Green Collar Conversations

Equip Expo 2026 was one heck of a trip! From the latest lawn care equipment and industry connections to a questionable Airbnb in Louisville, we've got plenty of stories to tell.

In this episode of Green Collar Conversations, Spence and Dom break down the good, the bad, and the downright ridiculous from Equip Expo 2026.

Spence shares his experience walking the show floor in Louisville, Kentucky, checking out new equipment, meeting fellow lawn care professionals, and staying in an Airbnb that might deserve its own episode.

Meanwhile, Dom has some equipment news of his own, including a new-to-him 300-gallon spray rig and an Echo PB-9010T backpack blower.

In this episode:

• The infamous Louisville Airbnb experience
• Equip Expo 2026 highlights and takeaways
• Meeting Willie Robertson at the prayer breakfast
• Checking out Stinger Equipment's latest spreader-sprayer
• Ferris, Grasshopper, Walker, and other equipment on the show floor
• Networking with lawn care professionals and content creators
• Dom's new spray rig and equipment purchases
• Moving from Jobber to Spraye and the challenges of changing software
• A few laughs and plenty of lawn care business talk

Whether you're a lawn care business owner, equipment enthusiast, or just enjoy a good story from the road, pull up a chair and join the conversation.

Green Collar Conversations is about business, life, grass, and community. Two lawn care business owners sharing experiences, lessons, and conversations from the ground up.

Things are built better together.

👍 Like the episode
💬 Tell us your favorite Equip Expo moment in the comments
🔔 Subscribe for more Green Collar Conversations

Be good to you.

#EquipExpo2026 #LawnCareBusiness #GreenCollarConversations #LawnCarePodcast #LawnCareEquipment

Stop Letting Customers Run Your Lawn Care Business | Green Collar Conversations Ep. 9

What happens when the customers who pay the least create the most work?

In Episode 9 of Green Collar Conversations, Spence and Dominick talk about the business decisions that make lawn care companies more profitable, more professional, and a whole lot less stressful.

We're talking about:

• Why biweekly mowing can cost more than it's worth
• Credit cards on file, automatic billing, and chasing payments
• Switching CRMs and building better business systems
• Monthly lawn care subscriptions and predictable revenue
• HOA contracts, irrigation headaches, and commercial opportunities
• Knocking out 38 aeration and overseeding jobs in one week
• Building a business that supports your family and your employees

Plus, we're getting ready for Equip Expo in Louisville, where we'll be meeting people, recording content, and continuing to build the Green Collar Conversations community.

We're two guys in the green industry sharing what works, what doesn't, and what we're figuring out along the way.

You can build a business by yourself. You probably shouldn't build your life that way.

Subscribe and join the conversation.

Be good to you.

#GreenCollarConversations #LawnCareBusiness #LawnCare #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #EquipExpo

What separates a $40 lawn mowing service from a premium lawn care company? And how do you convince customers that your work is worth the higher price?

In this episode of Green Collar Conversations, Spence and Dominick tackle one of the biggest challenges in the lawn care business: selling value instead of competing on price.

It starts with stale estimates, customers who disappear after requesting quotes, and the frustration of chasing work that might not be worth having.

Then things take a turn when Spence asks a ridiculous but surprisingly useful question:

What would a Michelin-star lawn care company look like?

We're talking about the difference between simply cutting grass and delivering a premium customer experience.

In this episode:

• Why some lawn care estimates never turn into jobs
• When to follow up and when to move on
• How to communicate your value to potential customers
• Why being the cheapest company isn't always a winning strategy
• Raising minimum prices and finding your ideal customers
• Building a premium lawn care business without apologizing for your pricing
• Why the right customers matter more than having more customers
• And, naturally, Michelin-star restaurants and ridiculously expensive hamburgers

Plus, the usual conversations about equipment, repairs, scheduling headaches, and life running a small business.

You don't have to be the cheapest lawn care company in town. You have to be worth what you charge.

🎙️ Green Collar Conversations

Business • Life • Grass • Community

Things are built better together.

Be good to you.

#GreenCollarConversations #LawnCareBusiness #LawnCarePricing #SmallBusiness #GreenIndustry #Entrepreneurship

Running a lawn care business can get lonely.

You spend hours on a mower, behind the wheel, or working by yourself — and somewhere along the way, it's easy to start looking at every other lawn guy like competition.

But what if the people doing the same work as you aren't the enemy?

In this episode of Green Collar Conversations, Spence and Dominick talk about why some of the most valuable things you can bring home from Equip Expo have nothing to do with equipment.

It's the people.

The guy you meet standing in a demo line. The owner from another state who's already made the mistake you're about to make. The random conversation over breakfast. The person who starts as a stranger and somehow becomes Weird Uncle Kenny you look forward to seeing every year.

We get into:

• Why lawn care and small business can feel so isolating
• Competition vs. community in the green industry
• Why talking to other operators can make your own business better
• What you can learn from people working in completely different markets
• Building confidence by simply learning to talk to people
• Why 200 business cards aren't nearly as valuable as a few real relationships
• What we're looking forward to at Equip Expo
• The Road to 1,000 and what we're learning while building GCC
• Bad editing, bad golf, questionable mower cup holders, and Dominick's unexpected rap career

You can build a business by yourself.

You probably shouldn't build your life that way.

If you're heading to Equip, here's the challenge: put the phone down for a minute. Talk to somebody you don't know. Learn their story.

And if you're not going to Equip? Do the same thing at home.

There's enough work for everybody.

Find your people. Find your tribe. Roll with them.

🎙️ Green Collar Conversations

Business • Life • Grass • Community

Things are built better together.

Be good to you.

#GreenCollarConversations #LawnCareBusiness #EquipExpo #GreenIndustry #SmallBusiness #LawnCare

Your schedule is going to fall apart.

Rain. Equipment problems. Customer phone calls. Employees. Rentals. Traffic. Health issues. Random conversations. And sometimes just forgetting the damn 2-cycle oil.

If you run a lawn care or service business, you can build the perfect schedule on Sunday night — and by Tuesday morning, real life has other plans.

In this episode of Green Collar Conversations, Spence and Dominick talk about what happens when the week doesn't go according to plan and why building some breathing room into your business matters.

We get into:

• Why a packed schedule leaves nowhere to go when weather hits
• Building buffer days into your workweek
• Knowing when to pivot instead of constantly reshuffling everything
• How phone calls and customer communication can destroy field productivity
• Using auto-replies, business phone systems, and time-blocked callbacks
• Making time to work on the business, not just in the business
• Why you don't need to overreact every time the plan changes
• And, naturally, several completely unnecessary detours along the way

Because the goal isn't creating a schedule that never changes.

It's building a business that can handle it when it does.

🎙️ Green Collar Conversations

Two guys building businesses, figuring things out as we go, and documenting the journey — hopefully helping a few other people along the way.

Business • Life • Grass • Community

Things are built better together.

If you're building a lawn care, landscaping, turf, or service business yourself, subscribe and come along for the ride.

🌱 Road to 1,000.

#GreenCollarConversations #LawnCareBusiness #GreenIndustry #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #ServiceBusiness

The road to $300K doesn’t start when the phones light up in March. It starts now.

In Episode 005 of Green Collar Conversations, Spence and Dom start looking ahead at the next season and talk about what actually needs to be planned before you're buried in the work: business structure, budgets, pricing, staffing, equipment, marketing, fertilization programs, capacity, and figuring out who your ideal customer actually is.

We also get into the danger of saying yes to everything, working seven days a week, buying equipment without a plan, underpricing work, and why “the hustle” eventually starts collecting its own bill.

This isn’t a polished business-school blueprint. It’s two lawn guys looking at the mistakes, lessons and decisions that have shaped their businesses — and figuring out what has to change next.

Business. Life. Grass. Community.

Things are built better together. 🌱🎙️

Green Collar Conversations — Episode 005
🌱 People First. Grass Second.
🚛 The Road to 300 starts here.

What’s it really like being married to someone building a lawn care business?

On the drive home from a weekend at the beach, Spence finally convinced Brandi to sit down, or technically ride along, for a bonus episode of Green Collar Conversations.

We talk about the leap from side hustle to full-time business owner, the hours nobody sees, family life, hiring help, the Road to 300, where Brandi fits into the future of Spencer’s Lawn Care, and what it’s like living with someone whose brain apparently never stops working.

And because this is Green Collar Conversations, we eventually wander completely off the road.

There’s a motorcycle incident involving Spence and some trees. A restaurant that turned out to be Talbots. Mowers with names. Gambling. Cribbage. Equip Expo. Why Spence won’t take Brandi to Las Vegas. Why he doesn’t eat food that rattles. And the revelation that he apparently talks to an AI named Tank more than he talks to his wife. 😂

But underneath all the nonsense is something every small-business family understands: building a business affects more than the person whose name is on the truck.

This one is less interview, more conversation, and exactly why we called the show Green Collar Conversations.

🎙️ Real people. Real businesses. Real conversations from the green industry.

People First. Grass Second.

#GreenCollarConversations #LawnCareBusiness #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #LawnCare #FamilyBusiness

We may have built the podcast before checking whether approximately 847 other people had already named theirs The Ground Up. So naturally, Episode 003 includes a mild podcast identity crisis. 😂

Spence and Dom recap the week, talk mower problems, subscription creep, the chaos of trying to rename a podcast that's already launched, and whether the name even matters in the first place.

Then we're back on the Road to Equip Expo with a few things every first-timer should know: the Equip Expo app, the Road to Equip Facebook group, the Win In Life meetup, finding your people in Louisville, and what we're actually hoping to see at the show this year.

Plus, somehow, The Ground Up officially qualified for Equip Expo media passes. Apparently the bar is exactly as low as we'd hoped.

Business. Life. Grass. Community. And two dudes mostly figuring it out as we go.

Things are built better together. 🌱🎙️

Episode 2 of The Ground Up is exactly what happens when two lawn care guys who already talk too much decide to put microphones in front of themselves.

Spence and Dominick recap another ridiculously hot week in the lawn care world, talk pricing, losing customers you aren't exactly heartbroken to lose, getting expensive mowers stuck on things you probably should've kept driving around, and building businesses that don't require the owner to personally mow every blade of grass.

Then we get into Equip Expo: why we're going back, what makes it worth the trip, the equipment and demos, meeting manufacturers and other lawn care professionals, networking with people you've only known through a screen, and why some of the best value at Equip has nothing to do with buying another mower.

We also talk about starting this podcast before we really know what we're doing, growing a YouTube channel from basically nothing, and why sometimes you've just got to pick up the mic and take the shot.

The Ground Up is about building businesses, building community, lawn care, entrepreneurship, and figuring the rest out as we go.

Subscribe and come along for the ride. And if you've been to Equip Expo, tell us what you're looking forward to this year.

Two dudes. Two Green Industry businesses. About 1,000 miles apart. And roughly 15 minutes spent together in real life.

Seems like the perfect recipe for a podcast.

In Episode 001, Spence and Dom talk about how they got started, where their businesses are headed, mowing vs. treatments, revenue vs. actual profit, finding the right customers, and why community matters so much in an industry where you spend a whole lot of time working alone.

We’re building businesses, learning as we go, screwing some things up, getting some things right, and documenting the whole thing.

No gurus. No million-dollar-business-in-six-weeks nonsense. Just a couple dudes trying to build something worthwhile and hopefully picking up some good people along the way.

Things are built better together. Welcome to The Ground Up. 🌱🎙️