[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Grow show brought to you by Mardi Grinder's Grow Group, where we specialize in helping landscaping companies to clarify their platform, grow their people, build their processes and realize profits. Everything we teach is grounded in real experience. Our team is actively involved in the day to day operations of Southwest Ohio's Grunder Landscaping Company.
New episodes are released weekly on Wednesdays. Remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Now here's your host, Marty Grunder.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever the case may be. This is Marty Grunder from Grunder Landscaping Co. And the Grow Group. Thanks for downloading the Grow Show. Today. I'm going to talk to you about what you should be thinking about this spring. But first, a reminder. You can get the latest edition of the Grow show delivered to your phone, tablet or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts or Watch us on YouTube for an enhanced learning experience.
The Grow show is the greatest thing since GROW 2026 in Dallas, Texas that we just completed on February 12th. It was incredible if I do say so myself. Gene Freeman and Chris Stremptek, the owners of Complete Landsculpture, they blew us out of the water with their sharing. We all learned so much from them and the 50 breakout sessions that Vince and Emily from my team organized. The keynotes we had, not to mention the words of wisdom from my pal Chad Hymas. We are still floating on air here at the Grow Group with what we did, but we are equally as excited for grow 2027. Holy smokes. 2027. That's hard to imagine, but we're really excited. Mark your calendars for February 16th, 17th and 18th. Pull your calendar out right now. Pause the show. Pull it out, put it down. You know you want to be there. We're going to be in the beautiful, quaint town of Savannah, Georgia. They have a beautiful newly renovated and added on to convention center. I've spoken there many times through the years. Not been at the brand new version here. Can't wait to go. It's just a cool town. We're going to tour Robin Jesse Shreve's Coastal Shores Landscaping. Incredible success story that everyone can relate to. I can't wait. February 16th, 17th and 18th, Savannah, Georgia. Put it on your calendar now. Get your team down there. Talk to your team about being there. It's going to be great. And now onto this week's edition of the Grow show. So spring 2026. Spring is one of the most exciting seasons in our industry, folks, but it's Also one of the most dangerous times, because spring doesn't forgive, it doesn't slow down, and it doesn't wait for you to feel ready. Today, I want to talk about what owners and leaders should be thinking about right now and as we head into the busy season.
Not how to do everything, not a checklist, but where your head needs to be as a leader. Okay? Kind of like the psychology of this.
So, number one, spring is not a surprise.
It's not a surprise, folks. You got to get that through your head. Here's the first thing to remember. Spring happens every year. This really should not have snuck up on you, okay? And yet every spring, sadly, I see owners act shocked. They act shocked, like winter just snuck out the back door and spring just appeared on them in the parking lot, like, voila. Spring doesn't create problems, folks. It reveals them. It shows your poor planning. Anything you didn't decide earlier, spring will decide for you. Anything you avoided. Addressing a conflict, you kick the can down the road. Whatever it is, spring's going to expose it.
Please understand, strong companies, no matter what size they are, don't enter spring hoping everything goes well. Hope is not a strategy. They enter into spring decided. Okay, so let's get that out of the way. Number two, you've planned. The smart ones here have planned. The other ones have had an epiphany, and you're going to plan for next year, and you're going to make the best of what you've got right now. But you've done your plan. Now is the time to execute. And this part's really important, folks.
By now, you've done the work. You've put things in place. You've got your equipment together, You've got a budget. You got your sales, you got your schedule. You got a rally cry. You've laid things out for the year. It's time to execute. It's time to get to work, to go sell work and to do work. And let me be very clear about what. It's not a season to be doing. It's not the season to demo new equipment. What are you doing, Tom? We're sitting on go here. We're not demoing new equipment that was to be done in the winter or last fall. We're not doing strategic planning. In fact, there'll be an upcoming episode here. When we talk about that. To be honest with you, it drives me nuts when I see all these landscape professionals posting on their LinkedIn page in January that they're doing their strategic planning. I hope it's strategic planning for 2027 and not 2026. You should be doing your planning in 2026, like in July.
All planning is good. The farther lead time we have, the longer the Runway we have, the greater the chances for success.
So now is not the time to do a strategic plan. It's not the time to demo new equipment. It's not time to let someone take you out to lunch, that once you sell you something, time to take it easy, roll out new ideas or change direction again.
We decided what we were going to do several months ago. So spring again is about selling work and getting work done and. And that's it. Focus is the word right now. That's our theme for the year. We're going to put our banner up on the screen right now. That's the theme. If you try to layer in new initiatives right now, new systems onboard, your new software right now, new experiments during the peak season, you don't look innovative, folks. You look distracting. You look like a squirrel. You look like a person that's fighting a fire. You want to be in the fire prevention department, not the firefighting department.
All that fire prevention work you did at the end of last year, now is when we're going to take advantage of all that. Execution beats innovation in the spring. That's the theme of this episode of the Grow Show. Execution beats innovation in the spring.
Number three, people. As you personally go, so goes your team. I Learned that from Dr. John Maxwell. Vince Torchia, my awesome partner, says that all the time.
I even at times don't realize it myself. So it's a wake up call for me to be teaching this. But let's talk about you here today on the Grow show because you that's where leadership really shows up. There's an old saying that applies perfectly. I'm going to say it again, as we said a minute ago, as you go, so goes your team. If you're upbeat, if you're calm, if you're focused, you, your team feels it. If you're stressed, irritated, grumpy or short tempered, expect the same in return, folks. As you go, so goes the team. If you walk around with a scowl on your face, don't be surprised if morale drops. You look unapproachable, put a smile on your face. Be approachable. This is game time, folks. This is our super bowl that we talk about.
This isn't complicated. Your team mirrors you and your leadership team. And if your team only sees you when something's wrong, they'll start assuming something's always wrong. Spring leadership is about presence, not perfection. I'll show you right now the little nail apron that I wear. And I pass out candy in the morning and I talk to people, only positive things. And I'm out there and I'm present.
That's important to be present.
Number four, process.
Don't rely on heroics, okay? Spring exposes fragile systems. If your business relies on a few heroes that are constantly pulling you out of situations, that's not good. If your business relies on tribal knowledge where we just kind of understand this thing. Or then there's the constant be all, end all statement. We'll just figure it out. There is a lot of figuring out that goes on in this business, folks. It happens. It's called spring. You got to flex acute. As our president Seth Flum says, there is a lot of that. You're vulnerable, but you got to try to limit that. Heroics, they feel good in the moment, but they're not scalable. All right? If you have a hero on your team that's not scalable, that hero can't be everywhere at all times to save you, okay? They're not Superman.
Strong companies go into Spring with simple, repeatable processes, even if they're not perfect.
And remember this one, folks. If your best people have to save the day every day, they're not heroes, they're hostages.
Spring doesn't reward complexity, it rewards clarity. Let me say that again. Spring doesn't reward complexity, it rewards clarity.
Number five, clients. Expectations before execution.
Many Spring problems aren't service problems, they're expectation problems. Spring is the time to remind clients how your company communicates, what response times look like, how weather impacts schedules.
Silence creates assumptions, folks. Get those expectations. Clear assumptions create frustration where somebody doesn't really know what's going on. They assume. And you know what happens when you assume. And it turns out clients don't expect perfection, okay? They just don't like surprises. If you think about that with the companies that you do business with, as a contractor yourself, don't you understand that? You just don't want to be surprised, right? You don't want to wait around all morning for a contractor to have them call you at noon and say, hey, Bob's sick. I'm sorry, we're not going to be there. You knew he was sick at 7 in the morning. You could have gone into work. Why didn't they call then?
All right, you understand people get sick. You understand things happen, but you don't like surprises, all right? So don't be someone that does to others what you don't want done to you.
Number six, owner energy.
And this one might be the most important part of this whole thing. And in some ways, if you're listening carefully to me here today on the grow show, you might say, well, Marty, you're contradicting yourself here with what you're saying.
But I want to talk about your energy, your mindset, your health, your stamina.
Let me hit on something that often gets overlooked. Spring is when owners literally burn themselves out and this is unnecessary. This is the season where you need to be intentional about your sleep. You have got to be getting at least seven hours of sleep now. Ten? I don't think so. And one of the cool things about getting old folks that all you can look forward to is you need less sleep. I get about six and a half to seven and a half hours of sleep a night and I sleep well.
It's time to sleep well. You are stressing your body out with what you're doing here. Until July 4th. Let's get plenty of sleep. Let's eat right. Okay, I'll attach something here in the show notes. I work with a great coach. It's helped me here. Let's talk about eating right, all right? Let's stay away from McDonald's and chick fil a. All right? Let's eat lean proteins. Let's have some salads. Let's have some cut up vegetables with some Greek yogurt and ranch seasoning you can pour in it. That's a really good snack. I eat the heck out of those. Okay? Protein shakes, Good, healthy snacks. Eat right, fuel your body for what you're doing and then finally, exercise. Yes, exercise. It's not optional right now, folks. It's a stress reliever. Now here's the thing. When I'm talking about exercise, it doesn't have to be a two hour workout that people like Joe Cellini do. My buddy down in Tampa, Florida, that's built like a brick, brick house and has the muscles to show it. You don't need to do that.
A brisk 30 minute walk every day will help you clear your head and regulate your stress.
Doing some squats in your office, stretching, moving. Movement begets movement, folks. Don't be sedentary. Walk job sites, go for lunch on a walk sometimes it's crazy. I eat a sandwich while I'm walking. Okay, so I kill two birds with one stone. But I move and and stop living on the junk food and the gas station lunches. There's a whole lot of viruses that are bred in gas stations. Anyway, that's my Paranoia. Don't go there. Make your lunch. Make better choices. And here's a challenge for you. See if maybe you can lose weight during the busiest part of the season. Not put it on, okay? Because I'm telling you, your energy matters, your mindset matters, being positive, your health matters. Because again, as you go, so goes your team. Take what you are about to do here, serious, folks, and put yourself in every way possible. Set yourself up for success.
As I close out, I want to talk about our peer groups and why they matter. You know, we just talked a lot about what you should be thinking about in the spring. And one of the biggest differences I see between owners who handle spring well and those who feel completely overwhelmed is whether or not they're trying to do it alone. Spring is not the season to isolate yourself. It's the season to sharpen your thinking. And that's exactly why we built ACE peer groups. ACE Accountability Creates Excellence. That's what that stands for. Started 24 years ago, they are designed specifically for landscape business owners and senior leaders who want better clarity, better decisions, and better results without burning themselves or their teams out. This isn't a networking group. This isn't a group where we go and goof off. It's not a coaching program where someone tells you what to do. ACE is a facilitated peer group that we work on with our strategic partners from McFarland Stanford. We have close to 250 companies in the. In these peer groups now, folks, you get to sit at the table with other serious owners led by an experienced facilitator that knows exactly what you're up against, working on the real issues you're facing in your business. And this is also why we host the ACE Discovery meeting. It's in New Orleans. There's a link attached here where you can look at it. These meetings give you a chance to understand how ACE peer groups actually work. There's no PDF or video or even a call for that matter, that we found that we can completely explain to you the power of these peer groups. So we take you through a real live meeting and. And at the end, you can decide whether or not you want to join or not. All right? You can experience the quality of the discussion and facilitation, and you can decide if this accountability and structure, this pushing, is right for you. We have an ACE Discovery meeting coming up this March in New Orleans. March is early enough to influence your season, but close enough that the pressure is real. If you wait until summer, ladies and gentlemen, you're reacting. If you wait until fall, you're reflecting. March is when strong leaders prepare. If you're serious about growing as a leader and not carrying everything alone this season, I strongly encourage you to learn
[email protected] Ace discovery or just Google Marty Grunder Grow Ace Discovery. It'll all come up right there. You can see the dates, you can make your travel arrangements. New Orleans is an awesome town.
Our partner, Jim Callai is from New Orleans. We do a great job with this meeting. It's fun, it's energizing, and maybe for the first time in your life, you can come into a situation where you don't feel alone. Spring rewards preparation, ladies and gentlemen, and the best leaders don't prepare alone. Okay, that's going to do it for this week's edition of the Grow Show. If you haven't done so already, subscribe to the Grow show and if you can give it a rating or share a comment that helps more success minded landscape professionals find us. And if you really want to help us, take out your phone right now and forward this episode on to someone at your team or another landscape pro. You know that helps more success minded landscape pros find us. Thanks for joining us on the Grow show this week. We'll talk to you next week.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Grow Show. Remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode and visit growgroupinc.com for more resources to help your landscaping company succeed. We'll talk to you next week.
