This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Peter Murphy Lewis, founder of Strategic Pete and one of the most creative storytellers working in marketing today. Peter went from Kansas to Boston, then to Chile on a diplomatic scholarship, built a travel company that hosted Beyonce and Paul McCartney, and eventually landed his own Chilean version of Dirty Jobs where he worked 100 different jobs on camera (including boxing a 120 pound national champion who beat him in three rounds).

He now runs Strategic Pete, coaches 200-plus CEOs on storytelling, and does documentaries for private equity turnarounds, misunderstood industries, and companies preparing for exit. Justin brings him inside the K&D story to build a real content playbook live on air.

In this episode:

Peter's trade secret is one you can start using today. Everyone is good at telling stories, but they struggle to tell their own. Start with a person who impacted your life. Tell their story. You will learn how to tell yours in the process.

If you are a trades operator sitting on a K&D-sized content opportunity you have never unlocked, a founder preparing for an exit and wondering what actually moves the multiple, or a CEO who has been publishing content without a clear goal, this one is the wake up call and the playbook in the same hour.

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo Peter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermurphylewis/ Strategic Pete: https://strategicpete.com/ K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is back solo with the podcast board loading up fast. Fresh off interviews with David Meltzer, Ryan Hawk, Ellen Rohr, Al Levi, Robert Underwood of AAA Landscape, and Nathan Dirksen of 7Ds, Justin digs into a pattern he keeps seeing: incredible companies built by founders and by second, third, and fourth generation leaders who started at the bottom and climbed their way up. Then he gets into what is really on his mind this week, the AI S-curve, the reason The Disruptors is going contractor only, and what four weeks away from K&D has taught him.

In this episode, we cover:

Justin's core message this week is simple. Most operators are stuck in first gear with AI and deciding the technology is overrated, when the real problem is that no one ever showed them how to shift. The owners who win will treat AI as a tool to master, not a fad to dismiss.

Trade secret: stop obsessing over outcomes and constantly changing your inputs. Nail the right activities, then give them enough time to work. Consistency beats intensity every single time.

If you are a trades owner, an operator making the jump from doing the work to leading the team, or a leader trying to actually put AI to work, this one is the playbook.

Weekly Updates are powered by Kress! https://www.jwhitegroup.com/kress

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/

This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Al Levi, founder of The 7-Power Contractor and one of the most respected voices in trades operations. Al ran his family's third generation plumbing, heating, and cooling business in Queens (serving all of Long Island), scaled it to 70 team members and 25 techs across one main hub and three satellite shops, then walked away in September 2001 to help other contractors do the same thing without the 50 extra pounds and the stress.

Twenty five years and thousands of contractors later, Al still teaches the same seven power framework that turned his own family business from chaos into a systematized operator's dream. In this conversation he unpacks the whole playbook.

In this episode:

Al's trade secret is Jack Tester's line, and it lands the same way it did the first time Al heard it in a school bus in Oklahoma. It is always the owner. Inspire people, then implement the systems that let them win. Skip either one and you are done.

If you are a trades operator drowning in day to day chaos, a founder who feels like a hostage to your own team, or anyone who has ever wondered why the manuals you tried to write ended up sounding like a law book, this one is a masterclass from the guy who wrote the actual playbook.

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo Al Levi / The 7-Power Contractor: https://7powercontractor.com/ K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is joined again by Sean Laux, K&D's leader of innovation and technology, fresh off Sean's headline talk at the Lawn and Landscape Technology Conference in Phoenix that Andrew Kraft (Site Landscape) publicly called "worth the trip on its own."

The two unpack real-world AI implementation inside a working landscape company, live-demo an AI-powered job description build for the brand new Innovation Specialist role K&D just posted, and give the deepest public look yet at the K&D Operating System (Justin's words: "we brought out the steering wheel, wait until you see the car").

In this episode, we cover:

Big framing from Justin: the technology tsunami is visible from shore and moving slowly, but it is coming. There will be carnage (failed rollouts, mis-onboarded tools, marketing hype that does not match reality), and this show exists to build the bridge between Silicon Valley and the truck cab.

Also, first time ever: Weekly Updates now end with a trade secret closer. Sean's this week: leverage AI, find the inefficiencies, and make sure your data and structure is clean before you build anything on top. Good data, good systems, good companies.

If you are a trades operator trying to build a real AI stack (not a demo), a leader hiring for technology roles for the first time, or a CEO who wants to see the K&D Operating System's actual steering wheel, this one is the playbook.

Weekly Updates are powered by Kress!

JW Group Website / Justin LinkedIn / Justin Instagram / Justins Youtube K&D Website / K&D Instagram Disruptors Community Disruptors Advantage Newsletter

This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Josh McMillan, CEO of Roebuck Landscaping out of upstate South Carolina. Josh joined the company as employee number five back in 1995, worked his way up to COO, survived a two year private equity due diligence process (including a deal that fell apart on funding day), and stepped into the CEO seat in December 2024.

Since closing, Roebuck has built its first ever company budget, drafted a three year vision, acquired The Great House Company in Nashville, and is running 12 to 15 percent organic growth on top of it. Josh walks through the whole arc, and the lessons that came with it.

In this episode:

Josh's trade secret is simple. You are owed nothing. Show up every day like you have to earn it, bring value, and the outcomes will find you. That mindset carried him from 5th employee to CEO of a nine figure Southeast platform.

If you are a founder thinking about an exit, a COO stepping up to the top seat, or an operator trying to build a vision your team can see themselves inside of, this one is a masterclass.

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo Roebuck Landscaping: https://www.roebucklandscaping.com/ K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

This is a bonus episode of Trades Talk, and it is unlike anything we have published before. The entire show, both hosts, all of the analysis, and every synthesis of the source material, was generated by AI. No humans on the mic.

The AI hosts are unpacking The Disruptor's Guide to Artificial Intelligence: 40 Questions Every CEO Is Asking About AI, a comprehensive report just published in July 2026 by Justin White. The guide compiles data from more than 60 institutional sources including PwC, IBM, EY, McKinsey, Stanford, and the St. Louis Fed, alongside direct statements from the founders and CEOs of the frontier labs. Justin discloses on page one that the guide itself was researched, compiled, and written by AI under his direction over the course of a year. This episode is the meta-demonstration of what that capability now looks like at scale.

In this episode, the AI hosts cover:

The final provocative thought from the AI hosts: if raw intelligence is becoming commoditized and every operator can buy tireless cognitive labor for $20 a month, then intelligence stops being the moat. It becomes electricity. The real differentiators become the things AI cannot replicate: deep human trust, moral and legal accountability, and flawless physical execution in the real world. That is why trades operators are structurally positioned to win the next decade if they get this shift right.

If you are a trades CEO trying to make sense of the AI noise, an operator who has been quietly experimenting but has not committed capital yet, or a leader who wants a comprehensive, sourced, no-hype baseline on where AI actually stands right now, this bonus episode is the single densest resource we have ever published on the show.

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo The Disruptor's Guide to Artificial Intelligence (get the full 40-question report): https://www.skool.com/disruptors K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White unpacks the Lawn and Landscape Technology Conference in Phoenix, the two levels of AI every operator needs to know where they sit, and the deepest public look yet at the K&D Operating System.

Justin also shares the strategic drift lesson from Toby Ludkey's post-COVID audit at Shopify (Toby cancelled 60 percent of active projects), the Kress product moment nobody is talking about, and Sean Laux's rise from account manager to K&D's leader of technology innovation in just seven months.

In this episode, we cover:

Justin's core message this week is a warning aimed at operators who want to build custom software: do not try to replace QuickBooks, Aspire, or Greenius. Build the AI layer on top of them instead. The legacy softwares took 10 to 40 years to build. Your time is better spent on the intelligent layer that makes them talk to each other.

If you are a trades CEO trying to decide where to invest your technology budget, an operator who has been building AI workflows for months and has not audited them, or a leader worried about strategic drift inside your own team, this one is the playbook.

Weekly Updates are powered by Kress! https://www.jwhitegroup.com/kress

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/

This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Jerry Schill, CEO of The Landscape Collective. Jerry has built a maintenance driven organization at roughly $200M in revenue, 2,000 team members, 36 locations across 8 states and Canada, 93 percent recurring revenue, and 21 acquisitions since partnering with private equity.

Jerry unpacks the "business in a box" concept that let him refine a 15 profit center P&L into one hedgehog, the two PE recaps that funded the run, and the leadership principles that keep 2,000 people aligned across a continent. He also shares why frontline incentive pay turned into a disincentive, why he only "meddles" when the numbers slip, and why "somebody's always coming" is the mindset that has kept him hungry for 34 years.

In this episode:

Jerry's biggest takeaway is simple. Do good, stay focused, hire slow and fire fast, and remember that somebody is always coming. Purpose is what carries you when the numbers get hard, not the other way around.

If you are a 5 to 30 million dollar operator wondering whether focus really wins at scale, considering PE, or trying to build a company that survives past your day at the helm, this one is required listening.

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo The Landscape Collective: https://www.thelandscapecollective.com/ K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White unpacks the 300 percent year over year jump in K&D maintenance sales, the Service Titan State of AI Survey that every trades operator should have on their desk, and why quality of AI output now matters more than quantity.

Justin also digs into the AI headlines that actually matter (local models running on the iPhone, Anthropic's race to a $3 trillion IPO, Claude Cowork on mobile), calls out the ones that are just noise, and gets on the soapbox about the AI-generated marketing garbage flooding trades inboxes.

In this episode, we cover:

Plus a callback to last week's Steve Wheatcroft episode (the B minus business plan that scaled to $100M), a preview of Jerry Schill next Wednesday, and the Kress Voyager 60-inch demo that is quietly reshaping autonomous mowing in the industry.

If you are a trades operator sitting in the 54 percent AI adoption gap, running a growth playbook that is not yet clicking, or a leader who knows your team is producing AI content that is not up to your standards, this one is the wake up call.

Weekly Updates are powered by Kress!

JW Group Website / Justin LinkedIn / Justin Instagram / Justins Youtube K&D Website / K&D Instagram Disruptors Community Disruptors Advantage Newsletter

This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Steve Wheatcroft, founder of ULS (now Urban Life Solutions), the largest landscape company in Canada. Steve scaled ULS from a 1989 college business plan that earned a B minus to nearly 400 trucks across Canada and a private equity sale, then ran the platform up to roughly $100 million before stepping out.

He goes deep on the all in mindset shift that unlocked hyper growth, why operations beats sales every single time, and the candid story of what it actually feels like to be a founder CEO trying to run a private equity owned company. (Spoiler: he calls it the skinny jeans story.)

In this episode:

Steve's takeaway is simple. Build the brand, deliver the service, hold your pricing, and you do not have to win every deal. Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do is leave your quote in the second place pile and wait for the other guy to drop the ball.

If you are a founder building toward an exit, a CEO who has already exited and is figuring out what's next, or anyone running a maintenance company stuck at low single digit margin, this one is a master class from someone who has done it at the highest level.

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo Steve LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/steve-wheatcroft-1b89371b2 Wheatcroft Advisory: https://wheatcroftadvisory.com/ K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/