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Building Trust and Excellence in Tree Care: A Conversation with Billy Davis
74 Plays1 year ago
Join us on this episode of The Better Contractor Podcast with hosts Brent Oberlink and Travis May for an enlightening conversation with Billy Davis, the owner of Arborscapes, a successful tree care company with over 20 years of dedication and excellence. Billy shares his inspiring passion of transforming perceptions of tree care work from temporary jobs to long-term professions, emphasizing the importance of integrity and ethical business practices.
With an impressive 80% customer retention rate, Billy reveals the secrets behind his success, focusing on honesty in sales and a steadfast commitment to doing what’s right. This episode is packed with valuable insights for anyone in the tree care industry or those looking to build a business founded on trust and strong customer relationships.
Tune in to discover how Billy’s unwavering dedication to integrity and excellence has distinguished his company in a competitive market. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from a true industry leader!
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Transcript
Introduction and Greetings
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of The Better Contractor. Today, we're joined by Billy Davis with Arbor Scapes. Billy, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you doing? Doing well, and also joined by my trusty sidekick, Travis, the quote master. What's up, man? Good to see you guys. Did you have three or four quotes memorized for today? I don't. They're they're in there somewhere, so we'll let them organically come out. um Definitely.
00:00:39
Speaker
It's funny how they stick with you.
Billy's Early Business Ventures
00:00:41
Speaker
I mean, yeah. Well, you read a lot too, don't you? Yeah. It's finding the appropriate ones that match against the topic. ah Sometimes it really comes out and then later, like, man, this would have been really good. But let's kind of bounce around in there. Nothing wrong with that. Um, so Billy, tell me a little bit about your story. So I was kind of reading the notes for the podcast and you've got, you started young, which is always kind of interesting to see these guys that started off like, but well, and yours is really young. So let's start there. Tell us a little bit about this. yeah I started a really, um, um, so I was in fifth grade, so you're like 10, 11 years old. And, um, long story short, you know, it was
00:01:30
Speaker
a friend of mine saying hey man let's go knock on the door see if people want us to cut the grass or rake the leaves or whatever and um so we did and we went to this house and I think the folks had just moved in and the leaves must have been six feet deep and you know knock on the door and they're like oh that'd be great you know how much and we're like Don't have a clue, you know? And they're like, all right, well, you know what, let us think about it. And how about we call your parents and talk with them about it? All right, great. Now I remember that night them calling and, you know, talking to my parents and they said they'd pay us $75, you know, $37.50 each, you know, and were my parents okay with
Business Growth and Mentorship
00:02:21
Speaker
that? And my parents thought about it.
00:02:23
Speaker
That's between you and him. I don't care, you know. So anyway, so I think it was like two and a half months later, we finally finished up. It wasn't really that long, but da it definitely took a lot. and um But had a check. I mean, I can still visually see that check. you know, for $37.50, man, and with my name on it. and um And I remember going to the bank and cashing with my dad. And, um you know, I was rich.
00:02:54
Speaker
the And $37.50, you know, 30 years ago, it was a lot more. But anyway, so I just kind of kept going around it the guy that I was doing it with, it I think he really thought he was rich and decided he was going to retire. oh At 10 years old? Give him credit, he was he was a year older than me. you know so um know But yeah, so it just kind of kept growing from there. And and um you know people were were hiring me to to
00:03:34
Speaker
take care of their lawn and everything, cut the grass, whatever. and um I had a riding lawn mower that I saved up and bought and that was my my truck. I had a little four by eight trailer from Doorland Hydraulics and I pulled behind and put my push bar, weed eater, leaf blowers in, whatever. um Then I ended up getting one of the commercial walk behinds. And then um somebody had asked if I'd cut some limbs off of a tree, and I'm like, sure, you know. So I snuck my dad's chainsaw and ladder out, and I go over there, and got knocked off the ladder. Good thing I'm small. My buddy Big Danny caught me, saved my life.
00:04:22
Speaker
um you know and I wasn't smart enough to stop then like oh man that didn't work out this seems like a challenge like you know nature against men um so anyways kept kept doing I was really really lucky um I was 13 years old met a guy that was working across the street from us uh for my neighbor taking out some trees on a Saturday morning I had a full time job at the power company and then he had a side business doing trees and um great guy and kind of, you know, showed me the equipment and stuff on the truck and everything. And, you know, spent some time with me and then, um I guess you could tell it, I was pretty engaged. And, you know, he said, hey, if your parents are cool with it, you can go with us the rest of the day.
00:05:18
Speaker
And ah so I run home and asked mom and dad, and they're like, yeah, it looks professional, uniforms, hard hats, safety gear.
Career Path Choices
00:05:28
Speaker
We're good with it. you know You're going to deal with it, so you may as well learn how to do it. And um so yeah, for the next whatever, well, I guess so I got my driver's license. So the next four years, he picked me up at 5 o'clock in the morning. and get home, made a glottal ganite or whatever it was. We worked some long days and had a lot of fun. But, I mean, he'd trust me and, you know, took his time with me, his patient and taught me.
00:06:03
Speaker
His focus really was just tree removal. He could care less about saving trees, still could care less about saving trees. um and Somewhere, I don't know where or why, but I was like, man, there's kind of more to this. and um dog you know I had the lawn care thing, and I was still doing the trees and everything. and um and Then when I was in high school, ah I guess it was my sophomore year um at the Tech Center they had a horticulture program so we went and visited and checked it out. I remember going home that night and saying to my parents like hey I want to go to this Tech Center for this this
00:06:48
Speaker
horticulture program there and um parents were not too in favor of it because that's that's not what you do, right? um Need to go to college. I've got no interest in college. I don't think any college is going to accept me with my grades um and this is what I'm going to do for a living. So why are we going to waste the money and time going to college? I guess I don't know how I ended up convinced him because I guarantee that was not the right argument. But so my junior year, I was at the tech center, senior year, I was at the tech center.
00:07:32
Speaker
And we took a field trip to Virginia Tech um with the FFA for a competition. and And my teacher introduced me to a program there. So the Ag Tech program is an a show associate's degree. um and And so I was kind of thinking like, man, I can I can make it two years and maybe bring my grades up a little bit and everything, and and but I could do two years. And um and so that's what I did. and ah When I was finishing up, and this was in 2002, when I was finishing up at Virginia Tech, I got an email.
00:08:21
Speaker
From one of these large companies more landscaping, but you know big commercial kind of company and they were always up there doing recruiting and and everything and I talked with them and everything and Always said, you know, I'm a tree guy oh But they called me said hey we actually have a position for you in Maryland, we do actually have a tree division there. All right, let me see what that's about. Went up there and long story short, I took the job and it was an absolute nightmare from the very first day to talk about this multi, multi, multi, multi-million dollar company, nationwide company,
00:09:12
Speaker
No safety equipment. um I mean, doing climbing trees the the way that it was done before my time even, and but I can tell you, like our guys now, they don't climb the way that I did when I started. It's advanced so much. um but Yeah, it was just, it was like, what what is going on here? Safety wasn't part of it. um So I didn't last there very long. they They realized that they could not change very quickly. um They weren't really interested in changing. And then I think I kind of had realized this, but there was a
00:10:00
Speaker
book I read several years ago, called Starting with Why by Simon Sinek. And that just tied it all together for me. And I'm like, yeah, their why is strictly about making money, period. And how they do it is through landscaping or tree care. um But they're why, why our purpose for being in business is to make money.
00:10:31
Speaker
um which did not align with mine at all.
Founding Arbor Scapes
00:10:37
Speaker
So I could take a different approach. And my why has always been more about helping people, um helping give the right advice and recommendations on how to care for their trees, not to be out there just selling them something, but to actually care about them and to build a relationship with them. um earn their trust and um you got a client for life and you do that and you do it right the money's going to be there it'll follow it yeah i mean don't misunderstand like i money is part of it for sure we got to be profitable i got to stay in business i got to put food on the table i got
00:11:27
Speaker
40 some families that are relying on me every day. um So there is a lot of pressure, a lot of responsibility there. um But you still do it ethically and and for the right reasons and it all works out. Is that something that your sales team is kind of geared towards now as helping instead of like a more aggressive sales approach that's more focused on helping and building that relationship? We are the absolute worst sales people by definition.
00:12:02
Speaker
um we
00:12:06
Speaker
We've been a long time since we've done it. We've hired like sales consultants before and I think they end up just like throwing in the flag and quitting, you know, literally. But, you know, we take those assessments and I think um first first time I took one of the the assessments and like I was the lowest scoring person that fit the mold of a salesperson, you know. And the I remember the consultant looking at and my numbers and
00:12:42
Speaker
everything is like, this just doesn't make sense. I think your approach doesn't make sense. Just be honest with somebody, tell them the truth. If they don't need it done, tell them they don't need it done. As soon as you tell them that, whatever you tell them that needs to be done, now they trust you. Do you know what your customer retention rate is by any chance? Company overall, Um, so about 80%, uh, a little, a little bit above, I'm trying to be more conservative within our, but 80% of our business is coming from referral and retained. That's awesome. That's, that's why is is that trust factor. Yep. it That just takes longer. So the the larger national company,
00:13:37
Speaker
It was maybe a short very short sided short term thinking they they were making money up front but they were sacrificing the long game and and they continually have to feed that pipeline in with short term money and sales in order to keep that game going. That's maybe low bid it comes in versus best value. ah get real flashy marketing and set and they just got to get that next fix, if you will. And they sacrificed the long-term game. And so yours, it definitely takes, it's a war of attrition.
Transition to Tree Care
00:14:13
Speaker
Build the reputation and reputation for honesty and doing things right and forcing the community, it takes time. So yeah, it's definitely the long game. When did you make the transition from kind of the sole proprietorship to Arbor's case? When was Arbor Scapes formed? Arbor Scapes was formed in August 2002.
00:14:40
Speaker
um I stayed in Maryland for, I think it was I think it was two months total. um And I'd already put in my resignation, but I did feel bad. At the same time, looking back, I don't know why I did. Just because I'd given on my word that I was in a I mean, I wanted it to work, um but, you know, giving them time to find a replacement. I had two crews that I was um responsible for, and um so, yeah. Do you still do any lawn care? Are you strictly tree now? Oh, yeah, I know. I don't even cut my own grass. I don't think. well alone I've cut an enough grass. Man, I absolutely love cutting grass, though, if I can do it when I want to do it and not because I have to do it. So, yeah. Now, we got out of, well, the lawn care, I guess in 2002, when I when i
00:15:54
Speaker
I moved back home from Maryland and started the county back up. um
00:16:03
Speaker
Back up one second, I guess, a little bit. and Before I left for college, I had a pretty decent sized lawn care well client base. and um And I had two friends that were look they were had kind of just started a lawn care business too. And so I said, look, here here's the deal. Y'all take care of these clients of mine while I'm gone. and And then help give you all something to a foundation to get started with. And then, you know, when I get back, you know, I'll take my clients clients back. and
00:16:47
Speaker
um
00:16:50
Speaker
I don't think there was many clients left and I wasn't interested in lawn care nearly as much until I started getting hungry and needed, you know, some money. And I was like, wow, better do whatever I can to make money right now. um And so I started doing the lawn care again a little bit, and then um Hurricane Isabel hit in 2003. There was no time for lawn care.
00:17:27
Speaker
so um So that ended again. ah And then we did, you know, initially initially my plan was to not be doing the arboriculture. It was to be doing the landscape design and installation like I enjoy. um I enjoy seeing the results. What I really did not like doing was taking a masterpiece of a design to somebody
00:18:03
Speaker
And they said they didn't like it. I didn't respond too well to that, um which is just me. oh And then, um you know, plants dying and you had to replace them. And I had like, you got to water these things. You know, like, why am I responsible for like, where did we start? guaranteeing the life of anything. It's just mind boggling to me, but they do it on goldfish and on plants. And so, yeah, 2005, we got out of the landscape side altogether and just focused on the arboriculture.
Talent Acquisition and Team Building
00:18:52
Speaker
Okay. In the show notes, you mentioned it's a tough industry industry to scale and to start. And you mentioned high overhead.
00:19:02
Speaker
and then tough to find the right talent. And the second one is one that I think almost everybody listening will resonate with. What are some things you've done to maybe, you've maybe done better than the competition here and there on finding the right talent and then retaining that talent? It is really tough starting out in this business, I think, um because you don't have as many of the options or the things that I think that we're doing now. um yeah like In other words, you you need people that already have the skill set.
00:19:37
Speaker
um so
00:19:42
Speaker
There's a lot of luck that goes into it. And I've certainly had my fair share of luck, both good and bad luck. um But, you know, you get lucky and you find the right person, a key person and, you know, don't take them for granted. And I was really, really fortunate With the guy that I went to high school with and was actually my roommate in college, Andy Mason, um who was working for another large ah international company up in the DC area.
00:20:25
Speaker
And I remember he called me one day and he said, hey, I'm going to move back to Richmond. And he was curious if you had an opportunity for me. And I said, yeah, what do you want to do? And he said, I'd like to do the planned health care. I said, well, we don't have planned health care going or anything. I don't know anything about it. But yeah, that could be kind of cool. We could start that up, see how it goes. But I'm scared. I don't have anybody that's like really dependent on me. You're talking about like a career, you know. And um so anyways, we worked it out and his first day here
00:21:11
Speaker
Um, we were on a, on a tree job and I was up in the tree pruning and he was like, Hey, if I come up there too, and he hadn't climbed and I was like, Well, this will be entertaining. You know, I didn't even figure he would get off the ground, but I'm set a rope for him and everything. And um like next thing I know he's up in the tree and not only up in the tree, he's like walked out on the limb and he's like right behind me. I'm like, who the heck are you, man? Like that.
00:21:46
Speaker
You can't do that your first time. oh So long story short, he was natural. And very, very quickly what I ended up turning into was um me being in his way. And to kind of let him do his thing. I would be out on the job until it was to a point where something he could handle or and back then had put food on the table too. So we did some sketchier jobs and I didn't want anybody doing anything that I wasn't willing to do myself. um So I would you know be the one that would
00:22:33
Speaker
do something at a higher risk or whatever, and then once it got to a point where, you know, he could take it where I was comfortable I'm taking it. He was probably comfortable taking it himself long before I was. um But I'd let him um take it from there and go and find work for tomorrow, you know, or so to speak. And I think Travis is what you were talking about earlier. So ah you know he came on to start plant health care and did not do that. He ended up becoming my first crew leader and running the tree crew. And then I guess it was close to five years of him doing that, something like that.
00:23:24
Speaker
four years. And um and he said, I think I want to do planned health care now, which we don't have planned health care. I'm like, okay. um But like, who's going to take your role as a crew leader and and in the climber? And, you know, so that was kind of, um, a challenge for a while that we went through. and But I didn't really necessarily think about it this way then, but the reality is you got he's no longer enjoying what he's doing, right? And he's looking for growth or or something different.
00:24:13
Speaker
I can either provide that opportunity at Arbor Skates, or I can say no. Your job is this. That's the role that you're in. And we don't have another position. And it'll probably save her a couple more months, maybe, if you're lucky, and then he's going to go find some of those, make him happy again. And so you're going to lose them out of that position either way. Um, so you got a great guy, a phenomenal person, somebody you want to be in the company, I can let them out of the company. We'll create a position for them. And, um, and so we did, and, uh, he did plan health care for a few years, did a phenomenal job getting that established. And he came to me one day and he said, you know,
00:25:09
Speaker
I think I want to go back to running a tree crew. And I said, well, we already got somebody as a crew leader.
00:25:16
Speaker
oh Who's going to do the plant health care? And and yeah so next thing you know, we have two tree crews. and you know um And then all the challenges come in when you're losing people and trying to keep everything moving. And you're like, I'm not. I never intended had a vision for any of this. I thought I was owner operator my whole rest of my life. That's what I thought this was going to be. So like a structure or a plan for how to do this and and I wasn't. It was just piecemeal.
00:25:55
Speaker
The law of diffusion innovation was the one to where he broke it up. And I don't think it's his, but he was, he's known for where you break out new ideas and changes and patterns into different segments of the, um, I actually marked the page, um, where it's, uh, innovators to the 2.5% early adopters is 13.5%. And then you got the early majority, late majority in laggards, which is the rest, but there's this kind of bell curve almost. Yeah. But it's that first innovators and and and early adopters that most ideas and changes, if it's going to get into the rest of it, there's a chasm that it has to to to cross after that that first two sections into the small percentage, like 15%. But there's a chasm that if it if it doesn't cross into the early majority,
00:26:52
Speaker
ideas or technologies or things fail but one of those big things is social proof in that did it catch on was it a good idea did it cross that chasm and and did it develop social proof and that other people were gravitating towards it and utilizing it and then it propagates throughout the the the marketplace and then that early majority catches on to it and it skyrockets into mass use and then the the late adopters and the laggards. The laggards are the ones that they just adopt a new idea or a new thing just because they have to, the the market went away. but that
00:27:31
Speaker
and And this industry is not immune to it. like how So with the evolution of your business into the lawn care and then the arbor and focus on arbor scapes as far as the arbor support and How does that change over the last like five years as far as technology is concerned? Well, it's definitely, definitely changed. And it's not all digital technology either. Like I would, um, or electronical or anything. like So I was saying earlier, you know, like that, that big company that, um, that I worked for for a brief time,
00:28:18
Speaker
Like the equipment that we had, the style of climbing, the way we climbed was like from the sixties, I guess. Um, but like the, our guys now would look at the way that I climb and be like, Oh my gosh, like what kind of system is that? And like, man, we don't have all day for you to get up into that tree. You know, they're at the top of the tree and like, minute literally, you know, and I'm like 45 minutes if I'm lucky, you know and um But the the techniques and the gear and everything has changed so much and So I would put that in the technology class But then also like
00:29:16
Speaker
What gave it that big kickstart? How did that, how did that take place and occur in half and happen? And, and that's the social media, I think that's the internet taken off. And, um, like on the tree care side, uh, which is when I say tree care, I'm really referring to like the gather out climbing trees. big trucks, equipment, chainsaws, you know what most people think of with ah with a tree company, I guess. um And so on on that side of our company, we had just over 20
00:30:01
Speaker
crew members and out of those 20, only one and i I'll say half, one and a half had prior industry experience. The other 19, 20 didn't. along And you, you know, ask them where How'd you find us? What piqued your interest? Whatever. I mean, the number of times that I've heard like, oh, I saw something on YouTube.
00:30:45
Speaker
like Oh, you know how when you're watching YouTube and you're looking up something on, I don't know, fishing and, you know, next thing you know it turns like camping and then it says you might be interested in this and then it turns into like this guy climbing a tree and cutting the top out of it and like, that's what happened to me. And you're like, whoa, all right. um
00:31:12
Speaker
It's pretty, pretty wild. I mean, we've got a lot of guys that have big college degrees, you know, English majors, philosophy, history, um fine arts. I'm trying to think of some of the other ones. Biology, but that one, you know, that one that one can apply. um geology
00:31:43
Speaker
geology is on fine art. after It's an interesting one. Is it fair to say that you've hired then based upon attributes and core values more so than skill and then taking those attributes and training them to do it how you want to have it done? You know, yeah like when you're when you're talking with them and and again, I'm like really well, I think it overlaps in this case, but um
00:32:12
Speaker
like It is two different people for our plant health care side versus the tree care side. They are, for the most part, two different people. They can certainly be some crossover, but um but for the the tree care side, the biggest thing passion. like And I don't even really care what it is that you have passion for. You need somebody who's got some passion. So many people that don't have passion about anything. I feel like they're just going to walk around both and open. But there's something that they're passionate about, and then there's something that they're really interested in and curious about with this opportunity.
Elevating the Tree Care Profession
00:33:02
Speaker
um
00:33:04
Speaker
You've got to enjoy teamwork and being part of a team, being part of something bigger than you because you can't do this by yourself. um And then hard work. You know, that sounds crazy to a lot of people, but you've got to really enjoy hard work in that sense of accomplishment. at the end of the day. um And that is a big, big thing for a lot of them is that sense of accomplishment. um And the that can be on so many different levels, whether it's we started with this tree and now this tree is in that truck.
00:33:56
Speaker
you know or you know whether it was pruning or whatever it was, um or just thinking about, man, I'm doing something that 99% of the people in this world can't do either physically or mentally. you know So how how are you finding that? So are you so passion, hard work, teamwork, sense of accomplishment? Are you identifying some of that in their resume or that's all coming out during interviews or how are you honing in? How are you finding those attributes with these candidates? That is everywhere.
00:34:42
Speaker
um
00:34:46
Speaker
You find it everywhere. We got our newest crew leader. um Our operations manager stopped at a Wawa gas station one day. And this kid's working to the counter of Wawa gas station. He had passion. He had energy, right? and The odds got his name is Billy too. and Billy said, well, I think, you know, however, they started talking about it and there was some interest there. Yeah, that was now he's a crew leader, running a crew, man, in these phenomenons. How would you say you get most of your candidates? Are you putting jobs out on a job board and sourcing resumes and bringing them in for interviews or
00:35:43
Speaker
Or are you watching and observing and then asking people to come aboard? Yeah. Like how, what's the ratio? You know, something we do definitely, we have some, you know, guys that are referring their friends or whatever, and they're coming on, but, um, like that has been super interesting and comical and in a lot of ways too. Like they don't want. to refer their friends because they don't trust that their friends can actually do it or do it right or you know live up to the values that we have and everything. But they all have buddies, man. like And they just don't want to take that risk of looking bad to the team. We're a pretty tight group.
00:36:42
Speaker
so So when you do get the referrals, it's essentially that somebody that's been vetted by the person who's gonna refer them is like, they're not gonna refer somebody who's not gonna deliver. So it ends up being- That's a good way to do it in a way. I mean, that the the thing is with with this job too, I mean, it's that way with a lot, but you know we go out as like three man crews. And so, you know, if the three of us are going out, or let's say let's say Travis, you and I are going out and you're like, hey, man, Brent wants to come and work, you know, and everything. And Brent, you come out on a job and you're lazy and slow, like, guess who's picking up the slack?
00:37:32
Speaker
That's you Travis, cause I'm up in the tree. excellent So you're not bringing Brent back, you know, or or bringing him in the first place. Um, but, uh, yeah, I think that's part of it too. Yeah. One thing I liked on the pre-show notes was you get a personal goal of turning the industry into more of a profession than just the tree care, like an industry thing.
Advice for Entrepreneurs
00:37:57
Speaker
What just elaborate a little bit on that for me. I like that mindset. Yeah. Cause I don't know if that means the same thing to anybody else. I know what it means to me. Um, but you know, the, the, the it's all, in this has always kind of been like the, the, um, rough crowd, right? You know, rednecks and chainsaws and they're,
00:38:28
Speaker
you know, ah criminal records, you know, drunks, druggies, whatever, like, if you can find one with a driver's license, man, you're doing good. um And yeah that's not a profession, right? And and so a profession, to me, being more aware, um you're
00:38:56
Speaker
You're valued, you're appreciated, you're respected. um your Your knowledge. People are trusting you. um They see the value and they want to work with you. um Confidence. ah You know, they're okay with their son or daughter going into the profession. i you Everybody, yeah like like I said, my my parents struggled a little bit with me going to the tech center. My grandfather had a really hard time with me saying this is what I was going to do for a living. A friend of mine's dad told me, probably 16, 17 years old, and he looked at me and he said, you'll never make a living cutting grass.
00:39:56
Speaker
Have you seen him since then? I ran into him probably two years ago at a wild, wild gas station. We have a lot of wild, wild, wild gas station. um I mean, I can remember it all right. And um and he he looked at me, he always called me John Boy. He said, John Boy. I knew exactly who it was when I heard that. And um and turn around, we were talking and and he said, You know, I got to tell you, I remember saying something to you and your reaction when I said it stuck with me.
00:40:38
Speaker
And I said, oh yeah, well what's that? And he he said just that. He said, I remember telling you that you would never make a living cutting grass. I told him, I said, I remember that very clearly as well. And he said, man, if I could take that back now. I said, well, no, you you're you were 100% right. I said, I don't make a living cutting grass. And I could not make a living cutting grass. I would not be able to do that. Um, but, uh, you know, that's the, that is fire for me. You turned it into a fire. Yeah. Instead of letting it beat you down, which yeah technically, yeah, you're you're not cutting grass now, but that, that little business led to what you're doing now, though. Yeah, absolutely. Now I can tell you my oldest daughter, she's the exact same way. You tell her she can't do something.
00:41:37
Speaker
You just pour gasoline on a fire. It's almost the best thing you could do for the person, really. Ah, but it's like the worst thing from if you're the parent. I had no idea like how much gasoline I dumped around and on that fire and it's not always good. yeah I should know how to do this, man. She's me. I should be able to relate. One question I did have, you know, talking about, like, just getting started in that conversation you had with that guy. But to the listeners, that's that guy now, that young guy. If you were to start over today, what advice would you have given yourself back then? Man, pick a different bit now. um
00:42:26
Speaker
You know, it's, uh,
00:42:33
Speaker
I think that the best opinion that I could give, and I don't want to say advice, the best opinion that I could give there would be to be clear on your why. um Be clear on your vision. Set a goal far bigger than what you think is even possible. um and make sure you are putting processes and structure in place from the very beginning.
00:43:16
Speaker
even though it doesn't seem like you need it, and you don't even understand why you would, and it's time-consuming. um But you I don't care. like You've got a process that you're doing no matter what. You've got a process every morning you wake up and get out of bed. You have a process that we do all the time. We may deviate, but there is a process. But document it. And I hate doing all that crap and I hate following processes. I'm a break process. That's what I like doing. um But, you know, it for years,
00:44:02
Speaker
you know, the majority of it is
00:44:07
Speaker
in my head. Well I think that's a lot of entrepreneurs it's just that because I look back at that's probably the answer I would have given maybe a couple other things added to it but that was one thing I didn't do at the beginning as well as I needed to was the processes because a lot of it is up here and as an entrepreneur you're just wanting to grow grow grow So a lot of it is up here, but if you can't put it on paper, you can't replicate it as easily. You know, once you start making those hires and you start adding your team, you got to have something that you can replicate. So I think, you know, it's funny that you say that cause that's one of the top three probably in my mind as, man, if I could talk to 22 year old Brent, that's probably something I would say, Hey, along with the grill, keep this in mind as well.
00:44:50
Speaker
and it will save you some headache in about 10 years, because that's what we end up dealing with about 10 years after we started with kind of correcting some of that stuff. So that's that's interesting to bring that one up. I would add to that and say to keep it simple. Yeah. That process, keep it simple. I think entrepreneurs, we have a tendency to oversimplify a lot of things. um When we're asking somebody to do something or when we think that we can do this, whatever, do thing, whatever it is, we oh, this won't take long, it'll be quick, it'll be easy, whatever, we could do that. um But then if we actually try to sit down and write out that process, and at least for me, I don't know if y'all have the same experience, but at least for me,
00:45:46
Speaker
Man, I'll start thinking about every single scenario that could come up in there and because I'm thinking that I'm gonna hand this off to somebody else. I'm documenting this to give it to somebody else. I don't want them to have to come to me and ask. So let me create this 20-page document on how to send an email and it just bogs you down. You never get it done. So you never get the process done. And even if you did, nobody's going to read it or follow it. So keep it super simple. Elon Musk, I don't know if you've, Travis, you may have read that book. I think it's called Elon Musk. When I listened to it on Audible, it was 20 hours long. I mean, it's like, but I couldn't stop listening to it. I mean, it's fascinating. That guy's fascinating. But with processes,
00:46:43
Speaker
um His thing was delete, delete, delete, delete. And you haven't deleted enough from a process until you have to add something back. I like that. I mean, it's like... that work We had a professor in school that it was one of my favorite professors and one of the favorite things he ever had us do. His wife was the Literature and Writing professor in the English program and then he was the business dean or whatever it's called, head of the business department. And he would take his essays from his wife's final from the last semester
00:47:23
Speaker
block out the names, everything. You know, these are 20 page essays. Hand them out to all of us in the business program and say, nobody wants to read this. My wife hates that I asked, you know, you guys to do this, but this needs to be a page or less and don't miss anything important. bullet pointed, write it in this structure. And I've always said that's one of the best classes I ever took, because we are taught to do the other throughout you know most of the educational system. and But he's like, nobody wants to read that. Nobody has the time for it. And especially today, 2024, it's even worse than it was in 2000, in the early 2000s.
00:47:57
Speaker
But that's kind of a similar thing. He said, take it back to the most basic until you need to add back to it. So it's funny that that was obviously pre Elon Musk, uh, his book, but anyway, still it's very similar concept though. it's so What does that say? I'm uh, if you need me to talk for an hour, I'm ready to go right now. If you need me to talk for 15 minutes, I'm going to need a week to prepare. If you need me to talk for three minutes, I'm going to need a month to prepare. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. So there's always dichotomy too. If you don't want it to be too complicated and you can get analysis through paralysis or paralysis through analysis and constantly making things so cumbersome that you can't pivot, you can't break, it takes too much and there's inefficiencies.
Leadership and Adaptability
00:48:44
Speaker
There, there's just chaos in the sense that there's just so much to
00:48:49
Speaker
But you can also oversimplify things, too, in that you don't live in reality. And there's probably a balance. And then there's just another perspective, too, from a leader. I know I've done this, and I've been on the receiving side of this, working within organizations. and I think we were talking right before we actually started recording about understanding ah detaching away from your teams and giving them autonomy and allowing them to, that's how you can scale your businesses. You give and empower some of your leaders, but then also you can also become too detached where you don't actually know what's going on. ah There's, there's a story and and there's there's probably tons. If you think about it in your own personal life, we've all been through this. But there's a story that a former buddy of mine or out from the military, but it's talking about,
00:49:46
Speaker
and exercises they were going on. And it was showing how leadership can become detached from what their teams are doing and the impact that your decisions, that your flippant decisions, like, hey, go yeah go do this. And not realizing the impact that it has on the crew in that there is multiple steps. And the story that he was telling was that they were, I think it was exercises, it was training. But they were out on ship, and they were going to do assault on shore. And they the higher command, the guy in charge of the exercise is telling the crew, were like, all right, we're going to do it. We're at an amphibious landing, and you guys are going to go on these smaller boats, and you're going to infiltrate and and get to the shore and and do the attack. And so like, Roger, I got it. So I think this exercise is going to be in the morning, and this is late afternoon but prior to your, so. so
00:50:36
Speaker
The crews all get together, they're all doing their planning, their fuel on board, how many boats we have, weight and balance, how many crews are going to be on there, what equipment can we take? What do we have for backup? Who do we need to communicate with? we're And then, so they're starting to build out and they're getting all the pallets, all the the the boats ready and the crews assigned and each team leader and all the responsibilities and now scuba tanks and things and checking everything and the safety. And then about an hour and a half or two hours later, The the captain or whoever was in charge like, you know what? No, let's do kilo. We need to heal. He has no idea that all that work is being done He for whatever for whatever from his mind Set it might have been like hey, there's wins or it would be better optics or like it's something nuanced That he chased like no. No, we we're gonna do kilo and so since we're down like Alright everybody
00:51:32
Speaker
put all the boats back up, take all the gear, reassign that stuff. We need to go get with the air crews and weight and balance and fuel and crews and timing. And and then um later on that evening after they had kind of planned, it was a whole ordeal like, no, no, no, let's go back to boats. And and it was it was highly unlikely that that officer was just doing it and knew everything that was happening and all the effort and time and frustration and things that was being put on multiple levels all across the board, not just that team, but all the supporting elements, it was more likely they had no idea everything that went into it and the stress. And and now you've got guys that have been back and forth and jerked around and pissed off and the stress levels who's now about to have minimal sleep to go do this operation.
00:52:25
Speaker
And it was more that the leader that was in charge that had no idea the processes and the things that were involved. Well, it's like having those guidelines and those basic, you know, guidelines to get there. But then also the leader needs to keep in mind, you know, I have to, basically he's going to begin with the end in mind, you know? So if the leader always has that mindset of this is where we're going, this is how we're going to get there. The guidelines kind of serve as a way to keep you in that channel without going veering off all these different angles and creating basically, you know, in your example, the guy created chaos. It didn't need to exist.
00:53:00
Speaker
But in his mind, it was simple. yeah yeah Like he thought, processed simple aircraft, ah but he didn't understand yeah what was actually occurring and the downstream effects of a decision at that level. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I had add to that maybe maybe take it in a different direction now. And you can cut me off, give me the cigarette signal that we talked about. But I love playing devil's i advocate, but I guess, just my thing. um But if that that captain, that leader had good relationship, good rapport with everybody, right?
00:53:40
Speaker
um
00:53:43
Speaker
when There's times where you need to make those decisions. And I'm not saying that this is that case by any means, but but there's times where we're you put in all this effort and in and work to go in one direction and then boom when the blog gets pulled and we're going to switch gears and go in a different direction. and it's information that they have that's causing that, that I may not have on the ground. But if we have a good relationship and good rapport, then I know, damn, this sucks.
00:54:32
Speaker
But I bet you I was going to get my ass killed if we had it done it the other way. Now we're going to Hilo. Thanks, boss. Roger that. Move it over. And I think that's one of the biggest skills for an entrepreneur is being able to to make those pivots like that. you know I think back to when COVID hit, maybe a little bit outside of our business, a little bit, but not a lot. But it was that was a good example of watching different business owners and entrepreneurs either pivot and make it work and and actually come out on this side probably a little bit better. or not do it, keep trying to do it the way it's always been done and suffer. Man, those of absolutely I think that took 20 years off my life for sure. But, um you know, to to sit back and watch it or to think about it rather like just fascinating, absolutely fascinating. And I remember going into a GNC store
00:55:31
Speaker
And um I guess as a franchise, I don't know how that works, but I mean, the guy is just like moping, you know, and I'm trying to remember there was a sign. out on the road or something, um, something anyways, you know, and, um, and he's like, hi, I decided I don't think I'm going to make it much longer. and got go And I'm like, what are you doing differently, man? how How are you responding? How are you reacting? You know, like, I wasn't even sure if you were open.
00:56:10
Speaker
You know, I had to pull all the way up to the door, and then I even had to look inside to see if you were open like, where the hell is your banner? Screaming, I'm open. And signs throughout this parking lot saying, I'm open. big Don't make me hunt it down. And you got to they business model Before he had foot traffic and he had people so he didn't have he was comfortable with that and didn't wasn't think i took it and it was organic. It was easy. You didn't have to do anything. It just happened like. Man, and and that's what ah you know we were talking about about sales earlier and and we hate referring to ourselves as salespeople consulting arborist. But um you know at the end of the day, right? like
00:57:03
Speaker
Sometimes it's real easy. And and sometimes you got to go out and work for it. And, you know, and that's what I'm always talking about. It's like, it's been real easy the last 12, 14 years. Real easy. Except for when COVID, you know, at the very beginning. But yeah, you got to go out and nurture these relationships. Not cold sales. Just nurture the relationships sometimes. Think outside the box. It's not always going to be that easy. well But yeah, a week later he had, well, probably not even a week later he had signs. I told the guy, I said, I will pay for the signs. If you can't afford the signs, I'll pay for them because it'll work.
00:57:55
Speaker
stream and shout that you're here and open. And and it was funny that across the street, there was some other store, I don't remember what it was. Matter of fact, actually, I think it was a restaurant, which all the restaurants were shut down initially, right? Except for entrepreneurs, man, they can solve the problem. Gilman Challenge, and just a little bit of time, man. That's what made me so mad about the harsh shutdown here in Virginia. But the entrepreneurs fought back like, no, we're going to turn our restaurant into carryout. You know ah yeah got the Chick-fil-A cup. I don't know how it is up there, man. But the Chick-fil-A dining hall is about a third of the size of what it used to be at every single Chick-fil-A around here because they're making so much more money on drive-through carryout. They've got that process
00:58:53
Speaker
dialed in where it's quick. They don't need the inside space for people to sit there and take up yeah real
Community Engagement and Closing
00:59:01
Speaker
estate. Yeah, let's keep moving. oh Think or swim, man. Like, we're going to make it. Billy, you're involved. I think we got introduced to looting branches through Josh and Oprah's, Josh Goon and Jackie through Oprah's. And fascinated to learn more about that. And I think we'll we'll end up getting involved to some degree. But I think yeah but with with you, you have an involvement too, so you want you want to talk a little bit about that? Yeah. Sloot and Branches is an awesome non-profit organization. This is actually our 10th year, so 10 years of dedication. um What we do as an organization is ah we organize arbors around the country to do an annual day of service.
00:59:52
Speaker
that land that is dedicated to our veterans. So primarily it's a national veteran cemeteries, um but it's expanded and we do a lot of the VA medical and and um
01:00:10
Speaker
Going back on the housing, and but really is any land that's dedicated to our veterans qualifies. So this past year in 2023, We were in at at least one site in all 50 states, including one in Mexico and one in Puerto Rico. So believe it or not, we actually have um you know veteran cemeteries overseas where men and women are laid to rest
01:00:57
Speaker
overseas, not even in in the states. um And yeah, we're at over 100 sites in total, 4,000 volunteers. And so you're talking over $4 million dollars in in work that's you know given to make this land you know better, prettier, safer, more peaceful place for the men and women that gave it all for our country or have done so much for our country.
01:01:39
Speaker
To me, it's the most humbling experience, most humbling thing I've ever been involved in. Anytime you talk to somebody that has participated in one of the annual days of services, You won't have somebody you talking about it that will not use the word humbling in their description of it. It's a great, great honor to be a part of this organization. So if anybody in the audience wanted to be involved with it, how would they get involved? Yes, our website, salutingbranches.org. You can find information there.
01:02:23
Speaker
I know we're on Facebook and all the social media stuff, but I think we were talking about it before we started recording. I don't have any of that stuff. I don't know what any of it is. so Sorry, I can't point you in that direction. Other than go through the website, you'll get there. um That's terrible. I imagine go on Facebook or whatever and search for saluting branches and it will come up. um There's you know opportunities ah to support So it costs about $45 for every volunteer. um So it is, you know, it gets expensive quick. um But yeah, so so there's definitely opportunities to support. We're always looking for people that that want to be a part of it, that believe in the cause. We were talking about the why earlier. Like that's your ideal supporter and somebody that's
01:03:24
Speaker
that wants to support because they really believe in what we're doing and they want to be a part of it and they want to give back. um And then certainly um it is almost every year is going to be the third Wednesday in September. There's a couple of times where there's some conflicts, but that's what we go for is the third Wednesday in September every year. um so You can go online, you can see the site, find a site in near you, you can sign up and show up for the day of service. Even if you're not in arborist, there's stuff to do. um All sorts of things that you can do. We'll find something for you. If there's not a site in your area,
01:04:13
Speaker
well go online, we've got all the sites, or most of them, they can be added. if Let us know, you go online, fill out a form, say, hey, I'd like to start this site, and we'll put that together, and we need a site leader. We need somebody who's willing to take on that day and run it, and identify what work needs to be done, um kind of a scope of work, coordinate the launches and breakfast, snacks, all that stuff, the logistics of the day. And then and then we'll start you know funneling volunteers to that site. Love it. All right. I think we're going to wrap things up by eating final thoughts. you know it's It's a mindset. And when you think everything is against you, um yeah because this this is primarily entrepreneurs. We're entrepreneurs now.
01:05:12
Speaker
You're not alone. Get involved. There's so many organizations out there, whether it's trade organizations or different business organizations. I think like EO is is one of the national ones. Where's a group of entrepreneurs or or CEOs of small businesses and you get together andre from different industries. At the end of the day, and for most of our business is business. We all have the same challenges, the same problems, getting help and ideas, solutions um from other people that are creative and outside the box thinkers or have been there and done that.
01:05:59
Speaker
yes Why make the same mistake that somebody else has made? to just If they're and they're willing to help you and prevent you from doing that, man, take advantage of that. If you want the golden key, you can go up to anybody, no matter how successful they are, pick the most successful person that you can think of. If you go up to them and say, I would really like for you to be my mentor. The armors can't resist it. It's like such an honor to be called a mentor. just They're going to tell you yes.
01:06:41
Speaker
but But I think that's ah an important other side of that too, is find mentors and be a mentor. Give back. yeah what yeah so Yeah. Help the next generation, help your neighbor, help somebody else who's aspiring to do greater things, be the mentor too and give back. Billy, it's been so great meeting you, getting to meet and Josh and some of the the community there too that helped. I think jack Josh and Jackie introduced us to you. so So thankful for that. Really appreciate the time that you spent with us. And we're going to wrap things up here. app So to the audience, thank you for listening. If you enjoyed it, please like it, share it. As Brent has said many times before, we don't get paid for this. The only exposure that we have, we we hope that it's been impactful with the community is if you help share it. So if you don't like it, turn it off.
01:07:37
Speaker
Thank you very much, Billy, Brent. It's been great seeing you guys.