Leaving His Six Figure Career To Start His Dream Company

Transcript

Speaker: all right guys welcome back to another edition of the better contractor today we have a guest on and is not alex alex is sitting beside me though so alex sorry man had to replace you today but instead we're joined by tommy taylor from the landscaping company tommy welcome on man hey i'm happy to be here thank you for uh allowing me to be here i guess i should say ah extremely blessed to be able to do things like this. And I'm thankful to meet Noah at Summer Smash. That's how we got here. So.

Speaker: Nice. Summer Smash at first form, huh? Yes, sir. So tell me a little bit of about your story. From my understanding, you're currently a pharmacist. So this is an interesting story to move from, hey, I was in college, I'm a pharmacist, to now I kind of want to do this blue collar thing. And I'm and i'm doing both at the same time. So tell us a little bit about that. That's that's interesting.

Speaker: Yeah, so this can kind of get a little long-winded. I hope it's not a problem. with mine Okay, so if we rewind everything back to whenever I was, literally could walk, probably seven years old. My dad was a state trooper.

Speaker: Pretty, pretty, you could expect what that would be. Pretty hard upbringing, you know, very by the book. Everything has got to be done to the nines. His suit's always got to pressed. The yard's always got to look good.

Speaker: but We had granddad's mower. So from the time I literally could walk, feel like i was eight years old. i was out there cutting the grass every week, watching the patrol car, doing all those things, focusing on all the little details all the time.

Speaker: And my dad was very, very hard on me about that. And I'm extremely fortunate for that. Um, fast forward to middle school. I actually, ah my parents decided that they, it was best for us to move to a different town an hour away, but they weren't going to get rid of the home in the area where we lived. So my parents didn't get divorced, but we split.

Speaker: My mom moved me in with my aunt and uncle an hour away. and then she would drive home every day and I made the baseball team. So then I had to live with my aunt uncle and I live with my aunt uncle and my cousins for probably six years. So I didn't really live at home anymore.

Speaker: I didn't have to cut the grass anymore. I have to do any that stuff. Um, but one thing remained the same from learning from my aunt and uncles is they are extremely hard workers. They blue collar, uh,

Speaker: constant problem solving, metal fabrication, landscaping, working for Coca-Cola, fixing machines and stuff like that. So I was always around that. And then it also helped that my baseball coach was extremely hard.

Speaker: His name was Coach Assey. So and he, yes. And he laid down the law, mental toughness before I ever knew who Andy Fursella was. I was inundated in mental toughness and fortification of the mind from seventh grade until high school, or like in high school until he left.

Speaker: So by the time I could drive, I'd been with Coach Assey for several years, and I got that mental toughness fortification, and I decided I didn't want to do anything. I never partied in high school. I just played baseball, played football for one year.

Speaker: Didn't really care about, you know, academics or going to college or anything. I mean, I didn't even score over 1,000 on the s SAT, and I got an 18 on the ACT. And somehow I'm a pharmacist. But ah anyways...

Speaker: I started cutting my uncle's insurance agency with a borrowed trailer from my cousin, my granddad's mower, a borrowed weed eater, and then a backpack blower my cousin bought from a church yard sale.

Speaker: Started doing that for 80 bucks every two weeks, go out and cut it. And I'd try more lights on on my truck after baseball practice and cut the grass and I have to go back the next day cause I missed spots and it started with him. And then I picked up a couple other family members.

Speaker: and then some cousins, and then it kind of plateaued there. It's like five yards, and I just did that through high school. And then I would do these one-off jobs of cleanups and tree trimming and stuff like that, and yeah I built a really cool truck. That's what I did. Instead of partying and saving my money, I decided I was going to dump $25,000 into 2005 and make it look super cool. Don't get me wrong. It was pretty cool.

Speaker: I wish I had that $25,000 when first started my company, but yeah beside the point. Anyways, we keep going and we keep going. I go to college, have no idea what I'm going to My fiance's dad at the time is a custom home builder. He still is. Builds the most beautiful multi-million dollar houses all around the lake that we live near.

Speaker: And he said, because I wanted to be a builder, I did construction classes in high school. So instead of doing normal classes, I did construction, weightlifting, and then played baseball. And that was it my last two years of school. So I was competing in framing competitions and placing nationally in them and building all kinds of houses all the time, electrical, plumbing, you name it.

Speaker: And I was, I'm going to be a builder. I'm going to go work for, you know, NBCON or some big construction company and be foreman for them. That's what I'm going to I tried to go to Clemson. which is a large construction university in the state of South Carolina, didn't get in. And I was like, oh, there he goes a dream of that. So I was like, all right, let's just go to Carolina. You know, i'm a huge Gamecock fan. We'll go to the University of South Carolina and I'll just go in undecided and we'll just figure out what I want to do.

Speaker: Well, my fiance's mother is a pharmacist. So she said, if you have no idea what you're going to Tommy, Let's go to the school and try and get into pharmacy school. And if you're going to trade time for dollars, let's go ahead and just maximize how much money you can get paid per hour.

Speaker: Easily. After you get a piece of paper, you unlock six figure career next day. was like, OK, well, we'll do that. The whole time, still doing landscaping, still cutting grass and all this stuff.

Speaker: We took a beach trip with some of my buddies right before I go to pharmacy school. And I looked at one of my best friends at the time. And I said, I cannot do this while in pharmacy school. And I don't want to give up the people that I'm cutting.

Speaker: I want to keep them. And it's five people. I couldn't let go of five people. And I told him, I was like, will you do it for me? And he said, yeah, man, I got you. I'll do it. i was like, okay, we'll split it 50, 50. I have all the equipment and trucks. You just go cut the yards and then you get 50 of it I keep 50 of it. He's like, perfect.

Speaker: Well, get back from the beach trip and he immediately is like, dude, I can't do it. You got to be kidding me. So the guy that has been with us the longest, he's been with us since day one. His name is Dima. And he's been my roommate for five years. He lives with my fiance. I love him to death.

Speaker: He is our property management director and he is the guy that stepped in and said, I'll do it. And there was months where he would only get paid $200 and that's it. And he was working at a bleach plant.

Speaker: He would go to and mix bleach to make money. And then he would go and cut a couple of yards for me. And, I was like, dude, this is crazy. There's no way it's going to work. And then one day he came to me and said, all I want to do is be able to grow this thing with you, man. That's it.

Speaker: I want to do that. So he quit his bleach job that was paying his bills to for me to pay him like 200 bucks. I was like, dude, what are you doing? He's like, no, we can do this. i was like, okay, let's do it. So we sat down for one day.

Speaker: and grinded building our first website by ourselves 12 hours straight over and over and over building it build our website grew it and now to kind of bring it all in. we I was in pharmacy school, DEMA was managing all the properties and it started growing a little bit and we got up to like 20 accounts, nothing crazy.

Speaker: And then during pharmacy school, I had some buddies that I'd made in there. We'd skip class to go do landscaping jobs. We'd just walk out, go do landscaping jobs, watch the recorded lectures at the end of it so we could still study and pass.

Speaker: And ah it just kept growing and growing. And then my last year of pharmacy school, my P4 year, which is all rotations, which is where you do all your clinical training and stuff, going to all these different sites each month. i it's The first time we ever broke six figures was ah in September of 2024.

Speaker: And I was sitting there refreshing the page while they were doing the work to watch it do it. And I was so happy. I was like, holy crap, this is awesome. We can actually do this. We can do this thing. Uh, and then last year we did 500 and then ah we were already at 500 this year. Um, and we're still pushing and we've actually started our own tree company as well.

Speaker: So we have a tree service that does timber management, land development, and specialty tree removal mitigation work, stuff like that. That's a really cool story. I love that. And I love the tie into like the mental toughness, too. You know, I think when I look at some of our listeners, a lot of them are your age, like the 20 something.

Speaker: And I think our culture today kind of pushes a little bit too much like, hey, go have fun when you're in college. and And I'm not saying not to. But I'm also saying, like, have your eye on the prize, like be thinking ahead, like, what am I doing now that gets me to where I want to be at 25 or 30? And I love that you had those people in your life to like push you, you know, that excellence is the way to be, because that relates to business so much, you know.

Speaker: Everyone can go start a business only if you will ever make it and I think the big differentiator. So I'm 44 so I'm 19 years older than you and I actually started the company exactly when I was 25 so 19 years ago at your age and In those 19 years, I can think mental toughness and just like grit and fortitude for probably being one of the best attributes that I have. So I and and i can see that in you right now. that's awesome. As someone who's 44 looking back at, you know, 19 years ago, as someone who's the same age as when I started, and that's really cool. So but I love that story. But kind of follow question would be, are you still a pharmacist? And if you are, when do you think you'll make the official jump?

Speaker: Yeah, so I'm still a licensed pharmacist. I worked for Walmart for seven years. So go back into my work while i was in school. I also did security at a bar, one of the largest college town bars ever. So I would literally work sometimes 24 hours straight.

Speaker: That's how all my friends call me insane. um But my Instagram handle is 5tooltommy because I'm like a Swiss Army knife. you know People are just like, hey, man, call Tommy. If you got a problem, just call him.

Speaker: He's got it. I'd pull security at the most. Jumping bar, if you want to say that. Jumping bar in a college town, nonstop, I would work there. Then I'd do landscaping class.

Speaker: And then I would also work in a pharmacy and then do landscaping. And then just constant repeat. There'd be days where I would sleep in the pill bay of the pharmacy whenever I was an intern. I would literally lay on the floor, curl my white coat up, put it behind my head as a pillow and wait till my manager kicked me on my foot on our 30 minute lunch break to wake me up because slept for 10 minutes.

Speaker: And I would have people come up to the drop-off window, dropping prescriptions off, and somebody would be like, somebody was having too much fun last night. And I was like, no. Not really? No. I have not slept in days. And we can go into it more later because it's actually one of the most life-changing and altering. I think this is whenever everything changed.

Speaker: The story I can tell a little bit later after I answer this question. But, yes, I worked for Walmart for seven years, and then I – I work for a small independent chain now. I'll leave it unnamed just for protection for them. They don't like social media presence and stuff. so But I do work for them, and I enjoy it way more. The customer interaction is more. I feel more connected because I really like helping people. That's the common thing that I've noticed with you, too, after I did some research on your companies and throughout your career is, like, your main thing is helping people.

Speaker: And that's all I'm trying to do here as well. I'm not trying to make money. I used to think about that. I was like, how much money can I make cutting your yard? no, no. How can I make you feel important and better when you show up to your house? I want you to feel no anxiety or stress or pressure when you go into your home. Now, i want you to know that we have it covered for you.

Speaker: And then that's where the association of the exchange of dollars is, is that value we provide to you by helping you with something I am very passionate about. So yes, I do feel that same kind of energy with that company, but I don't want to be a pharmacist.

Speaker: So I'm hopeful if the tree work and everything keeps going like it is now, I'm hoping 2027 will be the year I jump out of the airplane all the way. Yeah. Okay.

Speaker: No, that's cool. And I, you know, I look back the earlier, you brought up like mowing with like your headlights at night and that actually kind of, it's funny because I, When I started this, when I had actually just started my master's in business at a university, I'd actually worked somewhere else for like a year and absolutely decided I cannot work for someone else.

Speaker: um And then just quit, gave him a heads up, but quit, went back to our family farm to just make ends meet and help my brother and my dad. My brother actually had like a seed business as well, so I did that to kind of make ends meet.

Speaker: and then was doing this on the side. So I remember trying to sell seed, trying to farm, do all that stuff. We picked up just a few industrial accounts. So we started out actually doing vegetation mowing and spraying in the very, very beginning.

Speaker: And we were just doing these itty bitty accounts for pipeline customers that were honestly too small for anyone else to really pay attention to. But I remember that specific, the very first customer we had,

Speaker: they would let us know whenever we wanted. It was an unmanned site, just on the side of a road. So I would work all day doing those other two jobs and then go up there usually around eight or nine o'clock.

Speaker: I had a buddy that I said, hey, if you help me do this, I'll pay you in food. So there was a Denny's that was open all night up there. So we we would go mow this thing with the headlights, take the truck, park it, mow this thing out, run over to Denny's like at midnight, get back home at one or two in the morning and do it, you know.

Speaker: But I love... That sucked, but at the same time, that's actually one of my best memories of the company. Wasn't making any money at all. It was rented and borrowed equipment from family. It was my personal pickup truck.

Speaker: But I love that story because that mindset that I had then is what I know I need to carry all the way through to make it to to to be able to make this business work.

Speaker: and And I think but it goes back to that grit as well. So anyway, just kind of a cool whenever you brought up mowing with your headlights on I'm like, ah I know exactly I know exactly where is that with that. So wait it's just whatever it takes. That's our that's our tree company's motto, whatever it takes come hell or high water. That's on all the back of our shirts everywhere anytime we're out there because we do some There's some work that we do that is wild, that is probably off air, not OSHA approved sometimes, because it can't be like huge oak tree through the third story of a home, running chainsaws in the house to try and get it out and tarp it before it storms. like

Speaker: Just whatever it takes at whatever hour. i tell people that all the time. i've I've kind of also started to pick up that a lot of people nowadays, I guess before they make it, have not made it by any stretch of imagination.

Speaker: think a lot of people like to close themselves off, especially at my age. They're like, oh, no no don't call me after 8 o'clock. Don't call me after 5 o'clock. You can't do that. Sorry. I'm blocking myself off. Well, in my personal experience, if you do that, you're already just go ahead ruining your path of success. I tell people all the time, like the clients we have and stuff, I was like, if you have a problem,

Speaker: My phone is on 24-7. If a tree falls on your house at 2 in the morning, you call me, and I'll be there. I will be there within an hour. I've got everything loaded up on trailers. We're ready to roll. And I think just from extending that to people, they're like, oh, my gosh.

Speaker: This guy really means like business. And then they don't even bother you. They don't want to bother you anymore because they're like he's already offered that, so I don't need to like think I'm bugging him or anything. I can just do it.

Speaker: And that has afforded me so many more opportunities than saying, no, no, no, our business hours are from eight to six. That's it. no No, no, Blah, blah, blah. Phone's off. No. It's on because this is business and we want to win. And somebody else is doing that right now. Somebody will answer that phone at any hour and they're going get that customer in that business, especially in how cutthroat it is here.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. and And that's true. And I see. so we we are very selective with our vendors that we choose people we work with. And that's one of the main things I actually don't really put out for bid on price.

Speaker: I put out for a bid on how quickly you get back to me, how quickly you reply, how quick can you get stuff done that I need to get done. Because I view our vendors and ah as an extension of us. you know So if I have a client that's like, hey, you can't start this project until we have a certificate of insurance. Well, I don't want an insurance agent that takes a week to respond to an email with my certificate of insurance. I want one that does it the same day.

Speaker: And that's what we have found. you know so We've been with that company literally for at least 10 years. um But you you mentioned earlier about like a selling model of just simply focusing on helping.

Speaker: And I love that because I think and actually I think it was Annie Frisella at an RTA Syndicate event years ago that actually said even at First Form, that's kind of what they look at is we either want to help you, you know, so a lot of people that come into ah supplement a supplement superstore or First Form, they're probably wanting to do something with fitness, whether that's, you know, fine tune what they already are working with or they want to do a dramatic weight loss.

Speaker: So help, you know, and educate them or at minimum, you want it to be an experience, you know, and you look at like, yeah, I know there's supplement super stores where you're at, but that's, you know, one of Andy's companies.

Speaker: But I there's another chain here that is fairly popular and I won't name him on air, but It's a dramatically different experience to go into a supplement super stores than it is to go into that other chain, like dramatically different from how they greet you to how the experiences while you're there to their knowledge of helping you know to sell you a product to even just to be honest, what they look like. Do they even look like they go to the gym?

Speaker: You know, so the other chain I remember at one point walking in and this guy's taken. This is ah years ago. And I know it wouldn't be me, I'll just be honest, but he just was not in shape. And I walk in and he's telling me all these supplements he's taking. And I'm thinking, dude, I'm not taking any of those supplements then because they obviously don't work. So yeah anyway, but I like your mindset with that cause I think the companies that do well long term, you may do well short term by not doing this. But I think if you're going to stay in the game for a long time.

Speaker: if your focus is providing a solution to someone's pain point, if it's helping them, if it's making it it an experience, they're going to keep coming back. You know, and I've told our crews that work for us, like there's two ways to grow this company. One, you retain everyone you have, you know, so current customers, you have to retain them and you get their word of mouth until you do new sales.

Speaker: If I only do new sales and I lose customers every year, then I'm just stagnant. I'm just, you know, break even or zero. I have to do both. And I think the only way you do both is to get them in and then get it to where they don't ever want to leave.

Speaker: So I think, you know, that you brought that up and I think that's a key point. Next question I have, because you alluded to it. I want to hear the story. Okay. So this is, I've done a lot of crazy things. I also shoot fireworks professionally too. That's a whole nother. That sounds fun. It is awesome. I love it. And yeah, it is so cool. You get to meet the coolest people in the world, like Theo Vaughn, Darius Rucker, Luke Bryan. I'm just hanging out with them. And they're like, your job is so cool.

Speaker: I'm like, yeah, it's pretty it's pretty cool, but your job's pretty cool too. yeah um So anyways, let's go back to working at the bar. So I'm in pharmacy school. It's my third year. So we don't have class till the afternoon. So pretty much every single day during the week that the bar was open, I was working.

Speaker: go in at eight o'clock, get off at two, close three, you're probably getting home at three or four. Four if you hang out and play pool for a little bit after that after hours. um But another thing about me too is like, yes, I worked in the bar, but I don't really drink. I was a bit of a party hard once I got to pharmacy school because everybody did it because it's so hard. It's a very hard education. So whenever you wanted to let loose, it was just like, we're going out and then that's it Like we're just sleeping in on the weekend and then we'll start studying it next week.

Speaker: So I did that for two years and I vividly remember ah basically hanging over the banister at a house party and I was like, I'm going to die. Like going to have to go to ER. they're going to take, I'm either going stop drinking or they, I'm going to die from that day forward.

Speaker: I really never drank anymore. And I told myself I was going to get a job at the bar because if I got a job at the bar, then I can't drink because you can't drink on the job. So I was like cool, we'll just do that.

Speaker: So started bouncing at that bar. One my buddies got me hired there. I was one of the smallest guys on staff. I was 160 pounds, pounds. i'm still pounds. i'm not that big.

Speaker: But they embraced me and they brought me in. They showed me all their ways. And I learned a lot from that job, especially about how to manage people, high stress situations, all kinds of stuff. Well, anyways, after my year and a half of being there and learning all the ropes and being a normal and ah you people start recognizing you when you work there, you know, I was the guy that always wore the cowboy hat, the big belt buckle and stuff.

Speaker: And they just kind of knew who I was. um And one night, it was a Saturday, I vividly remember it Sunday, we had our immunization training class for pharmacy school at eight in the morning.

Speaker: I said, I probably shouldn't have been working, but It was 1.30ish in the morning, and I noticed these two guys kind of having a scuffle in the bar. And I was like, well, that's a no-go. You can't do that. But it's 1.30. I really don't want to get into a fight and throw you all out. I really don't. So I'm just going to them to break it up. So I go down. was like, hey, guys, we can't do this. Like, you know, this is bar. other people here. Let's just not horse around. He's like, oh, yeah, it's fine. We're just playing around. i was like, okay, cool.

Speaker: I walk away. When I walk away, somebody from the bar comes and grabs me and they say, check the white guy's waistband. And I was like, what you mean by that? So in my brain, I'm like, okay, this dude just got a bag of cocaine or something. Nothing crazy. Nothing crazy.

Speaker: I go up to him and I say, hey man, you need to hit the road. And he's like, I'm not leaving. I said, yes, you are. And I pick up his shirt. And whenever I pick his shirt up, pistol right there.

Speaker: And immediately, and my dad says, this is probably an awesome thing that this happened to me. I didn't freeze. Everybody asked me he was like, why did you not freeze? I don't know. I just didn't want to die. So I immediately nailed the guy. i start yelling gun. Nobody in the bar is freaking out either because so loud.

Speaker: I hit the guy, drive him to the ground. We go probably 10 yards past where we were. He goes belly on the ground. I go belly on his back and I can feel him turning for the gun underneath him. I guess to shoot through him and shoot me.

Speaker: And I'm i'm literally panicking. I have one guy on the on his feet and he's like in his pants trying to find the gun. He's like, can't find the gun. I can't find the gun. Another guy comes running up and ironically enough, his name is Jake and the name of the bar is Jake's.

Speaker: And he looks at me and i I literally, I guess he could see it in my face that I was about to tell him goodbye. I literally vividly remember looking at him and thinking like, this is it. Goodbye, dude. And I think he saw that and he grabbed the guy's arms and Yank his arms out and the gun fell out right beside me.

Speaker: And I grab it, throw in the bush, put him in a chokehold. We fight all the way out. Turns out he was not from America. He's from South America, has no business being here at all. No license, no nothing, no CWP to carry a gun, anything like that. His pregnant baby mama snuck the drug or the gun in because he was a different drug dealer trying to deal drugs in somebody's territory that's already claimed at that bar. So yeah.

Speaker: But it went it went south. So I was sliming ah signing a a police report at 3.30 in the morning on the hood of a cop car and then going to do my immunization training class at 8 a.m., which the teacher of it is amazing. She's like my mom from school.

Speaker: Miss Kathy, and she said, what is your problem, son? You can't stay awake. And I was like, I told her everything. she said, just put your head down and go to sleep. And we'll just do this class. Like, I'll make sure you get everything you need to get whenever you sleep for a little bit. So she's always looked down for me. I was her TA a and all kinds of stuff. But that day is the day pretty much everything in my mind changed. It's like, I literally have come so close to death.

Speaker: Literally, right there. multiple times. It's not the first time that was the first time the gun has happened, but with other work and stuff, it's been very close as well. And ever since then, everything has changed. I'm like, no, we're doing chips down on this. This is what I'm doing. I'm going to take all the risk I can because I'm 25 years Like,

Speaker: Nothing is really real for me right now. I don't own a house. I don't own a car. And I listened to a podcast that that you had that you said the same thing whenever you started. You didn't have a house. They could take your car.

Speaker: I mean, all my stuff. really lose so Yeah, I have, I have, what do I, what do I have to lose right now except time? So bump time. Like we're just going to do everything we can every day, jam packed every single day as full as we can. And then once we figure out what we're really good at that's what we'll hone in on and focus, focus on.

Speaker: back here, which is starting to present itself as high-end residential and commercial property management, not maintenance. I can get into that as well while we call it that. And the tree work, like the tree work is what we are really good at. I have some, some guys that work for the power companies that work with me part-time.

Speaker: Phenomenal. Yeah. So that is my single, I guess, life-changing moment that has helped me get accelerated me to where I am now.

Speaker: No, that's an awesome story. and And it's definitely one of those things in life where it's that, You already had a lot of things going already, you know, mindset, drive, vision, grit, everything else. but That's that one pivotal moment that just kind of takes it, switches that, you know, or flips that switch.

Speaker: Let's go back to your comment about, ah you said maintenance. So, you you know, I think a lot of businesses need to kind of find that that niche that's theirs, you know, so like we did that at the beginning, like we were kind of just like a broad company.

Speaker: We were vegetation management generically. I didn't have any money. I didn't have very much equipment. I had to rent a lot of stuff. So we were really willing to do whatever a client called.

Speaker: And I think when you're young and getting started, you have to do an element of that. I know there was one pipeline company that we worked for, for example. We were doing a lot their stuff. So we're out of Illinois now. um So Wyoming is a long ways away from Illinois.

Speaker: I remember this guy called he's like, hey, I know you do all of our stuff Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, but I have a project I cannot find anyone to go do in Wyoming. I know it's a long ways from home. Will you do it?

Speaker: And I said, if you will pay for our drive per diem, all those costs associated with getting out there and you will let us work three or four weeks at a time straight, you know, so we're not trying to get commute, you know, to commute back to the Illinois.

Speaker: I said, I think I got guys that are willing to go do it, but they'll want a lot of overtime. And he's like, whatever takes, let's do it. So but doing those weird projects, everyone else was like, no, we're good. We'll we'll we'll stay in our home base here.

Speaker: And that's just one example of a few that that actual customer gave me. But that willingness to say, you know what, I'll figure it out. And I think. There's a lot of people that do that when they're young and getting started.

Speaker: There's a few that still don't. But to like what you said earlier, I think when you do that, you're probably not going to necessarily succeed as quickly because that's one of the key things that you have when you're starting young is you have the ability to be that flexible, to to the ability to move fast. You know, we're a bigger corporation, even some of the big companies that we compete against.

Speaker: they don't have the ability to move quickly. You know, there's too many approvals needed. There's a boss in Pennsylvania that that has to approve this or there's some kind of just generically written policy that prevents it from being the case. Yeah, you know, so for us and for you and and younger guys, you're able to just say, you know what, we'll do it. And that's where that really helps that customer.

Speaker: I think Andy talked about turning the cruise ship compared to the jet ski. Yes, exactly. Exactly. So you mentioned kind of finding your niche. So you mentioned doing more maintenance side now.

Speaker: Yeah. so we, I feel like I've lived a very long life and a short tenure of life to how much I've worked. Uh, I had a hardscaping crew, like it was our project based crew.

Speaker: And I tried that for a year. i invested about $200,000 while I was in school. If you do the whole equipment purchases, labor, all that stuff I'd paid to put into it to get it to work. Nine months, it bled me dry. I'm talking to the point where my fiance looks at me and she said, if you do not figure out how to make this profitable, we will not get married. And then my number one client said, your guys cannot work without you there.

Speaker: You need to fire them. So I sat down literally the next day after those two conversations and said, look, I have no more work for any of you guys. No, there's nothing I can do. We've tried everything. I've bought thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment, materials, tools, everything you need. And we still can't figure it out. And it's a failure on my part, honestly, because I was in school with trying to force, force this thing to happen.

Speaker: That was never going to happen if I didn't have the systems in place. that is a, I'll take extreme ownership too. That is my fault. I did fail them in that regard. However, I think whenever you hire people to do a certain job, they should be able to obviously execute that job without you having to hold their hand all the time. yeah um So that's where that came. So I fired that entire crew and we realized that I can't make money doing that. Everybody used to always say there's no money in cutting grass. There's no money in blah, blah, blah.

Speaker: Um, well, I think we're starting to find our, our niche market there, which is like I said, the high end residential clients. We've actually started to narrow down our list. We actually have a wait list right now to get onto our schedule. Uh, if you're not grandfathered in like the clients we have right now, you have to meet three criteria with a couple of caveats to that.

Speaker: You have to have irrigation in your yard for us to even show up to manage it. So we're pre-qualifying you on the phone already. irrigation, sod that you can name the species, not, oh yeah, I have grass, like there's no dirt. No, no, no, no.

Speaker: Do you have centipede? Do you have St. Augustine? Do you have zoysia, Bermuda? What grass species do you have in your yard? If you can't name it, we're not coming. And then full service visits, not just, I need someone just to cut my grass, mow and go. No, no, no.

Speaker: We're coming and we're cutting the grass weekly. We're trimming the bushes every time we're there. We're doing the bed management. We're cleaning all the beds out and installing all the material in the beds. You're not going to somebody else and paying them to come because they're cheaper. No, no, no.

Speaker: If you want the whole shebang, that's what we are. And a lot of people have really become receptive to that. One of our clients, $4 million dollar house on the lake, gorgeous. he was He found somebody that would come and stole the install his mulch for like $95 yard.

Speaker: And I was like, I told Grayson, which is our sales director. i said, uh, if he doesn't come with us to do the mulch, then we're not cutting, we're not servicing his property anymore.

Speaker: I was like, this is one of those things where we're going to be firm and who we are and what we do. And I'm not going to do it for you. You're going to put your foot down on behalf of the company, since you sold this account and you are going to get the yes for this is what we do. And Grayson was in there. He went confidently and he stood his ground and came to us and paid double what he was going to pay that guy for us to do it. And now we do all of their stuff year round. We, a storm was coming through and they're out of town. We raised their boat up. Like we do things that other landscaping companies would never do, you know,

Speaker: I don't know. I think we're just more of an exterior property management company rather than just like, how many yards can I cut and how much grass can I sling? You know, it's just not what we're doing. sense there. You know, you're basically also kind of differentiating your clientele, you know, so there's a lot of people that will go cut grass and they will do it super cheap.

Speaker: That's not where you want to be. You know, that's not where you want to compete. There's too many in that industry. you want to be with the client that's willing to pay a premium because you're you are providing a premium service. And I think that's where a lot of people kind of get it wrong is they think everyone is their potential client.

Speaker: Well, if you're really good at certain things like, you know, you guys are good at seeing that big picture like, hey, their boat needs to be raised. You know, we should be doing all their maintenance work while we're there. And I never understood why more lawn landscape companies do not do that.

Speaker: I've been trying to find one here for a while. that when they come to mow, we'll go ahead and upkeep, you know, the landscape beds, because we have a lot of landscape in our yard, you know, but even yet, I still feel like I need to often call or text and say, Hey, I went outside this morning, I noticed you were here yesterday, but this needs to be done. And it's been this way for two or three weeks.

Speaker: And I think the common thing there is it, what happens is, is what we're figuring out right now. And see, I'm willing to take a lot of risk as far as like, monetarily, you know, I'm willing to gamble on what necessarily how much money I'm making from the company because I only pay myself 500 bucks biweekly.

Speaker: That's it, which is not a lot at all. But the pharmacy right now, and that's why a lot of people are like, dude, do you need to jump ship from the pharmacy, burn the ships and come over It's like, no no, no, you're not understanding.

Speaker: That is my safety net to experiment at the end of 26 to see what I need to do to get to jump fully out. I'm getting paid almost $500 a day every time I step in a pharmacy.

Speaker: I make $500 every two weeks with the landscaping company. Rather than me trying to consume and take someone else's job inside that company, what if I was able to grow these people into being the people they need to be to grow that company to where I can exit?

Speaker: Then they're able to fluidly operate without my direct operation because I haven't even been in the field with them for years now. They've figured it out. I've let them take the risk. I've seen what monetary tweaks need to do. I've started to hone in our numbers really well.

Speaker: And this is our first year really doing the full shebang. And a lot of people, it gets... with the other companies and why they don't do it. It's not scalable, if you'll say. Like how everybody wants to have the US lawns or Yellowstone lawn care.

Speaker: They figured it out. And then everybody else that's smaller can't figure it out because they can't find the right people to work it or see how in-depth landscaping really is. It's not just cutting the grass. There is so much more elegance and beauty that is crafted in a property.

Speaker: Simply from bed creation and shrub and tree management, you can get so much more ah beauty out of a property if you focus on those aspects. That's what we're trying to learn how to sell in our packages now rather than just taking guesses at it and stuff. So that's where I go with that. And that's why I think a lot of people struggle to do it is' because it's hard for them to make money doing it.

Speaker: It takes a lot of time to figure out how to actually make money where it's fair for you as the client. And it helps us to stay profitable to where we can keep food on the table and the lights on. Yeah, think that's smart to kind of find that niche. I know there's a company locally that's, I think, been in business for five or six years from what I can tell, and they've really gotten into the pool scene. So like they're building these backyard oasis, pool house, and you know beautiful pools, you know waterfall features, all kinds of stuff.

Speaker: And I know they're absolutely crushing it, but they're you know they they don't have a ton of competition. locally and they're very specialized. They have a good social media presence, young, driven, great story to tell. And that's what they're doing well. They're telling that story. They're getting out there. People have, they feel loyalty to them and they're offering an excellent service with a lot of good people. But I think you're right with that.

Speaker: You brought up, you you mentioned having those right people on board. They've done a really good job of that. Another company, Tucker's been on this podcast before. He's a personal friend. You know, they've done a lot of hardscapes. So they kind of transitioned He started like you super, super young. I think he was in junior high.

Speaker: He's mowing lawns and stuff like that. And then went to four year. I forget what his path is going to be. I think it was actually dental dropped out or quit early and then just decided I'm going to go all in on this business.

Speaker: turned it more into like a hardscape type of business. Now is kind of transitioning back to doing that plus some you know higher end landscape. But he found that his niche was more, you know, like homes. So yeah, I know you mentioned earlier like a lake house.

Speaker: So that's where he's focusing all his time because it's the right type of clientele that value, you know, what they're willing to to do. and they have the money to pay for someone to put in a $80,000 retaining wall in the backyard. So it's definitely finding that finding that that that niche as well. But I think it's an interesting story that you have there too.

Speaker: work remotely, but not because you're scared. I think a lot of people do that because they're scared to make the jump where you're doing it more. So I'm figuring this little bit of stuff out and I'm not going to drain the company on on my salary that I need. You know, right now I can get that over here.

Speaker: i can create a lot of stuff, narrow up my focus, put my systems and processes in place, grow it. And then when it can justify adding my overhead, then I can do so. I think that's a pretty smart approach.

Speaker: And I think it's reserved. i mean, a lot of people have told me like, you're an idiot. You should need you just need to jump ship, all this stuff. If it's really going to work, you should be able to jump ship and just start making your money right now.

Speaker: And sure, I can agree with that statement, but also... I don't live in a very, i guess you'd say stable home right now. I guess you'd say it's a rental house. My fiance is in medical school. She's in her last year. So she's going to start residency in June of next year. So less than a year.

Speaker: Technically, I have no idea where we're going to have to buy a home in the continental United States. So wherever she gets in, I'm going to have to buy a house there and then fly back to run this operation. Or hopefully she gets in an hour away and I can just drive every day.

Speaker: yeah We're about to get our first HQ. That was my first big move. And that's another reason why I didn't want to come in. I'm adding what I would pay myself in a salary almost or a little less.

Speaker: to get an HQ, we're leasing a warehouse with a lay down yard. And we're going to hopefully be in there by October 1st. That's when was supposed to start. So instead of me trying to take that money from the company, why not go ahead and get the company settled in to ah an actual physical location.

Speaker: The guys that work here understand that this is work now. It's not to out of Tommy's backyard anymore. Like we're going to run it that way. And then they know where they need to go. This is an office. This is work.

Speaker: This is what we're doing. And then now it's set up to where I can report back to an office. You know, your house is your house, work is work. And then you're able to separate the two and now it becomes even more professional and it elevates you, I think, into that next level of business in my mind. mind Yeah.

Speaker: i want to take a moment from this podcast to say thank you to our sponsors. Gateway Dealer Network, also known as GDN, is your trusted Bobcat dealer serving the St. Louis region. With 10 locations across the Midwest, they offer sales, service, parts, and rentals for all your compact equipment needs. featuring world famous Bobcat equipment from compact track loaders, mini excavators, and skid steer loaders to lawn mowers and mini track loaders. They have it all.

Speaker: Backed by over 35 years of experience, they're here to keep your business running strong. You can visit them at their website, bobcatgdn.com. That is also in our bio.

Speaker: But you can also contact Tim Mueller, who is our sales specialist at 618-779-6562. Or you can email him at tmueller at bobcatofstl.com. That info is also in the bio of this podcast. That's good. I'm just kind of curious. I was looking through some notes that Alex and Noah put together, but this one was not on there. But I'm more just curious for my own sake. What's your 5, 10, and 20-year goal?

Speaker: So realistically, they're they're pretty large. They honestly, every time I tell anybody, probably not you, I feel like a lot of people I meet from first form are big entrepreneurs that doesn't scare them. But in five years, my real plan is to have the landscaping company be kind of the predominant face of landscaping in the state of South Carolina.

Speaker: ah there's a lot of predominant companies here. One of them is Heritage. They are massive, huge company. They do all of Carolina. They do CFC, College of Charleston, all kinds of stuff. They drive all to Clemson. They have three headquarters. My goal would be to have five headquarters, mainly up towards the Charlotte area. Then you have another one near Clemson, Greenville area. You go back down towards Aiken slash Augusta, Columbia, and then you have one in Charleston.

Speaker: So that'd be my goal there is to have – branches of the landscaping company. But then what you do and why I started the tree service is most of the tree companies around here always have to try and find a way to book their schedule out because they don't have a recurring revenue model.

Speaker: You know, they always are having to chase the next tree job, the next pruning job, blah, blah, blah. Well, what I do now is I just associate my brand identity. If you can't tell majority of it's all black.

Speaker: Our colors are all black. Our uniforms are all black, unless the summertime. They're white they're allowed to wear summer black, which is gray. yeah And all of our clothes are first form. We have their corporate apparel. So everything we have is first form. it's on our trucks and everything.

Speaker: Our trailers are black. Our trucks are black, except for one. One's red. Got to get wrapped, but I'm waiting until after we get in headquarters. And then the tree company is also black. So what I'm going to do is just pair all them together where anytime anybody sees a black truck with an equipment trailer behind it, they're like, that's, I think that's them.

Speaker: And they just so start looking at it and like, oh my God, that's, that's Tommy. I know that guy that's his company. And it's just, everywhere and you can't you can't escape it you see a black truck that's clean pulling nice equipment all of our equipment eventually be painted black that's just our brand logo we want to put that bold face out there like we are luxury we are high-end we are bold this is who we are and we keep our stuff clean and that is the face so in five years i would like the landscaping company to have those locations set up around South Carolina, the tree company to have a true home base in the middle of South Carolina that does predominantly storm work, land clearing, and I want to get into right-of-way management.

Speaker: And then what we would use is we would use the landscaping presence of being in properties every week, nonstop to have a constant funnel of tree work.

Speaker: So instead of these guys having to go and find tree work, we already have a hundred plus clients at each location that have yards with trees or beds or want trees or whatever they want.

Speaker: It's an immediate, funnel right back to us We have the tree company. You ain't got to call nobody anybody else. You come right to us. And we just, it just constantly, it's a self feeding machine. So by year 10, the goal would be to expand into the Southeast. And then we would start becoming a ah very prominent face in the Southeast, much like us lawns, Yellowstone, um,

Speaker: Hopefully start getting offers besides the stupid email offers I get to be bought by private equity, but keep turning them down because I don't ever want to sell out. You know, I yeah i like this way too much. And then keep doing that. And then much like you, I had ah i have a lot of interest because of my buddies that are in the power company. Getting on right-of-way management and stuff for vegetative control over power lines. I have a buddy that's a Blackhawk pilot that I told him once he gets out, I'd buy him a helicopter. You just got pilot it, man. You just got to fly it.

Speaker: And then 20 years, i would really, you know, by 45, I would really like to be able to um kind of just fly around like Sam Walton did to all his Walmarts and just check on all the locations, make sure they're just running like a top safety expectations, the standard culture, who we are. i want people to know who we are and what we do when they see us.

Speaker: I wanna be very large in the philanthropic space as far as giving to organizations, sponsoring baseball teams and little league teams and all kinds of things. you know By the time I'm 45, I wanna be able to just manage the the beast that we've created and yeah be the be just be the premier source for high-end property management and right-of-way management in the Southeast, really.

Speaker: i don't really care to go. higher i like to live in wyoming but that's about it hey we we share that interest as well my fiance's family's about to move out there so to bonderant oh nice i love it out there i love it out there me started going out there during covid a lot more that's what we did i got hooked dude i got hooked snowboarding jackson hole can't beat it i mean literally bought that plate the last time i was in jackson hole i was like man i Manifest it. Let's get it. I love it. i love it love it. like that model. You know, I see a lot of contractors, you know, in tree and landscape and lawn.

Speaker: They only do like one, like their lawn and landscape and that's it or their tree and that's it. And I like the model of, you know, for the most part speaking, but if you got a lawn and you guys have landscape, you probably do have some trees around your house too. Especially the ones we want to maintain. I don't want the cookie cutter ones, you know, the neighborhood houses, we're getting out of that. Unless it's the HOA, we'll manage the HOA, but yeah we want the ones that are, have the trees and stuff.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. So that's an awesome idea because it kind of does help that funnel, like you said. It's that recurring revenue that a lot of tree companies, because depending on what part of the country you're in, those tree companies are chasing storms sometimes, insurance claims, or just trying to fill their book. And when you're just doing that in your local community, there's a lot of dudes that like, well, I have a chainsaw. I can take that tree down for you.

Speaker: Unfortunately, a lot of homeowners don't realize the risk with that. So they're willing to accept his thousand dollar bid versus your four thousand dollar bid. And it's just tough, just to be honest. So I think what you're doing where you're having that that recurring revenue so you don't have to accept those jobs.

Speaker: I see that's what a lot of people will do is like, well, I got to have something to make ends meet. My guys need some work or I'm gonna lose my guys. Let's go do this job for a thousand bucks instead of saying, oh, we're going to be selective when we do.

Speaker: So like with your guys, for example, you can move them somewhere else and use them somewhere else if that isn't you know taking off. The right way management side, you know as you're probably finding out, there's a lot of stuff that can be done there.

Speaker: There's thousands upon thousands, probably millions of miles of electric right of way in the United States. um And the beauty with it is it has to get done. Those those electric companies cannot not maintain those right of ways. The last thing they want is a power outage due to the tree falling across the line.

Speaker: Or a hurricane hits, you know, more you're part of the world than ours. Or for us, a tornado hits and all of a sudden you've got so many trees down your lines that you have... metro areas out for weeks like that's not possible they can't have that so it's one of those careers and jobs where you can have some stability because of some regulations and stuff and there's again there's just thousands upon thousands upon thousands of miles of it so the electric side is uh good the pipeline side i could talk to that on the up privately sometime uh yeah but the electric side it's it's a it's a solid one so

Speaker: I have a question for you. So when you started, i was, I did, ah i listened to a lot of your interviews that you've had with people and stuff. When you first started, you said, once you quit your job, you started calling people immediately to try and just get any work you could. Yeah. And that's very similar to me.

Speaker: ah How did you go from, whatever somebody would give you to getting in with these large ah RFPs and contract bidding. Like I have no idea where to even start with that. I just know meet a prominent homeowner, shake hand, talk, become friends, make it make a friend, make a sale, and then bam, we're in there and they love us. And then we just are constantly seeing them. That's it. I have no idea how to actually jump to the full commercial slash RFP world.

Speaker: Yeah, so for me, and again, I'll preface it with saying this is almost two decades ago, the world has changed a little, but overall, I think this still applies. So when I was in college, so I went for a bachelor's in business and typical university, that means you need to run someone else's business, be a banker or sell insurance and investments.

Speaker: So for one very brief period of time, like literally a month, I decided I will go intern with this financial services company. And they pushed life insurance, whole life insurance. And the guy that ran like the group of kids, as I will call them, was actually really good. And he he owns a big firm here in town now, separated away, and does amazing what he does.

Speaker: But he was one a really good salesman. But the one thing that stuck with me, I still remember today, was his 10, three, one ratio, 10 calls, three visits or meetings in one actual sale. That was the math that that that organization worked out.

Speaker: And I didn't know if it applied to this. I had no idea. i didn't have any data to back it up. But I knew that if I just kept hitting and hitting and hitting at some point, someone will tell me yes. And it may be a tiny ass project. It may be a medium.

Speaker: It may be may be bigger than I could even choose to do. i don't have the people or the or even the skill to do it. And so I played that model for a while. So for us.

Speaker: pipelines have markers above ground, usually at road crossings and stuff like that. I had no idea where to start. And you got to think 19 years ago, the internet wasn't what it is today either. So I had to kind of do it the old school way, which is drive around a pickup truck and find these markers.

Speaker: And I would go calling the emergency number on those markers. And most of them are like, you got the wrong number. One of them finally put me through and they said, Hey,

Speaker: I'm going to put you through to our HQ. I forget how it went exactly, but we're going to put you through the HQ and ask for this department. A guy picked up the phone. And he was our first large client.

Speaker: And this dude was old enough to be at least be my dad, if not even a little bit older. And he when you talk about like your coach, you know, being tough, middle toughness and pushing you.

Speaker: That was this dude. And I thought he was the biggest butthead ever back then. And i thought he hated me. Flash forward a few years, he retires. And I realized that he actually liked me and was mentoring me the entire time. It was just very tough love.

Speaker: But he gave us a shot on a small project and called me out to do to their HQ shortly after. And he's like, do you want to bid on the stuff I have in these other two or three states?

Speaker: And I said, of course. And he's like, I like you. I think you have the ability. I'm going to take a shot and take a chance. And he did.

Speaker: And we did a lot of work for him. He's who really kind of that work kind of put us on the map. We had had some other ones. The one I mentioned earlier on the podcast where i was talking about mowing with our headlights on.

Speaker: We still have that client today. um We still mow that exact site. We've had a lot more to them since then. But that was one. He literally picked up the phone.

Speaker: He said, I don't really have anything, but I have these two small sites that no one will mess with in the middle of Illinois. ah If you can do them, I think it's actually a small enough project that i don't even have to put you in the system because a dollar amount is so low. i don't have to worry about it. Just send me an invoice.

Speaker: So I said, of course, I went and looked at that afternoon, got him a bid that same day, and we were doing the work the following week. So that's what kind of got us started. But to answer your question, it was just doing that numbers game, not being afraid to ask. The other thing we did early on,

Speaker: I spent more money than I had to, and this is marketing was a lot different back then. But I found another young dude that owned a marketing company, same age as me, just hungry as could be, super skilled at what he did and was cheap.

Speaker: But not, I mean, it was still expensive to me at the time, don't get me wrong, but cheap compared to what he could be charging. And I remember going to him and I said, dude, I need money. for my website i need everything to look way bigger than what i am this this is the clientele i'm going after they won't do business with me if they know i'm 25 and doing 100 200 000 a year in work this is year one i said i have to look bigger than that or they will not give me the time of day for particularly their procurement department you know because they don't want to take the risk of you know having someone not know what they're doing the safety liability all the different risks

Speaker: And so he did that and did it really quick put together. but We started pushing out a bunch of marketing pieces to the procurement departments. Long story short, that did allow us, I don't remember exactly, but over 100% growth per year for probably from 2008 through 2012, that timeframe. So just boom, boom, boom.

Speaker: And obviously we can talk about that different podcast that does actually bring in a whole bunch of other issues, you know, from cashflow to, systems and processes, you know, back then you didn't have all these apps and all these things that you could jump on and find everything was custom still back then or just spreadsheets. So we did a bunch of spreadsheets back then, um but it's just a different world. But at the same time, a lot of that still applies. It's just getting out there, playing that numbers game, you know, not being afraid to ask for something bigger than you think you could probably handle.

Speaker: And I just say, that's probably the number one thing that that we did and did well. Did we do it perfectly? ah Probably not. But did we complete the project safely on time and the customer is happy and gave us more work the next year?

Speaker: They did. I think it was a win looking back. so it matter But then we were able to leverage having that clientele into getting you know similar clientele.

Speaker: The issue that you'll run into now, probably as much as anything, it existed back then. but ISNetWorld is like a contractor verification website where you have to enter history, EMR laws and all that type of stuff.

Speaker: That makes it a little bit harder for someone who has, think it's either three or five years or less experience because your rating doesn't necessarily populate, but every company is different. And again, that goes back to the whole numbers game.

Speaker: You're going to eventually call a customer that maybe they don't have those same rules as everyone else. Maybe they have a one or a two year requirement, or maybe they can spend less than a hundred thousand without having to do that contractor verification.

Speaker: So there's a lot of, you just never know what's going be on the other end of that phone. Yeah. And I mean, that's one thing that I feel like I started to do really well with is I, in pharmacy school, I was very reserved, you know, just like, oh, I just got to do the work, stay low key, stay low key. And then now it's just, I'll talk to, I've always been this way, but I'll talk to a stop sign now. It don't matter. i go to a meeting, I'll start shaking people's hands, talking, running around, calling people on the phone nonstop. I literally just drove prime example. I was, I used to live in the apartments right up the road and we've started doing a lot more storm work.

Speaker: I've been watching these oak trees for I don't know how long. They're 200 plus years old. They've been there probably since the Civil War. i don't even know. They're old.

Speaker: Yes. And I knew when I was going to break. Drove by while I was going to take a mower to get drop off at the shop before this podcast. And I saw one of them had fell across the middle. Well, I called the head property manager over there. i was like, hey. I left him a because answer. i was like, hey, this is Tommy. I used to live right there 612.

Speaker: you know, i don't know if you really remember anymore, but we have a full service tree company. Hey, like, give me a call back and take care of this for you tonight. Like I will get that going too tonight. after we get off and we'll call again, but we'll see how that goes. Yeah.

Speaker: No, that's really what it is. it it comes down to not being afraid to ask. And then actually also having the confidence that I'll figure it out. So I think so many people think they have to go into that thinking. I already have it figured out.

Speaker: And for a lot, the most part with a lot of these businesses, you just got to be able to figure it out when it comes. and Exactly. I think that lack of, Some might call it stupidity or too much confidence. Willful ignorance. Yes. But I think it goes back to having that grit. And I think when you're young, like yourself and a lot of people listening to this podcast, you have to have that or you're never going to get started. And you know like that, you know, paralysis analysis is what I kind of call it, where people will look at a situation and be like, ah, there's too many issues. I'm not going to mess with it. There's this safe route. I'm going to do that one.

Speaker: And I think overthinking it is sometimes your worst enemy and sometimes you just got to jump. So luckily that was a little bit my personality, especially back then still is.

Speaker: But back then i literally had that mentality that, you know what? I got nothing, like like you said earlier, I got nothing to take. I got nothing to lose. I got everything to gain. I am just going to give it a try. That's I've done with everything. I mean, I don't know how to do half the stuff that we've done. I didn't know how to do i was like,

Speaker: okay. They said yes. Now we have to do it. So now we just figure it out. hey yeah yeah And that's it. And the guys are like, well what do we do? i was like, what do you mean? What do you do? We just do it. Like, we don't have a plan for this. Just that needs to get done and we're going to figure it out and not die.

Speaker: That's what we're going do. yeah And then now it's gotten way more safe than that. But, In the beginning, that's how i it was. It was like, this tree's huge. They want it gone. I gave them price. They said yes.

Speaker: Should I probably have sold that job? No. But guess what? We did it. Nobody died. Client's happy. yeah And it went smoothly. yeah um I don't know. It's just, i'm I think I've become obsessed with just trying.

Speaker: Like, instead of win or loss, Just cut them both out and try. Nobody tries anymore. they They just want to win. Everybody just wants to win. Who cares? Who cares if there's a W or an L? Like, wake up, try.

Speaker: That's it. And the most time when you try hard enough, you win. but you don't try at all, you're going to lose every time. Yeah, you're guaranteed an l at that point. Exactly. So just wake up and try. Like, give it your best effort no matter what. And then most time it'll work out.

Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, for your generation, too, and I could be speaking wrong, but I think a lot of people now expect things to be more immediate. And I think that's one thing I appreciate about you is your patient and understanding this is is a process.

Speaker: But if I do this this year, i do this next year, i keep improving. And guess what? That scale keeps going up and I get to where I want to be. but you don't necessarily believe it's gonna happen tomorrow.

Speaker: Like you're going to grow tomorrow, yes. Will you be immediately to there and will it be easy? It absolutely is not gonna be easy. Painful. I think that's actually a big thing for the entrepreneurship is the people that realize this is sometimes years,

Speaker: And it's not going all be butterflies and rainbows either. now it is this is getting there too i've I've told everybody that I've ever talked to about what I've done. And they're like you're pharmacist. Why do you need to do this? And it's like, well, I really think that this can actually benefit the world, what we're doing with this company. Pharmacy, I don't necessarily feel that. And that's my personal opinion. There's some pharmacists, they're a wonderful pharmacist. Most people I know in the industry are amazing, but I just do not feel that that is what God has called me to do. He put me there to meet the people I needed to meet, which I'm very thankful for and blessed that I've met my mentor through there and other people and all of the awesome people I've met.

Speaker: I'm very thankful for that. However, I do not believe that I was called to be one. So while I can still help people there and still make an impact, it's not like I'm not trying to be a pharmacist. I try very hard to be the best pharmacist I can whenever I'm working there.

Speaker: I believe that this is what I need to do and what to focus on. And this is just a step to the here. yeah pharmacy is the step to bridge the gap to do this. And it also was a very good talking point. When I get introduced to people and they're like, he's also a pharmacist, it automatically, they they remember me immediately. Yeah. That's a cool story.

Speaker: They're, they're not going to forget. Even my guys at Tom, like, yeah, he's also a pharmacist and does all this other stuff. They immediately remember my company pretty much over everybody else's simply because of that one fact. Yeah. And then it also bridges that trust gap too. Like, Oh my gosh.

Speaker: He's very highly educat educated. He's a pharmacist. There's an an immediate connection to like trust. And then it also elevates you to a higher market to sell to where now, instead of me trying to go after my target clients, which are doctors, business owners, all that stuff, I'm immediately in that circle because of the education I have and my fiance's education. We're automatically in the highest percentage W2 owners in the world.

Speaker: immediately access to them like that. yeah And then we're able to convey that value a lot better. And then we're able to take care of them better because we're able to charge the prices we need to charge to do the quality of work we need to do.

Speaker: That's my whole philosophy on too. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I like the the comment you made earlier in the podcast about you know helping others, but even like philanthropy, and then just recently kind of like you know God's calling. And I think a lot of people don't really think that stuff through enough, especially maybe when they're young.

Speaker: You get to be my age, you start thinking, hey, I'm middle-aged, finally, it happened, it got here. what But what am I doing to make this world better? You know, like that's a question when you start getting my age that you ask even more.

Speaker: But I like that you're thinking that already. And I think that kind of my point there is that if when you look at entrepreneurship, a lot of people just view it as, oh, they just want to make money or, oh, they they they're just these certain things they want, but it all has to do with wealth and all has to do with like ego.

Speaker: A lot of the entrepreneurs I know, and maybe it's because of the groups that I've been involved with, they're really wanting to just make an impact in the world. They want to build, you know? So ah for me, you mentioned like a private equity, like we get hit up a lot and I'm not to say i never entertain it. I at least kind of want to know what, well, what's the dollar amount? Like, I'm kind of curious, like yeah what what would you value it as?

Speaker: But at the same time, I'm like, I don't want to right now. Like I actually like what I do, even on the bad years, I still enjoy it. I enjoy getting up, creating, building, improving,

Speaker: looking at this system that we've created and saying, where is it still wrong? Like, I know it's not perfect. It's never to be perfect. But what incremental things can I do to improve that year over year over year?

Speaker: And I'm finally at that age now where I can look back and say, okay, that equaled this five years later. This did this. And I can do that on good and bad things.

Speaker: you know, this decision here didn't turn out so well. This happened three years later. But with that comes that equity or that that wisdom and all of that as well. But I like that your thought is, how can I help?

Speaker: I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs do want that. And I think there's enough hate towards wealth nowadays. And really, if you think about it, if I really want to help people, for the most part, I have two things I can give typically time,

Speaker: or money for you to help you and whatever, you know buy something for you if you're if you're if you're needed, you know so if you need something. you know ah Both of those, though, I can do through entrepreneurship because I have flexibility with my time. I'm not stuck here from exactly 9 to 5.

Speaker: If I want to take off at 1 to go do something else, I can come back at 6 p.m. and work until 9 p.m. I have that flexibility. So I have that time availability. I also have, you know, for the most part, you have money to be able to help other people.

Speaker: You know, so... And you have influence, you have leadership, you know, if you employ, you said, you know, what'd you say, nine people now? Yeah, nine. You know, someday that's going to be 50. Someday that's going to be 100. each family, if each employee has three members in their family, that's 300 people now that you are leading in some way, shape or form or have a direct impact in their lives. So I think that is where entrepreneurship, I know Andy Frisella has talked about it too, but that's where entrepreneurship has so much power is you have a direct influence in the daily lives of that many people. And that's cool.

Speaker: That's super cool. Oh yeah. And I mean, that's how I want to be. yeah if If my neighbor's house burns down, i would love to be able to just go over and write him a check. Don't wait on insurance, man. just go and start building another one or go buy you something.

Speaker: Go buy you something right now And then, Hey, don't worry about paying it back. Don't even worry about it. That's how I want to be. And I feel like i'm already at that point. A lot of people, This is probably one of my worst traits. I'm not perfect. is I don't really necessarily view money as like I have to keep it, save it, all that stuff. It's very fluid. It's like water. you know I get money. i go at restaurant. They make me happy, feel good. I'm going to tip you 50 bucks.

Speaker: Even if I have... um I don't have $200 in the bank account, but if I had 200 bucks at bank account and my meal was 50 bucks, I'm going to still tip 50 bucks. Cause guess what? That money's going to come back in some way, shape or form back up for me being good to people or things like that. I try and always give more than I'm trying to hold onto. And then I've noticed that that is exponentially allowed my finances to grow more because people realize you're not just trying to hold it. You know, you're giving, telling the universe that it's abundant. It'll flow back. It'll come back.

Speaker: Yeah. So, Nah, I love that. and and And the best entrepreneurs that I respect, there's plenty that will still do well that focus just on money. The ones that have money in it, I still respect, are the ones that do exactly that. It's not about the money, it's about helping.

Speaker: And it like you said, it comes back to you by by doing the right thing. so We are a little over an hour, so i'm gonna toss this back to you for a final. It's whatever you want to talk about, dude. so Okay. You can impart, share whatever we did not touch on that you're like, man, he should have asked me this or I should have talked about this. This is that time.

Speaker: Well, I feel like I could talk to you forever. I'm i'm very thankful that we were able to communicate, and i hope we can again in the future, even not on a podcast. too yeah we Podcast part two or just a phone call whenever you're free. I know you're probably a lot busier than I am. Yeah, we'll make it happen.

Speaker: Because ah I truly think that talking with people like this is really – beneficial to just anybody. You bestowing your wisdom upon me has now expanded my mind even further, even more so than listening to Andy on his podcast or the other podcasts I listen to or reading books. Being able to speak with people like yourself is like, this is like almost like Jesus reaching down to shake my hand and pull me up, you know? It's just like a a saving grace almost. it's ah It's a huge opportunity. I'm very thankful. Yeah.

Speaker: One thing, if I could say it is, I know I talked about my father and he was very influential in the way I started thinking about things. And his biggest thing was like, don't be half-ass. just stuff He would say that to me all the time. And I got my butt whooped so many times for being half-ass whenever I a kid.

Speaker: Whenever I was not living with my parents anymore, because I know there's a lot of people that could listen to this and this could be ah a similar situation for somebody. there was no parental oversight from my father or my mother anymore.

Speaker: I was pretty much on my own. And a lot of people can make poor decisions when that happens because as you have complete freedom to do pretty much whatever your aunt and uncle aren't going to be like your mom and dad.

Speaker: Yeah. And I chose to lean into the work side of things rather than the party side of things. I didn't even drink my first sip of alcohol until I got to college.

Speaker: Um, But when I started my company, I was in college and my cousin and uncle had taught me pretty much all the skills that I have to this point and why I'm why I'm so willing to just do everything to do work on diesel trucks, trees, landscaping, hardscaping, anything fearless and what it is required to do.

Speaker: My dad now had parental oversight again because i was COVID hit, had to move out of college, had to move back home with my parents. And I hadn't lived with them for almost seven years.

Speaker: So now my dad was trying to be a father again, which there's nothing wrong. He's my dad. I love my dad to death. And I wanted to start the company. He's you're doing too much money.

Speaker: You need to start an LLC. I'll pay for it. So he paid for Tommy's lawn care, which is what it started as TLC. When he did that, I was still doing you know jobs and I was underbidding like crazy.

Speaker: Day-long jobs, I bid for a hundred bucks. Dad would have to come out there and help me with the ladder and bring his truck and try and help me in any way he could to get it done. And he's being super supportive. Then one day, um i was in a bad mood because i I wasn't making any money and I was just struggling.

Speaker: And ah started watching YouTube on how to price jobs, which is terrible. But I didn't know what to do. So i started watching YouTube videos. And Brian's Lawn Maintenance, which a huge company, awesome guy.

Speaker: yeah He has no idea who I am. I watched his video, and I remember he said, you need to be, in 2020, you need to be trying to make $60 per man hour anytime you're working. was like, okay, perfect. I need to try and make $60 a man hour.

Speaker: So I went back, and I talked to my dad, and I said, Dad, I figured it out. From YouTube. I need, yeah, I need to try and make $60 an hour.

Speaker: He paused the TV, turned and looked at me and he said, son, you aren't worth $60 an hour. And that is the single biggest motivator in my brain. Whenever I don't want to do something, I immediately think right back to that. I'm like, dad said you're not worth $60 an hour. So immediately I'm like back to gung ho doing everything I need to do. But don't let what your your family or your parents say about you or their limiting beliefs. And I don't say that negatively towards my father. yeah

Speaker: I say that in the sense that this is new territory for all of us. No one in no one in my family has ever done what I've done or tried to do. So their limiting beliefs were getting pushed on me a little bit. And I didn't let that alter or drive me back to be the guy that cuts yards for 50 bucks. instead Instead, I let it accelerate me.

Speaker: to be one day the premier landscape management company in the state of South Carolina or the Southeast. That's what I like. Don't let your family and what they've done in life influence what you do in life.

Speaker: Yeah. Make sure that you are doing what you believe you should be doing all the time, basically. And that's my biggest motivating. It's like my dark side. One of my biggest dark side energies ever is that,

Speaker: From my own father. Yeah. So you're going to prove that wrong. I love that. And now he's huge in the company. I'll call him and like, dad, we have a tree in a house. It's like 11 o'clock. he're like, okay, I'll be there. And he'll come over there and he'll help run the chipper with the guys that are on the ground and stuff. And he, he shows up now and he's,

Speaker: He's amazing. And like one day, my biggest goal too is like, I want to be able to take care of my family and give them something they've never had before. I want to be able to build them a really nice home and, you know, give them new cars and just things like that because of what they don't necessarily realize they did for me in the moment yeah is the biggest reason why I'm here.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, I think you alluded to it there and a little bit before I think one of the cool things about now even than when I was your age, is you guys have access to mentorship, it may be virtual, it may be online.

Speaker: That was something I wish so much I would have had at like your age. But it had to be in person back then, which means you had to have, you know, the few people you knew, you know, you had to have someone willing. But there's so much content out there now, like you said, with like Brian's lawn care.

Speaker: you know, that pops stuff like that pops at my feet all the time now. Like that would have been hugely beneficial when I first started out. If someone's saying, dude, you are too cheap because you know, which most of us are when we're starting out, we, we undervalue ourselves or,

Speaker: Maybe we know, hey, we don't really know fully what we're doing yet. we' We're not worth as much as like company X. And that's probably some honest humility there. But I think you're right though in saying, you know look around you and see what is out there as far as mentorship. I can look back, did I have like a specific mentor, like by title? I did not.

Speaker: But I was someone who really watched under and you know other people, what behaviors did were they doing that I liked? I don't want to emulate those. What are they doing that I do like and what I need to emulate? And knowing that person A may provide something on this front, B is something on this front. And for me, you know, I look back, my brother's a lot older than I am.

Speaker: So he was almost more like a, not old enough to be a dad, but old enough to be like an uncle or something like that. And he was always someone who had that, like the same mentality I do. It's like, You can do it. Just go do it. Figure it out. Like, this isn't that hard. if you If you want to try it, then just try it. Like, he was very much, and and he's practiced that in his own life as well as an entrepreneur.

Speaker: My parents were both very, very good at that, but then also just, like, Be a good human being like that. If I could take one thing away from my parents, like they're both like literal, like they're saints. Like I respect them through and through. Truly blessed on that front. And then ah my wife's grandfather was someone who was a little bit more of a pessimist. Loved him to death.

Speaker: But he was ah he was that I especially in my 20s still even yet today. I was someone that really only ever saw like the optimistic side like, no, we will make it. I'm aware that there's going to be hard times, but we're going to make it.

Speaker: Her grandfather was one is like, son, are you sure you want to do this? Because this will probably happen. I saw this happen to so and so. This company failed after five years.

Speaker: They lost their house like. But I learned to listen to that a little bit though, to check myself, you know? So even though he was a much different mentorship type than I probably would have selected, I didn't really have a choice. He was her grandfather and she loved him to death. So he was going to interject either way. um But I learned to appreciate it where a lot of people have been like, dude,

Speaker: you're an old man, like you didn't do this, you went, you know, the different route in life. I'm not gonna listen to you. I chose, hey, you know what, he's got wisdom. He's got 60 plus years on me in life.

Speaker: He has probably seen some stuff. And I can get wisdom out of what he's saying, even if I'm still going to try it anyway. He's given me some some precautionary things to look at and say, ah think about that one aspect a little bit further, maybe develop some processes, assistance and some backup plans for that one aspect. So anyway, I say all that to say, look around you, there's a ton of mentors, whether they're online, they're virtual in in a group of business group or whatever it is. So Tommy, I think we need to do a part two. That's fine with me. I can talk all day.

Speaker: Sweet. Sweet. So I'll have ah Alex and Noah get in touch with you and we'll definitely do a part two. So, um, so therefore we won't really do ah an official ending guys. Tommy will be back on the podcast at some point in time. We'll talk some more. So Tommy, where can people find you and follow you at? You can follow him me on Instagram, 5ToolTommy, The Landscaping Company on Instagram, and then Teleco Timber on Instagram also. is There are three companies or three pages you can find us at. I don't really do LinkedIn. We're on Google. I have a YouTube channel that I'm trying to get started. Started last year. It's also 5ToolTommy.

Speaker: ah That's really about it. And I'm trying to get more into the content world, build the personal brand like you've talked about, and Andy and them always talk about all the time. I'm just trying to find the time to do it. i think to pair of meta glasses so I can just record what I do throughout the day. what are you doing now Yeah. I mean, I do so much crazy stuff. I mean, there's still no way I can't find something interesting throughout the day just post.

Speaker: Oh yeah. Well guys, give Tommy a follow, man. If you like this show, which I feel like you probably should have, definitely share it and join our private Facebook group for meeting people like Tommy and ask those questions and get some answers. So Tommy, again, thank you, man.

Speaker: Thank you. i appreciate the opportunity. See you.