Explore every episode of the podcast The GROW! Show
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production Meetings That Actually Work | Marty Grunder & Bill Rosell | 30 Sep 2026 | 00:32:24 | |
Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) 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 #184: In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder sits down with Bill Rosell, Director of Production Operations at Grunder Landscaping Co., to break down what an effective production meeting actually looks like. They share how the GLC team uses weekly meetings to improve communication, plan ahead, coordinate crews and equipment, address safety and scheduling issues, and catch problems before they reach the jobsite. 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! GLC Production Meeting Agenda Meeting Template Key Learnings The Purpose Is to Make Production Run Better: Not to have a meeting. Not to get everyone in a room. If people leave without knowing where they're going, what equipment they need, or what problems are coming, you had a gathering, not a meeting. Different Meetings Have Different Purposes: Don't try to accomplish everything in one big meeting. You'll end up with 25 people listening to a conversation that applies to three of them. Start With the Mission Statement: Every GLC production meeting begins with the mission statement. It anchors the room in why we're here before we get into what we're doing. Have the Right People in the Room, Only While You Need Them: Zach (fleet assistant) presents his fleet updates first so he can leave and start his day. He doesn't need to sit through personnel discussions that don't involve him. Meetings Should End in Laughter: Bill's number one sign of a great meeting is when it ends in laughter. Direction and clarity are the two must-haves, but laughter is what tells you people leave energized. Team Leaders Look at Today and Tomorrow. Group Leaders Look 2 Weeks Out: Great group leaders are not walking in every morning asking "what do I need to do today?" They knew last night. Bill wants group leaders looking two weeks out on equipment and materials. Sales and Production Cannot Live on an Island: Bill attends the first 20 minutes of every sales meeting. If production has a hole, sales needs to know. If sales has a monster project coming, production needs to know. Bill's job is to help sales know: whatever you sell, we can get it done. Break Big Projects Into Small Ones: A 3,000-hour job is overwhelming until you break it into phases. Then it becomes a series of 50-60 hour jobs. Team members can see progress and see the end in sight. Know What Stresses Your People: Bill knows what stresses Gaston, so he takes those things off his plate. On big projects, Bill stays the main point of communication early on to protect his group leader from being overwhelmed. One-on-Ones Every Other Week: Bill sche... Chapters
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| What You Should Market and When: The 2027 Playbook for Grunder Landscaping | 23 Sep 2026 | 00:27:24 | |
Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) 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 #183: In this episode of The Grow Show, Emily Lindley shares how Grunder Landscaping Company evaluates its marketing channels, which efforts are worth the investment, and which ones need to be cut. The goal isn't to market everywhere. It's to give every channel a clear job and build a plan that supports where your company is headed. 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 Every Channel Needs One Clear Job: Ask what specific job that channel does for your business. Design build leads? Lawn care leads? Residential maintenance? If the job isn't clear anymore, cut it or shrink it. Balance the Jobs Across Your Marketing Mix: Make sure you have enough coverage for every line of business, and that no one service line is eating all the attention. Residential Design Build Drives Broadcast Marketing: It's easier to drive inbound leads for design build than for commercial or maintenance. The strategy at Grunder: capture a design build client, then convert them into a maintenance client. Postcards Still Work (When Timed Right): Start with an aggressive spring push. Every other week for design build, every other week for lawn care, alternating so mailing list recipients get a card weekly for 6-8 weeks. Capture spring demand or you won't make it up later in the year. Email Is the Best Marketing Channel Right Now: Grunder is seeing 40% open rates. Marketing Pro integrates with Aspire, so lists stay current with actual maintenance and lawn care route data. Every other week, March through November, with rotating seasonal messaging. Skip the Rigid Newsletter Template: Templates feel stale and restrict what you can say. Instead, rotate messaging by season: design build in spring, mosquito fogging in summer, aeration/overseeding in fall. Small Add-Ons Add Up: Mosquito fogging is a great example. Techs are already on the property. No extra drive time. It's profitable per stop and adds real value for the client. Small services stack up over the year. Time Add-On Emails to the Application Route: Send the mosquito fogging pitch BEFORE the tech goes out for the round, not mid-round. Otherwise you're asking your team to backtrack. Social Media Is About Consistency, Not Perfection: Post consistently so prospects can verify you're a real, polished company when they Google you. Paid social gets zip code targeted and overlaid on postcard drop zones. That's reinforcement, not redundancy. Door Hangers Work in Neighborhoods You Already Serve: Neighbors of active jobs, HOAs where you maintain the common areas, streets with existing maintenance stops. Brand reinforcement is the win here. ... Chapters
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| Busy Today Doesn't Mean Busy Tomorrow: The Fall Sales Playbook | 16 Sep 2026 | 00:23:19 | |
Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) 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 #182: It's easy to feel good about business when the crews are busy and the schedule is full, but what does your schedule look like 30, 60, or 90 days from now? This week on The Grow Show, Marty Grunder talks about the importance of staying ahead of your workload and continuing to sell even when business is busy. He shares where your team should be looking for opportunities, how to make the most of the clients and proposals you already have, and why now is the time to start thinking about next spring. 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 Your Schedule Is a Sales Scorecard: Do not look at your sales pipeline. Look at your production schedule board. What is actually sold and on the calendar 30, 60, 90, and 120 days out? A pipeline filled with proposals nobody's going to buy isn't a pipeline. It's a filing cabinet. Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Something: No sales, no work for production, no invoices for accounting, no gross profit, no reinvestment. Spring conditions your team to become order takers. Fall reveals whether you have order takers or order makers. Order Takers Wait. Order Makers Create: When leads slow down, the order taker asks when marketing is going to do more. The order maker asks what proposals to revisit, what properties need enhancements, and what phase two or phase three opportunities exist. Start With People Who Already Know You: It is far easier to sell to someone who has done business with you than to create something new. Do not just call and ask if they need anything. Walk the property, take pictures, and send unsolicited quotes with recommendations. A Good Doctor Doesn't Ask What Procedure You Want: They diagnose and recommend. A professional landscape salesperson does the same. Your clients hired you because you know more about landscaping than they do, so act like it. Revisit Every Proposal You Did Not Sell: A no six months ago is not a no today. Timing changes. Do not send a "just checking in" email. Give them a specific reason to respond - a scheduling opening, a seasonal window, a follow-up on the exact conversation you had. Sell the Season You're In: Your clients don't live and breathe landscaping. They don't know what makes sense in October, November, and December. That's your job. Build a fall campaign around 2-3 specific services you want to sell. Break the Number Down: A $2M goal sounds intimidating. Break it into weekly targets per salesperson. $10K per week per salesperson is believable and manageable. Small numbers compound. $5K in enhancement work per week for 50 weeks is $250K. Hunt Where You Already Work: Route density matters. Tr... Chapters
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| Next Year's Training Manual: How to Prepare Your Team Now for 2027 | 09 Sep 2026 | 00:22:03 | |
Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) 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 #181: Spring may feel far away, but the best landscaping companies are preparing for it right now. In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder shares how landscape professionals can use the fall season to strengthen their teams, improve performance, and build a training program that sets them up to hit the ground running next spring. 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 Spring Training Starts in the Fall: If you wait until January or February to start training, you're not building a program. You're panicking. Right now you have the most valuable thing possible: evidence of what your team knows and what they don't. Train What You See Right Now: Training doesn't need a classroom, a PowerPoint, or a four-course breakfast. When you see a mistake, don't just fix it. Teach it. The habit every leader should build is saying "I saw something today we can teach from." Keep a Running List of What Went Wrong: Start a note on your phone called "What We Need to Train On." Every mistake, every near miss, every cringe moment. By the end of the year you'll have 20 to 30 items. That's your training calendar. Do Not Confuse Telling With Training: Telling is one-way. Training is two-way. The framework is Tell Me, Show Me, Let Me Do It, Check Me. Most managers stop at "I told him." That's why the same mistakes keep happening. Use Your Best People as Trainers: The person who loads a truck perfectly, prunes correctly, or closes out jobs well should be teaching others. Two big wins: you multiply your trainers, and the person teaching gets sharper too. Capture Your Best People Before Winter: Your best team leaders have knowledge that isn't written down anywhere. Get your phone out. Ask them to show you how they do it. Record five-minute videos. Do two a week and you'll have 20 videos before winter. Train on the Things That Make or Lose Money: Team members often don't understand how the company actually makes money. Teach productivity. Teach why forgetting a tool and driving 20 minutes back to the shop costs three man-hours. Those little lessons change behavior. Train Your Leaders Differently: When someone becomes a crew leader, their job changes. Now they're leading people. Teach them how to start the morning, correct someone properly, coach the slowest person, handle a conflict, and close out a job. You can't promote someone Friday and expect them to lead on Monday. Finish This Year by Getting Better: Take the last 6 to 10 weeks of the season and pick one skill each Monday. Fifteen minutes. Reinforce it during the week. You'll be better at Christmas than you are today. Build Your Wint... Chapters
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| Interview Series: What Would Happen If Someone Else Ran Your Company ? | 02 Sep 2026 | 01:05:58 | |
Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) 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 #180: What would happen if you let another landscaping company owner run your company? We launched this new part of our ACE Peer Group Program earlier this year with the ownership of Coastal Greenery switching places with ownership of Malone's Landscaping. In this episode, the group that swapped places talks about what they learned from getting fresh eyes on their company and also spending a week running another landscaping company. They talk about all the hot button issues: managing teams, technology, branding, overhead costs, and much more. 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! Guests:
Resources Mentioned:
Key Learnings You Cannot See Your Own Business Clearly From Inside Your Own Business: No matter how sharp you are, you walk past things every day. An outside set of eyes will see in 15 minutes what you have missed for years. Peer-to-Peer Learning Beats Zoom Every Time: The value of the CEO Swap wasn't in the ideas exchanged, it was in the one-on-one meetings with each other's team members. There's no hiding, no deferring, and no shortcut when you're on site. Sense of Urgency Is Often the... Chapters
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| Get Unstuck: Why Companies Have Trouble Growing Beyond $2M | 26 Aug 2026 | 00:23:57 | |
Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) 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 #179: Marty Grunder breaks down the $2 million trap, the point where the hustle that built your company stops working. He walks through six areas where landscape businesses commonly get stuck as they grow, from broken systems and wrong hires to weak delegation, unclear structure, loose finances, and too few developed leaders. 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 What Got You Here Will Not Get You There: Getting to two million is about hustle. Growing beyond it is building a company. The Owner Becomes the Bottleneck: Too many clients, jobs, and decisions eventually flow back to one overwhelmed person. Your Systems Break First: If something happens only because someone remembers to do it, it needs a system. You Make the Wrong Hires: Your best salesperson is not automatically your best sales manager. Leadership is different. Three Reasons People Fall Short: They were not trained, they lack capacity, or they carry a bad attitude. The Owner Will Not Delegate: Doing it yourself today signals you do not trust your team to grow. Delegation Is Not Abdication: Give clear responsibilities, clear expectations, and the authority to make real decisions. Structure Always Follows Strategy: A good org chart answers one question. Who owns what? Financial Discipline Becomes Critical: Sales are vanity if there is no profit left at the end. You Cannot Scale Yourself, Only Leaders: Develop managers who can think, decide, and solve problems without you. Reflection Questions
This Week's Homework Write down everything that still has to go through you. That is your bottleneck list. Identify one system living inside someone's head, document it, and build a system for it. Identify one person who could become a stronger leader in the next twelve months and start developing them now. Additional Resources: Chapters
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| How to Finish 2026 Strong: Access, Awareness, and Action | Vince Torchia | 19 Aug 2026 | 00:09:07 | |
Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) 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 #178: In this short, tactical episode of The Grow Show, Vince Torchia shares the three things every landscape leader should be focused on right now: access, awareness, and action. With a month and a quarter left in 2026, Vince gives you a quick filter to run your business through so you can finish the year strong and set yourself up for a great 2027. 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 Access: What did you not have access to earlier this year that would have made your life easier now? Missing reports, vendor portals, margin data, or client information. Identify the gaps and put a plan in place to fix them. Leaders Often Lose Access as Companies Grow: As businesses scale and add team members, CEOs and senior leaders sometimes lose access to information they used to have at their fingertips. Get it back. The Thursday Night Test: If you're laying in bed on Thursday night wondering if Mrs. Jones has paid, you should not have to text someone to find out. Access the data yourself in real time. Awareness: Are the key people in your organization aware of everything they need to be aware of? Team members, peers, clients, vendors. If it's a maybe for you, it's a no for them. We All Think We Communicate More Than We Actually Do: Take that as an opportunity to get better, not a criticism. Zoom out. Put things in writing. Make people aware. Good News, Bad News, It's Just News: Do not sit on information because you're worried about how it will land. Get over the hump, have confidence in what you're doing, and make people aware. Action: With a month and a quarter left, there's still time to make real progress. Meetings, emails, texts, huddles. Whatever gets it moving. Action Begets Action: Momentum is real. Crossing something off the list feels good. Building momentum with your team feels even better. Reflection Questions
Additional Resources: Chapters
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| Interview Series: Katie Roell of Boss Snow on Preparing for Winter in July | 12 Aug 2026 | 00:38:29 | |
Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) 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 #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.
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 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:<... Chapters
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| You Can't Find Great Team Leaders, You Have to Build Them with Marty Grunder | The Grow Show | 05 Aug 2026 | 00:23:13 | |
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.
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 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. Chapters
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| Interview Series: Lex Mason on Succeeding Your Father, Building a Culture, and the Future of Irrigation | 29 Jul 2026 | 00:56:19 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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. ... Chapters
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| Interview Series: Snowfighting with Phil Harwood, Part 2 | The People & Process Behind Every Great Snow Company | 22 Jul 2026 | 00:52:39 | |
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! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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 I... Chapters
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| Interview Series: Snowfighting with Phil Harwood | Why Snow Should Be Your Most Profitable Service | 15 Jul 2026 | 00:50:39 | |
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! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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 h... Chapters
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| Interview Series: Andrew Bray on how the Temporary Visa Program Works, and Doesn't Work, for Landscaping Companies | 08 Jul 2026 | 00:49:52 | |
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! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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, yo... Chapters
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| Become a Great Place to Work and Watch the Right People Stay | Marty Grunder | 01 Jul 2026 | 00:21:11 | |
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 na... Chapters
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| Interview Series: Loren McIrvin of Allied Landscape on Commercial Landscape Maintenance | 24 Jun 2026 | 00:44:51 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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... Chapters
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| Plan Now for 2027, Your Success Depends Upon It! with Marty Grunder | 17 Jun 2026 | 00:19:53 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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 (... Chapters
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| Interview Series: Stephen Shapiro on Team Dynamics and How Teams Can Work Better Together | 10 Jun 2026 | 00:40:40 | |
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! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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. Brin... Chapters
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| Nothing Happens Till Someone Sells Something! | How to Run an Effective Sales Meeting with Marty Grunder | 03 Jun 2026 | 00:24:47 | |
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 #167 This episode of The Grow Show focuses on how to run effective sales meetings that actually drive accountability, alignment, and growth within a team. Marty breaks down why most sales meetings fail, the key components of a productive and engaging meeting, and how leaders can use meetings to build stronger sales cultures, improve communication, sharpen skills, and create momentum. 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 The Purpose of a Sales Meeting Is Simple: Create clarity, accountability, alignment, and momentum. That is it. Every effective meeting should answer four questions: Where are we going? What's working? What's not working? What are we going to do next? Your Team Needs Focus, Not More Information: Most salespeople are overwhelmed, distracted, reactive, and busy. They have too many dials and too much data. A good sales meeting cuts through the noise. Most Sales Meetings Fail for Predictable Reasons: No structure, they become reporting sessions, no accountability, and leaders talk too much. If you are doing 90 percent of the talking, your team is doing 10 percent of the thinking. Always Start With Wins: Real wins. Closed deals, breakthroughs, objections overcome, referrals. Recognition creates energy, and energy changes performance. Keep this fast and intentional, five to ten minutes. Salespeople Need Scoreboards, Not Feelings: Review key metrics every meeting: leads, appointments, close rate, proposal volume, average ticket, pipeline value, follow-up activity. But do not weaponize numbers. They bring clarity, not shame. The Leader Should Speak Last: Your best ideas are already sitting inside your team. Ask Tony what he thinks, ask Jimmy, ask Oscar. Facilitate the discussion. The mistake leaders make is assuming they always need to provide the answers. Role-Play Is the Most Underutilized Tool in Sales: Skills deteriorate without repetition. If someone cannot confidently communicate in front of their peers, they will not do it at the kitchen table or in a boardroom. Practice creates muscle memory, just like a tight end running routes. Never End a Meeting Without Clear Commitments: Vague expectations create vague results. Every person should leave knowing what they are responsible for, what success looks like, and when the next check-in is. Consistency Matters More Than Intensity: A decent meeting every week beats one incredible meeting every quarter. Rhythm is what creates the culture you want. Praise in Public, Chastise in Private: Coach with honesty,... | |||
| Marty's Prediction: The One Thing That Will Define the Best Landscaping Companies in Five Years | 27 May 2026 | 00:18:07 | |
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 #166 What will separate elite landscape companies over the next five years? In this episode, Marty Grunder shares why the future won’t belong to companies with the best trucks or biggest crews — it will belong to companies with the best operational intelligence. From AI and leadership systems to recurring revenue and client relationships, Marty breaks down the mindset shifts landscape leaders need to make now to stay ahead. 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 Operational Intelligence Will Beat Equipment, Labor, and Design: The winning companies will turn their data, client relationships, and leadership systems into a scalable platform. They will know more, communicate faster, predict better, and execute more consistently than competitors. Traditional Competitive Advantages Are Becoming Commodities: Equipment is temporary. Labor is unstable. Design is replicable. Marketing is easier than ever with AI. A $2 million company can look like a $30 million company online. Execution consistency at scale is what separates elite operators now. Good Managers Make Good Decisions With Good Data: Operational intelligence means seeing your business in real time, not waiting until the end of the month. Connect your CRM, estimating, production, job costing, communication, and equipment into one operating rhythm. Watch the Five Signals: Margin drift, client friction, leadership health, capacity forecasting, and owner dependency. Elite companies track these in real time and make decisions before competitors even realize there is a problem. AI Is a Tool, Not the Answer: AI amplifies whatever system already exists. A disorganized company using AI just becomes more disorganized faster. The companies that benefit most already have the processes, standards, and clean data to plug it into. Bet on Recurring Revenue Ecosystems: The future winning company will behave more like a membership organization than a contractor. Focus on lifetime value, recurring services, add-ons, and advisory positions. Manage the entire outdoor experience year-round. Clients Do Business With You Because They Trust You: When Grunder surveyed clients 25 years ago, they did not lead with quality or creativity. They said they trust us. Operational excellence frees up time to spend with teams and clients, which is how trust gets built. The Best Companies Will Reduce Owner Dependency: Look at how many decisions require you, how many problems wait for you, how many relationships exist only because of you. Scalability depends on distributing leadership,... Chapters
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| Are You a Liar? The Lies That Get in the Way of Growth with Marty Grunder | 20 May 2026 | 00:18:31 | |
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 #165 In the 42 years that Grunder Landscaping Co. has been in business and the 30+ years Marty has been working with fellow landscape pros through The Grow Group, he's seen every excuse. Often the biggest thing standing in a team's way? Themselves and the lies they let become reality. In this episode Marty shares the common self-limiting things he hears, and how teams can move beyond this to be successful this 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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Growth Is Not a Straight Line, It Is a Staircase: Growth stalls, plateaus, and sometimes looks like failure right before a breakthrough. Business growth is often delayed compensation for consistent effort. Most people quit because the timeline did not match what they imagined. The Hardest Thing for an Entrepreneur to Say Is I Need Help: Businesses do not scale through isolation. They scale through leverage: people, systems, partnerships, mentors, peer groups. Trying to do everything yourself eventually makes you the bottleneck. Growth Always Takes Longer and Costs More Than You Think: Marketing costs more. Hiring costs more. Mistakes cost more. What worked at $5K a month breaks at $50K. Scaling means rebuilding parts of the business over and over again. That is normal, not failure. Perfection Is Hesitation in Disguise: Ready, ready, ready, aim, aim, aim is not preparation. It is fear. Meanwhile someone less talented but more willing wins. Business rewards execution over perfection. You Were Not Good at This When You Started Either: If someone can do the task 80 percent as well as you, let them do it. Give your team a shot. They will learn from your mistakes and accelerate past where you started. Hard Work Alone Is Not a Growth Strategy: You can work 14 hours a day and stay stuck if your positioning is weak or your systems do not scale. The smarter you work, the luckier you get. Build a business where the right work compounds. More Customers Will Not Fix Broken Systems: Sometimes you do not need more traffic, you need more clarity. Better retention, better messaging, better pricing, better onboarding. Growth does not fix broken systems. It exposes them faster. The Finish Line Keeps Moving: Every new level brings new complexity. More revenue means more responsibility, more decisions, more pressure. You do not grow by reaching a level with no problems. You grow by becoming the person who can handle bigger ones. Reflection Questions
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| Interview Series: Michael Ding on Estimating Work and Software Improvements | 13 May 2026 | 00:43:16 | |
Upcoming Events: Sign Up for The Landscape Pro's Sales Training (Virtual - May 13-14, 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 #164 Meet Michael Ding, the brilliant young man behind the revolutionary BobYard bidding software! In this episode, Marty is joined by BobYard founder and CEO Michael Ding to discuss the inspiration behind their takeoff software and how it saves time for estimators and salespeople. They talk about the journey to create the tool, how systems can make estimates more consistent, and what teams can do to spend more time on the activities that actually drive value for companies. 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 The Best Businesses Solve Hard Problems with No Shortcuts: If a market has a shortcut, everyone takes it and you end up competing on price. Pick problems where the only solution is the hard one. Then nobody can follow you without doing the hard work too. Estimators Should Sell, Not Click: Before BobYard, 50 percent of an estimator's day was spent clicking on screens doing takeoffs. Estimators are some of your most savvy people. Their job is to bring in money, not to count plants. An Order of Magnitude Better Changes the Conversation: A 10 percent improvement is a hard sell. A 10x or 100x improvement sells itself. BobYard cuts a 4-5 hour commercial takeoff down to 30-60 minutes. That is not marginal, that is transformational. Hire People Better Than the Average: Every new hire should be better than the previous one. It forces the existing team to grow into a new bar. The best hires shatter your expectations of what a great hire looks like. Ownership Means Other People Sleep Well: Define ownership by how easy everyone else can sleep at night knowing you are in charge of your area. If you are losing sleep over something, that is a sign someone needs clearer ownership of it. Trust and Ownership Are Two Sides of the Same Coin: If you do not trust someone, you will not give them ownership. If you do not give them ownership, they know you do not trust them. Great people want autonomy and partnership. Do Not Go Looking for Nails with a Hammer: Do not ask “where can we apply AI in our business?” Ask “where can we improve?” Then pick the right tool. Sometimes it is AI. Sometimes it is just better systems or a clearer SOP. Run a Real AB Test on Software Vendors: The best customers ab test products, run paid trials, build financial models for the ROI. Smaller companies often buy on emotion. The exercise of evaluating software forces you to ac... Chapters
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| Keeping a Clear Head: What to Do When You Feel Like All the Guns Are Pointed at You (And How to Win in the Process!) | 06 May 2026 | 00:13:44 | |
Upcoming Events: Sign Up for The Landscape Pro's Sales Training (Virtual - May 13-14, 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 #163 We can't control other people, but we can control our own work, attitudes, and approach. When a client is upset, team members have disagreements, or a vendor drops the ball: the way you react matters. Keep your cool this spring with Marty's best tips for handling adversity, because we all know even the best plans sometimes go sideways. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings You Can Only Control Three Things: Your attitude, your effort, and your response. That is it. Everything else is out of your hands. Strong leaders pause and ask what is actually in their control before reacting. Ask the Right First Question: When something goes wrong, ask yourself what am I doing or not doing that is getting me the results I don't want. That is ownership. Reacting emotionally never solves the problem. Leaders Stabilize, They Do Not Escalate: If a client yells and you yell back, the situation gets worse. Leaders bring calm, clarity, and direction. They reduce tension instead of adding to it. A Growth Mindset Changes Everything: A fixed mindset says this should not be happening to me. A growth mindset says this is part of the process, what can we learn. Adversity is not the exception, it is the norm. Slow It Down Before You Respond: Not everything needs an immediate reaction. Saying let me think about that can completely change the outcome. Separate the issue from the emotion. Replace You Are Wrong with Help Me Understand: That one shift keeps disagreements productive instead of personal. It shows the other person you respect their perspective and want to work together. Focus on Solutions, Not Blame: Blame looks backward. Leaders look forward. The question is not who caused this, it is what is the next best step. Use Mistakes to Improve the System: Acknowledge the issue clearly. Take ownership where needed. Ask the team what we can do differently next time. Move forward quickly. Do not let mistakes linger or define the team. Clarity Beats Chaos: Even if you do not have all the answers, give direction. Your team is looking at you. If you need time, say so, but follow through. Silence creates uncertainty. Reflection Questions
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| Operations: The First Steps You Should Take on Every Installation | Marty Grunder & Jimmy Hendricks | 29 Apr 2026 | 00:40:46 | |
In this episode, Marty Grunder sits down with Jimmy Hendricks, Senior Group Leader at Grunder Landscaping Company. Jimmy oversees the construction crews and shares the habits that separate great team leaders from average ones. From pre-planning the night before to walking the property before unloading a single tool, this episode breaks down what it takes to start every job on the right foot, finish at or under budget, and keep the client happy. 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 Great Team Leaders Start with Pre-Planning: They review prints, read notes, confirm equipment, check permits, and verify the property is marked before they leave the day before. You cannot spend your entire day chasing the job if you want to make money. The Three O'Clock Call Sets Up Tomorrow: Team leaders report what they need for the next day. Group leaders meet to allocate equipment. If you wait until morning to figure this out, you are putting out fires. Knock on the Door Before You Unload a Single Tool: When you arrive on site, the team leader goes to the door first. Communicate that Grunder Landscaping is on site. Then walk the property and identify utilities, cable lines, and anything you could damage. Turn Wheels In and Get Cones Out Immediately: Safety is non-negotiable. This happens before anything else. You talk about it every day in the morning huddle so nobody forgets. Treat the Property Like It Is Your Own Home: Keep the site clean. Tarp concrete before rain. Put boards across sidewalks if you are crossing 50 times. Do not leave wheelbarrow stripes on the driveway. Smile When a Neighbor Approaches: If someone comes out upset, walk up to them smiling. It will change their attitude before they start yelling. This is trained behavior. Coach by Asking Questions, Not by Telling: When checking in with a team leader, ask them what they are doing tomorrow. Let them explain it. That is how you see if they actually read the notes or just scanned them. The Three Habits of a Great Team Leader: Pre-planning, coaching their team, and reviewing their own work. If they are not judging themselves and saying what did not look good today, they are not ready to lead. Reflection Questions:
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| Sales: Now Is The Time To Check Your Schedule - Why Being Busy in Spring Could Crush Your Summer | 22 Apr 2026 | 00:20:22 | |
In this solo episode, Marty Grunder delivers a warning: a full spring schedule can lie to you. If April and May are booked but you have no work for July, August, or September, that is not a production issue. That is a sales issue. The best companies are always selling 60 to 90 days ahead, and the smartest ones are selling a year out. Marty walks through where to find work, how to fill holes without panicking, and why your schedule is not just a production tool but a sales scorecard. 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 A Full Spring Schedule Can Lie to You: Companies get busy, stop selling, and then panic in midsummer. A full spring does not equal a healthy business. You need to know what July, August, and September look like right now. The Best Companies Sell 60 to 90 Days Ahead: If you do not like what you see 60 days out, that is not a production issue. That is a sales issue. The bigger your firm, the further out you should be looking. Your Schedule Is a Sales Scorecard: Backlog is future revenue already sold. Gaps are future problems you can already see coming. You should be able to answer instantly what June, July, August, and September look like. There Are Only Three Places to Find Work: Existing clients are the fastest and highest ROI. Unsold opportunities are leads you already have that nobody followed up on. New work should be targeted and fill specific holes. Your Next Best Job Is Already on a Property You Service: Enhancements, add-ons, deferred work, plant replacements, outdoor living, safety issues. Walk the property with your phone and start taking pictures. When You See a Hole, Do Not Panic: Do not discount. Do not take on bad work. See the problem 90 days out and mobilize sales immediately. Jump in yourself. Increase activity. Call your top 20 or 50 clients. Enhancements Are Your Ultimate Shock Absorber: They fill gaps quickly, carry strong margins, and deepen relationships with clients. This is how great companies smooth out the year. You Are Not Building a Schedule, You Are Engineering a Year: Match demand to capacity based on the season. Sell summer work in the spring. Sell next spring right now. Level out the revenue instead of riding the ups and downs. Reflection Questions
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| Interview Series: Building a Sales Team That Performs with Dawn Arnold | 15 Apr 2026 | 00:46:30 | |
The best salespeople are not just lucky. They are diligent, organized, and manage their time well. In this episode, Marty is joined by Dawn Arnold, Director of Sales at Grunder Landscaping Company, to talk about what separates top performers from everyone else. Dawn shares how she coaches salespeople to boss their calendars, focus on leading indicators, and develop the habits that drive consistent results. 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 People First, Then Process: You can have all the processes in the world, but if you do not have the right people and someone leading them, the processes will not be followed. One-on-Ones Save Time: If you do not give your team a dedicated weekly time with you, they have free reign to interrupt you whenever they want. A one-on-one creates a safe space and actually reduces the constant interruptions. If You Cannot Sell Yourself in the Interview, You Cannot Sell to Strangers: Energy, connection, and the ability to build rapport in a short window are non-negotiables for sales hires. The interview is when they are at their best. Top Performers Know What Needs Attention and When: The best salespeople understand low-hanging fruit, stay connected with clients, and have a sense of urgency. They do not wait for things to happen. They make them happen. Leading Indicators Over Lagging Indicators: Sales numbers are lagging indicators. You cannot change a report. Focus on the activities that drive sales: proposals out, presentations delivered, pipeline managed. Boss Your Calendar: If you do not have time blocked for proposals, client meetings, and follow-up, you are most likely not going to do it. Top performers are regimented with their calendars. Do Not Hire Before You Are Ready to Lead: If you do not have processes, structure, and clear goals in place, a good salesperson will get frustrated and leave. Good salespeople want a system they can plug into. Development Must Be Intentional: Do not assume everyone knows how to network. Teach them how to dress, how to start conversations, how to follow up. Pair newer people with stronger ones. Family Members Do Not Get Special Treatment: If you let family get away with something, everyone will see it. Clear expectations, accountability, and no gray areas protect the culture. Discipline Equals Freedom: Spring is intense. Leaning on good habits and structure all year means you do not have to turn it on during the busy season. You cannot build habits in a crisis. Reflection Questions:
Resources: Proven Winners: Allium Serendipity Chapters
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| Good Shortcuts and Bad Shortcuts: How to Save Time Without Sacrificing Quality | 08 Apr 2026 | 00:15:11 | |
Taking shortcuts is a good thing when it saves you time without sacrificing the experience your clients, team members, or the community has with your business. In this episode, Marty Grunder shares the shortcuts he takes to work more efficiently so he can get more done in a day. As AI is becoming more available, there are so many ways to save yourself time. 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 The Shortcut Filter: Before implementing any shortcut, ask three questions: Does it maintain or improve quality? Does it actually make us more efficient or just faster in the moment? Does it make our team better or just busier? Good Shortcuts vs. Bad Shortcuts: A good shortcut saves you time and nobody notices. A bad shortcut saves you time, but your customer feels it, your team feels it, and you feel it in the wallet later. If your shortcut creates rework, it was not a shortcut. Truck Positioning and Work Sequencing: Where you park the truck can cut walking distance in half. Every extra step gets multiplied hundreds of times a day. Installing trees before final grade or mulch before grading means reworking your work. Boss Your Calendar: If your sales team is zigzagging across town, the day is gone. Group appointments geographically. Plan your day the night before. Drive the conversation and let clients accommodate you. Prequalify Your Leads: If you screen your calls right, you can close most of them. A few simple questions upfront saves a lot of wasted trips. AI Helps You Prepare, It Does Not Replace the Relationship: Use AI for drafting emails, organizing proposals, and researching prospects. But if your sales process starts to feel robotic, you have gone too far. AI should enable you to spend more time with clients and team, not run your whole life. Visibility Reduces Phone Calls: Pictures on work orders, videos attached to tickets. The more visibility your team has, the fewer calls, emails, and site visits you need. Prepare every work ticket as if you are going on a cruise without cell service. Reflection Questions:
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| How to Keep Your Cool in a Crisis as the Leader with Marty Grunder | 01 Apr 2026 | 00:14:41 | |
In this solo episode, Marty Grunder shares his five-step crisis framework for handling angry clients, crew mistakes, and the constant firefighting that comes with spring. The real issue is never the crisis itself. It is your reaction to it. Marty walks through how to pause before responding, separate emotion from facts, own the outcome, solve in layers, and build systems that prevent repeat fires. Leadership is not about reacting better. It is about building a business that does not need constant reacting. 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! Episode Chapters 00:30 - Welcome to the Grow Show 01:43 - Spring Pressure and Crises 02:53 - Why Leaders Lose Their Cool 03:43 - 1: Pause First 04:18 - 2: Get the Facts 05:16 - 3: Own the Resolution 06:07 - Handling Customer Complaints 06:54 - A Lesson from The Beginning 09:30 - 4: Solve in Layers 10:26 - Correct Mistakes WIthout Fear 11:43 - Systems Prevent Firefighting 13:15 - Marty’s Challenge
Key Learnings It Is Not the Problem, It Is Your Reaction: Most of the time, the damage comes from how we respond, not from what happened. Action: Pause before you lead. Count to four. Lower your voice. Ask what actually happened. Separate Emotion from Facts: When a client says you destroyed their yard, that is emotion. Your job is to get the facts. Action: Ask for a picture. Ask what assumptions you are making. Facts make it manageable. Own the Outcome, Not the Blame: You do not have to admit fault immediately, but you do have to own the resolution. Action: Say: "I am never going to let this get in the way of our relationship. I am going to make it right." Ask What They Want: The most powerful question you can ask an upset client is: What would you like for us to do? Action: Let them vent. Accept responsibility. Ask what they want. Respond with a clear plan. Solve in Layers: Every issue has four layers: containment, client reassurance, internal correction, and process prevention. Action: If you skip the prevention step, you guarantee repeat fires. Correct the Behavior, Protect the Dignity: When a crew messes up, do not explode and do not ignore it. Both are leadership mistakes. Action: Pull them aside privately. Ask what happened, what should have happened, and what we do differently next time. Constant Firefighting Is a Systems Issue: If you feel like you are always in crisis mode, that is usually a sign your systems are weak. Action: Install one prevention system this week. Strong systems reduce emotional leadership moments. The Five-Step Crisis Framework
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| The Consistency Framework: Culture, Quality, and Client Experience with Marty Grunder | 25 Mar 2026 | 00:19:29 | |
In this solo episode, Marty Grunder breaks down why growing companies struggle to stay consistent and what to do about it. Growth exposes every crack in your operation. Customers do not see departments or branches. They see one company. Marty walks through his consistency framework: clear standards plus trained leaders plus enforced systems. He covers the three areas where most companies break down: culture, quality, and client experience. 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! Episode Chapters 00:30 - Welcome & Please Subscribe! 01:06 - Inspiration From Dan Pink 01:57 - Why Consistency Matters 03:51 - Three Consistency Pillars 06:08 - Non Negotiables at Grunder 06:45 - Leaders Model Culture 09:36 - Quality Standards System 10:28 - Visuals & Scorecards for Your Team 12:15 - Inspect and Coach Fast 13:26 - Client Journey Mapping 14:04 - One Voice Messaging 14:59 - Feedback and Snow Lessons 16:44 - Consistency Framework Recap 17:54 - Action Steps 18:39 - Please Subscribe and Share! Key Learnings Growth Exposes Inconsistency: What works at one crew breaks at five or ten. Customers see one company and expect consistent delivery. Action: Identify where your span of control has broken down. Fix the handoffs. Culture Is Behavior, Not Posters: You can post values on the wall, but culture is what your people actually do on job sites. Action: Define what doing it your way looks like in observable terms. Role play it. Show real examples. How You Treat Leaders Is How They Treat Clients: What goes downhill flows all the way to the customer. Action: Ask yourself how problems get handled. Do you correct with respect or frustration? Standardize the Non-Negotiables: Core behaviors should never change regardless of crew or location. Action: Document one standard this week. Train to it. Inspect it. Quality Requires Documentation: You cannot inspect what you have not defined. Photos of good, better, and best give your team a target. Action: Build visual standards. Use photos. Make quality observable. Inconsistency Lives in the Handoffs: Map the client journey from first call to final invoice. Transitions are where consistency breaks. Action: Identify who touches the client and where the handoffs occur. Tighten those gaps. Feedback Is a Control System: Reviews, surveys, and follow-ups catch patterns before they become problems. Action: Secret shop your own company. Ask clients over lunch what they would do differently. The Consistency Framework Clear Standards + Trained Leaders + Enforced Systems = Consistency Culture: Defined behaviors. It starts with you. Quality: Documented processes. Pictures of good, better, best. Experience: Standardized communication. Eliminate "that's not my job." Reflection Questions
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| Interview Series: Bob Marks on Scaling Snow Operations and Managing Zero-Downtime Facilities | 18 Mar 2026 | 00:55:19 | |
In this episode, Marty is joined by Bob Marks, owner of EMI Landscape in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. Bob grew the company from $700K to over $13 million in revenue and has built one of the most impressive snow operations in the industry. A former Audi mechanic who returned to his family's business when his stepfather was injured, Bob shares the details of their fleet, how they manage large zero-downtime facilities, and how they keep 150+ employees motivated through long storm events. 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! Episode Chapters 01:35 - Meet Bob Marks 02:23 - From DC to EMI 04:35 - Scaling EMI 06:21 - Working with Mack Trucks 07:45 - EMI’s Fleet 09:38 - Plows and Efficiency 11:04 - Snowfall and Forecasting 13:03 - Buy vs Leasing Strategy 16:09 - Maintenance and Options 20:08 - Zero Tolerance Clients 21:45 - Saying No to Grow 26:47 - Selling Snow Work 28:04 - Subcontractor Labor 29:24 - Fair Subcontractor Partnerships 30:51 - Accountability With Brokers 32:31 - Year Round Snow Planning 33:43 - Equipment Ordering Strategy 35:36 - Staffing & Training Bootcamp 38:07 - Projector Based Site Training 38:40 - Truck Brush Safety Costs 40:43 - The Storm Communication Playbook 43:35 - Motivation, Culture, and Bonus System 46:31 - Biggest Snow Challenges 50:09 - Pride in People First 52:49 - Please Like, Share and Subscribe!
Key Learnings Make Sure the Client Wants What You Are Offering: If they do not want it, you will not make them happy. Getting expectations clear upfront saves everyone. Action: Be clear on who you are, where you are going, and who you want to work for. Say no to work that does not fit. Partner with Your Dealer: The biggest equipment mistake was not building a relationship with a local dealer who could advise on specs, options, and configurations. Action: Go to lunch. Talk regularly. Learn what you do not know about quick couplers, transmissions, and winter packages before you buy. The Implement Matters as Much as the Machine: A small plow on a $200,000 loader means you are not getting the efficiency out of that machine. Action: Invest in hydraulic wing plows and proper attachments. EMI reduced their fleet by 15% and did the same amount of work. Snow Never Turns Off: Planning is year-round. Equipment orders happen now. The SIMA Symposium in June kicks off the next winter season. Action: Finalize equipment and personnel by September or October. Train regional managers before training everyone else. The 48-24-12 Rule: Give your team 48 hours notice when snow is in the forecast, 24 hours to confirm availability and send referrals, and 6-12 hours for the final call. Action: Communicate early so people show up prepared. No sneakers, no excuses, no last-minute surprises. Treat Subcontractors Like Partners: Pay them faster than you get paid. Give them all the work on their site, not just the big storms. Treat them like human beings. Action: Be picky... | |||
| Metrics: The Early Indicators You Should Watch in Spring with Marty Grunder | 11 Mar 2026 | 00:25:06 | |
In this solo episode, Marty Grunder explains why spring success is not decided in May. It is decided by what you notice or miss in March and April. Most owners look at lagging indicators like revenue, profit, and backlog. Those tell you how you did. This episode is about leading indicators: the signals that tell you early whether spring is going well or quietly slipping away. 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! Episode Chapters 00:28 - Welcome & Thanks to our sponsor BOBYARD 01:10 - People First Leadership 01:50 - Spring Leading Indicators 02:34 - Production Efficiency Signals 05:38 - Morning Rollout Speed 08:26 - Sales Op Handoff 10:50 - Weekly Metrics Matter 13:07 - BobYard Ad Read 16:12 - Training During the Peak Season 19:06 - Eliminate Fires with Client Communication 20:53 - Early Season Challenges 23:17 - Wrap Up - Please Share & Subscribe!
Key Learnings Production Efficiency Shows Up First: Crews running long on jobs they have done a hundred times before is not bad luck. That is inefficiency leaking out. Action: Watch weekly revenue per labor hour, job duration versus estimate, and efficiency ratings. If you are not watching hours, spring will decide for you. Morning Rollout Tells the Truth: A smooth morning rollout is indicative of a very well run company. Daily mobilization speed matters. Action: Are work tickets decided the night before? Are trucks set up so crews are not sharing equipment? Watch how fast crews leave and return. Sales to Production Alignment: If sales and operations drift right now, the gap only widens as volume increases. Action: Do not let jobs get sold and posted on the schedule that are not set up correctly. A sold job means nothing if it costs more than you bid. Fewer Metrics, More Frequently: Spring does not require more metrics. It requires fewer metrics reviewed more frequently. Action: Focus on weekly labor efficiency, billed versus produced revenue, missed production days, equipment breakdowns, and staffing gaps. Train for Consistency, Not Excellence: Spring is not your training season, but some training is non-negotiable. Rework during peak season is margin poison. Action: Avoid long classroom sessions and new system rollouts. Focus on job setup and team leader communication. Get them doing most of it right. Client Communication Prevents Fires: Most spring client issues are not operational problems. They are informational problems. Action: Go to clients and tell them things before they start wondering. Promise a week or a window, not a day. Clients tolerate delays far better than silence. Small Misses Compound Into Big Problems: If 30% of your crews are not following the process, that is not a coaching issue. That is company-wide. Action: Do not assume volume will fix efficiency. The earlier you correct what is off track, the cheaper it is to fix. The Core Message The hardest part of spring is not the work. It is thinking clearly under p... | |||
| Five Things Leaders Do (and Don't Do) That Undermine Their Respect | 04 Mar 2026 | 00:11:35 | |
In this episode, Marty shares 5 things he sees people doing as leaders that undermines their credibility or relationships with team members. He gives common mistakes that can hold you back in your career or limit the growth of your direct reports to help you notice if you're doing these things and course correct while there's time. Register for ACE Discovery - March 25-27th ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Chapters 01:27 - Why Respect Erodes 02:20 - Apologies That Disappear 03:31 - Actions Over Words 04:46 - Stop Cancelling Meetings 06:07 - Regulated Leadership Wins 07:49 - Think Through Optics 10:11 - One Change This Week 10:42 - Please Like, Share & Subscribe! Key Learnings "Leadership isn't what you intend. It's what people experience." - Marty GrunderThe Apology That Disappears: The moment you say "but," you erase the apology. No one remembers what came before it. Action: If you are going to apologize, let it stand alone. Say "I was wrong, I own it, I will handle it differently next time." Then stop talking. What You Do Matters More Than What You Say: Your team does not follow your declarations. They follow your patterns. Action: Your calendar reveals your priorities. Your reactions reveal your standards. Your tolerance defines your culture. Your behavior is the real policy. Canceling Meetings: When you cancel, your team learns that commitments are flexible and that your time matters more than theirs. Action: If you schedule it, honor it. If you must cancel, do it early, give a real reason, and go to great lengths to reschedule. Spend time Sunday planning your week. Do Not Let Them See You Sweat: Your team reads your nervous system. If you look rattled, they feel rattled. Your nervous system is contagious. Action: Vent up, not down. Problem solve across. Reassure down the org chart. Find a spouse, mentor, or peer group member to process with. Think Through the Optics: People do not judge your intent. They judge what they see. Optics are the receipts of trust. Action: Before you make a decision, ask yourself: if I were them, what story would I tell about this? Does this match the sacrifice I am asking others to make? The Core MessageTrust is not rebuilt with speeches. It is rebuilt with consistent behavior that people can see. Do not try to fix all five. Pick one behavior you are going to tighten up this week. Reflection Questions
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| What Owners Should Be Thinking About This Spring - Marty Grunder | 25 Feb 2026 | 00:16:11 | |
In this solo episode, Marty Grunder delivers a direct message for landscape business owners heading into the busy season: Spring does not forgive. It does not slow down, and it does not wait for you to feel ready. This is not a tactical checklist. It is a mindset reset for leaders who want to enter the season decided rather than hoping things work out. 2026 Discovery - NOLA | ACE Peer Groups ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 00:56 - Grow 2026 Recap & Announcing Grow 2027 "Spring doesn't create problems. It reveals them."— Marty Grunder Key LearningsSpring Is Not a Surprise: Anything you avoid addressing, spring will expose. Strong companies enter spring decided, not hoping. Action: Identify the decision you have been kicking down the road. Make it now. Now Is the Time to Execute, Not Innovate: Spring is for selling work and doing work. New software, demos, and initiatives can wait. Action: Say no to distractions. Execution beats innovation in the spring. As You Go, So Goes Your Team: Your team mirrors you. If you are stressed and reactive, expect the same from them. Action: Be present. Spring leadership is about presence, not perfection. Process Over Heroics: If your best people save the day every day, they are not heroes. They are hostages. Action: Build simple, repeatable processes. Spring rewards clarity, not complexity. Set Client Expectations Early: Most spring problems are expectation problems. Silence creates assumptions. Action: Communicate early. If someone is sick at 7 AM, call the client at 7, not noon. Protect Your Energy: Spring is when owners burn out. Your energy matters because your team is watching. Action: Sleep seven hours. Eat right. Move daily. Skip the gas station lunch. Do Not Isolate Yourself: The difference between owners who handle spring well and those who do not is whether they go it alone. Action: Sharpen your thinking with peers. The best leaders do not prepare alone. Reflection Questions
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| What's on the Mind of ACE Peer Group Members Going Into Spring 2026 | 18 Feb 2026 | 00:13:56 | |
Vince Torchia shares insights from over 250 members across 19 ACE peer groups about what's top of mind heading into spring 2026. From creating more leaders without micromanaging to understanding the difference between owner math and financial knowledge, to the red-yellow-green client rating system, Vince breaks down the three critical areas landscape business owners are focused on right now. Register for ACE Discovery - March 25-27th ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 00:51 - Key Topics for Spring 2026 01:02 - Leadership In Your Organization 05:24 - Enhancing Financial Knowledge 08:52 - Defining Your Company’s Vision 12:40 - ACE Discovery 2026 Key Learnings Leadership: Create Leaders Who Can Make Decisions Without Permission – What do I do to get more leaders at my organization? What kind of environment do we need to create where somebody can make a decision for a customer, make a decision for our team, invest time or money without having to come ask me as the owner? We've set up an organization where people can go take action and have some autonomy. The Nick Saban Coaching Tree Analogy – All four coaches that made it through the college football playoffs were coaches under Nick Saban at one time or another. His ability to be a great coach was also an ability to create other leaders, not just people that did whatever Nick Saban wanted them to do. The more people that we have at our organization that are leaders, the better that we will do. Soft Skills Are the Real Skills – It's really not about the technical side of landscaping or maintenance or irrigation or snow. It's all about the soft skills. How do you have a tough conversation? How do you coach? How do you lead? How do you give corrective behavior tools and still have them appreciate and respect what you're doing? 10 Years Ago It Was Just Me, Now It's Eight Leaders – Marty talks about it a lot. 10 years ago, he felt like it was him, maybe one other individual from Grunder who thought like an owner. Now there's eight of us on the leadership team, and many managers feel the same way about having the ability to make a decision, the ability to run the ball. Owner Math vs. Financial Knowledge – A lot of ACE members are great at owner math or napkin math. We know how many trucks are going out, we can tell by morning activity what we're at from a capacity standpoint. But my cash isn't matching my P&L. I have no strategy around debt servicing or liquidity. People are paying slower now. My AR days are higher than usual. Profitability and Cash Flow Are Not the Same Thing – The profitability moves from your P&L to your balance sheet. It's an accounting equation. The more we understand those levers, the better we can operate, the better we can have conversations with our banker, our lawyer, our insurance agent, our vendors. Red, Yellow, Green Client Rating System – Green means we love working with them, it's sustainable, profitable, enjoyable. Yellow, I don't know about these people, we might need to value engineer. Red, we're not making money, we're never making them happy, they're not referring us. Honor your contracts this year, but rate them and make a plan. Spring Is When You Ask the Hard Questions – Every spring, we go back out on clients' properties and the question enters our mind: should we be doing this work for this client? When we're at our most stressed is when we really start to ask the... | |||
| Time Management: Prepare Now or Pay Later - Win the Busy Season! | 11 Feb 2026 | 00:21:06 | |
The busy season is around the corner and will expose the cracks in your systems. Prepare for the spring rush now with these tips from Marty Grunder on organizing your calendar, setting and focusing on priorities, planning ahead, and more to calm the chaos of spring. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 00:55 - Proven Winners and Marketing Ideas 01:52 - The Busy Season is Coming 03:31 - Use Your Calendar as a Leadership Tool 04:02 - Sales Leaders: Proactive Client Communication 05:17 - Operation Leaders: Planning and Coordination 07:02 - Owners and Senior Leaders: Strategic Thinking 10:08 - Look Ahead & Reduce Surprises 12:03 - Doing Tomorrow’s Work Today 15:27 - Habits for Handling Pressure 18:48 - Prepare Now or Pay Later 20:29 - Please Share & Subscribe! Key Learnings The busy season doesn't create problems, it reveals them. If things feel chaotic in April, they were probably disorganized in February. Your calendar is a statement of priorities. If something is not on your calendar, it's optional, and optional things don't survive a busy season. The people who win the spring are the people who prepare in the winter. Things never slow down, they just change shape. Sales leaders need three daily habits: prospect, nurture, close. Every day I prospect, every day I nurture, every day I close. Without planning, you're not leading, you're chasing your tail. Operations leaders need time blocked for planning, crew coordination, equipment readiness, and problem prevention. Somebody has to be thinking about tomorrow, next month, next year. If your calendar doesn't have any time for thinking as an owner, is that really where you want to be? When pressure goes up, memory goes down. Write things down and capture commitments, or you'll forget customer requests while driving. Your brain is for thinking, not storage. Clear your head daily before you go home so you can lead. Simple beats fancy every time. One program with a couple bolt-ons at most, not 16 different programs on your iPad. Prepare now or pay later. You can either prepare now and lead calmly, or react later with a raging river and out-of-control mess. What to Calendar Right Now SALES LEADERS:
OPERATIONS LEADERS:
OWNERS & SENIOR LEADERS:
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| Make It About Them: Grow 2025 Columbus Keynote Replay with Marty Grunder | 04 Feb 2026 | 00:39:32 | |
This episode's a little different: we're bringing you Marty's keynote address that opened GROW! 2025 as we're onsite in Dallas, TX for GROW! 2026. Listen to hear Marty's take on growing a landscaping business. He shares the hurdles that stood in the way of growing Grunder Landscaping Co., how they overcame them, and what's ahead for businesses that are excited for the future. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 01:53 - Keynote Intro 04:34 - The Importance of Growth and Community 07:53 - Personal Stories & Lessons Learned 13:48 - Early Business Challenges & Successes 20:42 - The Birth of a Speaking Career 21:40 - Financial Struggles & Family Values 23:03 - Lessons Learned Through Growth 27:33 - The Importance of Team and Client Relationships 29:40 - Creating a Positive Company Culture 38:40 - Please Like & Subscribe! Key Learnings Growth Isn't Linear – In my 41 years of business, I've found that growth isn't linear. It's not a straight line. It doesn't happen that way. And it's not easy. I'm a 40 year overnight success story. Training Is an Investment, Not an Expense – The best way that you can grow a team is by making an investment in them. Sending them to something like this is way more than training. This is an experience. This is what can happen when you get around other risk-taking peers and let your hair down. The Christmas Party I Threw for Myself – I spent a lot of money on a nice party at a fancy restaurant. An employee pulled me aside: "We had to buy nice clothes. Our pallets aren't as sophisticated as yours. Pizza and bowling would've been fine. Give us a cash bonus." Who'd I throw the party for? Myself. I made that party about myself. Our New Mission Statement Puts Team First – Creating opportunities for our team to grow and succeed by enhancing the beauty and value of every client's property. The first sentence there, creating opportunities for our team to grow and succeed, that is our focus. Not about Seth, not about Marty, it's about the team. Business Is Like Golf – You grab that club real hard and swing harder and the ball doesn't go anywhere. You hold the club like a bird and swing it real easy and it's amazing how far the ball goes. I'm hitting my five iron 30 yards longer. Business is the same way. When we try too hard, when we push, when we make it about ourselves, we lose. $2.1 Billion in Combined Revenue in This Room – The combined revenue of all the landscape companies in this room right now is $2.1 billion. If we all leave here with our head on straight, with new ideas, making it about the team, not about ourselves, a rising tide raises all boats. Don't Go to Dinner by Yourself – The only way you're gonna get in trouble with me here today is if you go to dinner by yourself. This is a warm, caring community that wants to help you. I don't care how big or small your business is. Learn From the Little Guys Too – I got a buddy in a peer group with all these huge companies. Third year he quit. They were talking about captives, vacation houses, investments. He said, "I want to talk about where are you parking the truck and how are you maximizing that? How are you keeping those hourly workers?" There's secrets in those day-to-day struggles. Stress Is Caused Because You're Out of Control – Look for ideas so you and your team can work together with less stress. Doesn't that sound fun? Stress is caused because you're out of control and you don't know what... | |||
| How Small Actions Create Big Results in Your Business with Chris Psencik | 28 Jan 2026 | 00:35:20 | |
In this episode, Marty Grunder and executive coach Chris Psencik explore how small, consistent actions compound into extraordinary results. Drawing from Captain Michael Abrashoff's leadership principles in "It's Your Ship," they break down practical applications across the Four P Framework: Platform, People, Process, and Profits. The conversation emphasizes that success in the landscape industry comes from mastering the details that most people overlook. Sign up for Grow 2026!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 01:58 - Introducing Chris Psencik 03:50 - The Importance of Little Things in Business 05:00 - Book Discussion: Creating Owners & Leaders 08:37 - The Four P Framework 10:00 - Platform: Speed and Execution 14:49 - People: Training and One-on-Ones 18:01 - Process: Systems and Efficiency 18:54 - Proactive Client Engagement 20:02 - Analyzing and Improving Proposals 21:16 - Maximizing Software Utilization 22:19 - Bite-Sized Profit Strategies 23:22 - Overcoming Sales Challenges 25:17 - The Importance of Peer Groups 30:28 - Success Through Attention to Detail 33:40 - Sign Up for GROW 2026! Key Learnings Speed Kills (In a Good Way): When a customer is ready to buy, they have Google, ChatGPT, and a list of competitors at their fingertips. The companies that respond fastest win. Chris shared how many businesses complain about needing more sales when the real problem is response time. The calls are coming in. The return speed is the bottleneck. Marty's Take: "Good things come to those who wait, but only the things left behind by those who didn't. Seize the day. What are you waiting for?" Create Owners, Not Employees: Captain Abrashoff's transformation of the USS Benfold offers a blueprint for landscape companies. He turned a failing ship into one of the Navy's most productive by pushing decision-making down, creating clarity, and building relationships at every level. The key insight: you cannot scale by micromanaging. You scale by creating people who think and act like owners. Chris's Perspective: "So many people think they can just white-knuckle those companies and grab their bootstraps and get their hands dirty. But once a company reaches a certain size, it takes successful people to really do that." Leverage the Wins: Recognition does not require elaborate systems. A shout-out with a Payday candy bar. Acknowledging someone in a team meeting who embodied a core value. These small moments reinforce culture more than any policy manual. The mistake most companies make is not capitalizing on things going well. Example from Marty: When a crew member spotted a drainage issue, reported it, and helped close a $3,800 sale, that story became a teaching moment about what "speed kills" means in practice. Train When You Have Time, Execute When You Don't: Chris highlighted how Curtis Atkinson uses the winter months strategically. Instead of viewing slow seasons as downtime, he treats them as preparation time. His team enters spring ready to execute rather than scrambling to figure things out when revenue opportunities are highest. The Principle: "Think with the end in mind. Where do we need to get? We need revenue. When do we want it? First an... | |||
| The $40,000 Change Management Mistake & How to Use AI for SOPs with Kevin Keim | 21 Jan 2026 | 00:43:41 | |
In this episode, Kevin Keim shares what he's learned in his career, the mistakes he's made, and the tips he has for landscape pros to create great SOPs and manage change in their organization. He shares tips for ensuring smoother transitions when you make a change and for documenting SOPs with low-cost (or free) tools. Sign up for Grow 2026!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 00:30 - Introduction & Welcome 02:40 - Megan’s Background and Connection to Landscaping 04:52 - The Importance of Accountability 10:01 - Skill and Will in Leadership 11:56 - Practical Tools for Accountability 16:47 - Advice for Landscaping Business Owners 22:33 - What to Expect at Grow 2026 Key LearningsMy $40,000 Mistake: I Implemented Change Too Fast – I knew this from Dow, I just never did anything with it. It landed very differently after I made my first bungle, which cost about $40,000 in mistakes. That's just what I could calculate. I'm sure there was a lot more residual impact outside of that. The first thing I did when I came in was realize we needed to change our scheduling software. I rolled it out in three weeks. Big mistake. The Five Steps of Change Management – First, create awareness. Why are we doing this? Second, desire. What's in it for me? Third, knowledge. How do I do this? Fourth, ability. Can I actually do this? Fifth, reinforcement. How do we make sure this sticks? Most people skip straight to knowledge without building awareness and desire first. That's where I went wrong. Don't Stare at a Blank Screen, Just Start With Something – Whether it's change recipes or SOPs, just start with something. Starting is how you go do anything. We started on paper, flip charts literally, moved to a digital format, and then towards the end we took all of our SOPs and put them in ChatGPT and they could prompt and ask questions. Baby steps are okay as long as you've got that consistent change and you're communicating the vision. Use ChatGPT to Build Your SOPs for Free – You can go into ChatGPT and say, "I'm the president of a $5 million landscaping company. I'm struggling with how to implement change and get SOPs and get more of my team on the same page. What would you suggest I do?" You will be amazed at the fire starters that come out of that conversation. You can upload documents, ask it to rewrite things in simpler language, create step-by-step guides. An Employee Who Doesn't Know How to Do Their Job Leads to Burnout – An employee who doesn't know how to do their job leads to frustration, which leads to burnout, which leads to turnover, which is extremely costly. Not having an SOP, a documented one especially when you go to onboarding, is not an option. The biggest freeing moment we had was realizing that holding onto bad employees because you don't have a good onboarding process is what was holding us back. Paint the Vision of What's In It For Them – You gotta paint the vision of what's in it for them. You gotta get them to understand how it can make it easier on them. People at your company don't want to show up and have you hand them a pack of papers with drawings and phone numbers in a three ring binder. It's all on their phone now. It's so much easier. But if you're used to using paper, it does take a while to get there. Change Happens in Baby Steps With Consistent Communication – We started with flip charts, moved to digital, then to ChatGPT. Each step made sense for where we were. You don... | |||
| Interview Series: Megan Parker on Leadership and Accountability in Action at Landscaping Companies | 14 Jan 2026 | 00:28:41 | |
In this episode, Marty Grunder is joined by executive coach Megan Parker whose coaching has been instrumental in many landscaping companies' success and whose sessions at past GROW sessions have helped managers become the leaders their teams need. They talk about accountability as leaders and how to encourage accountability among their teams. Sign up for Grow 2026!ACE Peer Groups ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 00:30 - Introduction & Welcome 02:40 - Megan’s Background and Connection to Landscaping 04:52 - The Importance of Accountability 10:01 - Skill and Will in Leadership 11:56 - Practical Tools for Accountability 16:47 - Advice for Landscaping Business Owners 22:33 - What to Expect at Grow 2026 Key Learnings Accountability Is a $10 Word That Gets a Bad Rap – Accountability is one of those $10 words. It's a great word, but a lot of times I find that people don't really know what accountability means or how to do it. When you think of accountability, what word or feeling comes to mind? My guess is your reaction might not have been a positive one. The Three Key Ingredients of Accountability – First, you have to have clear expectations. If we are not on the same page about how to plant a tree, then you can't hold me accountable for the way the tree was planted. Second, we need to have resources. I have to have the ability to do my job. Third, those consequences. If you and I are not clear on what happens as a result of a failure to meet those expectations, then you can't truly hold me accountable. Skill and Will: Why Accountability Is So Hard – When I think about why it is so hard, I think about two things: skill and will. Does the person have the skill to do it? And do they have the will to hold someone accountable? Skill means do I know how to hold people accountable? Do I literally know how to have a conversation without flying off the handle? Will is, am I willing to hold people accountable, to be the bad guy, to worry about what people will think of me? Flying Off the Handle Sends People Into Fight, Flight, or Freeze – You're gonna send people into fight, flight, or freeze mode. Everyone will have one of those three reactions. When you go into that mode without the skill to have that conversation, you're gonna send people into fight, flight, or freeze mode, and nothing productive is gonna come from that. That's why the skill part is really important. A-Players Don't Want to Work With People Who Aren't A-Players – Do you want to work for someone who will not hold you accountable? The answer is typically no. The biggest issue with people who aren't pulling their weight is that other A-players do not want to work with people who are not A-players. Your best employees, your A-players, they want to be held to a high standard. They want to be held accountable, and they want others on the team to be held to that same standard. The Pilot Never Says "Let Me Call My Supervisor" – Your expectation for the pilot is that they need to get a plane full of people to the destination safely. If you're flying through a storm, you can adjust altitude or fly around it. Never once have you ever heard the pilot say, "I need to reroute, but I need to call my supervisor and ask him." You don't want your clients feeling like the perso... | |||
| What We'll Learn at GROW! 2026 | 07 Jan 2026 | 00:16:07 | |
In this episode of The Grow Show, Vince Torchia and Emily Lindley detail the planning that has gone into GROW! 2026, what will be different about this year's event, and how landscape pros can get the most out of this learning experience - whether they attend or not. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 00:50 - Introduction to Grow 2026 02:04 - Insights from the Peer Groups 03:45 - Event Space and Logistics 04:50 - Changes to the Tour Schedule and Innovations 08:20 - Networking and Dining Rounds 10:27 - Maximizing Your Event Experience 14:18 - Ways to Follow Grow 2026 Key Learnings We're Expecting About 1,000 More People Than 10 Years Ago – Complete Land Sculpture hosted this event 10 years ago in 2016. We had about 225 people. We might have a thousand more people than that for 2026. Gene and Chris have been to every Grow since 2016, so they have awesome ideas and know how they want their tour to run. More Space Than Last Year—No Crowded Escalators – Last year we had an awesome event in Columbus hosted by Hidden Creek. We had a lot of late signups, which we loved, but there were some tight breakout rooms, tight space with sponsors at happy hours. Other than escalators working in Dallas, I am excited that we have larger space this year—more space in our main stage room, breakout rooms, and general function area. The Tour Is Reinvented: Fewer Stations, More Time – Gene and Chris put together a really good tour schedule that involves less stations that are longer. So we have more time in stations, less movement of people, some more movement of presenters, and finally an actual formal walking tour of the facility. We've also taken some of those tour stations and brought them back to the hotel. Divide and Conquer Breakout Sessions as a Team – I would set up a meeting two weeks before the event with all the people from your team who are attending. Look at the agenda, pick out which breakout sessions everybody's going to. What I would recommend is that teams divide and conquer. Don't all go to the same breakout session. Take your notes and come back together to share knowledge from all the different sessions. Set a Pre-Event and Post-Event Team Meeting – During that pre-event meeting, talk about dine arounds, dinner reservations, what you want to get out of it as a team. Is there a specific challenge you're facing that you really want to find an answer to at Grow? After the event, do a debrief. Talk about breakout sessions, notes, takeaways, action items. Narrow down everything to five things you're gonna implement over the next year. Think: Today, 30 Days, 60-90 Days – Think about what's one thing you're gonna get done today, what's low hanging fruit you can get done right away when you get back home. What's something you're gonna get done in the next 30 days? And then what's something you're gonna get done in the next 60 or 90 days? Make it a manageable to-do list so it doesn't just live in a notebook. We Listen to 210+ Companies to Build the Agenda – We're always listening to not only what we're experiencing at Grunder Landscaping Company, but also taking a deep dive into the over 210 companies that we have in our ACE peer groups. We take into account all those meetings, conversations, accountability calls, and naturally things just bubble up to the top. We'll have more breakout sessions than we've ever had this year. Resources: | |||
| Strategy: Setting Your New Year Up for Success | 31 Dec 2025 | 00:14:46 | |
In this episode, Vince Torchia shares how he sees landscaping companies set their year up for success early with planning, refining messaging, defining the wins, and communicating all of this with teams. He shares the themes that have driven Grunder Landscaping's growth and messaging, and how to evaluate where your focus should be for 2026. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 01:32 Setting Up for Success: The Importance of a Yearly Theme 05:05 Recognizing and Appreciating Your Team 09:45 Effective Communication Strategies for 2026 13:54 Conclusion and Upcoming Events Resources: Grunder Landscaping Field Trips 1. PICK YOUR THEME
2. RECOGNIZE THE UNDERAPPRECIATED Team Members: Who needs to feel the love? Thank you notes, praising in public, opportunities for advancement
3. CREATE YOUR COMMUNICATION PLAN Put communication on your calendar for what's happening in the business
Reflection Questions
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| Leadership: How to Use the Holiday Week as a Quiet Advantage | 24 Dec 2025 | 00:11:00 | |
Happy Holidays listeners! In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder shares the routine he follows during a holiday week to make equal time for recharging, reflecting, and resetting. Make time for yourself and your loved ones, but don't miss the opportunity to set your 2026 up for success in this final week of the year. Stihl GTA 26 Cordless Pruner (Complete the challenge below to have a chance to win!) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 01:47 - The Holiday Dilemma for Landscapers 02:32 - Managing the Week Between Christmas and New Year’s 05:03 - Recharge, Reflect, and Reset: The Three Buckets 05:45 - Five Practical Areas to Focus On 08:25 - The Grow Show Christmas Week Challenge 10:03 - Please Share & Subscribe! Resources: Grunder Landscaping Field Trips Key Learnings How You Manage This Week Says a Lot About How You Manage Your Business – The worst thing you can do is let this week become a Netflix sit-around, eat junk, do nothing this week. That's not good. If you spend six to 10 hours the week between Christmas and New Year's, you'll return to work January 2nd seeing your business in a whole new focused way. Resting Is Okay, Drifting Is Dangerous – I organize this week around three buckets: Recharge, Reflect, and Reset. Recharge is time with family. Reflect means looking at reality, the good, the bad, and the painful truth. Reset means making decisions—what will I stop doing? What will I delegate? What am I gonna double down on? I Get to the Coffee Shop at 5:45 AM While My Family Sleeps In – I head to a coffee shop around 5:45 AM on the days they're open, even though I don't drink coffee, because I like that environment. I open my calendar, scroll month by month. What felt heavy? Where did we have callbacks? Where was I overwhelmed? I delve into Aspire, check dials, reports, numbers, because data doesn't lie. All Planning Is Good, But Planning Only Happens When You're Intentional – You've heard me say this many times. All planning is good. Credit to Dave Sullivan from 1997. This process I'm sharing with you is planning. At some point you're gonna have to say, I'm getting my act together. This is that week. Chaos Is Really Expensive, Order Pays Dividends – People come in my garage and they say, my goodness, what happened here? You could eat off the floor. It's always like that. I guess it's my OCD, but I just feel so much more in control when I have things organized. Chaos is really expensive, folks. Order pays dividends. The Daily Rhythm for Winning This Week Each Day:
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| What Marty Learned While Previewing the GROW! 2026 Tour of Complete Landsculpture | 17 Dec 2025 | 00:17:03 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel!
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: Grunder Landscaping Field Trips 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... | |||
| Year-End Reflections: The Highs and Lows of 2025 of Grunder Landscaping | 10 Dec 2025 | 00:31:10 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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: Grunder Landscaping Field Trips
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... | |||
| How We Work Matters: Four Keys to Growing Through Referrals | 03 Dec 2025 | 00:17:32 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Timestamps 00:57 - Site One Early Order Program Resources: Grunder Landscaping Field Trips 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... | |||
| Gene Freeman & Chris Strempek: 34-Year Partnership, Scaling Complete Landsculpture & Hosting Grow 2026 | 26 Nov 2025 | 00:59:36 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel!
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: Grunder Landscaping Field Trips
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... | |||
| The Landscape Pros Playbook: Your Year-Round Guide to Training, Pay, and Growth | 19 Nov 2025 | 00:15:59 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Chapters:
Resources: Grunder Landscaping Field Trips
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 turnov... | |||
| Your Business Superpower: How to Find It, Leverage It, and Scale with It | 12 Nov 2025 | 00:21:30 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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: | |||
| Interview Series: Training Your Team for Success with Matt Crinklaw | 05 Nov 2025 | 00:44:50 | |
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 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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: Grunder Landscaping Field Trips
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.... | |||
| Interview Series: Barrett Chow on Taking Care of Your Team | 29 Oct 2025 | 00:44:50 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! 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: Grunder Landscaping Field Trips
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... | |||
| GROW Host Interview Series: The Early Days at Grunder Landscaping Co. with Marty Grunder and Emily Lindley | 25 Oct 2025 | 00:51:24 | |
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Episode Chapters: 00:30 - Introduction and Episode Overview
Resources: Grunder Landscaping Field Trips Key Learnings 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... | |||