OWNR OPS Podcast

Jacob Neffendorf and I just launched Clear Path AI — a 24/7 AI advisor trained on nearly $20 million in land clearing ad spend and thousands of hours of real operator systems and transcripts. In this episode, we pull back the curtain with a full live demo and break down what this tool can actually do for your business right now.

What you'll learn:

• The 3 levers that control your land clearing business (leads, sales, capacity) — and how to diagnose which one is your current bottleneck
• Why a guardrailed, industry-specific AI gives you better answers than generic tools like ChatGPT
• How Clear Path builds SEO website structures, content calendars, and Google Business Profile strategies in real time
• Why the companies who adopt AI fastest will get the outsized returns — and what that looks like in land clearing specifically
• How to set a 12-month revenue target and work backwards from it using Clear Path

🔗 Learn more about Clear Path AI: landclearing.io/founding100

📩 OWNR OPS Newsletter: https://ownrops.com/newsletter

📞 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — shared inbox, AI assistant & Jobber integration — 20% off first 3 months: http://quo.com/ownrops

📋 Jobber (estimates, scheduling & invoicing — 20% off): https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops

🌐 Stryker Digital (SEO & Google Ads for trades): https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

💰Apply for OPS Accelerator ➡️ https://ownrops.com/accelerator

The operators who grow fastest aren't the ones working the hardest — they're the ones making the best decisions the quickest.

In this episode, I sit down with Jacob Neffendorf from Rise Online Ads and Land Clearing Growth to break down how AI is giving land-clearing operators access to answers they used to have to guess at — pricing, hiring, proposals, content, and more.

What you'll learn:

• Why tracking nothing vs. tracking everything creates a 10x difference in revenue
• How to build a full property proposal in under 5 minutes using AI
• What the Clear Path AI tool is, how it was built, and why it's different from generic AI
• The hiring math question: can you afford to hire — and can you afford not to?
• How answer engine optimization is replacing SEO for local service businesses
• Why the first operators to adopt this will have an unfair advantage in their market

🔥 Services We Use 🔥We use Jobber to handle our estimates, scheduling, & invoicing➡️ Get 20% off Jobber here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops💰 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=ooWant to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?📩 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → https://ownrops.com/newsletter

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with blue collar entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and growth tips!

💰Apply for OPS Accelerator ➡️ https://ownrops.com/accelerator

In this episode of the OWNR OPS Podcast, I sit down with Patrick Murphy of Qualified Hires to talk about how land clearing, forestry mulching, and home service business owners can actually find, hire, and keep good people.

Patrick has helped me build out the hiring process at Bear Claw, and in this conversation we break down what most operators get wrong when hiring, why good people are out there, and how to build a process that attracts crew members who show up, do quality work, and take ownership.

If you’re tired of being the only reliable person in your business, this episode will help you rethink hiring and start building a team the right way.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

📌 Why “there are no good people” is usually the wrong belief📌 How to find better crew members for your business

📌 What most owner-operators get wrong in the hiring process

📌 Why good people need the right system to succeed

📌 How I improved hiring at Bear Claw

📌 How to stop doing everything yourself and start building a real team

Hiring is not just about finding people.It’s about creating a process that finds the right people.

Watch the full episode to learn how to hire better and build a team that can help your business grow.

🔥 Services We Use 🔥

📞 We use Quo (formerly OpenPhone) for all business calls & texts — AI answers after hours so you never miss a lead

➡️ Get 20% off your first 3 months: http://quo.com/ownrops

We use Jobber to handle our estimates, scheduling, & invoicing ➡️ Get 20% off Jobber here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops

💰 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📩 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → https://ownrops.com/newsletter

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with blue collar entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and growth tips!

Too many decisions. Not enough clarity. Sound familiar?

💰Apply for OPS Accelerator ➡️ https://ownrops.com/accelerator

In this episode, I sit down with Jacob Neffendorf of Rise Online Ads to talk about one of the biggest things that holds owners and operators back — chasing the wrong problems.

I share the story of the 6 weeks I spent building a custom app to replace Jobber and GoHighLevel, and why I shut the whole thing down before it ever launched. Jacob pulls real data from 460 land clearing companies that shows exactly where operators are losing deals.

What you'll learn:

📌 Why you keep going back to equipment research instead of fixing your leads problem

📌 The only 3 things that matter right now: Leads, Sales, Hiring📌 How many calls on average to reach a lead

📌 How many follow-ups to close a deal.

📌 Is AI a shiny object or a real tool for your business right now?

🔥 Services We Use 🔥

We use Jobber to handle our estimates, scheduling, & invoicing➡️ Get 20% off Jobber here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops

💰 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📩 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → https://ownrops.com/newsletter

Join our FREE Skool community → skool.com/ownrops

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with blue collar entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and growth tips!

💰Apply for OPS Accelerator ➡️ https://ownrops.com/accelerator

In this episode, Jacob Neffendorf lays out the data-backed difference between operators stuck at low six figures and owners building multiple seven-figure land clearing companies. If you've been wondering whether to hire — and whether you can afford to — this episode answers that question with real numbers.

What you'll learn:

• The 3 walls every land clearing business hits (leads, sales, talent) and how to move through them
• Why close rates average 6% across the industry — and how top performers hit 24%
• The true cost of staying booked out past 4–6 weeks without hiring
• How to run the hiring math and know when to pull the trigger
• Whether to hire an operator, a closer, or admin first — and why it depends on your weakness

Whether you're running land clearing, forestry mulching, or any field service business, this episode covers the owner mindset, hiring decisions, close rate tracking, and business systems you need to scale past the operator ceiling.

🔥 Services We Use 🔥We use Jobber to handle our estimates, scheduling, & invoicing➡️ Get 20% off Jobber here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops💰 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?📩 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → https://ownrops.com/newsletter

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with blue collar entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and growth tips!

Colby McArthur bought Clifton Tree Service at 22 years old and ran it as a solo owner operator for the first year — climbing trees, answering calls with a headset at 100 feet, estimating on weekends. He finished that year at $400K. One year later: $850K. In this episode, Colby breaks down the three things that drove that growth and what he's focused on as he targets $1.3M in 2026.

What you'll learn:

• Why undercharging is the most common and most costly mistake owner operators make — and how to fix it fast
• The first hire Colby made that changed everything (hint: it wasn't a climber)
• How to build an opener/closer sales model even when you're still in the field
• How Colby uses Claude and ChatGPT to build a pricing tool, estimate from photos, and build SOPs
• What Colby would tell himself at $100K if he could go back

To contact Colby McArthur: [email protected]

🔥 Services We Use 🔥

We use Jobber to handle our estimates, scheduling, & invoicing

➡️ Get 20% off Jobber here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops

💰 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📩 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → https://ownrops.com/newsletter

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with blue collar entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and growth tips!

💰Apply for OPS Accelerator ➡️ https://ownrops.com/accelerator

If you're spending money on Facebook ads and getting tire kickers ‚or nothing at all ‚this episode is for you.I brought Jacob Neffendorf back on the show. He runs ads for over 300 land clearing companies across the US. We broke down exactly why most ads fail and what you can do right now to fix it.

Here's what we cover:

👉 Why filming your equipment is hurting your cost per lead

👉 The simple 45-second ad formula that's working right now

👉 Why most tire kicker complaints come down to your creative ‚not your market

👉 How calling a lead back in under 5 minutes changes everything

👉 The 4 numbers you need to know to understand if your ads are making you money

If you don't know your cost per lead, close rate, or average job size ‚this episode will change that.

🔥 Services We Use 🔥

We use Jobber to handle our estimates, scheduling, & invoicing

➡️ Get 20% off Jobber here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops

💰 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📩 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → https://ownrops.com/newsletterDon't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with blue collar entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and growth tips!

💰Apply for OPS Accelerator ➡️ https://ownrops.com/accelerator

You're not stuck because you're not working hard enough. You're stuck because you're working hard on the wrong thing. I know because I've done it — and I still catch myself doing it. This episode is the framework I use to stop.

What we cover:

• The 3 questions to ask before spending time on any decision in your business
• Leads, sales, hiring, pricing/cash — the four constraints and how to know which one is yours right now
• Why shiny object syndrome shows up as new equipment, new services, and new businesses — and how to recognize it fast

• Document, demonstrate, delegate — the hiring system that lets you get off the machine

I've made every one of these mistakes myself — chasing new equipment before my schedule was full, adding services before I had the hiring figured out, avoiding the uncomfortable thing by going back to what I already knew how to do.

🔥 Services We Use 🔥

We use Jobber to handle our estimates, scheduling, & invoicing

➡️ Get 20% off Jobber here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops

💰 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?📩 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → https://ownrops.com/newsletter

💰Apply for OPS Accelerator ➡️ https://ownrops.com/accelerator

Most land-clearing owner-operators are wearing 4 hats at once — and wondering why nothing's scaling.

In this video, I break down the 3 things every business 0–$1M has to nail: Price, Pipeline, and Playbook.

In this video:

✅ The 3 hats every owner-operator wears — and which one to delegate first

✅ Facebook vs. Google ads: real return on ad spend data from actual accounts

✅ Why the Andromeda update changed everything about Facebook ad creative

✅ Why being booked out 9 weeks means it's time to raise your prices

✅ Price. Pipeline. Playbook. — the system I use to help operators hit consistent 80–100k months

Stop guessing and start building a business that actually pays you. This episode breaks down the exact playbook I use to go from owner-operator to seven figures.

🔥 Service We Use 🔥

📞 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) — one app for all your business calls and texts, plus an AI assistant (Sona) that answers questions, captures leads, and summarizes conversations. Stop missing calls. Start booking more jobs.

➡️ Get 20% off your first 3 months: http://quo.com/ownrops

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📩 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → https://ownrops.com/newsletter

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with blue collar entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and growth tips!

Want a real land‑clearing business doing $20k–$40k months instead of random jobs? Join the free OWNR OPS Skool group for land clearing & forestry mulching owners. 

Inside you'll get: – The OPS Kickstarter roadmap to your first consistent $10k–$20k months – Real pricing examples & bid breakdowns from our own jobs – Weekly live trainings and Q&A specific to land clearing.

Apply here: https://www.skool.com/ownrops

Most land-clearing operators running Facebook ads are tracking the wrong metric. In this episode, Austin Gray sits down with Jacob Neffendorf — founder of Rise Online, a growth agency for land clearing businesses — to break down the real math behind paid advertising: customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, and the ratio that tells you if your ads are actually working.

What you'll learn:

• How to calculate your true cost to acquire a paying customer

• The CAC-to-LTV ratio every operator should know

• Why speed to lead has a bigger impact on revenue than most realize

• How to grow without touching your own money

• What to look for when setting up your first Facebook ad campaign

Land clearing business has some of the best margins out there — but only if you know your numbers. Stop guessing and start growing on purpose. 

🔥 Services We Use 🔥

We use Jobber to handle our estimates, scheduling, & invoicing ➡️ Get 20% off Jobber here:

https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops

💰 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops

🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With Stryker SEO: https://stryker-digital.com/?el=oo

Want to learn more about starting and scaling your own service-based business?

📩 Sign up for the OWNR OPS Newsletter: → https://ownrops.com/newsletter

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more episodes with blue collar entrepreneurs sharing their best insights and growth tips!