Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Grow Show Powered by Steel. The Grow show is brought to you by Marty Grinder's Grow Group, where we specialize in teaching landscaping companies how 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 of the Grow show are released weekly on Wednesdays. Remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Now, here's your host, Marty Grunder.
[00:00:30] 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 with another great episode of the Grow Show Powered by Steel. This week we're going to talk to our recent Grow host, Jason Cromley from Hidden Creek in Columbus, Ohio. Jason, give us a wave.
We're going to get an update from Jason. A lot of you have asked, so this is going to be a lot of fun. 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 random acts of kindness. The other day I was in the Starbucks drive through getting a green tea. It did have caffeine in it, I will confess.
And the car in front of me when I got to the window had paid for my green tea.
At first, thinking, I thought, oh, I must know them. I did not. I had no idea who they were. They just did that to be nice.
So later on in the day, when I picked up my healthy as I could order dinner from the Thai restaurant up the end of the street from our house, I gave the employee a hefty tip that amounted to more than the meal. Now relax, folks. It wasn't a ton of money because I was eating by myself. My wife Lisa had grandma duties with our granddaughter. All right, but the smile. The young lady that works the credit card reader at the restaurant, that made it worth it. Folks, I left feeling like I did a small deed that made someone else smile. And you know what? I realize it sounds stupid, Jason, but it's maybe rather obvious when you make someone else smile, you smile. And what I did, that was a little random act of kindness. What could you do? Is there someone on your team you could bring a cookie in for? Is there a neighbor that could use a hand? What random act of kindness could you do? Give it a thought. I think you'll feel Better if you do it. Now on to this week's edition of the Grow Show. Jason Cromley, how the heck are you, buddy?
[00:02:27] Speaker C: Man, I'm doing great, believe it or not. It's spring, it's May, it's crazy, and I'm loving it.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: All right. Yeah, you. I could see that in you. I've gotten to know you really well, so when you tell me that, I know what Jason's thinking, actually. So you hosted Grow up there in glorious Columbus, where my daughter and son in law live.
It was tremendous, buddy. You and your team knocked it out of the park.
As you know, we joke. I comment that Grow is like having a thousand people, in this case, almost 1100 rifle through your underwear drawers. It's been 90 days since you hosted GROW.
What were your biggest takeaways from Grow? I'd be interested in knowing that.
[00:03:06] Speaker C: Gosh, there's so many. And I know it's a short show, so I'll try to go quick.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: That's okay. You can take your time.
[00:03:11] Speaker C: A big thank you to obviously you and Vince and Emily for making it a fantastic event. A couple takeaways real quick is how organized you guys were bringing to it. It wasn't a ton of work on us unless we wanted it to be. You know, I did have to do a couple remodels and, you know, add a bathroom stuff that I wanted to do. But outside of that, everything that really happened with Grow was being handled by your team and made it really pretty smooth for us, from the PowerPoint presentations to the TV to the audio. Man, you guys did great.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Emily and Emily and Vince are total rock stars. I appreciate you throwing my name in there, but that's. That's probably not fair because I didn't do a whole lot of that.
[00:03:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I think you've hired very well.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Well, I have done that and I stay out of their way. I've learned that because as much as I'd like to help and want to know every detail, it's kind of same thing you and I have talked about. About scaling the business.
[00:04:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: When you do that, it bogs it down and you're.
You're unknowingly undermining them because when you're saying things, you're just constantly doubting them. And I. And I've learned to realize, like, they got it.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: They do. They do.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: If you were still involved, it'd probably be about 300 people, right?
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Maybe 200. Maybe 200. And we'd be at the Hampton Inn.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But some of the funny things, you know, we asked our team, like, you know, why are we doing this? And they're like. I said, do you guys even know why we're doing this? And they're like, you know, no, we don't know. I said, so it's two things for us. And you just talked about it, right? It's not a random act of kindness. It was very dedicated, deliberate act of kindness in the fact that we want to help as many people in our industry get better at business.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: You did that.
[00:04:52] Speaker C: So I'm. I'm a big, you know, give back if I can. And I want to do that because I've been to other grow events where I learned things, met new people, had a fantastic experience. You know, once you go to your first grow, you're like, I got to keep going.
Because even though a lot of times it's same industry, every company does it different, every region a little bit different. So the team is like, so we did it just to help other people, help competitors, help the industry. I said, yes.
And one other little thing, we did it for guys. I like to show off a little bit. And what I like to show off is how good you guys are. I said, I'm showing off the team that is here representing us, right? I'm showing off our facility, that good marketing put together. I'm showing off that if you do a good job, work really hard, stay dedicated and help other people, you can have an amazing facility and company like. Like I think we have. So that was. That was the biggest takeaway for me, was how proud our team was to actually be a part of that experience.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: I get that. The last time we did grow at grunder, we had 300 people here, so yours was three and a half times the size, but the same thing it was. You know, you can tell your team they're doing a great job, but this grow kind of takes it to a whole different level, because you clearly saw from the feedback, the questions, the excitement. I mean, I. You know, we had another great industry influencer. Brian Fullerton was there. He was shooting a video. I watched his video of it. I was like, oh, my gosh. I mean, I saw things on the video I didn't realize were going on. Just people talking, the smiles on people's faces, the interest in the equipment, the trucks, the processes, your HR team. I was really impressed with them. I picked some things up. You know, I had, like, seven pages of notes in my onenote of things that I saw those that, you know, I went. I did a full tour as you saw. And I was taking pictures and I came back with some ideas. I, I had a great time. I mean, I was. I was exhausted. And grow is pressure for me because the bigger it gets, it is exciting, Jason, but you can probably imagine, like, there's things that could go wrong. The escalators broke. I mean, that was. That was silly. And nobody complained about it. Now, we weren't the ones that broke the escalators, but it was still our. It was still our event and no one complained about it because I think they were so excited and so all the other things. So they had to take the stairs for the, you know, last day there for the breakout sessions.
Nobody even cared. I mean, it just kind of like my team and I were talking. Nobody even said anything about it. Like, they didn't even care. They were still smiling. Nobody. They didn't. They didn't look down on us because the escalators broke. I just think that spoke to the good attitudes that were there. And I think, quite frankly, people were so jazzed up after seeing what you did, because even though you're a $25 million year company and yes, you have a beautiful building and you have some rather involved processes, and there are some things there that a 25, only a 25 million dollar year company can do in terms of investment, but it was still very relatable. Jason, your people were relatable. They were. They were kind. They. They taught things at a level that everyone understood. It was great.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: And that means the world to us. You know, to have you say that you've been to a number of companies, right?
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:10] Speaker C: Sultan, you've taught. And just like you, we're still students trying to figure out, oh, yeah.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: And, well, and. And then Emily and I had an opportunity to come up a couple weeks ago, a couple weeks after grow, and we sat in on your monthly meeting, which was awesome. You're recognizing people and you gave Emily and I a chance to address your team and thank them again. It's just neat what you're doing. Jason and I know, you know, we've talked. I. I think when someone asked me, you know, what was the biggest thing I learned about Jason?
You're a good guy and you're honest and you're very open. You talked about the things that you did well, but you constantly were talking about the things that, you know, you needed to work on. And, And I think that's where you get respect. You know, it's owners that want to portray that everything's perfect. And Jason, you and I, I'M a little older than you, but you and I have learned, like, that's just not the case. I mean, and we know, like, I'm not in a peer group, but I'm part of a lot of them with what we're doing. You're in a peer group. If you went to those men and women that are in your peer group and spouted off how great you are and didn't talk about any of your struggles with. I think, for example, Gene Freeman that we're going to go see next February in Dallas, he'd probably sit on you.
[00:09:19] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Headlock, for sure.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Right.
[00:09:23] Speaker C: You know, and.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: All right, so. So that.
[00:09:25] Speaker C: That part is great. And it was. I mean, again, just to have you guys come here, be a part of it, the whole experience was phenomenal.
February, we got really lucky with the weather. So I will say, you know, the right things came in place for that. Yes, Very good.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: All right, let's dig into some stuff, because again, we've had numerous things, and the reason we're doing this was we had a request. Hey, how's Jason doing? And Vince is like, hey, go, go. Bring them on and get an update. I'm like, oh, why didn't we ever do this before? So that's why we have you again.
How are sales? What are you seeing out there? Are you on track with your goals?
[00:10:00] Speaker C: I mean, I'll be honest, I'm so glad this call was this week and not four weeks ago.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:06] Speaker C: I'll be honest. So, you know, growth. I'll just give you a quick little recap here if I can, you know, grow finishes. We're on a high, right? Everything is great. Everyone's fired up, ready to run through a brick wall. But the sales just weren't there yet. You know, a lot of talking, a lot of interest. You know, it's end of February. The weather hasn't really broke a kind of.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: The weather was really bad in Ohio. I mean, it's still not that great.
[00:10:30] Speaker C: I mean, today's beautiful, of course. Right?
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Yes. But that's. I mean, there's been like three days like this, and it's maybe.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Yeah, right. So we're behind. So, you know, it wasn't kicking off like we wanted. I had just hired my director of revenue. At the time, he was still part time during grow, so I think that was like his fourth day here, believe it or not, for grow. And so it was a little bit scary. And then, you know, we started to see the pipeline fill up in March, and it was. It Was filling up pretty nicely and we were getting great feedback and we were selling design fees and you could tell there was a little bit of excitement. Right, right. And then all of a sudden, as we got to April, it's like, man, now we're closing and now we're closing half million million dollars, you know, a month on design build. All the renewals that were waiting, waiting came through. We did miss out on quite a few renewals that we were expecting to get on the residential side, but then we picked up a lot of commercial we weren't expecting to get. That opened up new opportunities.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:30] Speaker C: So we've been kind of building on momentum that, you know, here we are now. We just ran the numbers. We've sold about 65% of goal this year. And again, I was like being honest with everybody, goal this year is 27 million.
We did only do 21 million last year, so our goal was 25. We turned in 21. So we set our sights on 27 million this year, which is a growth of $6 million. So almost 30% growth.
But the key factor in that, Marty, is we're not adding anybody to do it. So our staff is predicted to be the same. So that's an additional 6 million with the same people because of how inefficient we were the year before.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: And you're at 65% of goal. That's pretty good.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: 65% of goal. And with our pipeline, if we maintain the 60% closure rate we have on average, we only need a million more dollars to hop into pipeline and we can hit goal.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go.
[00:12:22] Speaker C: We, we've got everything lined up to say we're at the success level that we want.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: I like the way you're doing that. You and I both learned math doesn't lie. You start looking at that, the probabilities, all that stuff, it all goes back from there. You know, if you know what your closing rate, you know how much you got a bid, you know how many proposals you need to get. I mean, there's just a whole lot of law averages that can go, yeah.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: We, and we're really trying to use the numbers more often. Right. Trying to use our CRM software. Our director of revenue is big on this. Our controller, you know, guys, quit talking emotion. Nothing worse than asking a salesperson, well, how do you feel about your pipeline? You're going to have a four hour dissertation.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: Every single, they're, every single one's closable.
[00:13:03] Speaker C: Where it's like, what's your pipeline? What was last month's Closure. That's a great.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: That's a great point.
[00:13:08] Speaker C: That. That's it. I just need those two things, right?
[00:13:10] Speaker B: No, that's true.
[00:13:11] Speaker C: And by the way, you and I could sell that story to any boss that would ever ask us how you feel right now. Like we're going to paint a beautiful picture, right? Because of the relationship sales that we do. And you know, and we know it's May, and we know that inherently you're going to have a better closure rate in May comparatively to what you're going to have in July. It just. That's. That's again, that's the numbers.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: So we're actually. Makes sense, right?
[00:13:35] Speaker C: We're measuring numbers now. So we're on a high because mother Nature gave us a high in the Midwest, right? Red buds bloomed, cherries bloomed, Everything's doing it well. As soon as school gets out in about three more weeks, then summer vacations begin, right? Then they start traveling. Then I already missed it. Summer's over. I'm never going to get my patio now. It's too late for the pool. So we really got to push hard in May.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: And I said, that makes sense.
[00:14:01] Speaker C: This is pedal to the metal the whole month. I don't care if we only need a million dollars more. I want 5 million more this month. Go, go, go. Do whatever it takes. And I did say to my team today, I said, guys, the field crew is pulling off almost 60, 70 hours right now. They have to. You can't just decide to leave at 4:30 because you need to be on that day. You have to keep mowing grass. No one says you can leave when you're not done. I tried to put back to the office, guys, you gotta understand, there's people in the field who are doing whatever we tell them to do, right? And in the office, I know that you got priorities and you got to do things, but remember, you're selling what you're requiring someone else to do for you.
So please just be respectful of what you see. And if you need to leave early, great. But hit a job site, grab some Gatorades, grab some water, drop them off some gift cards to McDonald's or Chipotle just to say thanks. I know you're doing everything you can to get my sales goal because that's it. We're in a really, really good place. If we hit our May goals will be the. It'll be the largest month we've ever invoiced in the history of the company.
Not just this May, all months. And then to be honest, we should do that again the next month. It should be our biggest month we've ever had next month. And then if our goal is to really try to maintain for the next six months, to get to that really happy place.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Yeah, Jason, it's awesome. Let's move on to operations.
How's operations going? How's hiring for production going? It's been a wet spring. How have you overcome that? What are you seeing out there with regards to operations?
[00:15:31] Speaker C: Well, right after. So just about three weeks ago, our operations manager on design build decided to take a job with another company. Not landscaping, not a competitor. Just left. Industry went someplace else. So you can imagine what that.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Yeah, that's tough. I'm sorry.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: Yeah. But our director of operations, Ken, who ran a station, has kind of hopped back into it. And as much as he hates it, he's great at it. So to be honest, he's like, right back into the mix and he's really kind of getting things lined back up again. And we've been starting to get a little bit more digital with our scheduling, using some Series 7 booking jobs out. Ryan Miller, who runs our maintenance operations. I mean, these guys are go getters. They trust their team. They hire. Well, we've actually let go quite a few people who were calling off normally. Sometimes you let those people slide through, right? You give them pass after pass after pass, and they're like, we're over it. And HR is doing phenomenal, as you guys said. And to date, we have had 1100 applicants already this year.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:16:32] Speaker C: We've only made 42 job offers.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:36] Speaker C: But we've got nine people starting on Monday, and that's from production managers to more sales staff to more field staff.
We've got three different interns from design to HR to operations, all coming in. Local students coming in to help as well, too. So hiring our. Our director today, Sumay said, she goes, you guys tell me the number you're going to get and I'll get you the people to hit it.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:17:02] Speaker C: Right? I love it.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:04] Speaker C: Oozes confidence. Like, she's like, I dare you to raise your goal.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Right?
[00:17:08] Speaker C: You're going to raise your goal. I'm going to get you your people. But she said, don't undersell me either. Don't make me bring people in and then let people go because we couldn't hit it.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: So, yeah, that would be tough. That would. Yeah, that would be frustrating. So the team overall is doing well. Nothing new to report there. I understand you lost your ops Manager, but classic Jason Cromley. And quite frankly, I'm going to lump myself and my team into that. I mean, we had a key person leave as well. I can't worry about it. I mean, I don't. I don't mean to be flippant. I'm sad they left, but I got to worry about who's here. I got to try to learn from that. Why'd they leave? Was it me? Was it them? What was the deal? And move on? I can't.
I just. I can't. I can't be there.
[00:17:48] Speaker C: It's.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: It'd be different if my wife left me. Okay. I don't want that to happen. Like, that would crush me. Something's really wrong. But just because one person left, the whole company doesn't stink. There's things happen to people. It's what happens. Always.
[00:18:01] Speaker C: I mean, we've lost three people from our office staff since. Since Grow.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:07] Speaker C: Distant controllers to operations, to sales staff. Like, we've lost them. I'm like. And we've.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:12] Speaker C: Rehire him. I mean, hate to say, it's man up. It's like losing a foreman who's been a driver for us that we've had for years, who also said he wanted to go do his own thing. Like, okay, it's been great, you know, so you can't hold back by that. You know, I. I guess I try to look at all these football teams and these college teams. They're lucky to keep kids for two years, and they don't.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: And I think. I think that's our age and our experience. It bothered me a lot more when I was young. I, I, I. You can't. It's. It's literally next man, next man or next woman up. Like, here we go. Let's go.
[00:18:44] Speaker C: I agree.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: All right, let's. Let's switch gears just a little bit. You had almost 1100 landscapers there.
We did a start, stop, keep. You had your. Your peer group. There was a great turnout there of Aces. So you have people that you have relationships with. You got Vince, you got, you know, your facilitators. What feedback really resonated with you? Was there anything that you put a focus on that the attendees of Grow made you aware of that, that, you know, you were like, oh, my gosh, didn't even realize that. Look at what we could do. What feedback resonated, Jason, you know, it's.
[00:19:17] Speaker C: Tough because you're meeting so many people. Right? And I'll be honest, like, one of the best. I always joke, you know, My love language is words of affirmation. So grow is like, yeah, the Almighty.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: I do. I remember walking into your station, and I don't think you saw me at first. And I think we were like, maybe. You ended up delivering that presentation 17 times.
[00:19:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Was it 17 or 18?
[00:19:41] Speaker C: Somewhere in there, I can't remember now.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: The same presentation. And I think I was like, number eight. And I remember I walked in. I know your.
[00:19:48] Speaker C: Your.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Your knee was bothering you, and you still were smiling, and you saw me about a quarter of the way through it, and you. You. You smiled and everything, but, man, you were.
[00:19:58] Speaker C: You were bringing it, and I loved.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: It because, again, I know it showed, man.
[00:20:02] Speaker C: Yeah. I got so much great feedback, and so many things were, like, so great to hear from people, but it was funny. I grabbed. And I know you know her. Robin Schmitz out of High Prairie.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: Robin's awesome. Awesome young lady. Kansas.
[00:20:16] Speaker C: Yeah, Kansas. Her and Brett. Yeah. And, you know, they're great people. She's like, hey, I'd love to talk to you about something. I'm like, yeah. She's like, I was on your website, and we're really doing some stuff, and I really think I can help you with your sales presentations in your sales process. And I'm like, thank you. Like, we need help, Robin. And we scheduled a phone call, like, while we're at grow for, like, literally, like, I think three, four weeks later.
Learned a ton. She walked me through a bunch of stuff. I guess that's really the beauty of it. I mean, that one experience. Here I am, I'm like, look at this. And, you know, she's like, I got some ideas for you to fix. And every single one of her ideas are things I'm working to implement, so. And I text with them and have fun with them, even on the side. So, yeah, it was.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Whether it was feedback on your selling process, was there anything else? I mean, even, like, smaller things or whatever was. What. What else did you learn from Grow?
[00:21:07] Speaker C: Well, you know, obviously, I'm up there on stage, and I get to talk about how My goal was $25 million. Right. And I only did $21 million.
And, you know, some of the things I learned from that was a lot of people were like, so, you know, they were trying to help me.
You know, they were coming up. Robin's coming up. Well, what's going on with your sales process? And guys who were, yeah, $3 million or $5 million are like, hey, have you thought about selling more Christmas lights? And, you know, guys are coming to me like, well, how much do you do in snow revenue? Like, everyone was trying to find a way for me to get my goal.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: And those are so good things that you thought about. But that's like, it's awesome when people do that. I, I, I don't know. It doesn't bother me. I like it like, you're trying to help me. It's cool.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: Yeah, it was the same. So I guess it was so funny. It was like people were all a sudden invested in Hidden Creek, getting the sales goal here, and it was like they wanted to help. And if, even if it was for a few seconds, they weren't asking for all their nuggets. It was like, I think you should try this and this and you should try this. And, you know, you and I, we've done everything. We think we've tried everything, and then.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: And we probably haven't, we kind of.
[00:22:08] Speaker C: Forget that just because you tried it at this size doesn't mean it works at the same size.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: That's a good thought.
[00:22:14] Speaker C: Be humble, be hungry, be smart.
So I would say, you know, you know, the sales part was probably the biggest operationally. Everyone's got an idea of how you should, you know, well, you should try your truck trailer this way and do this right. Yeah, I think it was just great. The amount of feedback that everyone is willing to share was so powerful for me and my team.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, one of the things I found, like, when we've had people come through here and we haven't had a group that large, but we've had hundreds of contractors come through grunder here. We have them for the field trips. In fact, we got six of them lined up. Folks go to the website growgroupinc.com Jason's been through it. I know we can help you come, come see me. But it's sort of cool when we have, we do our, you know, our little, it's like a mini grow here. Jason and I'll see other contractors challenge my team when they're up front presenting, like, why you do it that way. And I don't stay out there when they're doing all their presentations because I've learned that I make them so nervous. I just, I go. But sometimes I come up at the end when the questions are being asked and when you have to justify why you do something. And I hear, like, a couple times my people couldn't really justify in a real confident way why we did something. That kind of tells me, like, maybe I need to look at that process a little bit. So, you know, I think that's the good thing about having a discussion. Was there anything else? If people mentioned the trucks and stuff, was there anything else you got out that you want to share before we move on?
[00:23:38] Speaker C: You know, I think some of it was still definitely the sales. You know, my station was, you know, a little bit about EOs, a little bit about visionary, but the sales process, you know, a lot of people came back with some real good ideas there, because I think, yeah, a lot of people have the same problem I did. People just didn't hit goals last year, and obviously, plenty of people did. Tons of success, but a lot of people miss goals. And I think a lot of people were coming saying, well, what's the special sauce? Or what's the magic bullet? I was like, guys, we forgot to get hungry. We got complacent.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: So, you know, nothing happens till someone sells something. And we. We just did a. Ask Marty anything, and we had some questions asked about, you know, my sales are off. What do you recommend? And, Jason, it's. I mean, we are doing. We're doing really well in sales. We are definitely having to work harder than we did three years ago. The leverage is not with the contractor. Like, we're having to go beat the bushes. But you know what? We're finding it. And what's so odd, Jason, I have a friend that has a house down in Florida. He can't find anybody to do his landscaping. And he said, you should come down here and start a company. And I said, yeah. I said, I've heard that a lot. I wouldn't mind doing that, but that'd be a distraction. He says, well, start a landscaping company. Be an electrician, a plumber, a pool builder, a pool service, a cleaning company. And he just started going on all these things. He even threw in dentists. He said, his dentist sucks down there. So I think there's still that stuff going on. And, man, we can't lose sight of the blocking and tackling that we need to do. When someone calls, you, call them back. Yeah, like, take care of the existing clients you have, so you're not losing one while gaining one. And there's no net progress.
So I just think there's so much. So much of that.
[00:25:22] Speaker C: Yeah. And, you know, that's some of the things that, you know, I. I still do a lot of podcasts and listen to a lot of different people, you know, you know, the people that I'm connected with, you know, and watching some of those, it really is funny. These clients just really want to trust somebody that's really key. And if you don't call them back, that's it.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: You're right.
[00:25:39] Speaker C: You're on your heels, and now you're giving away margin because they've got the upper hand. And by the way, they're looking for you to screw up. Some clients are. They want you to be successful and do a great job, but they're looking for leverage. Right. It's a weird world out there right now. So we've got to make sure that we don't give the clients the opportunity to find a flaw.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I think there's a lot of truth to that. I think the other thing is when you are.
You and I are a lot alike. That's probably why we get along. We're both a little bravado in us. We're very confident. If you go on, you know, Hidden Creek's website, you go on Grunger Landscaping's website. By the way, we have a brand new website. It's pretty cool. It doesn't come across as a company that's like, got hollow promises or little itty bitty promises. Like, it comes across like, we are good. We think we're good. We think you'll think we're good too. So when you do that, you are opening yourself up to a level of scrutiny that's just kind of what comes along with the territory for sure.
[00:26:35] Speaker C: And, you know, we. We make big promises because we should be able to back them up.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:40] Speaker C: You know, it doesn't matter if the job's 5,000 or, you know, half a million. A promise is still a promise. Yep.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: So I love that.
[00:26:47] Speaker C: It's. It's what we're working on right now.
And again, we said, you know what, guys? What if your HR team said, well, I can't promise payroll is going to get done. How would you feel?
Yeah, well, I mean, they have done. I have to get paid. I'm like, exactly. Their promises. They'll get payroll done for you. Your promise should be, I'll sell this so that we can afford payroll. Yeah.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: And I think that's a smart way. Way your way. You're saying that is that us not doing something for a client is like us not coming through with payroll for our team. Like, you gotta. You got to take it that serious. Like, that's. That's what it is. It's payroll. You're right.
[00:27:20] Speaker C: Yeah, let's.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: Let's shift gears a little bit. Your energy level is never ending. You know that. And I'm the same way. Our strengths are also our weaknesses. When we Learn how to purpose our energy properly. There's great things that can happen when we don't. We can cause issues.
So with that said, you know, you said you're listening to a bunch of podcasts. I know you're a very driven guy. Your business means a lot to you. Your family means a lot to you.
What is Jason Cromley personally focused on right now?
[00:27:49] Speaker C: Oh, boy. You know, that's a great question, and I'm really glad you asked me, of course, because it also makes me think, because there's so many things for me to focus in on.
I got a daughter who's graduating high school in nine days.
[00:28:04] Speaker B: Congratulations.
[00:28:05] Speaker C: My son's coming home from college tomorrow, finishing off his semester, Right. For his junior year. And it's Mother's Day this weekend and I gotta get a graduation party. To be honest, when you ask me that, those things are popping into my head. Yeah.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: And that's fine. That's good.
That's your family, right?
[00:28:21] Speaker C: It's my family. Because guess what? It's May. I can't change May. But my daughter's never going to graduate high school again. Right. It's a Mother's Day for my wife celebrating, you know, again, everything that she's accomplished in a tough year on some things. So my focus right now is them. Work is going to be work. But I really am trying to focus in on them right now and everything we got going on.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: I love it. Jason, what else? If we were to talk to you December 31st, if you and I were to have a beer, what would you like to be able to say? You did I hear the personal stuff. What about with the business? Like hit the 27 million in sales? Is there something else you're working on? Is there anything that we could maybe learn from what you're focused on the business. I'm talking you personally.
[00:29:05] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, Me personally. So with the business. Some things that would make me relax and not be the Jason and the Marty that you and I are, right, Is if I had right person, right seat.
You know, nothing better than looking at your team and you're like, God, everyone's doing their job. They're in the right role. And you can see them.
Right, right person, right seat. And then also something we use called gwc. Do they got to get it, want it? They have capacity to do it.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: And I would want to say that all my people aren't at capacity. I would love to look at my team and say, you ready for more? So that they would have this drive and that they would all have numbers or scorecards that they could be self managing.
[00:29:46] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:47] Speaker C: There's nothing worse than when you and I have to go someone and say, it looks like you need some help. And they look at you like, no, no, I'm good. I'm like, but you're not good. Your numbers aren't good. You're not doing what you should be doing. And you have to tell somebody that they're not doing their job well.
What's better than a person who says, I'm not doing my job well? Marty, I need some help down here. And that would be really success. The 27 million, we can push, we can grind, we can burn through people. We can get to $27 million. But, and I said this on stage, I'm already excited for 2026.
Like, I'm already looking to next year.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: And you have to be thinking about that now. You can't. That's, that's the role of a CEO, is to be looking into the future. If someone is not looking into the future, that's a problem.
Should be handling next week, next month, right now. But you should be talking about six months from now, a year from now, five years from now.
[00:30:40] Speaker C: Yeah. So if I got the right people, we're all in the right seat doing the right thing. And if I have my marketing the way I want it to be, that means next year's growth is predictable. I can put it into a forecast. I can already know next year's budget. I can already plan for next year's sales overhead. That December 31st, I should already be saying, guess where I'm going to be in 2027.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: I love it. Jason.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Always looking for that.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: I wanted to share what some of my takeaways were from Grow. Would you indulge me? Allow me to do that, please.
So I was thinking about this and I've had a lot of time to think about this. First of all, your openness, it was amazing. Figured that's what would happen. But I just didn't feel. I felt you were very open about everything. I heard a couple people ask you some tough questions. You didn't sugarcoat them. You said a few times that you were tough to work with. I mean, I just thought your openness was very refreshing. That's probably why you had so many people wanting to help you. So that was one takeaway. The way that you shared and what you did and all that, how you made people feel comfortable and, you know, as a little side. And it's your personality. I've seen this in you, like, everybody meant something to you. You weren't just looking for the big guys in the room. You were talking to everybody.
Your energy was amazing. I know your knee was killing you. I know it was.
And the energy that you had in there, doing that presentation at least 17 times. It might have been 19, I don't know how many times you gave it, but it was the energy before the event and planning. It was the energy during the event, it was the energy afterwards. It's even the energy that you're bringing today. I think people that watch you can see why you're so successful. Creativity.
When I walked around your building, I saw a lot of things that I had seen at a lot of other places, but I saw more things at your building, if that makes sense. I saw where you've been a really good student of the peer groups. I saw where you've been a really good student of listening to podcasts and studying business. I saw where you've been a good student just of yourself, like. Well, listen, okay, I don't like the way that flows. I didn't like that truck set up, so we amended to this truck setup. I just saw a lot of creativity in really everything that you did, even on down to the green. From your green and our green and our logo that was on the pots out front with the words grow that spelled out, I could see why you do well on upscale residential landscapes. You have some panache to you, some fanfare, some salesmanship that kind of comes across in everything that you do.
The branding. The branding and the consistency of it from stem to stern. You go on the website, the fonts, the logo, the orientation, it's the same inside the office. It's the same in the printed proposals that I saw. It's the same on the signage that I saw. There was just a lot of consistency with the branding. But, Jason, when I think of you, the biggest thing that I took away from you was your flipping guts.
You got guts. Some people call them kahunas, some people call them something else that starts with a B. I want a clean podcast rating, so I'm not going to say it.
You got it, man. I left there inspired to, like, run up the mountain, too. I just thought the way you did things and your guts and your passion for your business, your passion for your family, your passion for your team, I've gotten to see in action now five or six times. I think I've been up there and I really admire. I really admire what you did. Thank you.
[00:34:08] Speaker C: Well, thank you. I mean, that obviously Means the world to me.
Guts, I've heard it called. Maybe ignorance, maybe, you know, I don't risk.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: I don't see. I don't see ignorance. You've always been open to feedback from me, and I know you've been open to feedback in your peer group. I don't. I don't see that. I think you got guts. I think you.
Maybe you could spend more time planning. But the problem is, you know, there's. There's a ready, aim, fire. And that works for business.
You just got to figure out how fast. Too many people, Jason. Go. Ready, ready, ready. Yeah, ready someday. Ready, ready, ready. And then you can get them into aim. You think you got them to move, and then they're like, aim, aim, aim, aim. I don't know. Ready, ready, ready, ready. I mean, to me, it's ready, aim, aim, fire.
[00:35:02] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Oh, crap. All right. Ready, aim, fire. There we go. That's a little better.
[00:35:06] Speaker C: It.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: One more time. Ready, aim, fire. Go.
It's. It's this in. In this. In the speed you. You crack a few eggs to make an omelette. In the speed of doing things, you make some mistakes, that's true.
But you can't be so premeditated in everything that you're doing that you don't make any progress. And. And, you know, procrastination, Jason, is the language of the poor, and you are not a procrastinator.
[00:35:29] Speaker C: No, there's really no time, to be honest. I'm. I. And I, we just had a town hall today, you know, and I told my team, I said, guys, like, for some of you are new in this room. You know, you're going to figure me out real quick because I don't really waste a lot of time filling the room with hot air. But I can tell you, I wake up excited every day because I woke up and, yeah, that's it. So I got his opportunity ahead of me, right? Nothing that's going to bring me down. And I expect the people that are around me to be the same, and I need to make quick decisions. And I've made a hundred great decisions, and I've made a hundred bad decisions. I don't regret the bads because I think I've learned from them. I haven't gone backwards, right? Still as happily married as I ever could be. I got great kids, got a great relationship with my business partner. I got a great team around me. So I've made enough good decisions where I am to support the fact that my ready, aim, fire has been working so far. And I'm hitting enough targets to take care of a 150 person team this year, and that makes me super proud. And, you know, this facility does. And, you know, everything that we've done, it's definitely taken some pretty big risks to get there. I'm learning to be more calculated. Maybe in a younger stage, I maybe didn't aim so much.
[00:36:42] Speaker B: And I see that in you. I do. I see that. I think I was too calculated. I think mix the two of us together, we'd probably make pretty good business partners.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: Well, it sounds like we're going to Florida to start something up, so.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I know. I. I probably. We probably should, Jason.
[00:36:58] Speaker C: So let's get a boat and we'll go up and down the coast. We'll just find people.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: That sounds good.
Well, I want to remind you and please share with your team. Hopefully they can watch this episode the impact that you've made.
Vince has reported to me that the impact you made on the aces that came to grow was amazing. He said there's so many of them that are robbing and duplicating your structure and some of the operational things you did in sales truck setups. Your facility. You know, not many of our aces have a facility like yours. There's. There's a lot of cool things a can of paint and some graphics will do to any building. You know, you can. You can look good. And so, you know, I. I want to thank you for all that. I want to thank you for everything that we've done. I'd like to come back and check in with you in a couple more months and see how you're doing towards 27 million. Will you let me do that?
[00:37:47] Speaker C: Absolutely. We'd love to keep sharing. And again, anything I can do to help the industry, I'm here to do. I think we have the best industry in the world because honestly, it's one of the most helpful that's out there, and we're making the world beautiful.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you've heard the same. In fact, I think we've talked about this. But I have been impressed by people that come to work in our industry, and they're surprised at how much sharing that goes on. Like they say it doesn't happen in their industry. And when I kind of hear that, I'm like, what do you like? What are you talking about?
I don't understand.
And I'm proud of that. Not only do we work in a very environmentally correct industry, I mean, landscaping, for goodness sakes, what could be better Also, just the sharing. I mean, you look at the community that we have in the Grow group and the sharing that goes on there, it's amazing. And you know, you put yourself out there. There were some companies from Columbus that came. I mean, you're kind of like, look, let's just. Rising tide raises all boats, man.
[00:38:41] Speaker C: Love it. That's truth. I don't like to use the word tide very much because of Alabama, but, you know, I hear you.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: You know, I don't either. As a, as a parent of a Auburn graduate, I don't either. So I won't. I'll have to figure out rising water raises all boats. We'll see.
[00:38:54] Speaker C: There you go. I love it.
[00:38:55] Speaker B: All right, Jason, I know you're incredibly busy. Thanks for carving out 39 minutes of your time, almost 40 to come on with us on the Grow Show. Thank you.
[00:39:04] Speaker C: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
[00:39:06] Speaker B: All right, folks, that's going to do it for this week's edition of the Grow Show Powered By Steel. 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 text this episode to a member of your team, a landscape pro, an entrepreneur, you know that'll help us. All right, thanks for joining us this week on the Grow Show Powered By Steel. We'll talk to you next week.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Grow Show. A special thanks to the folks at Steel whose support makes this podcast possible and whose outdoor power equipment makes our jobs easier every day. Remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And head to growgroupinc.com to learn more about our other offerings or to find more information to help your landscaping business. We'll talk to you next week.
