Gene Freeman & Chris Strempek: 34-Year Partnership, Scaling Complete Landsculpture & Hosting Grow 2026

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

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Episode Chapters:

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

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

05:58 - Roles and Responsibilities for Gene & Chris

06:55 - Business Development at Complete Landsculpture

07:52 - Company Structure and Services

08:55 - Unique Value Proposition & Customer Service

11:31 - The 5-10 Rule

13:55 - Growth and Challenges for 2025

19:06 - What to Expect at Grow 2026

25:26 - The Opportunity to Challenge Our Team

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

28:37 - Challenges in Staffing & Growth Opportunities

31:21 - Celebrating Team Success & Culture

34:47 - Time Management Tips

38:02 - Community Involvement and Giving Back

41:46 - Relationships Matter At All Levels

43:18 - Chris’ Leadership Style Over the Years

46:44 - Thoughts on Private Equity

52:11 - Advice to Younger Self

58:41 - Please Subscribe!

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

Key Learnings:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reflection Questions

1. If you looked at your financials right now, are you making more profit at your current revenue than you were at a lower number—or have costs risen faster than revenue without you noticing?
2. What percentage of your time is spent as a technician versus an entrepreneur or visionary—and what would it take to shift that balance by even 10% this quarter?
3. Who on your team has strengths in areas where you're weak, and are you getting out of their way enough to let them exceed what you could ever do in that role?