The GROW! Show

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.

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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

In this episode, Marty Grunder is joined by Greenius' Matt Crinklaw to talk about the mistakes that come from not teaching your team the skills that they need, experiments in how onboarding impacts success, how to successfully train your team, and the tools available to support landscaping companies in effectively training your team. Matt shares the different learning styles people have, tailoring training to what works for your team, the importance of training documentation, and the impact great training has on individuals and organizations.

Grunder Landscaping Co. Field Trips — The Grow Group

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Episode Chapters:

00:59 - Meet Matt Matt Crinklaw: Journey to Greenius

02:53 - The Birth of Greenius

04:53 - The Importance of Training in Landscaping

09:10 - Understanding Adult Learning

11:13 - The Three Ways of Learning

19:23 - Career Pathways and Employee Retention

24:10 - Effective Training Setups and Greenius Benefits

27:31 - Avoid Costly Mistakes Through Training

30:19 - Getting Started with Greenius

32:56 - Common Mistakes in Training Programs

37:00 - Emerging Trends in Landscaping Technology

39:36 - Big Announcement from Grow & Greenius

43:12 - Sign Up for a Field Trip to Grunder

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Show Notes:

Training Gets New Hires to Productivity 40% Faster – I measured new hires against employees with one year of experience on 50 properties. The experienced employees were 40% more efficient. With proper training and onboarding, you can start that productivity race at the 30 or 40-yard line instead of zero.

Career Path Programs Cut Turnover by 30% – I've seen companies reduce turnover from 50% to 14% by creating documented career paths. When employees know exactly what boxes to check for promotions and higher wages, they stay because they're working toward something specific at your company.

Adults Learn in Three Ways: Read, Listen, or Be Shown – I've learned everyone gravitates toward one of these learning styles. At Greenius, we cover all three: videos you can watch, full narration you can listen to, and field checklists where you actually pick up the equipment and get checked off.

Documentation Is Your Lawyer's Best Friend – I tell contractors: your lawyer wants three things when there's an accident—documents, documents, and documents. Even a simple checklist where the employee and crew leader sign proves you had a training process in place if you're ever challenged legally.

Training on "Simple" Tasks Prevents Expensive Mistakes – I heard about a crew leader who told a new hire to fuel equipment with "blue fuel." The employee grabbed blue windshield washer fluid and filled all the blowers and trimmers. That one mistake cost $6,000 in repairs. At 10% profit margin, you need $60,000 in new sales to recover.

Use the Word "Technician" Instead of "Laborer" – I recommend building technician levels: Maintenance Technician Level 1 starts with garden beds and small equipment, Level 2 moves to larger equipment, Level 3 includes crew leader training. People want to apply for technician jobs, not manual labor positions.

Group Training Sessions Work for Initial Rollout – I ran maintenance training rodeos where everyone watched videos together in the morning, used the exam as a discussion point, then went to the yard in small groups with their crew leaders. We'd cap it off with a barbecue—entire division trained in one day.

On-Demand Training Solves the Mid-Season Hiring Challenge – I've seen this work perfectly: hire someone Friday, have them watch videos over the weekend, they show up Monday morning. The crew leader spends an hour running through checklists on site, and that new hire is up to speed by lunch instead of next month.

OSHA's Due Diligence Clause Requires Hazard Training – I always start with OSHA's requirement: make employees aware of all known hazards. Think about three categories: personal hazards (how can I hurt myself?), bystander hazards (how can I hurt coworkers or customers?), and property hazards (how can I damage things?).

Just Get Started—Perfection Kills Progress – I see contractors get overwhelmed trying to create the perfect training program and never start. My advice: commit to a program and build on it. Start with just your next five new hires, try it out, then expand to experienced employees.

Reflection Questions

Barrett Chow, Executive Coach with McFarlin Stanford, joins Marty to discuss why the green industry's approach to human resources is fundamentally broken—and how to fix it. Barrett shares the strategic framework that transforms HR from a cost center into a growth enabler.

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Episode Chapters:

00:30 - Episode Welcome

02:51 - Barrett’s Journey: From PGA Tour to Green Industry Coaching

04:23 - Why the Green Industry Is Different (And Better)

06:46 - Leaders Are Bringing in HR Much Earlier Now

09:34 - Why “People Operations” Eliminates the Grim Reaper Stigma

12:07 - Ways to Improve Your People Operations

16:29 - Transformational HR Practices

18:04 - Building a Positive Company Culture

23:06 - Defining Your Company’s Unique Value

24:14 - Creating an Inviting Workplace

25:10 - Managing Employee Engagement

27:28 - Promoting from Within

31:28 - The Importance of Stay and Exit Interviews

40:08 - HR Predictions for 2026

43:26 - Please Like, Share, Subscribe to the Grow Show!

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Show Notes:

HR Is a Philosophy, Not Just a Department – I heard the president of SHRM say "HR is not a department, it's a philosophy." Poorly run HR pits employees against the company, where people go to HR when they don't like a policy. That creates tension that's not needed. Well-run people operations creates strategic partnership.

Leaders Are Embracing HR Much Earlier Now – We're seeing leaders embrace HR a lot earlier in their business lifecycle. Before, you had to be $15-20 million with over 100 team members for it to make sense. Now we're bringing in HR professionals earlier so they get to build the foundation for a company to grow on versus trying to be an add-on.

Rebranding to "People Operations" Eliminates Stigma – At Lifescape I rebranded HR as "People Operations" because of the stigma—if HR is in the room, you did something wrong. There's a joke that I was known as the grim reaper: if Barrett asked you to bring your computer charger, you knew what was happening. Rebranding allowed people to see me in a different light.

COVID Shifted HR from Cost Center to Strategic Partner – COVID turned HR on its head. We're now seeing that shift from "this is a cost center" to "this is my strategic partner, this is strategic enablement for me to focus on areas in my business that I know nothing about." Owners themselves can be the biggest HR issue—that's where you need a partner.

Onboarding Separates Top Performers from Underperformers – The difference between your top performers and adequate performers and underperformers comes down to: did you set them up for success from day one? It's not just the first day or week—it's the first 30, 60, 90 days where you're continually checking in on expectations.

Stay Interviews Matter More Than Exit Interviews – Exit interviews tell you why people left, but stay interviews tell you why people stay. We should be asking our current team members regularly: What keeps you here? What would make you leave? What do you need from us? Don't wait until someone quits to have important conversations.

Your Workspace Should Be as Nice as Your Home – When you walk into someone's home, there's pictures on the wall, it's inviting, comfortable. But then you walk into someone's shop and it looks like a dungeon—cinder block walls, no windows. We should make our workspaces places people want to be, especially when we're competing with remote work options.

Promoting from Within Creates Loyalty and Culture – When you promote from within, you're showing your team there's a path forward. You're also ensuring the people moving up understand and embody your culture. External hires at senior levels can disrupt culture if you're not careful about fit and values alignment.

Compensation Should Be Transparent and Systematic – Team members should understand how compensation decisions are made. If you don't have a clear compensation philosophy, every raise conversation becomes a negotiation and creates inequity. People need to know: What drives increases? How often are reviews? What's the path to more money?

The Green Industry Gives Back Unlike Any Other – The makeup of our industry is unlike any I've really seen. We really do give back to not only the industry but to each other, more so than any other industry. Software can be pretty cutthroat, but this industry does an amazing job of coming together to share and grow with each other.

Reflection Questions

Marty Grunder, founder of Grunder Landscaping Company and the Grow Group, sits down with his daughter Emily Lindley, the Grow Group's Content and Event Manager, to reflect on 30 years of the Grow Conference and the evolution of their $18 million landscaping company. From hosting the first Grow event with just 14 people in 1994 to today's conferences drawing over 1,000 attendees, Marty shares how staying stuck at $4.5 million for 12 years taught him the difference between being comfortable and truly scaling, why he once bought a racehorse with the dining room table money, and how his wife's unwavering support became as important to the business's success as any employee they've ever had.

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Episode Chapters:

00:30 - Introduction and Episode Overview
04:05 - Why Both Roles Feed Each Other (Not Harder to Balance)
06:45 - The Origins of Grow: Starting at Age 26 with 14 People
10:44 - “Say Yes to Get to $2M, Say No to Grow Beyond It”
18:42 - Dawn’s Rule: “Do One More Thing Before You Go Home”
19:40 - Cashflow Then and Now: “Paper Rich, Cash Poor”
22:47 - Peer Groups: Layering Best Practice on Best Practice
26:22 - “You Did Not Miss Big Things, You Were Always There”
32:55 - Stuck at $4.5M for 12 Years: The Wake-Up Call
36:59 - “Sometimes You Gotta Push, Sometimes You Gotta Trick ‘Em”
43:58 - “A Different Kind of Person Shows Up to Grow”
50:20 - Please Like, Share, and Subscribe!

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Say Yes to Get to $2 Million, Say No to Grow Beyond It – What gets you to a million (adjusted to $2 million today) is saying yes. What gets you beyond that is saying no. I didn't know what the word "no" meant in the early days. We said yes to way more than we should have and didn't have the focus we have today on the right kinds of work.

The Basic Foundations Never Change – In many respects, it wasn't a whole lot different in the '90s than what we do today in terms of basic business strategies. I've always known you gotta have your clients happy. I've always known your best form of marketing is to do a great job. The quality and sophistication have evolved, but foundational principles remain the same.

Monkey Math Still Matters – I did a lot of "monkey math" early on - how much were my bills, what did I have in receivables, what was in the checking account? "To this day, that simplistic math equation is still one that I pay a lot of attention to." Even at $18 million, those basics still drive decisions.

Cashflow Problems Don't Disappear With Growth – We're paper rich and cash poor right now. Our cash flow today, to be blunt, is probably worse than when we were a lot smaller. A lot of our growth has come from commercial work that doesn't pay quickly. You front all the material, you're delayed, you can't get paid for it. When you push yourself to grow, you're getting into uncharted waters.

Larger Contractors Saw What I Couldn't See – Mike Rory, Todd Pugh, Jim McCutchen, and Frank Mariani came through Grow, asked what my sales were, and were speechless when I said $4.5 million. "They said, are you profitable? I said, heck yes. They said, what are you doing? You could do so much more than that." They saw the scalability I'd built but wasn't leveraging.

Sometimes You Gotta Push, Sometimes You Gotta Trick 'Em – I thought if somebody didn't come tell you they wanted to do something, you can't ask them to do it because they're not motivated. What I've realized is sometimes you gotta push on 'em, sometimes you gotta trick 'em - like asking someone to be a group leader for one Saturday without telling them it could lead to more.

Being Busy Means Saying Yes to Everything – In the early days, I would drive to pick up a check and take it to the bank, or call the bank saying payroll's coming out and I'm bringing a check in. I think anybody that tells you they've never had to deal with that, they're not pushing themselves. When you push yourself to grow, you're doing things you've never done before.

Spousal Support Is As Valuable As Any Employee – My wife has been just as much an important part of this business's success than any employee we've ever had by the support she has given us and our family to allow me to do what being an entrepreneur often forces you to do. She never said "don't you know what I'm doing with these four kids?" when I had to handle client emergencies.

Do One More Thing Before You Go Home – Dawn, our Director of Sales Operations, tells the sales team: when you're ready to sign off for the day, just look at your email inbox and task list and try to do one more thing before you head out. "You start doing one more thing before you go home, and in a week you've done five extra things. In a month you've done 20 to 30. In a year you've done 200."

You Gotta Have an Ego to Host Grow – I mean that in a good way. Jason Cromley has a giant ego, so do I. You think for one minute somebody like Jason Cromley or Taylor Milliken or Jeffrey Johns is gonna let anybody show up and leave not being blown away? We're not gonna do that. It's an opportunity to say thank you to our teams and make them realize they do special things.

Hosting Grow Forces You to Level Up Everything – The biggest thing hosting Grow enabled me to do was put my whole team on stage and tell the whole audience how proud I was of them and have everyone give them a standing ovation. That was the thing I remember most. It forced us to clean up every single thing and do significant projects.

Economies of Scale Are Real When You Scale Properly – You're spreading $18 million worth of revenue over, for the most part, the same overhead structure that you were at $4.5 million. We didn't build a bigger building (except a branch location). Yes, we have more leadership positions, but percentage-wise, we're not adding at the same rate - we're scaling and realizing incremental costs, not proportional costs.

Layer Best Practice on Top of Best Practice – We get an idea from someone in peer groups, implement it here, teach it to other contractors, they report back how they made the idea better. "You're literally layering best practice on top of best practice, and you're in the mode of continuous improvement where you're just constantly trying to get better."

A Different Kind of Person Shows Up to Grow – We've heard from sponsors and attendees that a different kind of person shows up to Grow. They're not here to party or get loaded or go to strip clubs at night. "They're here to learn. They're here to get better, and that makes me so proud. It's the cream of the crop in the industry - success-minded individuals pushing themselves."

In this episode, Emily Lindley talks about what she's seen from facilities as she's toured landscaping companies and previews what our GROW! 2026 attendees will see and takeaway from our tour of Complete Landsculpture.

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Episode Chapters:

00:00 - Episode Intro

00:44 - Exploring Various Facilities

02:10 - Complete Landsculpture Tour

03:06 - Adapting Spaces for Growth

04:49 - Innovate Facility Ideas

07:31 - Evolving Workspaces

09:51 - Career Path Signage

12:25 - Final Thoughts & Grow 2026!

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Show Notes:

Make Your Space Work for You – Complete Landsculpture built their facility in 2008 doing $8 million in revenue and now does $24.6 million out of the same space. They built with foresight into where they wanted the business to go, stayed flexible, and changed layouts to accommodate growth without adding new buildings.

Design Around Your Business Model – Both Complete Landsculpture and Hidden Creek have design showrooms where clients come to them to see sample materials, past project photos, and make final selections. This eliminates pain points of bringing trunk-loads of samples to client sites or needing multiple meetings when clients don't like initial options.

There's No Right or Wrong Way – Emily has seen fancy offices and bare bones ones focused purely on operations and efficiency. All the companies are successful - it's about knowing who you are as a business and making a decision that fits your brand and approach.

Use Vertical Space – Complete converted a disorganized storage loft into open-air collaborative workspaces by purging unnecessary items and finishing out the space. Grunder Landscaping did similar recently at their Miamisburg location - when you can't go out, look up at your vertical height.

Steal Great Ideas from Tours – Complete got their career path signage idea from Summit Landscape during GROW! 2023 tour. The signage hangs in the garage area showing career paths, pay ranges, and photos of team members who followed that path - proving opportunities aren't just talk.

Buy Space to Grow Into – Complete bought enough property in 2008 that they can add buildings if needed in the future. If you're looking at facilities or adding branches, having space to grow into is smart forward thinking, even if it's a best-case scenario that costs more upfront.

Three Lenses for Touring Facilities – When touring other companies, think about how the space makes life easier for the team, makes life easier for clients, and how it could make your own operations more efficient. Multiple different approaches can give you ideas you weren't thinking of for your own facility.

GROW! 2026 Preview – Complete Landsculpture will host Grow 2026, February 10-12 in Dallas, Texas. Early bird pricing (save $200 per person) ends November 1st at 11:30 PM Eastern, and that discount stacks with 15% off for bringing three or more team members.