In this episode, Marty Grunder is joined by executive coach Megan Parker whose coaching has been instrumental in many landscaping companies' success and whose sessions at past GROW sessions have helped managers become the leaders their teams need. They talk about accountability as leaders and how to encourage accountability among their teams.

ACE Peer Groups
StrengthsFinder 2.0

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Episode Timestamps

00:30 - Introduction & Welcome

02:40 - Megan’s Background and Connection to Landscaping

04:52 - The Importance of Accountability

10:01 - Skill and Will in Leadership

11:56 - Practical Tools for Accountability

16:47 - Advice for Landscaping Business Owners

22:33 - What to Expect at Grow 2026

Key Learnings

Accountability Is a $10 Word That Gets a Bad Rap – Accountability is one of those $10 words. It's a great word, but a lot of times I find that people don't really know what accountability means or how to do it. When you think of accountability, what word or feeling comes to mind? My guess is your reaction might not have been a positive one. 

The Three Key Ingredients of Accountability – First, you have to have clear expectations. If we are not on the same page about how to plant a tree, then you can't hold me accountable for the way the tree was planted. Second, we need to have resources. I have to have the ability to do my job. Third, those consequences. If you and I are not clear on what happens as a result of a failure to meet those expectations, then you can't truly hold me accountable.

Skill and Will: Why Accountability Is So Hard – When I think about why it is so hard, I think about two things: skill and will. Does the person have the skill to do it? And do they have the will to hold someone accountable? Skill means do I know how to hold people accountable? Do I literally know how to have a conversation without flying off the handle? Will is, am I willing to hold people accountable, to be the bad guy, to worry about what people will think of me?

Flying Off the Handle Sends People Into Fight, Flight, or Freeze – You're gonna send people into fight, flight, or freeze mode. Everyone will have one of those three reactions. When you go into that mode without the skill to have that conversation, you're gonna send people into fight, flight, or freeze mode, and nothing productive is gonna come from that. That's why the skill part is really important.

A-Players Don't Want to Work With People Who Aren't A-Players – Do you want to work for someone who will not hold you accountable? The answer is typically no. The biggest issue with people who aren't pulling their weight is that other A-players do not want to work with people who are not A-players. Your best employees, your A-players, they want to be held to a high standard. They want to be held accountable, and they want others on the team to be held to that same standard.

The Pilot Never Says "Let Me Call My Supervisor" – Your expectation for the pilot is that they need to get a plane full of people to the destination safely. If you're flying through a storm, you can adjust altitude or fly around it. Never once have you ever heard the pilot say, "I need to reroute, but I need to call my supervisor and ask him." You don't want your clients feeling like the person who's on the site has to call back and get permission.

You're Worried About One Guy, But 28 Others Are Suffering – I had a coaching client with 29 employees. One has been with him since he started, a dear friend, but he's not pulling his weight. My client said, "He has a family." I said, "Yes, he does, but he's also the one that hasn't held up his end of the bargain. You're worried about one guy, but there's 28 other people that are suffering because of his poor performance." He never thought about it that way.

What We Tolerate Is What We Allow – As an owner, you're gonna lose your A-players if you allow other players to be held to a different standard. What we tolerate is what we allow, and we are going to lose key people who work for us if we allow others to be held to a different standard.

Your Prefrontal Cortex Isn't Developed Until Mid-to-Late Twenties – There's actually a lot of science behind this. Your prefrontal cortex in your brain is not developed until your mid-to-late twenties. That's why teenage boys are so expensive on insurance. Their insurance rates drop when their prefrontal cortex is fully developed in their mid-twenties.

Reflection Questions

Resources:

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

In this episode of The Grow Show, Vince Torchia and Emily Lindley detail the planning that has gone into GROW! 2026, what will be different about this year's event, and how landscape pros can get the most out of this learning experience - whether they attend or not.

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Episode Timestamps

00:50 - Introduction to Grow 2026

02:04 - Insights from the Peer Groups

03:45 - Event Space and Logistics

04:50 - Changes to the Tour Schedule and Innovations

08:20 - Networking and Dining Rounds

10:27 - Maximizing Your Event Experience

14:18 - Ways to Follow Grow 2026

Key Learnings

We're Expecting About 1,000 More People Than 10 Years Ago – Complete Land Sculpture hosted this event 10 years ago in 2016. We had about 225 people. We might have a thousand more people than that for 2026. Gene and Chris have been to every Grow since 2016, so they have awesome ideas and know how they want their tour to run.

More Space Than Last Year—No Crowded Escalators – Last year we had an awesome event in Columbus hosted by Hidden Creek. We had a lot of late signups, which we loved, but there were some tight breakout rooms, tight space with sponsors at happy hours. Other than escalators working in Dallas, I am excited that we have larger space this year—more space in our main stage room, breakout rooms, and general function area.

The Tour Is Reinvented: Fewer Stations, More Time – Gene and Chris put together a really good tour schedule that involves less stations that are longer. So we have more time in stations, less movement of people, some more movement of presenters, and finally an actual formal walking tour of the facility. We've also taken some of those tour stations and brought them back to the hotel.

Divide and Conquer Breakout Sessions as a Team – I would set up a meeting two weeks before the event with all the people from your team who are attending. Look at the agenda, pick out which breakout sessions everybody's going to. What I would recommend is that teams divide and conquer. Don't all go to the same breakout session. Take your notes and come back together to share knowledge from all the different sessions.

Set a Pre-Event and Post-Event Team Meeting – During that pre-event meeting, talk about dine arounds, dinner reservations, what you want to get out of it as a team. Is there a specific challenge you're facing that you really want to find an answer to at Grow? After the event, do a debrief. Talk about breakout sessions, notes, takeaways, action items. Narrow down everything to five things you're gonna implement over the next year.

Think: Today, 30 Days, 60-90 Days – Think about what's one thing you're gonna get done today, what's low hanging fruit you can get done right away when you get back home. What's something you're gonna get done in the next 30 days? And then what's something you're gonna get done in the next 60 or 90 days? Make it a manageable to-do list so it doesn't just live in a notebook.

We Listen to 210+ Companies to Build the Agenda – We're always listening to not only what we're experiencing at Grunder Landscaping Company, but also taking a deep dive into the over 210 companies that we have in our ACE peer groups. We take into account all those meetings, conversations, accountability calls, and naturally things just bubble up to the top. We'll have more breakout sessions than we've ever had this year.

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

In this episode, Vince Torchia shares how he sees landscaping companies set their year up for success early with planning, refining messaging, defining the wins, and communicating all of this with teams. He shares the themes that have driven Grunder Landscaping's growth and messaging, and how to evaluate where your focus should be for 2026.

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Episode Timestamps

01:32 Setting Up for Success: The Importance of a Yearly Theme

05:05 Recognizing and Appreciating Your Team

09:45 Effective Communication Strategies for 2026

13:54 Conclusion and Upcoming Events

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Key Learnings

1. PICK YOUR THEME

2. RECOGNIZE THE UNDERAPPRECIATED

Team Members: Who needs to feel the love? Thank you notes, praising in public, opportunities for advancement

3. CREATE YOUR COMMUNICATION PLAN

Put communication on your calendar for what's happening in the business

Reflection Questions

Happy Holidays listeners! In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder shares the routine he follows during a holiday week to make equal time for recharging, reflecting, and resetting. Make time for yourself and your loved ones, but don't miss the opportunity to set your 2026 up for success in this final week of the year.

Dorothy Lane Market

Stihl GTA 26 Cordless Pruner (Complete the challenge below to have a chance to win!) 

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Episode Timestamps

01:47 - The Holiday Dilemma for Landscapers

02:32 - Managing the Week Between Christmas and New Year’s

05:03 - Recharge, Reflect, and Reset: The Three Buckets

05:45 - Five Practical Areas to Focus On

08:25 - The Grow Show Christmas Week Challenge

10:03 - Please Share & Subscribe!

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Key Learnings

How You Manage This Week Says a Lot About How You Manage Your Business – The worst thing you can do is let this week become a Netflix sit-around, eat junk, do nothing this week. That's not good. If you spend six to 10 hours the week between Christmas and New Year's, you'll return to work January 2nd seeing your business in a whole new focused way.

Resting Is Okay, Drifting Is Dangerous – I organize this week around three buckets: Recharge, Reflect, and Reset. Recharge is time with family. Reflect means looking at reality, the good, the bad, and the painful truth. Reset means making decisions—what will I stop doing? What will I delegate? What am I gonna double down on?

I Get to the Coffee Shop at 5:45 AM While My Family Sleeps In – I head to a coffee shop around 5:45 AM on the days they're open, even though I don't drink coffee, because I like that environment. I open my calendar, scroll month by month. What felt heavy? Where did we have callbacks? Where was I overwhelmed? I delve into Aspire, check dials, reports, numbers, because data doesn't lie.

All Planning Is Good, But Planning Only Happens When You're Intentional – You've heard me say this many times. All planning is good. Credit to Dave Sullivan from 1997. This process I'm sharing with you is planning. At some point you're gonna have to say, I'm getting my act together. This is that week.

Chaos Is Really Expensive, Order Pays Dividends – People come in my garage and they say, my goodness, what happened here? You could eat off the floor. It's always like that. I guess it's my OCD, but I just feel so much more in control when I have things organized. Chaos is really expensive, folks. Order pays dividends.

The Daily Rhythm for Winning This Week

Each Day:

One hour in the morning for yourself

One intentional family activity

One cleanup/reset task (amazing what you can get cleaned up in 30 minutes)

One written note about tomorrow's focus

Simple, powerful, repeatable.

Five Practical Areas to Focus On

Rest – Sleep a little more. Go to bed with a ritual. I use a natural sleep aid (not melatonin after reading a Wall Street Journal story about heart failure). Walk, read something uplifting (I like biographies, especially sports heroes), slow down, get steps in on my Garmin watch.

Gratitude – Practice some gratitude. Maybe a note or two to people who made my year possible: my spouse, my family, a key team member, maybe a vendor, maybe a client, maybe a mentor. People don't remember what you say, they remember how you make them feel.

Clean the Clutter – Your inbox, your garage, your truck, your office. What are all those things you can do to get more organized? I had a shelf next to my door that became a catchall. I put 30 minutes, cleaned up the shelf, threw stuff out, took stuff to Goodwill. My wife came home and said, oh my gosh, it looks so much better.

Set Your Q1 Goals – Not 10 goals or 20 goals. How about just three things you're gonna commit to improving.

Connect – I take someone I care about to breakfast or lunch. I send a message to my leadership team asking them what they want for the next year.

The Grow Show Christmas Week Challenge

The Challenge:

Pick one morning this week

Get out of your house

Bring your calendar or Aspire dashboard or LMN dashboard

Spend one hour reflecting, reviewing, and planning

Take a photo of yourself doing it

Post it on LinkedIn and tag Marty Grunder

Share one priority you're gonna tackle in 2026

Prize: One lucky participant will win a GTA 26 Cordless Pruner

In this episode, Marty details what the Complete Landsculpture team shared during our tour session rehearsals that had him frantically scribbling down notes to help the team back at home. He shares what impressed him from this, and then what he's working with his own team to implement as a result.

Cookie Recipe

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Episode Timestamps

00:54 - Upcoming Grow 2026 Event in Dallas

03:29 - The Four P’s Framework

06:39 - Focus on Your People

08:41 - Process Excellence at Complete Landsculpture

12:20 - Insights on Procurement and Profits

14:03 - Sign up for Grow 2026!

16:09 - Please Share & Subscribe!

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Key Learnings

Every Presenter Mentioned Their Mission and Focus – Complete Land Sculpture's mission is to create complete outdoor client experiences and exceed those expectations. They're fanatical about it. Every single one of them mentioned that main focus in their presentation. Even HR mentioned that maintenance is their focus of growth right now. I was listening to people that weren't at the top of the org chart talking about the value of doing maintenance and the reoccurring revenue.

Your External Customer Service Will Never Exceed Your Internal Customer Service – When I see a company that offers good service, I know that the team is well managed. The team knows that people care about them, and that's just a byproduct of taking care of your team. The place oozes with consistency of the brand, the looks, the smells, the way the office and the shop and the grounds are set up.

They Give Clients a Weekly State of the Union Email – They communicate well with their clients, giving them a weekly state of the union email with full reports—amazing detailed reports with photos of how the job's gone. They do a complete budget, but then they put the budget into the months that they think their client could spend and they give them the budget. Many of their property managers struggle with that, so they try to make it easy on them.

Take 5-7 Clients to Lunch and Ask for Feedback – Scott said they take five to seven clients to lunch and ask them how they're doing, ask for feedback. It goes over well because it's five to seven clients that are in the similar industry, real estate, and they like talking with each other. He said, we know we're good and we don't have anything to hide. So we have a conversation with them about what we can do better.

Procurement Is Where Most Companies Waste Money – Xavier handles procurement for Complete Landsculpture. He didn't look at his slides, didn't look at his notes. Gene said, we can tell you know what you're doing. Xavier said, I don't have to look at them, this is what I do all day. It's not sexy, we just don't do it well. We waste a lot of money on it. We let our people go to Lowe's or Home Depot to pick up things when we should have a system in place with Site One delivering those things right before we need it.

We Went from 5 People in Procurement at $4M to 2 People at $18M – I thought we did procurement well until Seth came in here, our president, and he showed me ways we could use technology and put in a better system. I learned our system was terrible. We had five people involved at $4 million in revenue. Now we have two people involved at $18 million in revenue, and we got it humming by leveraging technology. For example, we don't drive around and pick up plants anymore. They get delivered.

Relationships Matter at All Levels – Scott said, listen, if one of our good clients has a dart league and they want a sponsor, we're gonna sponsor the dart league and we're gonna go throw darts. That's just kind of how they are. They go to where their clients are and they work with them. You're gonna see it clear as day that relationships matter.

Reflection Questions

In this episode, Marty Grunder and Vince Torchia recap what 2025 looked like for Grunder Landscaping Co. and the ups and downs that we saw. There were some great wins and also some lessons learned, all shared in our best effort to help other landscaping teams.

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Episode Chapters:

00:54 - Landscape Pros Playbook Overview

01:48 - Reflecting on 2025: Wins and Learnings

02:19 - Platform: Culture and Growth

08:56 - People: Team Additions and Changes

18:02 - Process: Improvements and Challenges

21:14 - Profit: Financial Insights and Investments

26:56 - Looking Ahead to 2026

30:20 - Please Share & Subscribe!

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Show Notes:

We Added $4 Million and 40 People—Training Couldn't Keep Up – We grew a lot this year. We added $4 million in revenue and about 40 more people. When you grow like we have, you assume people know how to do things and you don't slow down enough to train them. We've gotta train better. We have a saying here that's trust the process, but you can say that as long as you understand the process. I think we have so many new people here, they don't understand the process.

Landscaping Isn't Simple When You Do This Many Transactions – We often hear from people or the inference is that landscaping's a simple business. I don't think it is when you do the number of transactions that we do. Now in lawn care, some of those transactions are $80 lawn apps and you have weather to deal with and all these people and complicated projects. There's just a lot, and when you grow and add new people, it takes a while for them to understand how to do things.

Our Peer Groups Give Us a Reality Check – The great thing about our peer groups is the barometer that we get out of almost 250 companies. That's closing in on one and a half billion dollars in collective revenue. When you're in those meetings and you hear what other people are dealing with, you realize you're not alone and you get perspective on what's normal versus what needs fixing.

Cash Management Requires Daily Review—Not Just Systems – The biggest thing I've learned this year was accounts receivable communication with the team. Yes, it's centralized and yes, we have a process for how we do it, but just because you are not involved in that collection does not mean you just get to put your arms up and be like, well, I'm not getting involved in that. Everybody on the team has to understand who owes money, why they owe money, and what we're doing to collect it. Nothing will ever beat daily review of cash in, cash out, and AR balances.

We've Learned More About Our Ideal Client This Year – We've done a fountain project, we've done a historical renovation of a property, we've landed more commercial snow work this year than ever before. We changed the mission statement to create opportunities for our team to grow and succeed. I think from a platform perspective, we are doing that through looking at our ideal client in a new perspective for the kind of work that we want.

Reading My 2014 Journal: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same – I went and found one of my old journals from 2014. I was 42 or 43 years old. I'm 57 now. It's amazing how many of the things are still the same. I wrote "look into Gallup's StrengthsFinder" and "sell more commercial work" and "add our fourth and fifth salesperson"—we have 11 now. The same issues, there's just more zeros after it. You do get better at dealing with the issues.

Mindset Matters More Than Systems – It's the mindset. You go in there in the morning with a smile on your face and a positive can-do attitude, there's a lot you can do with that. You go in there with a foul, nasty attitude and a frown on your face, and nobody wants to be around you. That's just another reminder—there is a lot that's changed, but there's a lot that stays the same.

Reflection Questions

Grunder Landscaping’s Cincinnati location recently secured a high-profile account simply because a prospect walked by one of their crews and was impressed—even though they couldn't see the actual work being done in the backyard. In this short episode, Marty breaks down the four key philosophies that turn job sites into referral generators, from treating your internal team better than you expect them to treat clients to consistently looking for the good instead of just pointing out problems.

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Episode Timestamps

00:57 - Site One Early Order Program
01:55 - The Importance of How We Work
02:22 - Securing High Profile Accounts
04:24 - Four Key Philosophies for Success
08:16 - Internal Customer Service > External
08:32 - Be Great At What You Want to See
09:38 - Be Present and Engage
12:43 - Look for the Good
14:36 - Training and Systems Matter
16:30 - Please Share & Subscribe!

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Key Learnings

Your External Customer Service Will Never Exceed Your Internal Customer Service – How you treat your team is how they're gonna treat your clients. If you treat your team poorly, you don't give them the tools they need, you don't respect them, you don't appreciate them, you don't have their paychecks ready on time—they're not gonna treat your clients well.

You Gotta Be Great at What You Want Your Team to Be Good At – I can't expect my team to wave at people, throttle down blowers when someone walks by, be kind, and wave at the competition if I'm not modeling that behavior myself. We teach our people to wave to people, to be polite, to look like they care. That starts with me.

Be Present and Bump Knuckles – I listened to a podcast with Corey Ballard who said you gotta get in there and bump some knuckles. You gotta be talking to people, firing them up, setting a good example, being present. When I'm in town, I go in early, I partake in our stretch and flex, I walk around with my nail apron stuffed full of candy. Lenin, one of our lawn care technicians, said "I missed you. I haven't seen you in a while." That made me realize showing up and being seen matters.

Look for the Good and Reinforce It – When I have my apron on and passing out candy, I often see things that are bad. Yesterday I saw a truck that hadn't been cleaned out, a bald tire, and a mesh gate pushed out. I took a picture and sent it to the managers, but I don't go yelling at people. I'm a cheerleader, I'm a knuckle bumper. I look for the good, reinforce that, talk about it in circles, and post pictures of good jobs.

The Exercise That Changes Everything

Marty closes with this powerful exercise he uses when working with groups:

The Question: Knowing what you know about landscaping, what would a crew have to do—to look like, to sound like—if they were working at the neighbors of your brand new vacation home in Florida that you just built because you did so well with your landscaping company? What would that team have to do to impress you to the point that you would want to call them and ask them for a quote?

The Magic: Write that all down. Now go do that. Just go do what you know you should be doing but you're not doing. You're gonna get referrals for your crews like we do. It's one of the best ways to grow a business.

What Impressed the Prospect

When the prospect walked by the Grunder crew, here's what they saw (even though they couldn't see the actual patio installation in the backyard):

Marty's First Truck Example: Even his 1974 Red Ford Ranger with Rich had a magnetic sign and was kept clean (despite the rusty spot). The principle applies regardless of truck age or condition.

Reflection Questions

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Chris Strempek and Gene Freeman have been partners at Complete Landsculpture in Dallas, Texas for 34 years. In this conversation, they reveal why they would've hired consultants and learned their numbers much earlier, how treating team members like owners transformed their culture, and what makes their partnership work after more than three decades together—essential lessons whether you're building a partnership, scaling your business, or just trying to figure out your next hire.

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Episode Chapters:

01:52 - Chris’s Journey: 40 Years from College Job to Company President

04:06 - Gene’s Story: 34 Years of Partnership

05:58 - Roles and Responsibilities for Gene & Chris

06:55 - Business Development at Complete Landsculpture

07:52 - Company Structure and Services

08:55 - Unique Value Proposition & Customer Service

11:31 - The 5-10 Rule

13:55 - Growth and Challenges for 2025

19:06 - What to Expect at Grow 2026

25:26 - The Opportunity to Challenge Our Team

26:20 - Labor Situation & H-2B Program

28:37 - Challenges in Staffing & Growth Opportunities

31:21 - Celebrating Team Success & Culture

34:47 - Time Management Tips

38:02 - Community Involvement and Giving Back

41:46 - Relationships Matter At All Levels

43:18 - Chris’ Leadership Style Over the Years

46:44 - Thoughts on Private Equity

52:11 - Advice to Younger Self

58:41 - Please Subscribe!

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Key Learnings:

The 25-Year-Old Me Needed a Consultant Yesterday – I would seek the advice of consultants and get help developing a real, executable, goal-oriented business plan. The biggest tendency for operators starting out is spending all your time as a technician, virtually no time in the entrepreneurial or visionary role. You can't articulate to team members what you don't know yourself.

We Didn't Know Our Numbers—Top Line Blinded Us – We just looked at top line. God, if we get to $4 million, we're gonna be on high cotton. We thought we'd be sitting pretty, wondering where we'd spend all the money. Not knowing your numbers, not knowing what you don't know, that held us back. Labor costs, material costs, ratios, overtime, indirect time—these KPIs are transcendent whether you're in Washington or Texas.

Treat Team Members Like Owners and Challenge Them – We empower our team to make decisions and think like owners. We've learned over the years that there are things we suck at, but we have rock stars in our organization who can take those areas well beyond what we ever could. We gotta get out of their way.

Don't Let Pride Get in the Way of Your Success – You've got to be willing to own your mistakes. We're far from perfect and we're seeing cracks right now. We try to acknowledge them, bring them forward, make them public, and learn from them. Make sure your team knows it's okay to make mistakes as long as you don't do it again - but we talk about it and learn from it.

Your Financials Tell the Truth Monthly—Look at Them – Take time once a month to go through your financials. A lot of times we just think of revenue, revenue, revenue. We're not looking at the fact that you're making less now at a million than you were at $800,000, or less at $2 million than at $1.5 million, because your costs rose faster than your revenue. Track your KPIs all the way through.

We Would've Built Career Paths and Replaced Ourselves Earlier – We would've laid out career paths, training programs, and focused on replacing ourselves much earlier. We needed to put more time individually and collectively into mentoring our team members. There are only so many hours in a day, and we had to learn to empower people earlier.

You'll Outgrow Your Systems Eventually—Be Adaptive – You'll outgrow your systems eventually, so you have to be adaptive. You need to recognize when you're losing control, when you can no longer manage it all. You can only attend so many meetings and have so much knowledge. That's when you have to trust others and delegate.

Our Peer Group Keeps Us Humble and Accountable – Being in a peer group with accountability partners where we do benchmarking together and are transparent with one another.  Sometimes it's humbling to do that. But that transparency and willingness to be vulnerable is what makes us better. You can't let pride stop you from getting the help you need.

Reflection Questions

Marty Grunder announces the new Landscape Pros Playbook, an 8-year dream project created with Landscape Management magazine. Learn why training should target specific pain points, how to answer "Would you want to work for you?", and why competitive pay with career paths transforms seasonal workers into department leaders.

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Episode Chapters:

00:41 - The Landscape Pros Playbook: A Dream Realized
01:23 - The Importance of Landscape Management Magazine
01:57 - Unveiling the Landscape Pros Playbook
04:16 - Training: An Investment, Not an Expense
06:35 - Would You Want to Work for You?
07:34 - The Importance of Competitive Compensation
11:34 - Career Paths & Growing Opportunities
14:29 - Please Subscribe to The Grow Show!

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Show Notes:

Training Should Be Based on Last Year's Problems – I tell companies to look at where you had issues: client complaints, callbacks on plants or pavers, team member injuries, workers' comp claims. Track when these problems happened, then build your training calendar around preventing them proactively—you're better off in fire prevention than firefighting.

Time Your Training to Your Calendar – I don't think it makes sense to train on snow removal in May. Train on snow removal in October, November, and again in December through February. Match your training topics to when your crews will actually be doing that work.

The Playbook Came from My Own Need as a 19-Year-Old – I was a sophomore at the University of Dayton running my business, and I'd rip open this newsletter and start reading it walking up the driveway. It told me when to buy fertilizer, when to apply it, how to sell pruning and maintenance packages. That newsletter gave me direction—and the Landscape Pros Playbook is that resource for today's professionals.

Turnover Costs More Than Just Wages – I see companies focus only on what they're paying to replace someone. But look at what turnover really costs: efficiency losses when retraining crews, work you have to do yourself because nobody else can, clients stopping service due to quality issues. These are real costs that could be avoided if you raised wages.

Benefits Matter When People Hit 26 and Start Families – I get it—a 22-year-old on their parents' health insurance isn't thinking about benefits. But when that person turns 26, gets off their parents' insurance, and starts thinking about family, those benefits become very important. One of my favorite interview questions is when candidates ask about benefits, 401k, and vacation—that's someone looking beyond today.

Growth Creates Opportunities That Keep Your Best People – My mentor Mike Rory said 10 years ago: "Marty, the best reason to grow is you have so many good people pushing you. If you don't create opportunities for them, they'll leave." It took seven years to register, but now growth each year is mandatory because it enables us to create opportunities for our team.

We Promote From Within First—Always – This morning in our leadership meeting, we discussed hiring someone new but realized we have four internal people who could take the role. We're figuring out which is best. When new hires see Joe started on a crew and now runs the department, or Brent moved from operations to top salesperson—that shows a real career path.

Reflection Questions

Marty Grunder reveals how to identify your personal superpower and spend 80% of your time leveraging it for maximum business growth. Learn the StrengthsFinder framework that unlocks hidden potential in your team, plus four practical tips to work more in your strength zone - even when you're doing it all yourself.

StrengthsFinder 2.0

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Episode Chapters:

00:00:30 Introduction and Welcome 

00:01:04 Leadership Team Success 

00:02:24 Understanding Superpowers 

00:03:21 Marty's Superpowers 

00:06:35 Brian's Journey to Success 

00:09:35 Discovering and Leveraging Superpowers 

00:11:42 Lily's Story: Finding True Passion 

00:17:07 Practical Tips for Identifying Superpowers

00:20:25 Conclusion and Call to Action

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Show Notes:

I Went from 40% to 80% Time in My Superpower – Prior to 2021, I spent about 40% of my time connecting and making sales. Today it's about 80%, and that shift has been an enormous difference in our business growth over the last four years.

My Superpower: Connecting People Into Business – My superpower is what I do better than 99% of all people on planet Earth: meeting and connecting with people and turning those relationships into business. My secondary superpower is maximizing opportunities.

Brian Davis: From Watering Plants to VP of Operations – Brian started watering plants eight years ago, got passed over for promotion, and quit. I brought him back, and his superpower—extreme attention to detail and organization—made him indispensable. Today he's our VP of Operations making excellent money.

My Daughter Discovered Her Superpower by Saying No – Lily had corporate job interviews in Boston but realized her superpower was helping people through social work. She canceled the interviews, and I watched her finally realize what she does best. Nothing is better than seeing your kid thriving and happy.

Strengths Give Energy, Weaknesses Take It Away – You can't just work on your strengths—it's a job, you have to do some weakness work. But understanding what gives you energy versus what drains you is critical to identifying your superpower and structuring your time.

Every Person Has a Superpower—Most Never Leverage It – I've studied successful people from all walks of life and read hundreds of business books. I've come to believe every person has a superpower. The problem is some of us never think about it that way or leverage it because we get caught in the daily doings.

What You Think People Should Do Isn't What They Want to Do – Watching my daughter helped me understand: what I think people should do and what they want to do aren't always aligned. You have to go with what the person wants to do. Feed that fire and watch them grow.

Reflection Questions