Leadership: How to Use the Holiday Week as a Quiet Advantage

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.

Dorothy Lane Market

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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:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp  

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips  

The Grow Group   

Grunder Landscaping   

Marty Grunder LinkedIn  

Stihl  

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:

1. One hour in the morning for yourself

2. One intentional family activity

3. One cleanup/reset task (amazing what you can get cleaned up in 30 minutes)

4. One written note about tomorrow's focus

Simple, powerful, repeatable.

Five Practical Areas to Focus On

1. Rest – Sleep a little more. Go to bed with a ritual. I use a natural sleep aid (not melatonin after reading a Wall Street Journal story about heart failure). Walk, read something uplifting (I like biographies, especially sports heroes), slow down, get steps in on my Garmin watch.

2. Gratitude – Practice some gratitude. Maybe a note or two to people who made my year possible: my spouse, my family, a key team member, maybe a vendor, maybe a client, maybe a mentor. People don't remember what you say, they remember how you make them feel.

3. Clean the Clutter – Your inbox, your garage, your truck, your office. What are all those things you can do to get more organized? I had a shelf next to my door that became a catchall. I put 30 minutes, cleaned up the shelf, threw stuff out, took stuff to Goodwill. My wife came home and said, oh my gosh, it looks so much better.

4. Set Your Q1 Goals – Not 10 goals or 20 goals. How about just three things you're gonna commit to improving.

5. Connect – I take someone I care about to breakfast or lunch. I send a message to my leadership team asking them what they want for the next year.

The Grow Show Christmas Week Challenge

The Challenge:

1. Pick one morning this week

2. Get out of your house

3. Bring your calendar or Aspire dashboard or LMN dashboard

4. Spend one hour reflecting, reviewing, and planning

5. Take a photo of yourself doing it

6. Post it on LinkedIn and tag Marty Grunder

7. Share one priority you're gonna tackle in 2026

Prize: One lucky participant will win a GTA 26 Cordless Pruner