The GROW! Show

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Episode #177: In this episode, Marty Grunder sits down with Katie Roell, Senior Marketing Manager at Boss Snowplow, to talk about why the best snow contractors are already preparing for winter right now. Recorded in the middle of August, Katie shares how successful contractors use July and August to optimize their equipment mix, evaluate their data, train their people, and get ready for whatever the winter brings. They cover forecasting, worst-case scenario planning, sidewalk automation, insurance challenges, and why the future of snow depends on people just as much as machines. Plus a preview of what to expect at Grow Snow 2026 in Dayton, OH this September.

Resources Mentioned:

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Key Learnings

Stop Asking What Winter Will Bring. Start Asking How Prepared You Are: No one truly knows what the winter looks like. Great contractors don't gamble on forecasts. They gamble on preparation. Whether it's a banger year or a light year, the ones who prepare in July and August win.

Dealer Schedules Are Filling Up Right Now: You can't wait until October or November to get your truck in for service. Get your preventative maintenance scheduled now. If you can't run because your equipment is down, you lose.

Your Data Is Your Playbook: You own the data. You are the coach. Go back and look at where you fell down last year. What lots gave you trouble? What routes need optimization? Where did downtime cost you the most?

Buy Equipment for the Contracts You're Winning, Not for the Sake of Buying: Start with one contract you want. Look at the acreage, the services, the ideal equipment mix. Get that tight. Then build the rest of your fleet around that model.

Plan for Worst Case, Not Just Best Case: The worst case scenario isn't a 12-inch storm. It's zero snow with equipment payments still coming due. Or a downed truck mid-storm with no backup. Build your plan around the scenarios you can't control.

Snow Doesn't Give You Downtime Flexibility: In landscaping, if a mower breaks you can fix it in four hours. In snow, if your equipment breaks, you can't tell a client "we'll be back later." Reliability is not optional.

Your Team Is the Biggest Risk in Your Own Head: Owners who know every customer, every mailbox, every curb are also their own biggest risk. That knowledge has to live in a business management system, not in your brain. That's how you scale.

Nobody Wants to Wake Up at 2 AM Without a Reason: People do not want to be in freezing cold with wet boots unless they're connected to something bigger. Culture and mission matter. Value your people or they will leave.

Sidewalk Equipment Is the Most Underestimated Category: Boss estimates the Snowrator replaces four people. It doesn't get tired. If you're in the sidewalk game, labor shortages make automation not optional.

Insurance Is Becoming a Bigger Line Item Every Year: As an industry, we need to advocate for standards and use equipment data to validate the work we're doing. Equipment isn't just a machine anymore. It's proof for insurance.

The Best Contractors Learn Across Industries: Whether it's snow, green, hospitality, or manufacturing, being a constant learner separates the great from the good. Show up at regional events. Find a mentor. Invest in learning.

Katie's Lightning Round Takeaways:

Reflection Questions

Additional Resources:

BOBYARD 

Aspire

Exmark

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - August 5-6, 2026 and More Dates!)

Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026)

Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026)

Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026)

Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027)

Episode #176: Finding great team leaders is one of the biggest challenges in the landscaping industry, but what if you're asking the wrong question? In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder shares why the best team leaders aren't found - they're developed. Drawing from decades of experience at Grunder Landscaping Co., Marty walks through the systems, habits, and leadership principles that have helped build high-performing crews and future leaders from within.

Resources Mentioned:

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Key Learnings

Great Team Leaders Are Made, Not Found: Stop asking where to find them. Start asking how to build them. The best crew leaders come from within your own company, developed with intention.

Great Days Start the Day Before: The biggest mistake team leaders make is arriving in the morning to start figuring things out. That's 12 to 15 hours too late. Great days start at 3 PM the day before.

Ask Where Your Weakest Link Is Tomorrow: Before the day starts, ask what could stop you and where the weakest link is. Then get ready for it. The weather, a missing crew member, a picky client. Anticipate.

A Team Leader Should Never Say "Nobody Told Me": The information is there. Read the notes. Study the prints. Know the plan. Ownership starts with reading what's in front of you.

Group Leaders Are the Ones Training Team Leaders: Mowing group leaders can handle 10 crews. Construction group leaders max out at 5 because the work is more detailed. Land keeping group leaders handle about 6. The group leader's job is to mentor and empower, not to give every answer.

Own the Morning by Prepping the Night Before: Show up at 6:45. Truck is fueled. Trailer is checked. Tools are staged. Notes are reviewed. The morning is about executing, not figuring things out.

Every Crew Member Has a Job: The number two (team tech / team leader in training) reads the tablet on the way to the site. The number three loads supplies, fills seed, fills fuel cans. Chaos in the morning means chaos all day. Organization creates profit.

Get Better From Every Near Miss: When a pintle pin gets missed on a trailer, don't laugh it off. Have a meeting, retrain, and get better. The goal isn't getting to the job fast. It's getting everyone home safely.

Great Leaders Coach with Questions, Not Commands: Don't say "do this." Ask "what's your plan?" Ask "what did you learn today?" and "what could you do better tomorrow?" Those aren't adversarial questions. They develop people.

Team Leaders Think Like Owners: They understand waste. They don't throw away usable mulch. They take care of equipment. They protect customer property. They know if we sell 150 hours and finish in 130, that's good. If it takes 170, that's bad.

Finish Every Job Professionally: Walk the site. Check quality. Take photos, post in Aspire. Clean up. Review tomorrow. Would you be proud to show this job to your family? Would you pay for this work? Would you want this crew at your house?

Pre-Plan, Coach, Review (Jimmy's Three Habits): Know tomorrow before tomorrow arrives. Make your crew better every day. Learn from every day before starting the next one.

Your Crews Are Your Reputation: Salespeople spend 1-20 hours with a client. Your crews spend 100+. How they drive your trucks, how they show up, how they behave in front of clients - that's the impression that lasts.

Reflection Questions

Additional Resources:

BOBYARD 

Aspire

Exmark

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - August 5-6, 2026 and More Dates!)

Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026)

Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026)

Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026)

Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027)

Episode #175: In this episode, Marty Grunder sits down with Lex Mason, the new CEO of Weathermatic, for an honest, wide-ranging conversation about what it actually takes to succeed your father, build a company culture people want to join, and reinvent the irrigation business. Lex opens up about growing up testing sprinklers in a hot Dallas warehouse, dropping out of college for two months to help save the family business, being sent to Houston with an expense card and a quota, and eventually taking over from his father Mike. Along the way, he shares practical wisdom on succession, mentorship, sales, and why the irrigation division might be the last untapped profit center in your landscape company.

Resources Mentioned:

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Key Learnings

Succession Actually Starts Day One: Lex's dad read him the Wall Street Journal at Starbucks as a baby. The "dinner table MBA" started at 11. Whether you are preparing your kids to succeed you at your company or somewhere else, you are always preparing them to succeed you at something.

Bring the Next Leader In Early, With No Voice at First: Mike put Lex in the leadership meetings early, but not as a decision-maker. He had to earn a seat at the table by first earning ears at the table. Then gradually, "What do you think about that?" started getting asked.

Give the Dog Enough Rope to Get in Trouble: Mike sent Lex to Houston with an expense card, a quota, and a $2 million product sitting on a shelf. That test built the Partner Program that now has 400+ clients. If you cannot let the leash out, you will never know how they handle no leash.

How You Talk About Your Kids in Public Matters: Founders who flippantly say "That's not Johnny's thing" or "He's really struggling with that" destroy their kid's brand equity with the team. If you want the org to accept your successor in five years, start building them up positively today.

Fill What You Are Best At, Not What They Were Best At: Mike is the guy who runs through walls once a year. Lex's job is to figure out how to do that 52 times a year at scale. The successor's job is not to be a copy of the founder. It is to bring the next chapter.

Have a Strong Leadership Team So It Is Not Just You vs. the Founder: When Mike and Lex disagree, the leadership team steps in. Ben on sales, Bill on technology, Brodie on customer success. That takes the pressure off the family dynamic.

A Culture Sign You Got It Right: When Lex was announced as CEO, the most common reaction was "Wait, we thought you were already CEO." That is what a smooth transition looks like.

People Are the Business, Even in a Product Company: Lex's mom taught him to love on people. Mike taught him perseverance. Both matter. Neither is optional.

Character, Chemistry, Competency (Brodie's Three Cs): Character is being the same person at work as you are at home. Chemistry is elevating the room or draining it. Competency is either being the best or visibly working to become the best.

The Irrigation Division Is the Last Untapped Profit Center: Weathermatic has looked inside 3,000-4,000 landscape companies. 99 out of 100 do not know if they are making money in irrigation. Meanwhile, irrigation inspections are the one part of your business you are paid to go find billable work.

Irrigation Attachment Rate Benchmark: Industry average is 5-7% of maintenance dollars turning into irrigation repair revenue. Weathermatic's top partners hit 20%. That is a 3-4x improvement in a high-margin division.

Per Irrigation Tech Impact: $75K-$100K bottom-line impact per irrigation technician when you get the people, process, and technology right.

Immigration and AI Will Reshape the Industry: Labor is getting more expensive, more political, more regulated. AI is getting cheaper. Weathermatic is launching "Link," an internal AI, this September. Both trends favor operators who invest in technology now.

Skipping Inspections Is the Number One Mistake Contractors Make: Track percentage of inspections completed as your relentless metric. Build the pipeline first, then the process, then the technology.

Reflection Questions

Additional Resources:

BOBYARD 

Aspire

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026)

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!)

Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026)

Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026)

Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026)

Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027)

Episode #174: In Part 2 of Marty's conversation with Phil Harwood of Snowfighters Institute, they dig into the people, process, and preparation that separate great snow companies from average ones. Phil shares how to recruit and retain drivers, why subcontractors should be treated more like employees, what a great snow team looks like before the first event, and how to run your operation like a well-trained military unit. Plus more details on GROW! Snow 2026 in Dayton, OH this September.

Resources Mentioned:

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show!

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Key Learnings

Preparing to Recruit Is Half the Battle: Before you post a single job, scrub your job descriptions, clarify weekend and holiday expectations, and rebuild your compensation and incentive plans. Bring people on before you are ready and you set them up to be disappointed.

Job Postings Are Not Classified Ads Anymore: You are not paying per letter. Use the space to talk about mission, culture, and why. Most postings are terrible because they read like a task list. Great postings sell the opportunity.

Speed of Response Is a Snow Pro Advantage: When someone answers your ad, get back to them in 15-20 minutes by text. Nobody wants a phone call anymore. Automate this if you can.

Build Real Pipelines, Not One-Off Hires: Vocational schools, homeschool networks, sports parent groups, recovery community programs, laid-off seasonal workers from painting or carpentry crews. If you can pluck one or two out of a community, they will bring more.

Treat Your Drivers Like Franchise Players: Every event, even a light dusting, give them the hours. Buy them Carhartts and boots. Hook them up. The best contractors treat their drivers like gold because they are.

Don't Be Afraid to Train Your Subs: If your sub is a legitimate business with their own EIN, trucks, shop, and insurance, you can absolutely bring them in for onboarding, training, or hot chocolate. The employee-vs-contractor issue is about control, not communication.

Meet with Subs in the Off-Season: Walk their shop in July. Ask about their sweet spot, their backup equipment, their quality assurance. Be their consultant. You are investing in a relationship that pays off in a storm.

A Great Snow Team Is Drooling Before the First Storm: The best crews attack the season with the caged bull mindset. "Am I ready for the snow? Is the snow ready for me?"

Give Operators the Tools and the Training: Weather stations, GPS, live site maps, salt monitoring, cameras. Then train the trainers in the summer. Get daylight hours on every site. Stake sidewalks and curbs. Dry runs before the first storm are glorious.

Ask Where the Weakest Link Is Right Now: Every time you dispatch, pause and ask: if something is going to go wrong in the next couple hours, what is it most likely going to be? Usually you can pinpoint it (new operator + new truck + new site + picky client) and go head it off.

Run Snow Like a Military Operation: Command, communication, and control. Up and down, not sideways. No debate, no arguing, no second-guessing during the storm. Save the ideas for the debrief.

Documentation Beats Power Washing: At the end of a storm, service verification, reports, and photo uploads matter more than a clean truck. Snow lives and dies by documentation because of liability.

Debrief After Big Events, Not Every Storm: Wait 24-48 hours so heads are clear but the pain is still fresh. Identify what went wrong and who stepped up. Recognition matters as much as correction.

The Org Chart Is Different for Snow: Snow commander at the top (plus a backup so someone can sleep). Area managers below. Site captains under them. Operators and shovelers report up. It is a regional command structure, not a landscape structure.

The Two Biggest Snow Mistakes: Not treating snow as a year-round business, and over-committing without understanding capacity. Both are fixable with planning.

Reflection Questions

Additional Resources:

BOBYARD 

Aspire

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026)

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!)

Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026)

Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026)

Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026)

Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027)

Episode #173

In this episode, Phil Harwood joins Marty to talk about snow and ice services as a profit center, the challenges snowfighters face, and what resources are available for companies to run better snow operations. They talk about the difference between companies who make money in snow and those that don't, the systems that reduce chaos, and how to plan ahead so that snow operations run well. This is Part 1 of a two-part series with Phil.

Resources Mentioned:

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show!

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Key Learnings

Snow Is a 12-Month Business, Not a Winter Job: The best snow operators start planning for next season the moment this one ends. If you go dark for three months and wake up in September, you are already behind.

Snow Should Be Your Most Profitable Service Line: If it is not, something is broken. The leading snow pros have figured out how to be profitable no matter what. Pricing, budgeting, sales, and operations all have to work together.

You Are Selling an Intangible: Snow is not encyclopedias. You are not selling a pile of snow or a truck with a plow on it. You are selling peace of mind, risk mitigation, and insurance. That takes a different skill set and different training.

Grab the Free 52-Week Visual Timeline from SIMA: This tool maps every month of the year from both the contractor's and the customer's perspective. It shows exactly what should be happening each month and where the danger zone starts.

Snowfighting Is Emergency Service, Like Firefighting: Nobody loves fires. Nobody loves being away from their family in a blizzard. But there is a reward that comes with keeping your community open. When you tie the work to purpose, the mindset changes.

Order Equipment Now, Not in October: Coming off a good winter, undercapitalized operators are buying up inventory. Lead times are real. Set a drop-dead date, work backward, and meet with your team every week to track progress.

You Have a Relationship With Your Equipment: Consistent operators paired with consistent machines learn every nuance. Skid steer, Snowrator, pickup truck, even a $50 spreader. Every piece has a quirk. Learn it before the storm, not during.

Carry the Dumb Stuff: Cotter pins, hoses, backup tires. The dumb little parts are what will kill you in the middle of the night. You are not buying a cotter pin at a 24-hour Walmart at 3 AM.

Get Escalators Into Every Contract: Salt is a commodity. Fuel is a commodity. Do not sign contracts without protective language, no matter how small you are. Everything is negotiable.

Fire Your Worst 10-20% of Customers: Do the math on every account. If they want zero tolerance but will not pay for it, or if you cannot fix the pricing, let them go. Do it professionally and leave the door open. Some come back at market rate.

Kill the Trigger Depths: Contracts that say "start plowing at 2 inches" treat you like an idiot with a ruler. What clients really want is zero tolerance. Educate them, take it out of the contract, and be the professional.

Bill for What You Actually Do: Blizzards, drifts, snow off awnings, snow pushed off cars into your clean lot. Get scope details right or you are working for free.

If We See It, They Pay. If They See It, We Pay: Bob Grover's rule for maintenance applies to snow too. Point out the issue before the client does and you keep the leverage.

The Best Customers Get Taken Care of When Supply Tightens: Order early. Pay early. Answer the phone. Vendors take care of their best customers first. Be one.

Reflection Questions

Additional Resources:

BOBYARD 

Aspire

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Upcoming Events:

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!)

Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026)

Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026)

Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026)

Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027)

Episode #172

In this episode, Marty Grunder is joined by National Association of Landscape Professional's SVP of Government Relations and Membership Andrew Bray to talk about the H-2B program and how it impacts landscaping companies' ability to field a full, skilled team each year. They talk about the history of the program, why it works the way that it does, and what fixes are on the table to allow for a more stable program.

H-2B Resources and Advocacy:

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show!

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Key Learnings

H-2B Is Capped at 66,000 Visas Per Year, but Demand Is Double That: This year alone, around 130,000 petitions were filed for the April 1 tranche of 33,000 visas. The lottery system runs through letters A through H, and if you land in D or later, you are likely not getting workers.

The Landscape Industry Is the Largest User of H-2B by Far: Landscape pros make up about 40% of all H-2B users. The next closest is hospitality at 12 to 13%. The program is built for seasonal work and the landscape industry is its biggest beneficiary.

Each H-2B Worker Supports Roughly Four US Jobs: A GAO study found that communities with more H-2B workers had higher median wages than communities without. This program does not take US jobs. It expands them.

The Prevailing Wage Is Set by the Department of Labor, Not the Employer: Grunder's H-2B prevailing wage is $18.75. That means they cannot hire anyone, including their own kids, for less than that. It is a fallacy that this is a capitalistic move to pay workers less.

Do Not Try to File H-2B Yourself: This is not the same as immigration law. Use a reputable firm. NALP has a list of strategic providers on its website. One wrong move and you are cooked.

H-2B Should Never Be More Than 40% of Your Workforce: If you are over that, you have hit the critical danger zone. Build relationships with veteran groups, community colleges, federal prisons, and other recruiting channels. The program is one piece of the workforce puzzle, not the entire solution.

The Trump Administration Released All 64,716 Supplemental Visas This Year: This was a major win for the industry. NALP went to Mar-a-Lago to advocate in person. The lesson: in-person conversations change outcomes in ways email and social media never will.

The Certified Seasonal Employer Program Could Be a Game Changer: If passed in FY27, employers with five consecutive years of clean H-2B use would be guaranteed their highest historical visa count without going through the lottery. The language is already in the House appropriations bill.

Get Informed, Then Take Action: Sign up for The Advocate newsletter. When you see an action alert, click the link and submit the pre-drafted letter to your congressman. It takes under 60 seconds.

Recruit Non-Traditional Allies: Your business clients, your homeowners, your local officials. Help them understand what is at stake. The more people aware of how H-2B works, the more the political conversation shifts.

Talk to Your Senators and Representatives in Person: They will listen, even to small business owners. You do not need to run a $50 million company to get a meeting. Marty got Senator Husted's staff on a call. You can too.

Reflection Questions

Additional Resources:

BOBYARD 

Aspire

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Upcoming Events:

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!)

Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026)

Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026)

Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026)

Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027)

Episode #171

Everyone talks about recruiting. But what about retention? In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder breaks down one of the most critical and often overlooked drivers of success in the landscaping industry: keeping great people. Drawing on 40+ years of experience, Marty shares why the easiest employee to hire is the one you never lose, and how building a strong culture, developing leaders, and creating real opportunities for growth can transform your team.

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show!

️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel!

Key Learnings

Retention Starts with Culture, Not Wages: Ask yourself, would you want your son or daughter to work here? Would you want to work for you? Culture is not what you write on the wall. It is how people feel on Sunday night before they come into work Monday morning.

Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast: Peter Drucker had it right. Whatever the plan is, culture decides whether it actually happens. Get the culture right and everything else has a chance.

Every Manager Owns Retention: HR is not a department. It is a mindset. People quit managers. Every leader has to be able to coach, mentor, train, and address conflict. That is not the HR department's job. It is leadership.

Chastise in Private, Praise in Public, and Do It Swiftly: If there is an issue, handle it privately and quickly. If something good happens, call it out specifically in front of everyone. Move fast on both.

If It Is Not Written Down, It Did Not Happen: Document every conflict, every conversation, every coaching moment. Jean Seawright has been teaching this for over 25 years. You need it legally, and you need it to see patterns.

Hire Slow, Fire Fast, and Get the Bad Apples Out: Every hire is either impressing or depressing. The longer a bad apple stays, the more damage they do. Park a truck if you have to, but get them out and debrief afterward to learn.

Give People a Future or Someone Else Will: The best people want more responsibility, opportunity, and growth. Career paths, reviews, promotions, training. The best reason to grow your company is to create opportunities for ambitious people.

Be a Lazy River, Not a Raging River or Stagnant Pond: A raging river exhausts everyone. A stagnant pond suffocates them. A lazy river has steady, organized, controlled growth where people are moving but can still catch their breath.

Appreciation Does Not Have to Be Expensive: Grunder spent $600 on burgers for the whole team. Marty cooks. Show up at morning stretch. Know their names. Sing happy birthday. Pass out the first paycheck. People want to know they have done a good job.

Do What You Said You Would Do: DWYWYWD. If you promised training, deliver it. If you promised a raise for certification, pay it. One broken promise undoes months of goodwill. Retention is built on trust.

The Number One Way to Recruit Great People Is to Become a Great Place to Work: Stop focusing so much on the people you need to hire and start paying attention to the people you already have. They are your greatest asset.

Reflection Questions

Additional Resources:

BOBYARD 

Aspire

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Upcoming Events:

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!)

Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026)

Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026)

Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026)

Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027)

Episode #170

In this episode, Loren talks about his background in the industry and his approach to commercial landscaping. He believes landscapes should be treated as managed assets and that we should be focused on how we add value for customers. This interview is full of great insight for landscaping companies who want to focus on enhancement sales.

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Key Learnings

Stop Selling Maintenance, Start Managing Assets: Property managers already think about HVAC, paving, and building envelopes as assets. The landscape industry's messaging on this is weak. Reframe landscapes as managed assets and you change the entire conversation.

Messaging Has to Hit the Team Before the Client: If your team is not bought into the concept of building meaningful landscapes and great partnerships, the message will not land with clients. Culture has to be simplified around adding value, not selling.

Property Managers Hire You for Three Things: Reduce risk, identify opportunity, and make their job easy. That's it. Everything else is secondary. The mention of slip and falls, compliance issues, and operating expense matters more than aesthetics.

Use a One, Three, and Five Year Roadmap: Long-range plans help clients budget, help them justify spending to stakeholders, and stop you from chasing reactive proposals. Combine that with annual sales campaigns and your year sells itself.

Three Calendars Have to Overlap: Operational calendar (when you have capacity), horticultural calendar (when the work should happen), and customer mindset calendar (when they're thinking about it). Miss any one and the campaign falls flat.

Humble First, Trusted Second, Advisor Third: Most companies skip straight to advisor and end up with commission breath. Humble means turning down the blower when someone walks by and listening more than talking. Trusted means doing what you say. Advisor comes last and takes years.

Start Every Meeting with Maintenance, Not Enhancements: Arrive an hour early, walk the property with the production manager, and open the meeting with the work orders you have already created. Once you've earned the right, then talk enhancements. Skip this and you have commission breath.

Protect the Quarterback: Operations exists to clear the field so account managers can run plays. Site walks should be prepped in advance so the conversation can move to value, not chase complaints. Enhancement sales is a team sport.

If We See It, They Pay. If They See It, We Pay: The job is to notice issues before the client does. That's how trust and leverage are built. The minute a client has to point something out, you have lost both.

Hire Slow and Fire Fast Applies to Clients Too: Allied uses the first 90 days of a new contract to assess fit. They have walked away from $500K HOA contracts when the partnership was not right. Bad clients drain operations more than they pay.

The Future of Landscape Maintenance Is Not Maintenance, It's Landscape Management: This shift in language alone changes how clients think about the work, how teams approach it, and how budgets get built.

Reflection Questions

Additional Resources:

BOBYARD 

Aspire

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Upcoming Events:

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!)

Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026)

Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026)

Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026)

Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027)

Episode #169

While we can't stop executing for 2026, we also need to be doing some strategic planning for 2027 and beyond NOW. In this episode, Marty shares the 3-step process they've used when trying to launch a new service or expand to a new area. He details what the Grunder Landscaping Co. team did to ease into big changes, and what you can do if you're planning to do anything differently next year.

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Key Learnings

If You Are Only Working on This Year, You Are Already Behind: The companies that keep growing are constantly asking what's next. The ones that plateau are heads-down on this season. By the time January hits, the planning window is closed.

Learn First, Test Second, Invest Third: Most owners flip this order. They buy the trucks, hire the people, and lease the building, then try to figure out how to run the new service. Reverse the order and the risk drops dramatically.

Step One Is Buying Information, Not Profit: Visit other companies. Bring in consultants. Attend conferences. Partner with experts. Send your people to training. The goal at this stage is to learn, not to make money. This is the cheapest part of the entire process.

Step Two Is a Pilot, Not a Launch: Run it on 10 maintenance clients. Rent the equipment before you buy it. Assign one crew. Sell some work in the new market before you open the branch. GLC sold 1.5 million in Cincinnati before opening the office there.

One Successful Project Proves Nothing: Twenty projects start to tell a story. Look for patterns. Can you consistently sell it? Will clients pay? Can you perform it at the quality standard you want? What operational problems keep showing up?

Step Three Is Invest, but Only After Proof: Once the concept is proven and you know clients will write checks for it, commit fully. Buy the equipment, hire the team, lease the building, launch marketing. The risk has not disappeared, but assumptions have been replaced with data.

Most Expansions Fail for Three Reasons: The owner moves too fast. The owner falls in love with their own idea. The business has not earned the expansion yet. GLC waited until they were doing 15 million in Dayton before opening Cincinnati.

Expansion Doesn't Happen Because Equipment Shows Up, It Happens Because Leadership Shows Up: Who owns that new division? Who is accountable? Who wakes up thinking about its success? If you cannot answer that question, you are not ready.

Mistakes Are Tuition, but Keep the Tuition Affordable: Marty has tried a Christmas tree stand (mulch by December 22), a power washing company, and a gift basket company. He learned this the hard way so you don't have to.

The Best Reason to Grow Is the People Already Inside Your Business: Mike Rorie told Marty over clam chowder: if you have good people pushing you and you do not create opportunities for them, they will leave. Growth is a career path for someone.

Reflection Questions

Additional Resources:

The Grow Show Episode 165: The Lies That Get in the Way of Growth

BOBYARD 

Aspire

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Upcoming Events:

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH - Multiple Options in 2026!)

Level Up Your Sales Manager at Virtual Sales Manager Bootcamp (July 8-9, 2026)

Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Discovery (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026)

Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026)

Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027)

Episode #168

In this episode, author Steve Shapiro talks about milestone projects in his career, how people who are different from you push you to be better, and what drives innovation in teams and companies. In his new book, You're Not Playing with a Full Deck, he details how teams often are missing key perspectives with too many alike thinkers. This episode previews that book and applies this mindset to small businesses.

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show!

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Key Learnings

If You Only Hire People Who Fit the Mold, Eventually Your Organization Grows Mold: Opposites don't attract, they detract. But when we surround ourselves with people who think like us, we get stale ideas, musty ideas, and the same things we have always had.

Understand Who You Are Not: Most people focus on identifying their strengths. The bigger unlock is identifying who you are not. That tells you exactly which kind of people you need to surround yourself with. The person who drives you crazy is often the person you need most.

Find Your Ray: Steve had a coworker named Ray who drove him nuts, but together they did the greatest work of his career. Not in spite of their differences, because of them. Everyone needs a Ray. Appreciate them, learn from them, have empathy for them.

Organizations Have Personalities Too: Company personality is not defined by the mix of people you have. It is defined by what gets valued, recognized, and rewarded. People leave companies when they do not feel valued or appreciated.

Expertise Is the Enemy of Innovation: Past experience worked in the past. It does not necessarily work in the future. If the world is changing, we cannot keep relying on the same perspectives and the same expertise we have always had.

Relational Conflict Is Bad, Idea Conflict Is Good: Some conflict will always happen when you work with people who are different. Conflict over ideas is productive. If everyone agrees on every idea, you will never do anything new.

Match the Environment to the Person, Not Just the Task: Do not stick people in boxes. A structured person can be creative if you give them a structured approach. A relational person can be a great implementer if you give them flexibility.

Communicate to the Whole Deck, Not Just Your Cult: Most leaders speak only to the dominant culture in their company. Use the four-part rhythm: problem, pain, solution, vision. That hits every personality type.

Most Leadership Teams Are Too Rational: A leadership team full of logical, structured thinkers will miss the relational side. Bring people-oriented and idea-oriented voices to the table and give them an equal voice. That is how you grow.

A Leader's Job Is to Ask Better Questions, Not Have Better Answers: The best question to ask: what problem or opportunity are we really solving? Hit pause before chasing solutions, or you will waste time, money, and energy solving the wrong thing.

In a Digital World, Our Value Is What Makes Us Human: Anything digital is becoming a commodity. Knowledge is a commodity. AI is a tool. The differentiator is humanness, empathy, and judgment.

Reflection Questions

More on Stephen:

Additional Resources:

BOBYARD 

Aspire

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn