We're gonna now move on to the I'll say second half, the better half of the podcast, right, Micah? Most people get tired of hearing us.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

They do they ramble us rambling. Us rambling. Yeah. But we'll in our in our first part, we'll I may we yeah, we'll we'll talk a little bit about the same things in the first part, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Exactly. We'll we'll uh we'll have a little basketball to get to. Went and watched the little Sykston hoops.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

So a little report on that. So anyway, so you're hearing this and you've probably already listened to the first half, but that's because we're recording them the second half, then the first half. That's okay. Yeah. No biggie. Let's get to our guest. This week in the doghouse,

De Bizzell's Roots And Return Home

SPEAKER_03 15:50

we're joined by one of Sykston's biggest community supporters and one of our founding partners, Mr. Dee Bizzle of Greengrass Guys. Dee is a third generation business owner who's built a reputation across the region for transforming athletic fields, commercial properties, and other outdoor spaces. If you've watched a game on one of Sykeson's beautiful athletic fields lately, there's a good chance Dee and his team had something to do with it. We'll talk about growing up in a family business, the challenges of entrepreneurship, the science behind behind maintaining elite athletic fields, and what led him recently to run for and win a seat on Sykeson City Council. From grass and sports to business and public service, D's story is all about investing in the community he calls home. Dee?

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Welcome to the doghouse.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

Welcome to the doghouse.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Thank you guys. Absolutely. I think I told you earlier, I mean, you have found the bottom of the barrel. Y'all's podcast, you got no more names. No more names in the barrel.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

Because like those commercials, when you see it, it said you now have completed the internet.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

I mean, you start looking at the list. What number is this? What episode? 72. So you start looking at 72. Oh, so I was 72nd chairman of the JC Boot Hill Rodeo. No way. Episode 72. Really? That's awesome. Yeah. So, but you start looking at who who came before me. I mean, all the Holofields. Some of them twice. Will was twice. Obviously, my my cousin Blake came on. I mean, you got Jake Pride, you got all these guys, and then you got the guy who deals with the grass.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

No, man, it's a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

I mean without you, they can't play the game.

SPEAKER_03 17:21

Exactly. Even before, and maybe we'll set the record straight. Even before you were a partner with us, I was Oh, yes. I was always talking about it. Well, and I think that's what made me.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

That honestly is what made me want to have it become a partner because you started you started talking about it, and you and I, you know, you started really asking me questions. We have been. Yeah. And you started asking me questions. You started seeing me doing certain things. And then all of a sudden on the podcast, I mean, the first few episodes, you're blasting. I'm like, I'm gonna call Matt, see if I can sponsor this thing. And Matt goes, Well, we haven't really thought about that yet. No, we won't. I was like, well, I was I literally was like, how much do you want? Yeah, because you're doing a great job promoting my business. And here we are.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

It wasn't because I had this grand plan of I'm gonna get D as a sponsor. It had absolutely nothing. But you did it.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Well, I've been like every time every time I pull up to the house, I'm like, man, this this grass gets looking better and better every day.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

I mean, man, it does look good. And and and my neighbor, he's like, Man, I'm tired of your grass looking better than mine. I'm like, I've told you, call D. 471-5674. There we go. It's on our podcast every week. Got his number. Absolutely. Give him a call. He's the guy that can fix you up. So tell us, tell us a little bit about D. I mean, I I know a lot about you. Tell us, tell us your third generation kind of goal stuff.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

You know, born and raised here in Sykston. Yep. You know, just like everybody else, like us, we we love this town. Yep. You know, everybody in our family, very invested from businesses to education to athletics in this town, from you know, little league up. I mean, we we've always followed that that that train of if you invest back into the community, the community will invest back into you. And and it always has for me. Getting back on track, you know, born and raised, graduated in 08 from Sykston. Yep, had a lot of fun, a lot of fun athletic years there growing up watching more or less, not as much participation on my side. I was telling Matt earlier, I am the most athletic bizzle in the family born in November. You know?

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Are you the only one? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

Because Blake was born in August. JR was when's he born?

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Jenny Blake was no Blake was I think July was August, didn't it? August. Yeah, Jenny was July. Okay, Blake was August, JR was September. Then they took a breather because that was too much. It took a month off, I guess, and then I came along. But yeah, we, you know, I've I had a lot of awesome athletes in my family that I got to travel the world with and watch. You know, my my path, and I'll get to that. My path kind of went a different route. I was, I was, man, I I never knew I wanted to do. Still to the day I'm a kid, I don't know what I want to do in life. When I grow up, when I grow up, I'll figure it out. But you know, I graduated from Sykston, moved to Springfield, Missouri, went to Drew University. Oh, I didn't thought you went to Southwest Missouri State. You know, dad, dad didn't get a college education. Yeah. Just came out. My dad just came out as a just a hustler.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Went to work.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Went to work.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

And worked with your grandpa.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

He did. You know, he my grandpa worked three jobs.

SPEAKER_03 20:42

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

You know, he was a postman. No, I didn't. Nursery during. So my grandpa was a postman. Didn't know that. He delivered flowers for the flower patch. And then before or during the night hours, he trimmed bushes, and that's where that started.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Right. Then him and dad took off with the mowing. Dad really took off on that side and the nursery, and my grandpa just loved it. Just loved every bit of it. Very similar to what and there's actually a photo somewhere I gotta find of all three of us together. Oh yeah. And I think dad actually has it. It's a really neat, really neat photo. So I went to Drury, I got an environmental studies degree. Okay. Found a young lady who is now my my my wife. And yes, he's like the rest of it. He of us, he outkicked his cousin. I did. I did. And we got two beautiful little girls that were raising here in Sexton. But I met her my senior year.

SPEAKER_04 21:42

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

She's from the Springfield area. Oh, okay. So she she we got a lot of good home cooked meals when I when I met her because we'd go see her parents all the time. Right. But you know, and it's it it's funny. I was in a fraternity. And one of the things was you had to do something during orientation for the fraternity to try to recruit more members. So I was an orientation leader. Well, come to find out, Sheila was selected to be in my orientation group. So I was sh my wife's orientation leader. And everyone's like, oh, there's D scoping out. And I was like, well, I found my wife being an orientation leader, so it worked out. Right. But yeah, so in senior year, I still obviously didn't know what I wanted to do. I had it, I had a degree, a few minors, just, you know, just still to this day, don't I still don't know what? But I stayed and I got a master's in integrated marketing with her in the marketing department. I did not know that. Yeah. And so we moved back here in May of 14. And, you know, we had some opportunities. We weighed everything out. And at the moment, I was like, man, you know, we can go back to my hometown. We can pack all of our stuff up here. And we know that's going to be great. There's going to be something there for us. And at that time, I didn't know if I was going to stay working for my dad at the time. I know that it provided great because it it provided us shelter. It provided education. I mean, to this day, my dad will tell us that my dad's greatest investment he's ever made was in my brother and I's educations. Sure. And this business did it. So dad started losing his eyesight a little bit, still fighting it to today. And at the time, I, you know, I I looked at myself in the mirror, and then I was talking to Sheila. I was like, I feel like I need to go back.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

And we did. There's a little bit more to it. You know, I'm sure Sheila driving her car, she says she cried all the way here. Like, I'm following a guy to a small hometown filled place. But it when she got here, everybody welcomed her with open arms. Which you know, there's a story. She uh when we first started dating, I called home. I said, Hey, mom, dad, you know, is my birthday weekend. November. November. Best athlete in the family born in November, bringing Sheila home. They met her at one of Blake's baseball games. And they're like, okay, great, great, great. I was like, you know, I want her to meet Grandpa Bizzle, and I want her to, you know, really get to talk to Lynn and Mike and that whole crew that's going to come over and the Davids on the other side, you know, the craters and the Dolans. And I was like, but mom, let's let's keep it, let's keep it kind of tight-knit. Oh, oh, you know. Well, mom, or probably not even mom, it's probably dad. Dad tells the the office, hey, yeah, D's bringing a girl home. Oh, okay. Well, who is putting up with D was the real question. Man, I'm telling you, when we showed up, it was like showing up to Thanksgiving dinner. There was probably 90 people there just to give her condolences. Right. But yeah, so we we come back, we we moved to town, we we buy my grandpa's old house. So we, you know, some sentimental things. It's pretty cool. Yeah. And then we just I spent a couple years really studying what my dad's business that he's worked 40 plus years building, where where the biggest ins and outs were for us and the best profit margin, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

And take it to the next level.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Try to take it to the next level and bring it to really the 21st century. I mean, when I moved back, the first job Sheila had was at the end of the month helping handwrite every invoice. Oh no. From people buying plants, one one load of mulch to a landscape. I mean, you gotta think, you know, in our prime season, then we're putting out a thousand invoices, and every single one of them was handwritten. Oh and let me tell you, Anne, who ran my dad's office at the time, you know, God love her, she, you know, she she put up with a lot. And you know, she she she hated when I say, Hey Annie, I got an idea.

SPEAKER_03 26:23

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Hey Annie, I got an idea. And most of the time she just pointed, just like, not right now. And then she'd call me about an hour later and says, Okay. Now you can come in and let's talk about it. Yeah. And you thought, you thought I was like the world was ending when

Modernising The Family Business

SPEAKER_02 26:40

I introduced QuickBooks. But then when she found out payroll didn't take a full day and it took 30 seconds, or invoicing was invoicing was automatic. It was it, you know, but it was one of those things. I knew one day my dad's generation and our staff, our aging staff was gonna need there there at one point it was gonna be me. And sadly, during COVID, we lost Ann. And that, you know, and we've all we all lost somebody during COVID. And you don't have full closure with it, and we still probably really don't as a family, but we were sitting there, and within, you know, that same 12-hour moment, it goes from trying to mourn to, okay, who's taking over the office? Well, that I I I look left and right, and it's like, well, looks like that's me. It's me. I gotta do this, I gotta do this, I gotta do this. And you know, we whipped it into shape very quickly. It kind of took me off out of the field, and still today I do less in the field now than I was.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

You you have to manage the business so that you do so the business doesn't manage you.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Exactly. And but I uh you had Sykston behind you, you know. They they knew it was gonna take a minute for me to do certain things. They, you know, my the our crew that helps with the accounting, that they stepped up big and really taught me a few things and took me to school quickly. And you know, that's that's just you know, welcome to Sykston. Right and here we are today.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

You know, we're just yeah, but you have just like your dad did, you he took his dad's business and expanded it and grew it, and that's exactly what you've done.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

And I gotta put it on the record. David Bizzle has not retired. I gotta, I gotta put that out there. That that is the for some, I'm like, man, I I'm I'm 36. I'm like, I can't wait to retire. And my dad, he's like, I don't want to. I'm never going to. I'm like, that's fine. But you can take you can take a step back. Nope, nope, nope nope nope. I don't want people thinking I'm taking a step back. We're we are full bore ahead. We are we are full force. And I love that because he motivates us to, you know, he got a new a new step because in February we sold my dad's nursery and landscaping. Yep. You know, I took over that sector probably eight-ish years ago. Really, really took a lot of that burden off of him. Yeah, but you didn't really see it. He he still he still felt every bit of those emotions. And now, you know, you

Buying Companies And Building A Brand

SPEAKER_02 29:20

know, we've we've been going down this this new path for the past six months, and it's you know, we're all new people.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

What how did you get from the lawn care, nursery, all the things because you had that plus greengrass guys. How did you get to greengrass guys essentially?

SPEAKER_02 29:42

You know, dad and I dad and I knew one day that we would uh quote unquote downsize, not really downsize, but we would niche down. And I started finding, you know, where what my and and he was really, you know, he was very big about saying we gotta make sure it's what you want to do. We gotta make sure it's something that you want in 20 years. Right. Yeah, he's yeah, he's won't be involved in 20 years. Uh he probably will. Well, that's that's true. He probably will you will. He will. He won't, he won't ever leave. He won't. He's there. Show up every day. He's there. You know. Ask me that question one more time. No, I how did you get to Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, about seven, six, seven years ago, I I I started just quietly putting some words out there about acquiring companies. Actually, it's been longer than that, probably ten. So I have acquired quietly about six different spray companies in the last ten years. Okay. And I've we were running them uh under the Bizzle umbrella. But you know, we would bring them into Bizzles, we'd bring them into Bizzles. Well, then all of a sudden, you know, in our industry, the word got out. Well, this little Dwight Bizzle's buying buying all these companies, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you're like, oh no, I hope it's not a bad thing. Well, no, the baby boomers wanted out. And they kept approaching, kept approaching. Well, I found a young man who might have been just a little bit out over his skis, and he owned greengrass guys.

SPEAKER_03 31:25

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

And he was more or less in home pesticide. Okay. And they were dabbling. You know, they had a decent clientele in Cape Jackson.

SPEAKER_03 31:34

In the turf management.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

In the turf management side. And I approached him and I said, Hey, I heard you wanted to talk to me. You know, what's let's let's sign the papers to where I can start looking at your stuff. About six months later, I acquired them. And I Oh, so the name wasn't even necessarily yours then. It wasn't.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

I bought I I bought that company for the name. I I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

I thought that was something of your I found the guy. They weren't big enough yet. And I knew, I felt, I didn't know. I felt that that name, that logo, it's got some opportunity, it's got some catch. And I was like, I'm I'm gonna buy this company for its name. Well, then you start looking into the books, you're like, I'm gonna buy this company for this name. It's worth it. And it's got strong customer base, and now we're kind of starting to make that transition in probably 2027. We will have a stronger transition into everybody that's under my umbrella being going to Greengrass Guys.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

Oh, so you still operate some that are not call green.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

So we're trying so Greengrass Guys is in the moment right now acquiring Bizzle Lawn Care. I see. And so it's kind of like whenever you were, you know, back whenever cable was a deal, yeah, and you had one cable company buying another, and all of a sudden one logo is getting a little bit bigger than the other one on the invoice, and all of a sudden that one disappears. That's kind of what's happening now. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 33:02

I gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

So so, but you know, dad, dad had the landscaping, the hardscapes, the nursery, his plant health care, his mowing. And on top of that, he also, this is before I was even involved, had a smaller version of the spraying side. And he had 50 clients when I first came back. And we are substantially bigger than that now. Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

How big of an area do you cover right now?

SPEAKER_02 33:35

So that's a good question. So I've had everybody, I've had athletic fields all the way up to Festus.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

What?

SPEAKER_02 33:41

Oh yeah.

unknown 33:42

No.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

Out to Papa Bulls. I mean, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Money, money talks whenever you're trying to pay off a company. I know, I know. No. You know, I I I acquired those in a purchase. And customers, so to speak. And they ran their course, and I handed those over to somebody more up there that was, especially with like this year. We we handed them over this year. We kind of felt what was happening in the economy. Yeah. And traveling up there, it wasn't just gonna make it make it worth it yet. You know, we're we push a lot, Micah. I bet you majority is Jackson to Popper Bluff down to the border, Arkansas to to to the Mississippi, to the Mississippi River. Profitable area for you basically to get there. Yep. Good. Good. Yeah. Because you gotta think, so we spend, we've got about three days. You know, we do everything by route density. Yeah, sure. The more I can get a neighborhood, the better it is for us. Right. And so, you know, I've got I've got full, pretty much one full-time person that never leaves the Jackson, North Cape area. Oh, no kidding. And then I've got there's four of us that spanned the rest of it. So I've got one that lives up there, stays up there, he's got we've got the equipment up, stays north and works south to us, and we work north to him.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

And, you know, we kind of all like I'll send somebody west, south, east, and stay centralized in Sykston, and we all come to a certain point and we just work our way together. Yeah. And it usually takes about a month to to finish a round. And then it's and then it's go time again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

And what we typically do is kind of a clock rotation.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

And it gives everybody an opportunity to see every property that we have. Oh, except for the athletic fields. I tend to, that's kind of been my baby. It's your baby. It's got my baby. I was force gumping it for a while. Kind of kind of had

Managing Athletic Fields At Scale

SPEAKER_02 35:45

to have an intervention with myself. So how many do you have how many fields do you have here in Sykston? Every one of them.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

It's like baseball, football, soccer.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

It's kind of like it's kind of like the Lion King. I speak in in five-year-old terms here lately. Whatever the sun touches, it's ours. So that's kind of how we are right now with athletic fields here in town. Okay. We had an opportunity to take them on. The the school district decided to go a different direction, and they called me, which I was very fortunate.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

We don't this is not a knock because I I love our school system, obviously. But we don't I don't know we have the expertise to do that. And that's you know, we have guys that can maintain you.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

We've got a great, a great maintenance staff. Oh, a million percent. I will I'll tell you this. I've got two people that I text on a daily basis over there now. Yeah still. Because well, we are we're invested. Right. I'm getting paid, but I'm invested. I'm I'm getting paid way less than what I should be there because I'm so invested. I want it I want it to look like your name's on it. My name's on it. I want it to be perfect, but not only just for my business, but for the kids. Right. Yeah. If they feel like they're playing on something that is perfect or or college level, that my gosh, the the the confidence boost we can put into a kid, and and building confidence is the number one thing you've got to do. But you know, your main back to it, your maintenance staff that has maintained those fields have been, you know, they just didn't have the knowledge base. Well, that's what I mean. I don't mean negative. They have they had the tools, they just need to be tuned. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

Well, I mean, not not and I know Sykeson's probably not like this, but I mean Coach Jamerson talked about Eddie Spree, the football field, he had to go turn the water on and and maintain that football field himself.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

You know, it's and you know he's not a we're fortunate here, we don't have to do that. But it's pretty common among schools, though. But it's also because your coaches are so invested. Correct. I would say it's it I think it can be a double-edged sword in some of these situations. I think a lot of it is if the coach didn't do it, someone else is gonna do it.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

No, of course. But where I where I was going with that though, Coach Jamerson is terrific. He's an unbelievable football coach. But turf management, he can turn on a sprinkler. I can do that, I can mow my grass, but I can't get it to look like that.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Well, and that's what I mean. And that's the part I can do, you can mow it and I will say, you know, from all my different, you know, areas from commercial, industrial, residential, to just vegetation control, all of those are fairly, fairly much the easier side of our business. When you start talking athletic fields that are gonna have a ton of traffic, and I will say, for some reason here in Sykeston, anything dealing with athletics, there's more traffic here than anywhere else. That's for the baseball, soccer, football, municipalities, the golf course, the amount of traffic that we have, foot traffic on these things is unbelievable. And for people like me, it's the reason I'm going bald. Because I'm trying to keep the grass growing and we got so much traffic, which is a good thing. It means we're growing. Yeah, it means we're making we're making improvements to the community. Yeah. I didn't know if I could talk about the golf course, but yes, you were Yeah, we're we're very much blessed to have the opportunity to help with with with that.

SPEAKER_03 39:22

Kevin it's in the best shape I've seen it.

SPEAKER_02 39:25

Kevin, John believable. Kevin's got a you know, great superintendent in John. John's doing a phenomenal job, but it's just like anything else in in our industry, it's hard to find enough staff. Yep. Times are tough, you know, they're doing huge renovations.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

Yeah, it's it's more affordable having us come out and say you you have more state-of-the-art equipment that you know you can't just go buy for a golf course. I mean, like for the turf management.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Well, they have the state of the art maintenance equipment, but they don't have management.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

In most golf courses our size, that would probably be correct. But the investment that has been put into our golf course.

SPEAKER_03 40:04

Yeah, it's different now.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

It's different. Now, the spraying side, yes, I've got I've got that's what I mean, the turf management. I've got the most accurate like spray stuff on our equipment. I mean, our our our if you see us around town now, you'll see little computers on there. For a turf spraying company, not this isn't a big ag tractor.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

Like we've got it, it's called Optorate. I mean, it judges if I turn, it's going to put out more or less on the wings. Wow. If I speed up, it puts out more, so it's the correct amount. Wow. Like now that's the stuff John has, but the our setup and our practice is because John's having to do so many different things. Right. You know, he calls us in a pinch, and we're there to help. And which I saw, I drove by to check on hole seven today, and there's John out there on the spray rig. I mean, it's just at this time, that's all you do as a superintendent. You don't get off of it. You're you're doing growth regulators, fungicides, insecticides. It's just when you live in the for seasonal purposes, the armpit of the world of you've got every type of grass here. You you're hitting it, you're hitting it with everything.

SPEAKER_03 41:13

And it's hot and you're trying to keep it all alive, and or it's starting to get hot, I should say. Yeah. That's the, you know, it's it's it's a lot easier to do.

SPEAKER_02 41:21

But yeah, the athletic fields are definitely, but once you get it right, it feels so good. I mean, I've never had more text and phone calls about the soccer field and the football field, and it just makes you feel good and prideful for your town.

SPEAKER_03 41:34

I and and I don't I don't say this as even, but the junior high baseball field looked unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

Well, and you know, you got you got somebody who's also dedicated to the city, Eric Chapel. Yeah. Hey, that there you go. Who not only is he good at the administration side, but that dude loved to get his hands dirty. And he's very dedicated to make sure our fields are right. And he gives me the opportunity to come out and educate, come out and do do what I like to do. And we are we're very fortunate. Very fortunate in the community to have people like that involved.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

That's pretty interesting. Like it's a it's a different science than I I can't get, I can barely get well you you've got to give us go ahead and fear.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

I I got I got a question for you when you get it. I just we've talked about it on here. You and I've talked about it, and but I want the behind the scenes So I was actually about to dig in.

SPEAKER_02 42:33

I saw you, I saw your look. And I was like, Matt, Matt's gonna get into this because Matt has seen me more on a football field with with the athl with the lights on than without.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

I let me tell you, and and I I can tell you the love that D has. Yes, school's paying him. That's of course, he's not gonna you can't do it for free. You can't buy the sand and the the equipment that we have to pay for this.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

I didn't get paid to mow last year, but we had a bald in man, it's fun to mow a football field.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

Correct. But D was there after the football games, everybody's gone, and D's working on the football field. But where I I want to go, and Mike and I've talked about it because we talked about again this time last year, we're like, Man, I'm worried about it.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

I was worried about it. Like, man, D is we're gonna remember they were still leveling and everything else.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

You know, and I was talking to Andy McGill today. We were going over some stuff, and you know, every conversation starts or ends with, how do you, you know, our timeline, how do we feel? And right now I go, buddy, we are way better than we were last year. He goes, What do you mean? You were fine. Uh-huh. You kept saying you were fine. I said, Oh, I man, I put on uh it's fake it before till you make it. I was like, I was like, I knew we were gonna have grass, but when you told me we had to have a jamboree, I was like, uh, buddy, we need three more weeks. Which we had the downpour. Of June. June last year. I mean, every time we went again, I was literally trying to find someone to break the law and drone spray that thing for me because I couldn't get on it for three weeks. Well, yeah, if you remember, it was mud. It was I will tell you, I, you know, one of my one of the the jewels that I have I have I I have the privilege of having on my staff and a great friend, you know, Logan, who works for Logan Hampton. What a great friend. Works for me, great guy. He looks at me and he is really quick and really good about it of calling me out on some dumb ideas. Right? And I looked at it. Is this one of them? It's about to be. And Dad, I sit in there, we're in our old shop, and I'm looking at Logan, I'm looking at dad, and I'm looking at a palette of material that I need on that field. And I'm like, guys, this thing is a swamp, and I don't know what to do because I can't get I was I was trying to get a crop duster. I was trying to do anything. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you whatever I could get. I tried, and they were like, too close to the runway. If it was a mile further, we would probably break the law.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

You know, um, it's funny you said that about the drone. You could you could have got a drone on the field. You can't.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

Used to, you could. At the time, there's more guys without the license to spray with them at the time.

SPEAKER_03 45:26

Well, and I say a drone. The only reason I knew that is because I was trying to fly a drone several years ago over the tailgate, and it would go up. And if we would try to go like toward the airport, I mean it was like it was hitting an invisible wall.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

You'll have to ask Andy sometime to send you the photos. I uh I every week, about twice a week, I'd put my I have a special drone that can dictate heat, moisture, nitrogen, growth pattern, stuff like that, weed count, plant count, all of it. Wow. And we put it up and you could watch every week. You might not by the naked eye be able to see the progress, but that's where my confidence came is I kept seeing it in this. I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:07

Because at this time last year, you hadn't even seeded it.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

At this time last year, we had the field completely destroyed. Yeah. And nothing else. So let me not not me. The company that the school hired to come in that that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

No, what what what happened was if let's take everybody back just a minute. May of 2024, we had a tornado and it did some damage.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

It damaged the There was a lot of physical damage to the irrigation, yes, the wiring, the piping, correct, the field itself. Yep. It it hit the tennis courts. It did it a lot. All of these things. So that's why this was at that time the school's like, if we're gonna redo something, let's look at everything we got. We got insurance money to pay for it. Luckily for them, luckily for them, you know. Well, luckily for me, I don't know why I said them. Luckily for me, me being a hometown guy, they wanted somebody that could pay attention to this field. And I think they at that point they're like, this guy is dumb. This guy is an idiot because we are about to, we're about to get get get him made. And I'm like, you know what? I'm in. And you know, we we we had a good time with it, you know. But back to my my dumb idea was I call one of my reps, Eric O'Hare, who's a genius when it comes to a lot of the stuff that we're doing, that I qu I I send him, I send with him and I talk daily. And I I get him on the phone in front of Logan and Dad. I said, Hey, Eric, I need four push spreaders. I don't own one. I need four push spreaders, like for fertilizer. Oh, you mean like a like a drop spreader?

SPEAKER_03 47:48

Yeah, I couldn't, yeah, I couldn't get my. Well, yeah, something a little bigger than that.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

Yeah, I need something better. Okay. I need some bigger tires, something I needed. And he had some in stock. And Dad and Logan look at each other like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, my decision. And they're like, well, who's gonna push it? And I said, Well, I see two able bodies there, I see one right here, and I got one of them on the phone. And Eric's like, wait a minute, wait a minute. How does it sign up for that? And I was like, Well, we spent enough with you, you're gonna come help us out. Oh my gosh. Not like 10 seconds after I get off the phone with him, Logan calls him up and says, We're gonna need to cancel that order. And he hangs up and he's like, Listen, Dee, it's gonna be fine. The field's great. I'm not gonna have a heart attack push spreading in the mud because we're gonna and it it would have been a level. Yeah, at that time it was. Well, it was so I was I was needing it to flood. I was needing it, but I needed it to flood for a day or two, and then let me dry it out for four days, put something down, and reapply, reapply, reapply. Well, every time I start to dry it out, we get two, three inches of rain. Yeah. And it happened for three straight weeks. But, you know, good thing.

SPEAKER_01 49:05

So when did you when did you get it? It was right after 4th July, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 49:10

So we got sprigged. It was the first full week of July. If I can I'd look at my phone, I got photos of everything because my my aunt, I went out of town, I was I was like, I gotta get out of here. And so Aunt Lynn would go and check the irrigation box for me, make sure it was locked and shut off and unplugged. Yeah, we don't need any water on it right now. Make sure the main was off. But she would go when I did have the water on, and if I was out of town, she would go make sure everything like, you know, people are invested in it. And but it was about that time, and I had to we had to put some hyper focus on it, and we had to change our our game plan on the science, and it benefited us. It really did. I felt like, you know, we did have some by the mid-season, I could tell, you know, when you guys see it, it's beautiful. When I see it, I see, I see problems. Yeah, it's just nature of the beast. It's and we're we're still battling something on the on on the field. I'm not gonna say it because then you guys will see it, and then you'll call me out on air. But you know, come new construction, comes compaction. And so we're battling year two is a compaction deal, and that's what we're you saw us working it. We were aerating it, we were top dressing it. We we pulled four-inch cores out. I usually don't do cores, I usually solid tiny, the tine and nothing. But I needed to res I needed to literally really release some pressure. And that field, you could just like it's it's like taking a deep breath, right? You could see it. That fill has rebounded so quick because it has the opportunity to stretch. Yeah. Get the oxygen down to the roots, let the water go straight down to the roots. It it it just releases so much. And you know, we we we were able to top dress it, which for the next few years it'll be getting top dressed, not so much now as much as we did last year and this year because you know, we're just trying to get the imperfections out. Yeah. And now that this year we were really able to concentrate on some of those imperfections, that next year, in the years you know, following, it'll just be more of a maintenance type deal. Once we really see something, we can pile it on.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

I I was kind of gonna ask that question, like how long before you would have to maybe redo that whole field like you did.

SPEAKER_02 51:36

You know, I I can't remember. I think when they when that company came in and bulldozed the field, I think, you know, they they've dropped this ripper time in, and I think they pulled up three different irrigation systems. What? They just kept piling them in, piling them in, piling them in, which would just show me that field probably hasn't been recrowned in some time. I don't want to speak out of turn. Yeah, it might have been done in the last 20 years, maybe, maybe some some minor recrowning, but it hadn't been fully renovated because that's not cheap. Now it's cheaper than synthetic, but it's not cheap.

SPEAKER_01 52:17

But I mean, like the crown would be what would lead you to redo it again.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

I mean, like absolutely that. I mean, but there's there's now with the technology, it once you've got what we've got going now, you know, we can come in and phrase mow it, which is you'll see videos where they got this little thing on the back of a a good size tractor that looks like it's literally shaving the top layer.

SPEAKER_03 52:42

Almost like a detacher.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

So they have well, yeah, in a way, in a way, but it will take it to the dirt. Oh. And you can keep going and setting and and warm season comes right back from that. Right. But yeah, you know, the top dressing was really I I I see it, it really helps fix the imperfections. I think with the way that it blankets over, it also helps me. If we got like a fungal issue that won't go away, that I just keep battling go won't go away. I feel like it helps that in a way. It might not be technical, but to me, it helps. But, you know, with everything going on with that field, you know, we it was man, it was fun. But I told Matt, you know, I said, you know, I looked like I was this, but this is my shooting hand over here. I was I was I was getting a little nervous, but you know, when we made that that August 10th turn, yeah, they were supposed to have a jamboree on the 22nd.

SPEAKER_03 53:41

We didn't we didn't have it though.

SPEAKER_02 53:42

No, they called, you know, May, Coach May and Andy called me. We had a little meeting out in the field, and you know, Coach May, he's he's the he's the dude. Absolutely. Because you know he it's like he's like, This is my season, like I've got to prove it, right? And he's out there, and you're thinking, God, this football coach is about to kick my rear end. I'm just the I'm just the lawn boy, you know? And he looks at me and he goes, You tell me what I need to do. Oh, yeah. I don't want to go somewhere else. I want to host it here. But if my field is not ready, we will go somewhere else. And I said, Coach, I don't want to tell you this. He goes, don't have to. Hey, hey, Andy, removing the jamboree. Yeah. And they gave it the field another three weeks, and I'm telling you, that field looks so good today because of that leadership. Oh, cool. Now, well, I guess I I guess we they're gonna try to have it back this year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that two weeks ago, Andy, Andy called me and said, Are we gonna have a field for jamboree? I said, Coach, we could do jamboree right now. Let's go. We're good. We're good. Just let me know a couple weeks in advance so that I can I can start pumping some stuff to it so it can recover. That's right. I I talked to you and I talked, I think I talked to people. You know, behind the scenes, people don't know. Also, like if you think all we have is Friday night football. No, we got it on Mondays, we got it on Tuesdays, sometimes we got twice on Saturday, Thursdays, we got them on Thursdays, and you start looking at schedule and it's like, man.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

Yeah, because you got what, junior high, JC football, right? J V. Right. Had freshman team on the show.

SPEAKER_02 55:32

Everything, everybody in town plays football on that field now. Yeah. And you got, I mean, that thing, that it's it's a it's a very competitive turf. It's a very recovering turf. But you go it's gonna get worn out. But we're we're we're built for it now. Right.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

I mean, you ain't talking about 10-pound kids running around out there on the field either. Right. Like you're talking about grown men throwing each other around.

SPEAKER_02 55:57

I mean, they're right. Well you hope you hope they get the tackle.

SPEAKER_03 56:01

They're digging it with their digging in.

SPEAKER_02 56:03

They're digging in, and that's where you know you got it, you can't have it so loose that they don't have traction. That's why I was explaining to Matt one night. And I was like, we want it to be firm, but we don't want it to be too firm. We want it to be soft, but not too soft. So it's like, you know, the three little bears, you gotta find that right.

SPEAKER_01 56:19

And fixing it fixing a football field is probably different than a soccer field. You know, or baseball.

SPEAKER_02 56:25

Baseball field for sure. You know, what's fun about soccer and you know he's a soccer guy. I love soccer. I do. Are you going to the World Cup? I well, back when they first announced it before I had kids, you know, in the in the teens

Real Grass Vs Synthetic Economics

SPEAKER_02 56:40

of of the 2000s, I was like, Sheila, I am going. Buddy, if you looked at my calendar right now, I mean, I need a watch it, I need a ninth day of the week. You know, but soccer fields are you gotta you it is a little bit different. You gotta make sure the field is rolling correctly.

SPEAKER_03 56:59

You gotta make sure Is it crowned like a football field? It is. Okay. It is a part of the purpose of the crown. Water. Watershed. Shed water, okay. Watershed. Purely, purely watershed.

SPEAKER_02 57:10

Okay. Yep. You know, most of your synthetics don't have the crown, they got drainage under them. Yeah. But everything else is purely watershed. If you if if you lay down on your back, you look across, you see the top of the crown, you don't see the other side of the crown.

SPEAKER_01 57:24

It's kind of mentioned artificial twice. I mean, like in since you've been talking. Is there like an economical difference in the two? Big big difference. I think so. Yeah. Big difference. I I think there's a lot of injury thing.

SPEAKER_02 57:40

I mean, you know, there's some science behind it. There's it depends on who you look at. If you look at the people who have it, they're gonna say it's you know, 5149, the other's gonna say it's you know 4951. It's it's it's it's whoever is the salesman that day. I like real grass. I I do see I see that that makes us unique as far as I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

Well, I think we're the only one in our conference that that has room.

SPEAKER_02 58:06

I will say this. Yeah. Unless you have a a a wonderful donor, which we do have a lot of, yep, that wants to foot that kind of bill these days. It's each it's more now. Million and a half? Way more. You're kidding me. It keeps going up. Every year it's gonna go up. That's true. Now, this year more. You know, everything's up this year. And it's but here's the deal.

SPEAKER_03 58:28

Supposed to replace them every 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

But you know, eventually I will get into maintenance synthetic. I've I've looked into it. We're probably gonna try to get into that. I don't think it's a secret. I don't think I don't think it's a secret I should keep. Yeah. You said that I didn't. I and and I don't want that means an eye on the company, so it's like that's forgotta ask myself if I can say it. Because it's if you can't beat them, join them type situation. And you want to make sure that if my kid's gonna be on something like that, that it's gonna be proper. It's gonna be, you know, if the pellets get too broke down, the stem of the the fake grass breaks, well then a 15-year guaranteed field's worn out in seven because they don't have the proper maintenance. So you're spending, let's say, two million dollars for a seven-year investment. I I mean, I'm not gonna lie. So they're up to 15 years now? I think they say 15. I I've always heard 10. They say 15. Okay. But but just think about it. And I think with proper maintenance, you probably could get that. I like I said, I'm my my research isn't fully for just for just simple numbers.

SPEAKER_03 59:34

It's two million bucks to put in a new field. You replace it every 10 years, 200 grand a year. I don't know what we pay you. I bet you wish we paid you 200 grand a year. Oh, buddy. Yeah. Oh, buddy. It's not 200 grand a year to take.

SPEAKER_02 59:45

Do you hear that, Andy?

SPEAKER_03 59:47

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

So if he's gonna start texting me and even he's we're very fortunate to have the facilities that we have and not need, not need, you know, a lot of these schools that are limited on space. Well, we've got VFW, we've got the soccer field out the complex, we've got football, football practice, band, soccer practice. We have all these softball. Well, they practice on the backside of it that we've leveled up for them. Oh, good. You know, we've got all this space to continue to be, I feel like it's the safest thing for our kids.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:25

But going back to the soccer field, going back to the soccer field, yes, you've got to make sure, because if that ball hits a pothole, that could change the score of a game if it if the you know, so we really concentrate a lot inside the eighteens and in the middle of the field. Because high school soccer, it's getting better in the U.S. What's the 18? 18. So the the so if you look 18 yards from the goal from each side of the pitch. The box, the big box, that's the uh they call it the 18.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:51

Oh, okay. So within that 18 yards is that's the most where a lot of traffic is.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:57

I see. And right down the middle of the field. Yeah, you know, we you know, as you get more mature in soccer and you start watching it, and U.S. soccer's taking off. The kids are starting to use the outside of the field a little bit more and do more triangle passing, a lot more technique. But we still concentrate a lot in the goal box, a lot in the 18. And this year, last year, we it was a little bit of a struggle because we started off the season without they didn't top dress, and then we kind of jumped in, and then last fall, last summer-ish, we did, and that field rolled great. And then we we overseated it with a cool season rye, and Donnie at the school started mowing it at like I think three quarters of an inch, and it was just it was awesome. Oh yeah, it was awesome. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:45

Nerding out, man. I know that's one I've said that on here before. I said, D and I got to talk him one day. He's like, Man, I'm nerding out right now. Sorry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:53

A lot goes into it though. Well, it does.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:56

And it's for 90 minutes. For 90 minutes, there's a lot of prep that goes into that 90-minute match or that hour-long football. It's just there's a lot to it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:06

And you want it to be right, you gotta have perfect.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:09

So, like you walk into Bush Stadium, do you critique the No, it's perfect.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:16

I mean, that field is it's like that's the goal, but I don't have that budget. I don't get to replace the turf three times a year.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:22

I was just gonna say, and it's not they don't sprig it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:24

No, they resod it. They sod it. They sod it.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:26

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:27

So you start seeing the process. If you want a cool process to understand what happens on a normal basis, look at what's happening prep-wise for the FIFA World Cup. They're laying how they're laying all these fields, they're doing all this prep work. That happens on some of these baseball and football fields, like on the on the professional level, twice a year. Yeah, Bush Stadium less because they switched from you know, they switched from a cool season turf to a warm season. Oh, they switched from uh bluegrass to Bermuda. Oh, I don't know. I don't know if they've gone back, but you know, like right now it would probably would have been more of a blue, like a rye, a rye-ish.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:03

I'm gonna be I'm gonna be honest with you. The most impressive field I've seen last year was at Oklahoma. I thought that I thought it was turf. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:10

No, no.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:11

University of Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

So Matt and I talked about that last year when y'all talked about that and how they striped it. So I was like, oh, well, let me go grab my soda and my mower that I stole for a season from somebody.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:24

And I'd go out there and I'd put my my AirPods in and I'd start striping that football field. I'm like, dang it, Oklahoma, you're so much better at this than me. Just out there force gumping on the football floor.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:35

But I I think they I think they sprayed some of their feels on them.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:38

They do. So a lot of your a lot of your feels, you know, you to be a little bit more dramatic and stand out. I mean, I paint, I paint yards every fall for people. Warm season lawns for Thanksgiving when they got family coming in. If they got a cool warm season turf, we will buzz it and I'll paint it, and that that dude is green. You're kidding. I mean, I've seen that. I just didn't realize you did that. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

They be lit a lot out in like Arizona and stuff, don't they? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:06

Every golf course. Yeah. Sykeston, we we do a little bit of it marking wise, but there's some golf courses. Every every SEC baseball field probably this year, it's not that green on purpose in April, in March, in February. They play baseball in February. Yeah, you don't think they have um dry or fescue or something? They do, but they're also putting about four passes of paint on it. No kidding. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:30

I didn't I did not realize the only reason I noticed they're with the football computer. Well, I told and I will say this. Oh, yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:37

My my my biggest band-aid I had for the season, and it's still sitting on I've got a 30-gallon tote of Verde. It's called Verde, obviously, right? Green makes sense. French for green. And so it's sitting on the shelf and still there. Just in case something happens, we will always have a greenfield. Awesome. Even if when we make it to the to the playoffs, to postseason. Postseason football. Yeah. Starts getting and that you know, October, that grass is gonna start browning.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:12

It just is.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:12

I can't force anything past what it's naturally gonna do. Yeah, but we'll always have a green field. If we play through November, we will be on the a greenfield. Love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:20

I love it. I love it. That's I I when you start talking about the process of this, that's literally what you told me. I'm like, D, come to my house. This was several years ago. I'm like, yeah. All right, D, what do I gotta do? He's like, man, I want to go to fescue. I'm like, me too. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:37

So we pulled cores, we sent it off to the lab. The lab He's like, Matt, this is the lab gives me cheat sheet. And then I told Matt, this is gonna take this amount of time. Yeah, but we're gonna have it perfect. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:47

He said, We'll start this year. 'Cause I call I was like, Man, I put my irrigation in. That's what you gotta I mean.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:52

Now we gotta find somebody to not turn your mower in the same spot every time.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:56

Dude, I was gonna talk to you about that. That's me. I know. That's me. That's me. I know. I know. I literally was inside. I drove up. I was like, man, this yard looks good. And Matt turned in the same state. Every spot. I gotta I gotta talk to you about that. We'll figure it out. You're gonna run off in the well, no, it's because when I'm turning the wheels and the wheels turn and it it digs. All right. Sorry about that. I had a mishap. I uh was getting a little demonstrative here with my fat finger. I did, and I hit the cord that connects everything. So I got to got to restart it. But we're all good. You when you're listening to this or watching it, you'll never be like, what are y'all talking about? Yeah. No, we well, we were talking about me not being able to uh figure not stop turning in the same spot.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:41

Yeah, and so you know we we we worked on a schedule and that's what my company does. We come in, yeah, we we look at a few lawns a day, just a few, yeah, and we we diagnose what the issue is and we get them on the a perfect plan. You know, we are a hometown. I don't want to ever relate it to a big corporate business, but we do the same things as a lot of those corporate ones you see, but we just do it one better and because we're invested in it. Yeah, and everything is more prescription-based. It's what your lawn needs. Like it's not just because it's not just June or July, just throw some fertilizer. No, right. It's not like, well, you know, you're part of the six-step program. Yeah. No, you are. It just means we're gonna be coming, but your lawn,

Home Lawn Mistakes And Better Habits

SPEAKER_02 1:07:30

one lawn might get a 1628-12 where you need a 3302, you know, with a certain, you know, armament concentrate with yours, whereas that one doesn't need to be released in a certain pattern. You know, it's just stuff like that that we can dictate by what we pull cores and have the science show us.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:47

That's like we were talking about a while ago. It he told me he's like, Look, we're gonna come in because I was like, Man, I want some rye on it. Oh, I remember what started. Yeah. Well, I had my irrigation put in. I'm like, D, I need some rye. And you're like, eh. No, you don't. No, let's we're gonna start seeding fescue.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:02

And he and I remember your face because you're like, okay, what do we do? I said, Well, I'm gonna kill your yard. Yeah. Yeah. And he's like, What? I said, I'm gonna come in and I'm gonna kill it. And in three weeks, you're gonna start seeing some green, and then in six weeks, you're gonna be like, Okay. And then you go, call me in April. Call me in April. You're gonna see 20% in the fall. Yeah. It's gonna look good. Not the best, it's gonna look good, but you're seeing 20% through fall and winter. But you call me in April and you tell me what you think. Ooh. And then each year you'll come back and he'll We'll do a little bit of well, I call it maintenance seeding. Yeah, yeah. You know, you're not getting the full 10 to 12 pounds per thousand. Right. You're getting, you know, six to seven where you need it. And which you always want to introduce new seed. It's it's one of those things. You always want to reintroduce it. Okay. It just your yard's gonna get better. It's always gonna thin, something's gonna die out, yeah. Some strand within that, you know, it might say, yeah, it's a turf type tall fescue bag of seed, but if you start reading the actual label, there's five different strands of fescue in that bag. So, you know, if one of those goes out, well, there's 20% of your lawn gone, so we're gonna reintroduce something and try to make that, you know, try to make that add another 80% to that 20% for the next year so that over a period of time.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:28

So you guys are the professionals, are there things that we as homeowners just because we don't know, like what what's the most common thing you see that we screw up depending on the style of turf, mowing techniques, and watering techniques.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:46

You know, so I would say I'm 33% of the equation. Yeah, I see. I I can do my job and it's gonna look great as long as the homeowner is educated on you know, turf type tall fescue.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:00

Can't tall it tall.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

Yeah, you can't tall it short. Matt asked me how tall. I said, Where's your decks? Lock your deck up and don't move it down. And you'll have a beautiful lawn. Yep, that's exactly what I do. And Matt is I love it because I love people people always say, Oh, I'm so sorry I'm calling you. I'm so sorry I'm texting you. No, no, no, no. How much do I need? We service, you know, we service about six, seven hundred acres of turf. And it's not like a farm, that's a small farm. But if you put that out amongst 1,200 clients, that's a lot of spread. I don't I can't see it all. So if I have clients that will communicate like Matt does, which is, hey, you know, it's April. What should my watering schedule be? Well, at that point, it's like, let's let's just watch what the rain is. Yeah, yeah. It was a dry April, it was a dry March. And I was like, hey, buddy, kick it on. Bear, crank it on. Crank you and the bank. Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:53

Yeah, yeah. It's usually, hey, what do I need to do?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:55

And like this this past week, I saw something at the bank. I was like, hey, Matt.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:58

He texted me out of the blue. He's like, hey, you need to start watering again.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:00

Water more.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:01

Water here. And that's the thing is, or if it gets to a point, it's like, hey, hey, hey, I can see some tinting, back the water off. Yeah. Because if if it it's kind of a you gotta balance it. You want those roots to dive. You want them to stress to go get the water. To go get the water. But when it's time to not double stress it by right now, is really doubling down on it. Hot, windy, and just give it a drink. You gotta give it a drink. So the proper watering practices, and that's kind of watching your turf and seeing what it how it reacts. Yeah. And proper mowing. Everybody loves to see grass come out from under the mower. Well, it might not be tall enough, don't mow it for that week. You know, it rained, might not need to water it. Or it's like today and yesterday, and it's 95 degrees and 100% humidity, like it should be raining. You're gonna have to figure out, you know, watering early in the morning so that a fungus can't jump in. If you water too too late at night, it gives it that time for that moisture to get into that blade and that and in the root system, and you might, you know, you might get some pithia coming on or some dollar patch summer spat, summer patch and stuff like that happening. And you know, doing it all at the proper times, and that's just asking your your lawn, your lawn boy, me, lawn boy, to to educate you a little bit on that stuff and just having a little faith.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:24

Yeah. So one one of the one things we talked about, we obviously we talked about the football field. Is that probably the craziest project that you're most proud of? I mean, as far as from that type of thing, or do you have something different? I'd love to hear it. I would say Or I guess recovery maybe might be the best craziest recovery.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:45

It is definitely one of the top recoveries. Probably the the most stressful one I've ever had.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:53

I knew it due to time, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:55

Time constraints. I knew I had the knowledge and the equipment and the staff and the know-how and the backing to get it done no matter what. It time constraint and weather really play with it. There's two that come to mind, Matt. I think, yeah, the football field is definitely always gonna be in that top three. And one of them was, you know, when Alan Wire moved over onto West Malone. They redid that campus in 2016. I was very fortunate to be the outside designer for the whole property.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:31

Oh, wow. Wow. Uh I was young. When you say outside designer, you're talking about the design on the outside, like the landscaping. Sorry. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:38

Not the building. I'm not a good architect. Right. Right. I didn't design the phase that building. I, if I did, man, hire me to build a house. That looks beautiful. It does. It is you know, it is a beautiful, it's a very cool campus. Yes, it is. And Alan came to me, Alan and Bob Garrett, and they said Oh my gosh, you know Bobby G. I love Bobby G. CEO. His daughter's getting married this weekend.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:57

I did not know that. Yeah. You know what he said CEOs

Biggest Projects And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_03 1:14:01

for?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:01

Chief Entertainment. And so, you know, well, and we'll do a spin off this, but you know, Sheila works directly with Bob now.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:09

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:10

And I mean, Bob is you can't be. But so back to it in 2006, 15, 16. I, you know, Alan always had a vision of this building when they bought it. And poor Alan just wanted some water features. I remember that. It's like he wanted some water features. Well, then he wanted a pond. And I think it's just because, you know, Alan loves his dogs and his dogs love swimming. Alan and Bob both love duck hunting. And I think they just wanted to be able to, you know, field train their dog.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:42

That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:43

Well, I think I think it they it started coming out pretty serious what that campus was going to look like. And I don't think they were going to let me dig an acre pond so Alan, Bob, and myself could run dogs in the pond. So they were like, D, look, we gotta probably make this a little bit more professional campus. And so that's where we are today. And that was a neat, a neat opportunity as a young businessman, given opportunity to do a multi-phazed exterior project.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:14

Looks terrific. I drove back the other day, actually. It looks great.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

And you know, that is a a crazy opportunity that turned into a nightmare really quick in 2019, three years after we did it. You know, the the irrigation system stay of the art. Everything was stay-of the art because you know, Allen wire provides Regency wire, irrigation wire, low voltage wire to a lot of things and to a lot of the irrigation companies. I mean, they're massive, and nobody knows that. It's here in town. And so Alan was very much in tune with that side. He wanted it to be a showcase. Yeah. He he was very involved in the design of the irrigation, very involved in, you know, he was we got it turned into him. He was going on a conference trip, and it just it every all the stars aligned. He was going to a conference trip that every irrigation company was going to be at, and he rolled this map out, and they would look at it and be like, no, this is great, this is great. Okay, let's roll with it. So we started putting it in. It took almost six weeks for the company to put the irrigation system in. Wow. Oh, so you didn't put it in. We I mean I generaled it. I see. Okay. You know, I knew where I I I know I know where some self-awareness goes. I know, I know whenever I've you know stepped over into someone else's lane.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:39

Don't get out stay, don't get out over your shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:41

I'm gonna stay. I know that my strength was sweet talking people to getting it done on time and selling. And and I knew I knew my place, and I had, you know, my staff that did all the landscaping and the sod laying, and I knew how to keep them motivated and getting this six acres, four at the time. It was it was three acres that turned into four, that turned into six, and now it's like a nine-acre project. You're kidding. Still. And we weren't pleased at the first couple years, you have to ask Chris Hoshkiss. He always said, Man, this is like hitting on the driving range. And we started having watering issues and just the property. The property was an old parking lot. And we came in, we dug down like five feet, and we finally broke a hard pan. Five feet? It's crazy. It's some of the stuff that we I've never seen it before. I've never seen this kind of soil in our area. I had like in Sykeston at least.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:37

When I put my fence in out back, it's about a foot down the soil.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:40

Yeah, we came in, we came in and ripped, ripped, ripped, ripped everything out in this big field. And Alan, you know, Alan, Alan Wire paid for like, you know, four acres of sod at that point. And he goes, Are you pleased with it? You know, have you ever talked to Alan? You're like, it's not, he's not gonna directly tell you. He's gonna make you think about it for a minute, and it it teaches you to think a little bit further. And I love that about him. And he goes, D, what are your thoughts? What do you think about this field? Are you pleased with looking at now? You're like, oh my gosh, Alan, like I'm sorry, I don't know. Damn I am like okay with this, I'm okay with that, and it's got me question myself. And the next day I I I go back out there, I was like, I have a plan. And it's gonna scare you, but I have a plan. This grass is gonna come back. It was like a north, it was like a lad two 36 athletic Bermuda. I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna kill it off, and we're gonna blend it. I need it to kill it so this other stuff comes up, and we blended it. That out there is a blend between a bluegrass, a fescue, and a Bermuda.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:47

Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:47

And when one weakens, the other strengthens, and when the other one strengthens, the other one weakens, and it looks gorgeous. Oh, it looks terrific.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:55

I literally drove by today randomly.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:57

Yeah, yeah. So that was probably one of one of my favorite ones because it was my first big, big opportunity, big turning opportunity. Yeah. And then a lot of those bigger projects started coming my way, and I I knew what I'd done wrong and how I could fix it, and they they just started rolling a little bit better and better and better. But yeah, doing doing the football field was probably it it's the most memorable one now because I mean I'm invested in all my big projects, but that one was you know, it touches you. You're hitting home. Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:33

Exactly. So we've talked about this a lot on here, you know, just in general of what we do, but we've asked this question before to others, but what what is what what is it about Sykes and that makes it special to you? What do you I mean I know you can say home. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:51

And it's just how I mean, how do you explain it? I mean, you're you're Sykes native. It's just there's a certain comfort here. You know you have the support staff you need. They're gonna correct you if you need corrected, but they're always gonna invest back into you. It's a prideful town. Very pro that's a great uh great point.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:18

Who was it talking about the like Sykston? Just you be anywhere and talk to somebody and they're know they're from like like maybe Rick? It might have been Rick or I thought it was Doug.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:29

And I think it, you know, not just to Doug Steel.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:32

Oh, might have been.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:34

Not just to isolate it to Sykston. I I believe I believe the same thing kind of just involves in southeast Missouri. Uh not maybe so much

Why Sikeston Feels Different

SPEAKER_02 1:20:45

north of us, but you know, all the all all the small towns around, I think you asked the same question to them, they're gonna say the same thing. Well, we're prideful, we're proud. Yeah, we're proud of our town, we're proud of where we came from and what we achieve here. And you know, but for Sykes and for me, I see the growth opportunities. Uh that's that was actually where I was headed next. I see the growth opportunities.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:09

What do you see for us coming? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:11

I mean, you've got you do see younger generation moving back into this town. You know, there are some business opportunities here.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:20

There's I can think of a couple just off the top of my head. Yeah. Like a guy like Sam Cox. Yeah. Sam, Sam's from here.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:26

Came back, found a found a gentleman, a baby boomer who's ready to retire and get out, and now we got another young dental program, right? He's and and it's it's phenomenal having that opportunity. Yep. Yep. You know, just bringing good families back into this town that are gonna help grow it and and put their money where their mouth is. And and not just do the nine to five, sit back and complain. You know, that was one of the main reasons why, and I know this is where you want to go, so we'll just jump in. You know, that's one of the main reasons why I decided, I didn't really decide. I got asked, and then I was like, then I decided. Yeah. But you know, I was uh we were Sheila and I were out in California on our tenure, and you know, it's two hour difference, and I get a I get a text from a gentleman, and he's like, Hey, can you talk? I was like, Yeah, give me a second, let me, you know, I'm actually walking down the street to get some coffee for Sheila and I. And he goes, I think you'd do great. I said, City councilman. I said, Okay, this conversation have to wait because if I go back to our hotel and say, Hey, happy anniversary, honey. Guess what? I'm gonna run for city council. She might lock you out of the room. But again, I'm I'm human, so I make mistakes, so I'm sitting there, and she could just tell for a few hours that something's on my mind. And I go, so-and-so called me. She goes, Okay. What are they wanting? Said, Well, I think I've made the decision to run for city council if you're okay with it.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:11

Yeah. I've decided as long as you're good with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:13

And she's like, Well, have I ever stopped you from doing something like that before? Yeah. Because I asked her the same question when I ran for chairman of the rodeo. Right. And and but I also at this point I had to ask Dad too, because being business partners, I'm like, hey, listen, it's gonna pull some, and you know me, I'm like, oh, it's not gonna be bad. I'm not gonna, it's not gonna pull me away, and this and that. And dad's like, you're gonna do it 110%. Of course. And I'm noticing now, it's it's a it's a big deal, and it should be. Yeah. It's a big deal because again, I have pride for this town. I see I see great growth opportunities, both as a population, but also for businesses coming in, and you know, our our geographical location is huge.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:56

You know, that's the thing that I think we as citizens really miss. Our I mean, we're on 55 and 57. I don't think people honestly understand.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:08

That is a huge we're fixed. I have 57 running all the way through.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:11

We're technically not, but we are the middle of the United States. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:14

Yeah, actually. Is it around Perryville or is it up toward maybe Columbus?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:19

But we are uh we are we are in a great spot as long as this town stays in the mindset it's in right now of growth. And you know, you start talking about that and and I can't I can't say enough, you know, Marcy in the chamber, yeah, my goodness, doing a phenomenal job. And that's I hear that a lot from from some of the newer businesses that have built here.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:46

They're like, man, like you know, every every organization, uh business, whether it's a business, school, whatever, you gotta have a vision. In my opinion, and I'm I'm not I'm not again, this is not throwing shade at others before, but I I I feel like Steven Birch was the visionary in this whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:10

Oh, he started he started my opinion. I didn't I wasn't old enough to know before it's probably right before you came back. It was during, yeah. During.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:22

I've always since I was a kid admired Steven and you know, more of a quiet soul, very much methodical thinker, and he always had the right vision for Sykston. And still today, you can just see the wheels turning when you're sitting there talking to Steven, you see the wheels turning of what Sykston can be. And that's you've got more of that in town than you think.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:52

I totally agree.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:53

Now you still have a lot of gripers, but if we could turn less of the griping into more of a you know, innovative idea of where we can push our town and be a little bit more aggressive on what I'd always say, be a little bit more aggressive on the the glass is half full, right? And and just cast a net out there to grow. If if you bring somebody in that's a 10 employee business or 20 or a 30, that's still more jobs in a small town. That's a big move. Correct. You know, and you still you you keep investing in and you have people like the big industries we already have in this town that are are doubling down and trying to grow their business you know further nationally, but keeping it here, that are also having to expand that in town. So you're already creating more jobs at an existing business. So, okay, how do we turn around and help that? Not just bring in new, but okay, what can we do for the next one to keep it going? And you know, I I also I think the growing point of of our community too to this day, that it's the heartbeat of our town is our our local hospital. Having a local hospital, a lot of people don't understand how big that is for business.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:11

I said it's like almost like a dinosaur because it's its own entity. You know, like most of them have been brought corporately.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:19

Oh, listen, D D and I are both on the hospital board, and we we know I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:23

And I got brought on young. Yep. I got brought on, I was what, 26, I think, when I got brought on, and I was a young pup. And I mean not that I'm old now, but I got a lot more grays and a lot less up top. But you know, they uh they maybe I'm also the funniest bizzle born in November too. Mass laughed a lot. But you know, I you if we we are at a point in our hospital is strong for a local small town hospital. We're stout, we're we're making great moves, great, great doctors, great staff, great. Great nurses, great administration. We're we're in a good spot. As long as we can keep that going, the opportunity for this town is endless. It really is. I I totally agree. And that's what motivated me. I I know that's a big answer.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:16

That's fine. That's fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:17

You know, there's a lot of things that motivate you to come back to be more involved. And but it all started with the JC's, too. You know, being being brought up. I'm like the creed of Service Remet is the best work of life. You know, so and and very big on that. You know, I I I I've been honored to be recognized, you know, throughout that organization, nationally, statewide, and locally. But I I still to this day I I'm a grinder. I I don't sleep. I I I what's the next task, what's the next opportunity type of person. The JC's fine-tuned that because it gave me an opportunity to learn from other people and make mistakes and and grow something, but then you get the opportunity to lead that organization, and then you look, you stand in the middle of that arena, and you look at 16,000, 17,000 people, and you're like, this is bringing our community together. This is raising money for our community, this is making an economical impact of let's say nine million dollars just for having this organization, and you're in charge of it, and you're 32, and you're like, I don't even know how to tie my shoes still. You know? Good thing I'm wearing boots.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:37

So how do you how do you how how do you develop that within our community? I mean, I know we have people like you and others, but how do you develop that as a whole across, like to get people moving in that direction?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:50

Be open to people. You it comes back, be a friendly neighbor, be you know, if if it means going out of your way to say hi, how are you, do it. If it means inviting somebody that you think has some good opportunity, needs some guidance, invite them to do something, invite them to your church, invite them to your organization, depending no matter what you got. We got so many great organizations from you know, I mean, from the Kwanas Club to everything around here. I you know, obviously I'm I'm pulling the JCs. I've I mean I've been on every every step of the ladder there twice because I've messed up at least three times, you know. But you know, don't don't don't ignore the opportunity that could be given. Yeah is huge. And you know, I was a bulldozer, I bulldoze my way into opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:43

And but not everybody, not everybody's and not everybody likes that either.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:46

And I know that, but that's what I was born and raised, and I can't help it, so I'm gonna take advantage of it. Right. And I'm gonna bulldoze my way to where I know I could help.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:57

Are there anything, are there any priorities like you're like, okay, I'm in, but if I'm here, I want to see X done. I and and I'm just I'm not saying this is it, like yes, we gotta get our roads better, we gotta get our parks better. I mean, I don't mean that.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:10

I'm not, I'm just saying, is there something like that that you're yes and no? Yes, I think it comes back to the economic side for me. I think some small changes go a long way. Small rip, many small ripples make a big wave, right? Yeah, and I think that's where we got to s keep attacking and get some good small wins. Keep keep getting small wins. We are. We're as a community, we're getting these small wins, we're getting these small opportunities that will turn into bigger opportunities. I think in my tenure, I would love to make sure that we all understand that we're all pulling from the same side of the rope. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:54

It's a three-year term, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:55

It is. Okay. It is. And I think, and that's in every organization for me. You know, I I want to be friends with everybody. Yeah, I've got lots of friends. I'll take on more, right? And I think that's what I think that's what the community needs to understand. Like that person over there could be your friend. That one can too. But we gotta make sure at the end of the day, if we want this place to grow and continue to grow, we all gotta be pulling on the same side of the rope. We might not all agree on the method to get there, but we gotta agree with where we want to end. One plus three equals four, and so does two plus two.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:28

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:30

And that I think that's my biggest goal as a councilman, is just by the end of my tenure, is to make sure we're all pulling from the same side of the rope, making sure growth opportunity is one of our major focuses, and then we're making it easy for business to come to Sykston and grow in Sykston and not make it a headache. I think that's the biggest thing is be inviting. That's southern hospitality. We're supposed to be the gateway, right? Southern hospitality. And I think if we can make sure that that is exactly what this new company that is, you know, let's say a potential new company is coming town, that's what I want. When they get that building built in an 18-month time frame, they say, wow, I'm glad we chose Sykston. They made the process easy. The community came together, the vendors in this area helped make it seamless. We've got good workflows. We've got we've got we've got endless amounts of of employment opportunity. Yeah. We've got child care. That was a big one, right? And we finally made that big deal. Well, we we gained a hundred more spots in this town coming up, I think, in the next month. That's I mean, that was the biggest concern we've had in six months. Yeah. And you put the right people together, and it happened. Yep. That's a big deal. It's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:54

Another one at SAH, right? They're opening up.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:57

Yep, and then the Methodist Church. They're opening up like 40, 50 spots. That's terrific. It's massive. Yeah. Massive.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:05

It's you you don't realize it when your kids aren't that age, but when you when you It's a big battle right now for people like me.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:13

I've got a five-year-old and a two-year-old. Luckily, you know, my my five-year-old is in the public school system. So, man, that saves the pocketbook.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:21

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:22

Right? Yeah. But then I gotta worry about my two-year-old coming up and then what are we gonna do in the summer and stuff like that. And so you have these but the day camp is awesome. But here's the deal day camp's awesome. Yeah. She comes back so tired. I know. But my thing is Luke loved it. I I and I talked to Sheila about this. Like, we don't need to take one of these summer spots. Meaning like through the Methodist Church or because we have all these single parents that are working in our industrial park that really need that opportunity. Yeah. And that's what we're really trying to push. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You've got a support system. Like it takes a tribe to keep me under control and they're failing.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:04

I think they've given up at this point. That's right. That's right. So this transition just a little bit. Where do you see your business five, ten, fifteen years from now? What do you didn't mention this a while ago? You have stepped into all that. We talked about it on the other.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:24

You had to get a special license. So you know, we introduced pest control, or is it home pest, out exterior pest control. Okay. So you have to have a special license for that for anybody that's wanting to do like, you know, exterior ants, critters, insect, mosquitoes, anything. If if if you're promoting that you're trying to, you know, eradicate that, you have to have a certain license. Well, we have that.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:52

And I, you know, I was sitting there, I was like, okay, this would be great. Let's get our feet wet with this new business model. Let's wait six to twelve months before I introduce the other one. Well, then I wake up the next day. I was like, you know what? Sheila, you're between careers right now. Get on this marketing. Can you help me build this? And I think she was so pumped. It didn't take her long to get a new job, but whenever the last thing happened, but she was like, I am so

City Council Goals And Business Growth

SPEAKER_02 1:36:20

excited that I have an opportunity for a new job so I can get away from you. Because I was, I was like, but it was perfect timing. We had this transition, it couldn't have been a better opportunity for our family. Yep. But yeah, it's we we moved into that that exterior home pest. I think in the next five, ten, fifteen, you could see our brand fully invested into maybe home pest at that point. Okay. Definitely continuing to expand our spraying company, you know, for for turf in all different ranges from the synthetic side to the, you know, obviously, like I said, the artificial to natural. But you know, these these baby boomers, man, they're they're hard workers and they've built great businesses, and they need to be rewarded for it by people like me coming in and having the opportunity to, you know, help them retire or semi-retire and still work it, but give me an opportunity to grow the business I want to grow. And I think dealing anything in that, I think that's a that's a big one for our business, that side of the business. I could see that happening.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:29

Is the as they say, it everything changes, but everything stays the same. If you I'll tell you where I'm going with this, I remember just watching shows and and I remember being a kid, and the Kirby vacuum salesman would come to our house, and my mom would buy a bag or bags, and she would buy the these belts and all this. And people would come to your house to deliver stuff. I don't remember that. I know, I know, I'm older than you. But where I was going is that if you recall, they would bag your groceries and take it to your car, and there was a lot of service. Yes. A lot of service. Then we got away from that. Well, guess what's coming back? It's coming back. DoorDash. Walmart plus. In a different way. It is. It's different, but it's the same. They're delivering. I got a question for you. It's a little before I go down. I got a question for both of you guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:21

Milkman, exactly. Eggman. Are you guys the type of person when you DoorDash, because you guys both probably DoorDash, I DoorDash everything. Do you greet your DoorDasher or do you wait till they drive away before you open the door?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:34

Oh, we normally greet. I don't do DoorDash very often.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:37

Oh, I'm a greeter. Yeah. Man, and I think it's just because I'm I want to make something awkward. But I'm a greeter. I love opening the door VR. Kind of like surprise them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:49

I don't do I do DoorDash some, but we do Walmart Plus. Walmart Plus is great.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:54

We change it. I'm not gonna lie, man, we DoorDash quite a bit. We got those young kids. Yeah. Makes it hard. Makes it, that makes it a lot more convenient. Convenient. Yeah. Makes things more available for us and trying to make sure Marin's not throwing her mac and cheese on the neighbor behind us. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:09

No, I I I get all that. But I guess where I was going is that we we have it's more of the same. Do you see your business continuing to be like a subscription-based kind of thing? Because that's that's basically what those were.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:25

Yeah. It's a subscription-based thing. And that's kind of what we are now, obviously. Yeah. I I do. And I think with us opening opportunity in the future, like I said, I you gotta walk before you run. And even though we've been in this business, this side of the business for 40 plus years, you know, it's a it to what I explained it to Sheila one morning was this is a new business. It's a new business model.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:46

And I've got to make sure my footing is stout before I just keep expanding, expanding, expanding. But I I don't I don't stop. I like I it's it's the thrill of the hunt, honestly, for something like that. I'm with you. And for me, I think that the service thing is coming back in a different way. I think we are gonna be subscription based. Yeah, but I also think that's why the the home pesticide thing would fit our model. One, we're already there. Yeah, and you know, we're coming the same time frame. So two birds, one stone, yeah, more opportunity for my sales, but also revenue, yeah. More revenue, but also more opportunity for for discounts for people coming on. You know, you join one service, you get the other one a little bit cheaper. And you know, every dollar right now counts. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:38

Cool, cool. I I like it. I like it. We've got a couple more, a couple more here to go. You've obviously, again, third generation, you're on city council, you're growing your business. What is it? What sort of legacy? I mean, you're and you're not old enough to start thinking about legacy. Yeah, you got to though. You you can't you have to a little bit. What do you want to leave your kids? What do you want your kids to see as they're growing up? Like what dad's doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:05

I want them to see that hard work does pay off. That not things don't come easy, maybe for some people, but not everything's easy. You know, I think I've told you this quote, something that I've really, really admired and I've really held tight for for a while. It's a and I'm gonna butcher it now that I'm getting recorded. But it's a churchill. It's a two thousand, it's a a World War II. I wrote it down. I remember Did you? Okay. So one and partial of it is what I really, really admire is you know, success isn't final and failure isn't fatal. Yeah. And that's huge for me because my grandpa, my grandpa crater would look apparently they all my all my grandparents just looked and laughed at me for some reason. But they they my grandpa crater told mom said, you know, D's gonna be the grandkid that will make a million,

Legacy Mindset And Lightning Round

SPEAKER_02 1:42:00

lose a million, make another, lose it again, finally figure it out, and make two. And and he's not wrong. Like it's it's but that's that's small business, right? You gotta take the risk. And I think that's why I love that quote so much is you know, you're gonna succeed, but that's not the that's that's not the end game. Yeah, yeah and you're gonna fail. But it's not but well, hopefully that fail doesn't kill you. But in business, in you know, you know, metaphorically speaking, it's it's not gonna kill you. It's not gonna kill you. You just get back up on your feet, yeah, and you go and you grind again. Yeah. And that's what I want my kids to to to understand is is uh being able to understand why they're asking the question, why but right there to me is is is huge, is you know, uh you're gonna be successful. We're gonna teach you to be successful, we're gonna give you everything you need to be successful, but we're also gonna give you the opportunity to test that. And you might fail, but if you fail, we taught you how to be successful. I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:12

You don't fail until you quit.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:14

That's right. Yeah. Nah, we don't quit. You can tell that. You can tell that. That's that's that's terrific.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:21

Well, I mean, like, there's gonna be back sets, you know. I mean, like, even we we've we've talked about scripture, and I've I've I've quoted this several times. Yeah. One here is James chapter one, verses two and three, consider pure joy when you face trials and tribulations because it makes you mature. You know, you said the why question a while ago. I try to avoid the why question, and I ask, what am I to learn from each thing?

SPEAKER_02 1:43:43

I like that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. See, I'm simple-minded, I'm not as smart as you guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:48

I'm not very smart either.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:49

Why's got way less letters in it?

SPEAKER_01 1:43:52

But but why is often unanswered.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:54

It is. And you know, as a parent, I get asked why from my five-year-old. Yeah. And the bad thing is most of the time she's she's smarter than me, and I'm I'm having to sit there, and Sheila and I are looking at each other, kind of like just blank staring. Well, how do we say this to a five-year-old? How do we talk about this? And and you guys know what I'm talking about, but it's like, why? Well, you know, why ask that question? Well, you better have a good reason why you're asking it. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:20

Yeah, that's a that's a great way to to to turn that back on why do you need to know that? Yeah, why do you want to know that? Yeah, why do you want to know it? What do you know about that? Yeah, you can just ask anything. Answer, answer a question with the question.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:33

I'm having to. You start to pick up on it though. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I I get that. Is it Uncle Buck? How many questions consecutively? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:43

Charlotte's getting real close to that 27. Oh, that's great. I love that show. That's a great show. Man, we have uh we've we've well, we didn't really follow this this uh we didn't follow the script. No, no, and that's what's I told you that's we don't we don't want to follow. We we want it to be conversational just like it was, but uh we've we've hit everything in here. So we're gonna move to our lightning round. I probably know the answer to some of these. Early bird or night owl.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:07

Oh, night owl. If you ask my dad, my dad's an early bird. Like he is at the office at 4 30. Oh, and that's late for him.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:17

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:18

But by the time I get there, you know, 6 30, I roll in, I'm like still like sipping on. I got my coffee mug, I got my three cups of coffee, one bonus, just in case I need it. And he'll look at me, he'll be like, okay, today I gotta do this and this, and then I'm like, and I sound rude, and I shouldn't. I gotta work on that. Yeah, but I'm like, Dad, stop. I need an hour to wake up, please. I need an hour, but I'll stay up till one just deep thought. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:50

Uh there are a lot of successful people that are that way that stay up a lot and don't sleep.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:56

You mentioned introduce me to some because I need some more learning.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:01

What is the most overrated lawn care tip? Probably along with the mistakes of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:09

Yeah, what we talked about. Overkill is underrated, honestly. Like, don't overkill it. Don't don't overthink it. Yeah, don't put too much water, don't put too much, don't put too much fertilizer, don't put too much weed killer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:20

Very good. Very good. One piece of equipment you can't live without. Would it be that tractor that you had that night?

SPEAKER_02 1:46:28

No, no, I can live without that. What about that big that the big spray rigs are my my spray rigs are key? I'd say that's two part. My iPad, because my office is in my truck. Yeah. And my zero turn steel green spray rigs. Those things are can't make money without them.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:47

That's okay. Uh because I that night that I saw you had that tractor, then you had that top dresser. Yeah, like a wagon. I was talking about it just spinning and shooting it stuff out.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:57

You know, I bought that whole setup because Syston needed it.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:03

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:04

You gotta invest thank you, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:05

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I think I've told you, I know I I believe I have, and I told Micah too, and I may have even talked about it on here. It was looking good, and I saw right literally the night after I went out there. You and I were talking, you're like, come on, I want to come to the beach. Yeah, because we got the beach in Seiston. John Hobson, who is a loyal listener, good friend, yeah, huge bulldog fan, all bulldog sports. He called me or he's texted me in this. Oh no, our grass is dead. And I'm like, John.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:35

I was like, it's just sand, brother. It'll be luckily that's the only person that did it this year. Think about our phones last year. Remember that? How many phone calls and texts did you get? And then how many did I compare with you? Oh, yeah. He's like, I'll take that one. Yeah. I got it back, John.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:49

Go buy it right now, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:50

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:51

Exactly. Gorgeous. Yeah, I told him I'm like, go by and take it. Go by and check it out. Yeah, it's all good. What's your what's your favorite who are your favorite Bulldog athlete or a team that you call it?

SPEAKER_02 1:48:02

Oh, this is a good one. So, you know, I grew up in a very athletic family. I was more sporadic, more Boy Scout side of things. I would still say watching the 2004 baseball, because that was, you know, I grew up very close to my brother, obviously. But we were we were we were we were best friends. Sure. And he'd let me tag along as a little brother and everything. But that meant I you know, I grew up close to my cousin Blake. We were we were raised like brother and sisters, right? Yeah. And then another brother was Jake Pride. And so I got to see all these guys, you know, Scotty Keenan, Zach Fayette, like all those guys were all in the same team. Yep. And even, you know, JR's, Eric Chapel, Matt Limbaugh, that whole age group was together, and I got to watch them, you know, sad, sad game, that semifinal game at state. But but then I also, you know, the 06 basketball, you know, when we beat Notre Dame and got to go to state, beat Ozark. We were at 14 in like 49 seconds. 14 nothing. 14 0. And it was a man. And then we got Borged. Oh, bad. They were good that year. They were good that yeah. But I'd say those were my and just athlete. Obviously, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna discount, I'm I'm gonna knock my cousin, my brother, and my cousin Jenny as a tennis player out of it. They were obviously my favorite athletes. I admired them very much and loved watching them supporting them. But Michael Porter. You know, I was state of I was I was close to Mike.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:39

He was a year ahead of you. Younger. Younger. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:42

We ran cross country together. You told me that that was a forced march for a year, and it was horrible. Holofield makes you guys thank you, Coach Hollifield, for saying, Hey Bizzle, I need you, pal. I need you to be my assistant captain. And I'm like, you don't have anybody if you need That.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:00

Greg was the cross country coach.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:02

Coach, I'm gonna lie. Coach, I gotta tell a story on you. Let's hear it. We, you know, cr you know, Will talked about you know Will's legs were like oh he's tree trunks. Tree trunks. And he made Will run. Will's like eighth grade.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:16

I was gonna say he's still a little bit younger than you.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:18

He's a lot younger than us. And him and Mike and Corey a little bit, you know, ran with us. And you know, coach like, we're gonna run cross country this year. I'm gonna coach it and you're gonna run for me. And I could never say no to coach, right? He just great guy. Yeah, of course. And coach coach is sitting there and he's like, okay, it says a cross country is 5k. So that's somewhere around three point something miles. So let's run down pine and back. Well, pine and back from his office down to the end of pine, back to pine is like 1.8. Half of what we're half of what we're supposed to. So that's the first like week and a half. And coach would drive his silver Audi at the time. He's called us the coolest car, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:51:07

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:08

Drive following us sometimes down. He'd make sure that we made it all the way down to pine, didn't cheat. And I think he was doing that for more of his basketball players. He knew I was I was a getter. I would have turned around though if he didn't look. Cut it short. And he saw that we all made it, and then he'd go back, get the court ready, get the get the shooting gun out and ready for shoot around. But then about about after our first meet, and we all petered out about halfway obviously through the race, he's like, you know what? I think we got to condition more. And that's whenever we started, we created hills and psychs, and we were, you know, we'd run 10 miles then. And we got we became better.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:47

And we were guided. But yeah, it was I love it. Oh man. I love it. I love it. Coffee or energy drinks? Coffee. Me too. So much that uh kidney stone style coffee addict.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:00

You have kidney stones too?

SPEAKER_02 1:52:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:02

You and Erin need to shop. I'm telling you, swap horror or they're horrible. But I won't give up my coffee.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:08

I don't knock on wood, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:11

That's one thing I've never had. I haven't either. Yeah. Knock on wood. I don't want one.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:15

Don't I've I wouldn't wish y'all my worst enemy.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:18

Erin's giving birth, uh, and she said she would give birth every day of the week to not have another kidney stone. That's how bad it hurts.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:27

Yeah, it's not fun. My first, my first time, they were like, hey, congratulations, you passed it. Bad news. You got another. And that was the week that the big NFR Vegas conference was, and I went out with the rodeo, and I had a kidney stone in in in Vegas. But I'd rather have it in Vegas than Sykes to me. Come on now. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:46

But yeah, coffee for sure. Okay. I guess that would be in your birthday month too, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:52

NFR.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:53

Yeah, I had it. Yeah, it would. Very first part of it. November.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:58

Best business advice you've ever received. I think it's the quote. Love it. That's great. I think it's the quote. We kind of addressed it already. That's right. One word that describes Sykston. Prideful. Love it. Prideful. If you weren't running a turf business, what would you be doing? I'd be hustling something, I'm sure. I don't know. Sound like he's be a like a pool hustler.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:23

I don't know, man. Yeah. Let's do something cool. Something that doesn't end with boy, like lawn boy, pool boy, uh, I don't know, plant manager. I I'd have to be it would have to be something that I owned. I've found very quickly that I You wouldn't be a very good employee? No, I think I'd be okay.

unknown 1:53:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:46

I don't think you'd be happy though.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:49

I would I would I would fill chain down.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:53

Yeah. That's what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:54

Now but if somebody invested in me and I believed in them, yeah, I could I could get on board, invest into them, and I would give it my all no matter what. I would never I would never not give it my all.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:04

No, I know that.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:05

But it would definitely be something I owned. It'd be a different hustle that I'm hustling on for sure. Yeah. I don't know yet. I haven't grown up. I don't know. I do.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:14

I'll tell you when I grow up. Yeah, I'll tell you one day. Right, right, right. What's something people would be surprised to learn about you? Like, can you bend your thumb all the way back? No. Uh he do that. My sister? I think she can bend her thumb too.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:30

I admire racing. I love the sport of racing. Just anything racing. Anything with wheels on. Drag racing? Yeah. No, not as much oval, dirt track, big dirt track. Really during COVID got into like the NASCAR Formula One, MD, but Sheila and I got some friends that are in the in the world of outlaw, sprint car, dirt track. And I am avid, like so for so much that now Charlotte is watching it with me. Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:54:56

You know, but now don't they do flow racing then?

SPEAKER_02 1:54:59

I do. Flow racing.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:01

What is that? It's like streaming.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:05

Is it flow sports? Oh. We do flow racing uh Wednesday. Well, what was today? Thursday? Wednesday? No, today's Wednesday. Wednesday? Okay, yesterday was Tuesday then. Yeah. That was a high limit race was last night. And my guy, Carson Masito, had a bad day, but he went from like 24th to 8th last night. Rico Abrew got he won.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:21

Did you watch that? I would follow it. I follow Tanner Holmes.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:25

Yeah, yeah. Tanner Holmes, great.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:28

Great behind the wheel. Like well, and I like his social media. Yeah. Like he kind of gives the behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:34

So you got yeah. So do you aren't there aren't there the world of at law stuff sprint cars up toward like Peavely? You got Peavy.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:42

Yeah. So back before kids, man, I I probably went 20 races a year.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:47

No kidding.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:48

From Knoxville, Iowa to Eldorra out in to Peavely every time. I mean, if it was within five hours, I was on the road. Do you do you go to have you been to like Talladega? You know, I've avid NASCAR fan, I have yet to venture into going to. I would love to. I just like for some reason my calendar just has not allowed it. Yeah, no, I get it. And I wouldn't, I I would say that's my like my goal, but my girls at home aren't the biggest race fans. I would say there's probably something else they would rather do. And at this point, that's what I'm gonna think about.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:27

Of course. Yeah, yeah. No, I get it. I'm gonna sneak away to Al Dega though. By the way, did you did you sign up for your master's tickets? I did. Me too.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:34

I had to get on and change my mom's email because when I bought the house I'm in now, her email was registered to it. Oh, so it wasn't letting me. Really? Yeah, they're strict, man. Oh god. I still haven't gone to the masters.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:46

I've gone twice. I love it. Yeah, I put in I just got to on everything. Yeah, I got the email that said, hey, you it's been registered. Yeah. I'm sure I'm not gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:55

So do you still go to Peavely like in August where you go?

SPEAKER_02 1:56:58

I go in April usually. I didn't get to go this year. And now this year, it's the the Blue Moon, it's the same weekend as a rodeo. Yeah. But that opens up Knoxville, which is their big World Series pretty much, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:57:10

Knoxville's there's actually Knoxville's some this weekend. I think Iowa.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:13

There's something going on high limit like Tennessee. Iowa. Knoxville, Iowa. And it's the biggest, it's the sprint call hall of fame. It's it's where you go.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:22

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:23

You need to look it up. You'll be like, oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:24

They're in El Dor, right? Like in Ohio.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:27

Ohio, it's the Ohio run. More well, maybe. I don't know. Let me look. I think the Ohio run is happening. Yeah, it's usually closer to July.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:36

I know that I know that this week, because I like I said there's just so many series now, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:40

Like it's so hard to. They do midweeks closer to where NASCAR's gonna be that week. Kyle Larson.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:48

Type deal. Gotcha. So gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:51

Rico Abrams was pretty cool though.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:53

So he's really big friends with Hunter Schoenberg, who's a Sykes to NATO. I was gonna say, I was gonna say. And Hunter and I used to go pit be a pit member for him through elementary. He retired. I don't know if he retired, but he's playing some this year. No. He hasn't? I don't think he is. I think he has.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:09

I think I've seen him in.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:10

He will he'll he'll sit in. He's not full time. Last year was his, I think he last year he was full-time. I don't think he's full-time this year. Gotcha. He's concentrating on he's got some awesome businesses. Cool. He's doing well for himself. Awesome. But yeah, that's him and Rico are very close. So I got to meet Rico a couple times. Neat individual. So cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:33

I I I did not know that about you. I didn't realize you were a gear head. I love it. You can man, it just you can let me tell you who another big gear head.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:41

Half inch, nine sixteenths wrench, two of those two wrenches. You can do whatever you want on a sprint car.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:46

Yeah. Yeah. You know who who is another big gear head you might not know? Probably might shock you a little bit. Kevin Collins. Really? He loves some NASCAR.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:57

Yeah. I need to talk to him. Well, Steven Birch, big gear head. Is he? Rock crawler.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:01

So does the co-spector.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:03

Oh yeah. Jody Cheney. Is he? Jody. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:07

I think he goes to Talladega every year, don't he?

SPEAKER_03 1:59:08

Two times. Oh. Oh yeah. Of course, last year or year before, his one of his sons got married on Talladega week. Oh, cool. Oh, he was not happy. Because he couldn't go to Talladega. He had a wedding. And he was like.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:20

I think he goes he goes and sits in the Envil, don't he? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:24

Talladega's massive. Yeah, that's what I hear. Matter of fact, I was telling him today. I was watching on social media a clip of Jason Kelsey walking up the bank. He was like, holy crap.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:38

It's like 30-something degrees. Yeah. Have you seen the equipment they use to make those? It's like a bulldozer holding an asphalt machine to go across. You need to look that stuff up. It's crazy. So I'm telling you, there's so many cool things about racing. And it's not just about the driver. It's about, you know, it's a team sport. It's about the crew. It's about, you know, strategy.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:59

Oh, there's a lot of strategy.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:00

A lot of and a lot of like messing with other teams over the radios, speaking code to try to get them to mess up by thinking this is what you're doing. Like it's that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:09

Oh my gosh. I didn't realize that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:11

Like changing a number on the side of a tire in Dirt Track. Like, if you've got something like doing something to a tire next to another team, so they think that's what you're doing, then they're they're going to try to do that, and then all of a sudden you switch it out real quick. Like, it's a lot of that. Cat mouse. Oh yeah. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:26

Like it's kind of weird though. Like, isn't high limits they you got to have the same right unless you have a blowout or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:32

So yeah, there's certain times in the like whatever you time trial at, you have to run that for your heat race. Like the rear tires had to be the same.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:41

Ah. Okay. There's all kinds of weird rules. Crazy rules. But there's reason.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:46

But it's also low tech.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:48

Those are low tech. I'm telling you. Half half inch wrench and nine sixteenths, you can do dang near anything. Change the motor out with it. Like I'm telling you, you can do anything with one. It's boxing. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:59

So why do they get them big old toolboxes in? That's right. There's a lot of nine sixteenths and a half inches for help.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:06

And a lot of Windex. Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. All right. Last one. Need three people.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:13

Ooh. Okay. So one of my favorite sports growing up. Talked about Eric. We'll keep him. Well, you can give me four now. I'll give you four. Eric. Eric would be a good one. I think give him, give him some some months in his in his past. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:26

And bring him on.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:27

What's his? He's a director of Parks and Red. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:30

Yeah. Yeah. Great guy. Oh, a grinder out there. I mean, that place looks great because of him. You know, I just got the privilege of helping him. By himself. I know he's already been on it, but by himself, Chris Hoshkiss. Okay. I have admired Chris and what he has done, both for himself, his family, his coaching career.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:52

And now coming back in coaching.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:54

I was going to say he's kind of revitalized.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:55

And it kind of makes me mad because I missed out by one year with him.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:59

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:01

I I was a better person because of him as a young kid. Wow. I really looked up to Chris. I looked up to Chris a lot. I still do. Wait, no, you don't. I do. I do.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:13

You can't. He's a say he's probably shorter than you are.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:15

He he set me straight in fourth grade. He was my PE teacher. And I was I wrestled for the the Jackson Indians youth program. And he made me take my sweater

Racing Surprise And Guest Picks

SPEAKER_02 2:02:25

off and he threw it in the trash can in front of all the kids. And he the kids they loved it. And I'm just like, okay, he really he's like, you're not going to the next away meet if you wear that again in my school. So he got me some he got me some bulldog air. That's what I'm talking. Another one. Probably one of my favorite Sykeston people. And I think I think you probably have plans of having him, but ain't him Gill. With him stepping into his role where he's been.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:56

Man, you can get him through the fall. Get him done with the fall. Get his he and I have already talked about it. We we may do late summer or something like that. Oh dude. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:03

He's he'd be a good one, yeah. He is. We were so fortunate. This one is going to probably kill me.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:11

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:13

But I still think my aunt Lynn would be a good one to have just because, you know, what an athlete she was with tennis and still coaching tennis, was a tennis coach for Sykston for years. We were blessed to have her on. It was just no question. Through her edge.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:33

I'd love to have her on.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:35

She's I've asked taught taught at taught at two different, I think, I mean, in my in my no, taught at two different elementaries in this town. I think Morehouse and here well, no, it was Southeast and Lee Hunter.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:47

I knew that, yeah. And then and then became a principal at Lee Hunter. That's right. I'll tell you a funny story about that. My brother and sister, when she taught at Southeast, I went to Southwest and then we moved Southwest. Okay. So we moved to many farms by that time, and so that was in Southeast area. If you live in many farms, you went to Southeast. I remember them both saying, Oh my gosh, we got Mr. Witt. We're so happy.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:10

Oh yeah. She's the only person I've ever seen that could like get onto a kid, and I don't know. I mean, whatever. I mean, we paddled back in the day, right? I could watch her paddle somebody and that kid turn around and give her the biggest hug. And she loved that kid. And that kid's a better person today because of her. But now she but she's you can tell she's got that bezel blood in her because she doesn't she doesn't know how to retire, right? First thing she did right the first day was the bulldog pantry. Because, you know, her, my dad, my grandpa, a lot of her. Back in the day, before the bulldog pantry was a thing. Like my grandpa, I remember going to school and my aunt calling saying, Hey, I need some jackets. Hey, I need this. And I still today remember getting in my grandpa's truck, and the whole back seat is full of jackets, and he would drive from bus stop, bus stop, bus stop, and give jackets.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:05

Oh my gosh. Now I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:07

But I but me saying that, now look at what my aunt has done with the Bulldog Pantry and how many people that what lives she's touched there. Like would that not be a cool story, Aunt Lynn? I think you got the bird out. She won't do it. Aunt Lynn. She doesn't want to be she doesn't want to be talked about. We gotta get her on.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:25

I mean, like, I'd be honest with you, like my introduction to really Sykes and school system was Lynn DeWitt. I mean, when I worked for children's division, I think she had me on speed doll a couple times.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:35

My dad, my dad, whenever she worked like as the principal, she'd my dad walk in and be like, You don't know Linda Witt, do you? She's so mean. And those kids would get mad at my dad. And it was fun. But she she's a she's a true, true person.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:50

Oh, she is, and she's a bulldog from top to bottom.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:53

And she's gonna let you know, too. You might, you know, that's what I love about her too, is like she's she's gonna set you straight.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:00

I've said this once, I've said a million times. If you want something to get done, Linda Witt needs to be on your side. Oh, 100%. God, you gotta get Lynn on here. I totally agree. I know.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:10

Yeah, Chris, Chris, Andy. I don't, I mean, she's not gonna listen to me. Lynn, Chris, Andy.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:18

If we can get maybe Reese and Rex to talk to her, maybe that'll help. Nay nay. Nay. Maybe maybe. I don't know. She probably still won't do it. No, we'll see. I'm I'll I'll twist her on. But you got a dream. That's I'd love to hear it. You gotta have a vision. That's right. That's right. Mandy, we have enjoyed this time for sure. You we have surpassed, we're probably cutting in on two hours now. Oh man. Well, I do like to talk. That's all good, man. I love it. I love it. We're I've told you this before. Mike and I are very appreciative of what you do here for us, that you help us. And of course, as I've told uh Jody, you know, we make we make tens of dollars. Yeah, I'm paying for my friends here. Right. Right. No, I I mean there's a lot I think you guys know.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:09

And I told Dad that. I was like, Dad. There's cost to doing this. Is this not crazy? They're talking about us like before before we were even sponsors, like this could be an opportunity.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:19

Yeah. And that's but not but it truly wasn't. We we we were just talking about football. Oh, yeah. My grass looks great.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:28

I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:29

And well, thank you guys. Thank you for what you've done for my business. It it it has definitely helped. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:35

We're we're we appreciate you.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:37

Yeah, we we we talk about I'm just trying to keep the lights on for that.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:41

That's right. We talk about it a lot, but you obviously by what you've talked about here, it aligns with with what we want to do, right? Absolutely. Promote who we are. We say it all the time. Rising tide lifts all boats, right? Absolutely. And that goes to like what you're doing with the city and what we do on the hospital board and what Mike is doing, all these things tie together. We want our town to be sustainable. We want kids to come back and raise their families here. That's what we want. So it that that's all part of that. But we've we've enjoyed this time. Thanks for thanks for agreeing to do this. You're like, when I called you, you're like, what?

SPEAKER_02 2:08:17

You literally the bottom of the barrel. Why are you really?

SPEAKER_03 2:08:20

I got no man. There's got to be somebody better. You got a great story, man. It's it's about this is what we want to promote. This is who we are. We are promoting Sykestem. What makes us special? Right. And it's because of people like you that continue to make our special. Well, thank you. Absolutely. And I mean that.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:39

Town means a lot to all of us. Of course. It takes us all to keep it going and new people to come help us.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:46

Exactly. Exactly. So with all that.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:50

I'm Micah Harris.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:51

I'm Matt Tanner, but you know how we gotta end this, right? Dude. Got to end it.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:56

Go dogs.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:58

That's gonna do it for this episode of the Dog House. Thanks for hanging with us and showing love to Sykston, where small town pride runs deep and Bulldog Grit never quits. Don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and share this with anyone who bleeds red and black. From the heart of the 573, this has been the Dog House, where Sykston stories always have a home.