1014. Scaling to $10M+ Without Losing Control | Chase Ireland

0:00Want to see every new mower, skid steer and chainsaw on the market? You could drive around all the dealers or spend four incredible days at a Quip Exposition in Louisville this October. That's where all the dealers are in one place. 30 bucks if you register early. Equip Exposition.com Register now at Equip Exposition.com or use the link in the podcast description. Save 50% off your registration when you apply the code Brian at checkout. We can't wait to see you in Louisville. You're now listening to the Fullerton unfiltered podcast straight forward. No nonsense business advice. Completely un-filtured. Grow your business. Grow your life. Now, here's your host, Brian Fullerton. Hey, what's going on guys? Welcome to another episode of the Fullerton unfiltered podcast. It is your host, Brian Fullerton here, hanging with you guys and good morning. Well, really excited about having another great guest on for you guys today.

1:03Hope you guys enjoyed the long Labor Day weekend and we're able to get a couple days to recharge and recoup a little bit. I will tell you real time. It is the fall rush, you know, post Labor Day here in the States. The next eight to 10 weeks are going to be mad dash, busy, busy. We've got the Leanskaper of fat. We've got Launcher and Ericademy. We've got Equip Expos. We've got Greenius Webinar training. We've got a lot going on, including a couple more spots for the break records tour. And today we've got Chase Arlin joining us all the way from Waterloo, Canada. So Chase, without further ado, welcome to the show, brother. How are you doing this morning? Yeah, Brian, yeah, thanks for having me. I'm doing great. And like you said, full fall swing at the moment. You know, just trying to get our snow contracts all buttoned up and operationally ready. Yeah, we're excited to see what my nature gives us this year. Amen to that. I feel like every year it's kind of, I don't want to say lock or roll in the dice, but nobody's, nobody's got a crystal ball. At least not here in the States, maybe in Canada. You guys are pretty smart group, but it's like, I, we never know.

2:05They're talking super El Nino and then yes, one guy, what does that mean? And he thinks it's a light winner. Yes, the next guy and he says, I don't know. We're order 30% more of everything than we did last year because we're growing. So I'm right there with you. You never know what you're going to get. Ask me how winner is in April and I'll give you the debrief if you know what I'm saying. So yeah, so without further ado, except about having you on the show, a little, a little elephant in the room. We're going to talk on the tail end here today about the break records tour. Chase and their company is going to be hosting this Thursday, Friday, so if you guys are listening to the podcast real time and Chase, you know, obviously, Canada a lot better than I do. Let them know if you know mine, like where are you from? What major city? You know, maybe a little bit more about kind of Saga. And then I don't know like what's in the three, four, five hour radius where folks can still make it and buy a ticket and come join us on Thursday and Friday. Give a quick little promotion here on the front end if you don't mind. Yeah, so we're in a great area. Like right in the middle of southwestern Ontario, we're about 45 minutes,

3:07southwest of Toronto. So you know, big metro, Toronto, 6 million people, about an hour and a half from Buffalo. So you know, it's not a, it's not a big travel plan to get over the border over to us if you want to come and see a Canadian operation. And both an hour away from London, North to London. Yeah, so like really centralized, very easy to get to, both two hours away, two and a half hours away from Detroit. So yeah, in Conestoga contract and that's our business. And you know, it's kind of named after the Conestoga River nearby. So yeah, it's very easy to get to and very centralized and nice highways that get you right here. No traffic. It's great. Yeah, no, I was just going on Google this morning and looking at the logistics to get there. I knew it was like, like you said, three half hours or whatnot at the most. You know, honestly, like that's pretty local. I always say anything, you know, three to four hours, that's a short drive to. You can, you can even, you know, get up early four or five in the morning, make it

4:10at same day without having to maybe the additional expense for another hotel night, you know. So I get it. There's many events I've been to where I spent my last 200 bucks or 500 bucks to go. But if you guys are hearing this on a Wednesday or even that morning, dude, come on, come on down, come check it out. Go to the break records tour website, grab a ticket, nominal investment. I promise you the investment will be worth it. The presentation's only getting better and better as we continue to take so much direct feedback and what's working and what can we pivot, modify, change, enhance, make better, you know, Sam and I are always kind of just downloading and making those small tweaks. But we're really excited about bringing the sauce for you guys out this upcoming Thursday Friday over there in Waterloo. So that being said, you know, Chase's our host this, this upcoming tour spot. And I've actually been able to see and connect with Chase for probably like, I'd say like year and a half, two years now at different events and there's a lot of great stuff going on across the country. I see Chase on pretty much every webinar that is being hosted in the industry.

5:13I see him active in the chat and that's awesome. Like that shows to me a leader that shows me somebody who's the president of their company and they're, I mean, what a breath of fresh air. They're on the forefront. They're trying to think logistics and operations and software and technology and AI and, you know, especially when you're at the helm of a larger outfit like they've got over there in Canada. So Chase, why don't you give these guys, if you don't mind, maybe like the two or three minute macro on kind of still get today, you know, where you guys are at maybe top line and, you know, a number of team members. But then, you know, feel free. If you don't mind, take us all the way back. Like how'd you get started in this industry and I don't know if that was five, 10, 20 years ago, like some of us, but maybe take it back to the beginning. How you guys got started too? Yeah. So today, Connoissega consists of about 50 to 75 team members, depending on the season. So we actually ramped up for the winter season. And you know, our top lines are on 10 to 15 million dollars with about 60% of our revenue being snow. The rest of our revenue is in the construction and maintenance and facility care space.

6:20Yeah. I started this back when I was 13 years old. I was taking care of some of the largest states in a small town called Bamberg. Yeah. If you have fun, little fact, if you actually listened to Mark Bradley in one of his biggest projects that he ever worked on, it was out in the town called Bamberg as well, which was the same thing. And I was actually maintaining his property that he did that job on before him, just as a kid. So yeah, so it started as 13. My mom and dad would have to drive me to maintain these states. And through high school, through grade school, I worked for various other landscaping companies. But my dad was an electrical engineer and salesman. And he kind of wanted me to get an electrical trade. So I did get into the electrical trade, became a electrician, ultimately became a master electrician and a gas fitter while running this business on the side and doing jobs on the weekend and hiring a few guys to help me.

7:21Ultimately, when it became too much, I was doing nothing well. So I had to choose a focus. So I went to my boss at the electrical company, contracting business. And I had about 20 electricians that were working under me at that job and then about eight employees. And I said to him, I said, hey, I said, you think in the next three to five years, I could one day become a project manager and an estimator. And he laughed at me and he said, buddy, Chase, you've never been to university. So I don't think that's in your cards. And I just kind of said, oh, OK, well, then you've kind of made my decision really, really simple. Right. Right. And at that time, at that exact same time, the reason I went into his office and asked him for this was because I landed a $250,000 government contract. So I had to kind of pick something. I was like, OK, well, you know what? I'm starting to kind of fail here. I'm starting to fail here. I need to pick my focus. So this contract allowed me the confidence to go and focus on my business without getting

8:23kind of sucked into working in the business and really focusing on working on business, which allowed us to scale fairly rapidly. From that time, tell, you know, let's say now I had a couple other ventures in the mix that were tied into landscaping. I had a partner in a irrigation business. He bought a few small businesses. And you know, some have been great experiences. Others have not been so great. And they taught me a lot. But from the start in 2013, when I decided to go full time, one of the key foundations that I think that contributed to our growth the most was just it's a slogan that we wear on all our vehicles, all our sleeves. It's a slogan that people based doesn't have. And you know, we kind of were saying that we kind of had this as our slogan before. It was a popular trend, you think to say because it was something that was very important to me. And because of those certain other experiences, but mostly that electrical experience where that person laughed and said, hey, you never been to school and didn't give me the chance.

9:26I said to myself, I want to give people chances to do things that they wouldn't otherwise be given the chance to do, you know, without maybe me being the catalyst or this company being the catalyst to make it that happened. So that's been a foundational building block of our business. And it still is today. So it's something that's very important to me. Money is very unimportant to me, but it's a product of the things that we do well. And so yeah, that's a two to three minutes in office of PCG and what's how we got here. That's such a great story. And thanks for taking us back and reminiscing a little bit. I know it brings up some old stories and some old memories for sure when we all kind of talk back how we got started in the industry and in the career in landscaping. I mean, it's many people have said like, it's kind of like a career that picks you. You don't really pick it, you know, if you will. And nobody for the most part of like 15 or 18 is like, hey, one day I want to grow up to be a landscaper. But then you kind of get involved in the trade in the industry and you start growing this

10:28thing. And you're like, I can make a great business out of this. How come like my guidance council never talked to me about self employment, let alone number one is always my rant. Number two, you know, doing awesome work like we're all doing in long landscaping, hard escaping snow. I think I think it's a super, super fun business. Is it easy? Gosh, no, logistics and finances and of course, people and training like never ending, you know, but that's just business in general. One thing I want to go back to that you had mentioned Chase was that you had a growth mindset, your boss ironically enough or the owner. It's not like he didn't have a growth mindset, I'm sure. And you know, he's an entrepreneur, he's doing the best he can. But when one of your like, you know, call it a team members, a players is coming to you with the mindset of growth and how do I, how do I, you know, do more for this company so I can make more money? How can I become a senior leader or, you know, what's the path to, you know, partnership equity, you know, in this thing?

11:29I'm all in. And to be met with, you know, basically laugh, like laughing at your face, that's a, that's to relieve that thought. But like, how, how deflating and frustrating and like just wrong answer, bro, you know what I mean at the end of the day. What, what, what were you feeling at that moment and you said it gave you like the confidence blend in that big contract to go get more work? What were you thinking at that time? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I had a few things to fall back on, right? And I think, I think if I, if I really go back to, you know, maybe needed the weekend to kind of get to the root cause of why I am the way I am. But if I really get back to what I was thinking at that time, I mean, I, I, I, one time I did some stereo set, stereo sales as well as a part time business. I really enjoyed sales, you know, and I was like, okay, so I go back into sales. So I keep being a nutrition. I could be a gas, but I could be a multi-trade. I could, but I really just enjoyed dealing with down to earth real people, which I felt

12:31like we had in our landscaping. And I also enjoyed dealing with the customer and seeing how our actions got to contribute to, because at that time we did quite a bit of residential as well. Our actions got to contribute to an outcome where the customer was super happy. They just, they saw us as a, as a, as a kind of a benefit to their life, a lifestyle choice. And it felt, right? And I didn't feel good about doing all the other things that I was doing. And so, yeah, so I think, I think just that helping people in general is, it was a, was a big deal for me. And I think that that, that could be helping people in, on the employment side, I could be helping my customer just, you know, get what they were promised to feel good about their, their lifestyle, because, you know, they've made it. They're able to hire that landscaper and maybe that prestigious landscaper. And then, as far as helping our employees, like that's what we're trying to do here. When you, when you come to the breaking records tour, facility tour, our shop, you're going to see things like career progression.

13:31You're going to see an apprenticeship program that we created. You're going to see that we have a full-time people leader that's just focusing on, on helping people reach their full potential. And you're going to see, you know, that it's very transparent. They just are up on the wall, career progressions up on the wall. There's education, there's bookshelves. You're going to see all that. And it's not, it's not always, to be honest with you, it's not always utilized the way that I think it should be. However, getting people to understand what they're capable of and to realize what they're capable of is not a small feat. And I think those projects sometimes are, are something that I kind of enjoy. Yeah. And I don't think, I don't think at scale, you can love doing those projects all the time. But you do need those building block people, you know, there's quite a few people that have been, quite a bit of time. You do need those building blocks of people that have been here from the beginning and know, and it can be that example of, hey, that person started as a laborer on a trimmer.

14:31And now they're a production manager or now they're in sales, now they're in, you know, managing people. And I think that that's, you know, that's very inspirational for certain people coming into the organization as well. And giving us good building blocks of the future. I love what you're saying there about investing into like a career path for your team. The last couple of shop tours that we've done, the thing to that, stood out big time was a quidnic landscape with Rick over there. And also CLS landscape supply. Like they had in their, like kind of, I don't know if it was an office room or conference room. It was upstairs. So that we did on the Brian Salmanean's YouTube channel. I'm trying to do a correlating shop tour on the Friday, you know, so day ones, the classroom Sam's just giving out the sauce for eight to 10 hours if you guys don't know. And then day two, for about three or four hours, we do a half day shop tour for the local host company like we're talking about. Well, like they, they, you know, pretty much open up every single thing. I mean, there's nothing's really been like quote unquote off limits. You see all the posters on the wall, the career paths on the wall.

15:35Some disclose pay, some don't. But it's really cool just to, you know, take some photos, you know, like, Hey, that's a really cool poster. Like how do you guys make that? And, you know, it's just like the roadmap. And so I remember snapping a bunch of photos at a quidnic. I remember snapping a bunch of photos at CLS landscape supply. So this is like what's inspired me through all the education that we've been going through for the last year or two. And some of the content we're sharing, obviously, with people, part of the people system in the classroom. This is what we're discussing. And then to see it in reality, to see it in practice, you know, at the shop tour, next day with that local company, who's doing three, five, 10, 15 plus million dollars, right? Like it's, it's really, really cool to see something tangible. And chase, I'm going to go back to you about the career path and the, the rewarding side of seeing people be able to grow in your organization. Like that's what we're starting to see at Brian's, you know, with more than just like rank and file, you know, crew member to right hand, but guys becoming crew leads to supervisors

16:36and again, we're, we're a smaller outfit right now. But as we continue to grow, like we're, we're laying those breadcrumbs behind us. So we know how we got here and documenting everything we can to, you know, then grow the larger role and opportunities at the company. And it's, it's really cool to see. I mean, we're going through that process the last 18 months. I know if I can do that with my band, a Mary Men, you know, with a team of 10 or so, I'm sure yourself with a team of 50, 75 or 100 guys, it's got to be really cool to, to see where you guys, you know, came from why you got started. Like you said, with humble beginnings to, to where you guys are at today with kind of a staggot, you know, come on. Sop wasting nights, building business systems from scratch with a launcher, per newer SOP training bundle. You get the exact field tested scripts, checklist and templates we use to run our company. But best of all, it's not static. As our industry evolves, we add new tools like our brand new sales scripts and snow templates and you get every update for light. Stop guessing, start scaling.

17:38Visit launchprevieweracademy.com today or use the link provided in the podcast description. So one real tactical part to this is that, you know, when you see this stuff, when you start putting on a path of being a little more transparent with, you know, people's progression and investing in people, there's a lot of fear that is kind of, especially in art business because people are always worried about other people's losing because it is an unregulated industry and, you know, people are as fearful that all this person's going to go start something on their own. But the reality is that when you give people a safe place to earn an 11 and you give them a safe place, they know that they can earn real dollars if they perform and if they're engaged, it's pretty rewarding. Like, you know, but it takes us as leaders to actually, you know, start to get into the minds of our people, understand things like Maslow's hierarchy of needs and all these things so that people, you know, they are engaged in your business. And but that starts with us as a leader.

18:39Like a lot of leaders, they put their head in their sand and they say, hey, you know, we just got to get the sun. And ultimately, our people don't want to see that. They actually want to see us as leaders lead. And they, they, sure, they love to see us actually do the work every once in a while, but they want to see you enable them to succeed, right? They don't want to be in your shadows this whole time. And so you got to create that environment for them that's transparent as well as that they can kind of like carry their own briefcase for their career. But you've kind of put the building blocks and the foundation in place for them to know what to do. And, you know, not everybody's had the same experiences in life that you and I have had. And so some of them might just not know the steps to take. Right. And creating that map inside the organization is not easy. I wish I would have gone to a few of the facility tours that you guys have already done because I think that we would have seen some pretty amazing things that we could have implemented in our business. And I think that that's why these tours are so great, right?

19:40Well, I wanted to go back to something just a second ago. So we came off a long weekend. It's been about two, three weeks since we've had our team meeting. We normally do a bi-weekly team meeting. Schedules being crazy, which means team meeting didn't get done. That's not an excuse to not do them, right? In fact, you should still do team meetings when there's nothing going on or too much going on. So, you know, today long story short, it took an hour and a half and did a team meeting. And what you just said, like seriously, funny, that you just shared all that case study. I was talking to all the guys this morning. We're talking about snow growth, this kind of growth, our new higher training program and system. And I said, something along the lines of, you know, derivative of derivative, but I said, you know, guys in five years, I don't expect any of you guys to be on a mower. You guys should all be account managers, sales roles. You know, there should be an opportunity where we're back filling another 30, 40, 50 guys. And one of my guy goes, he goes, hey, can I record that? I would say just like that one more time and record. And I go, dude, I saw weird laugh. And then I said, like my resume is the sales poster. I said, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing by selling and growing top line revenue.

20:46And of course, making some great hires, protecting culture, casting the vision, doing the president, owner, founder, CEO type stuff, right? Like at the end of the day, holding people accountable. I will just tell you, I want to go back to a topic, Chase. You said so good. And basically, I kind of summarize it as like hiding. So many times owners, not to go down a whole rabbit hole here, but feel like we're hiding doing the easy stuff for the fun stuff or the convenient stuff. And you have grown obviously a tremendous company. And I just want to get your thoughts on this while we're kind of open up this can of worms. Like, do owners, why do we hide sometimes doing things that are convenient, more fun? And instead of the stuff that needs to get done, obviously, you've grown a 10 million out of company. And there's times where you're doing the fun stuff and, you know, maybe it's buying trucks or operations. I know, I know you have a huge snow business. You're on the, the Granum element snow webinar just a couple of weeks back, killed it, obviously did a great job. No, no doubt in my mind that you were going to do a great job.

21:46But it was, is there times where you had to do things in the company, you know, over the last couple of years, as you've hidden some larger revenue numbers where you couldn't hide any longer or certain systems or processes were breaking and you're like, man, like this is in my forte, but I got to get in there and fix this. If you don't mind me asking because we're all growing, we're all doing things that we want to do, but as I'm learning and as I'm growing up in life and in business, there's a lot of stuff that I got to do as well that maybe I don't want to do that day. Yeah, so I could go a bunch of different directions here, but you know, your numbers, your numbers will expose you pretty hefty, right? So like I can say anything I want, you know, I'm a great leader in my people list and my people that and you hear it when you go and interact with other landstakers all the time, they don't want to tell you all the things that they're doing well. But you know, when you start to know your numbers and you start to realize that you've got problems, it exposes who you are as a leader very, very, very, very quickly. And a lot of us want to put our head in the stands and think that it's the guys, you know,

22:47I hear this all the time, all the guys, the guys that nobody else work anymore. But the reality is that, you know, it all comes down to us. We maybe hired the wrong people. We maybe didn't, you know, I think you just said they're keeping people accountable. We didn't keep them accountable because we didn't like cruise ship conversations. You know, we didn't even know our numbers as a leader, right? So there's a few surprises there. And I think that it exposes us pretty heavily. So I'll use an example like this last winter in the winters path. I love working winter, by the way. That's my favorite season. Normally what you'll find me doing is I'm not in charge of any, I help get things set up. And then I do quality assurance inspections. And then I give feedback to my leaders and my leaders are supposed to give feedback to my operators and the root managers. So this last winter, we did have a whole bunch of new bodies. We had people leave us for various reasons, but, you know, very few leave us to go to competitors with always like, oh, we're leaving this area because housing's too expensive

23:49or I'm going to a career, I'm being a firefighter, whatever it is, right? I decided that I'm going to take on the training role for a specific zone. And so you would see me out there every night and I would be out there training my team because ultimately, like, there's nobody that should be, that can share the story of what our standards are aside for me, right? So I would, and I would do that with the sidewalk. So I would go out there, shovel sidewalks and, you know, this is where a lot of owners get things wrong. They think, oh, okay, well, I deserve the spot on the nice warm cow, deserves a nice pushy job, right? I deserve the dispatching from my bed. Well, yeah, okay. So depending on this organizational structure, maybe, but you need to be willing to do the dirty jobs, even at our scale. And your team will see that and you'll be amazed at how many, or how much less complaining and how much more motivation you'll see in everybody because there'll be like, Chase is willing to do anything.

24:49So maybe I should be kind of willing to do anything to achieve my goals that I've got set for my position. And so like, and I think a lot of people with the biggest problem, and those people in general, is they set a goal and they've consistently think about what the cost of the step or what it takes to get to that goal instead of saying, hey, that's my goal. I'm going to do whatever it takes. And so when they see you doing that visually and they can actively see it, you're doing it every single day. I think that you just, you'll end up with a lot less complaining and whining and all that stuff in your organization. And I'm just going to go back to the comment I made before where people love to complain about all of this generation doesn't like to work. That might be the environment that we created for. Right. It might be that we kind of created the environment where there was the option to complain and there was the option to not be held accountable. And it was the option to not see a good example of the work being done or not seeing how I can get to $18 an hour, up to $45 an hour.

25:53If you show them the steps and you don't hold them back, if you show them the steps and really validate it properly, then of course, I'm going to stay with you because they know what it takes to get there, even if they're only at $20 right now. But they know that, okay, you know what? If I do this within three to four years, I'll be here. But if you don't share that with them and don't tell them which runs on the ladder to climb on, then don't expect them to stick around. And yeah, I can go on for this for a long time. That's money. That's not me off. That's where it's hidden. Remind three, five times on the 30 second skip and going back and relic listening to that ramp because you're right. I mean, like I did it a day, right? You're so right. You nailed it. Both from a practical sense, but also from a lived experience. If I'm noticing this too, like my guys are hungry, like they want to grow. They all want to make more money. And we have to, I have to do certain things that might come in to fulfill those promises. I mean, that's, I think that would be, you know, fair of anybody out there, right?

26:55It's, you know, you sold in the dream and they want to lock in with you and it makes me do the hard things. I can't hide, you know, re-arranging my desktop icons on my computer for an hour and thinking that was productive. Like that's not closing snow. That's not closing maintenance contracts or whatever that I'm tasked with doing, you know? And so is it always fun? No. Is it always convenient? Gosh, no. Is it always the stuff that I want to do? Absolutely. Tomorrow I got to go to do two site visits. I have no problem doing it. But what I'd rather do a hundred other things for sure. Is there anything else that matters more that day in the business for me and what I'm supposed to do than to go lock down to $30,000 snow contracts? Absolutely not. That's the number one thing I should be doing to move the needle forward. So, you know, in, by the way, a lot of this takes a lot of intentionality, a lot of thought, a lot of thinking, a lot of planning and playing chess.

27:55And that's why, you know, you're not going to be best served in your organization. Like you said, Chase, necessarily being in the plow track or on a mower or doing the silly stuff that you can pay almost anybody in your organization that wants the opportunity as well, you know, $20, $25, $30 an hour to go do. And so that's, that's some of the evolution, some of the growth that I'm going through. I know Chase has been there and probably still going through it in many different ways, especially what do they say, Chase, like new levels, new devils, I'm sure that doesn't go away. Does it? Oh, no, you know what? I'll tell you some stories when we get together in person. But yeah, I mean, this year's been one of the most challenging people years we've ever had. And it's not because, it's not because we don't know the systems. It's not, and it's a problem I'll identify. And I'll say it publicly, is that we have values on the wall. And if somebody works directly with me, they're like, okay, I'm willing to work with this person. You know, he's got my best interest in mind. The problem is, is that my values, my mission, my vision for the business aren't always

28:57transferred through my management. And so if you aren't, we talked about accountability. We love to talk about accountability on the front line. But what about accountability on the middle managers? Because, you know, they are the people that are tough and they've got a hard job. Don't get me wrong, but they're the people tasked with looking after your people and your customers and your best interest. I have three people. And so like, they do have a tough job and it takes a very unique personality. And I've put some of those people in position that shouldn't have been there and they drive people away. And so this is a, this is something that I've dealt with multiple times, but haven't always remembered it in a moment. And so you know, you can see these fancy visions, like I said, the values on the wall. But if your managers aren't transferring that and they're not in the extension as you when you're believed, then they shouldn't be in your organization. They might be a good manager somewhere else, but they shouldn't be in your organization. Yeah.

29:57Right? And I've made that mistake and that's, you know, that's something that we're busy fixing right now. We've identified it. And that's, I think where the experience comes in is that you can identify these things when they have them. And then you can pivot really fast. It doesn't take you three years to pivot. It takes you three months to pivot, right? Right. Right. So that's the perfect. It's never going to be butterflies and rainbows ever since. I want to go back to something you said here and we'll probably wind it down here and I'll let you get back to cleaning up the shop and put on a fresh coat of paint and you know, putting a lipstick out of pig with the same ideas for all of our shop tours. And I don't say that about kind of Sega. I just tell you guys, everywhere we go, everybody like armorals, the truck tires and the tractors of the skid, you know, tracks. I'm like, really? Like that's what that looks like every day. Like, no, actually, it was take, take, take the mud and look like came out of a pig pen. But of course, elements coming through and Sam Gembles coming through. So everybody kind of rolls out the red carpet. I get it. We always appreciate that. It's a good, it is a good kind of direct pressure chase, you know, to like kind of clean up

30:59the shop, you know? Like, we don't want this place looking like a pigstie. But what I'll just say is easy, easy pivot here, guys, easy transition is that when you're able to go behind the scenes and look at the logistics, look at the operations of many of these companies, then again, you know, you think we're pretty unfiltered and transparent on the podcast. I'll tell you when you're hanging out, you know, eating lunch or having a, you know, a drink after hours, happy hour after the events, folks are really raw and really authentic. I don't know anybody that I've ever been to on a shop tour that has ever like held back, you know, I've always said, hey, like, would you mind if I asked this question and have somebody doesn't feel comfortable with asking or answering, they'll tell you. But I don't know if I've ever even had anybody push back. I'm like, hey, like, what did you guys do top line? What did you guys make bottom line? Like what's, what's working? What's not working? Hey, can you remember back when you were doing revenue at my level, like what's some things I give me two or three things that I should be focusing on or thinking that are important? What do I think that's important?

31:59That's not actually important. What's the next land mine? What's the next two things around the corners that I got to start thinking about and preparing for it? I've always enjoyed conversations like that. And that's what you get at the shop tours. Of course, low-hanging fruit here, element and random is doing the break records tour. We're going to be going over to Waterloo here in just a couple of days. Very, very excited about that. Again, I invite you guys to come check out a massive operation with what Chase and his team has built. $10 to $15 million outfit. I mean, really, really cool opportunity. And they'll tell you all the great things. And I'm sure Chase said, after hours, happy hour, it's all the stuff that's not working great as well. But he's humble and he's transparent. And that's what I really appreciate about this industry. That's what I really appreciate about this community of folks. And so it's going to be really, really cool. Chase, I'll give you the final thought in the last couple of minutes here. Anything, I know we kind of got a little bit of the high level and just a little pulse, a little check in. I know you and I could talk snow for another hour or two. We could talk logistics on everything else for another hour or two.

33:01You guys got some great stuff going on. I don't want to just do a drive by here. But I'll tell you, you guys got a great company. You should be really proud of what you're doing. And again, we're really excited that you guys are opening up later this week. So anything else that we didn't cover or dance on that that's top of mind for you. But you just been awesome having you on the show today, man. Yeah, no, thanks. I think, you know, I just encourage everybody. If it's not this facility tour, this educational event definitely makes sure you're spending the time and resources and investing in yourself and your team. But this one's a great one. It's very localized if you're from our area or at least three hours away. You know, it's a beautiful area. You're going to get to see the farmer's market, maybe. I think I know where, if you come to our shop, we're on a street with horse and buggy mayonnaise and we're out in the country. So yeah, we're looking forward to seeing everybody showing everybody how we do things and also ultimately learning from you as well. Like we're going to come and get a hear from a few people coming through here with some

34:03great ideas as well. And we're just excited about having some of our knowledge and experience shared with everybody. So I think a better industry for all makes it more profitable for everybody as well. Right? So it gives more opportunities for all of us. Man, that's awesome. That's awesome. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't been let down yet. Everywhere I go, I'm telling you, we're bringing the information. We're hosting the shop tour. Sam's a pool sweat, you know, on Thursday at five o'clock and the dude loses his voice almost every time. He just, he just pours it out there. I mean, he's such a butt kicker. Folks, that's how you, we've had so many folks the day before and the day of by their ticket. I get it. I get logistics. I understand it's a short week with the holiday for a lot of us in the States. I get like, look, you could always churn revenue. There's always more work to do. You could always be doing a fall clean up when it's a quip-acquip or launch printer academy. There's always more money to be made. I'm not, I'm not going to deny that. I'm right there with you. The first 10 years of my career, 15 years of my career, I would have went and made the

35:06money. I wish somebody would have grabbed me at the football helmet, you know, at the face mask and said, hey, dude, you need to be in this room. You need to be in this environment. Just try it. Give it 10 hours. You know, you're going to get so much education, a fantastic roadmap. You're going to get the clarity that you're looking for. And there isn't been a single person that's been to the tour where they're like, ah, wasn't worth it. Ah, waste of my time. I'm going to get the full impact. All the feedback we've been getting is, dang, I wish I would have brought my friend, my business partner, my spouse. One company is bringing 12 folks over to the shop tour and the break record sort of water glue on Thursday. So like, folks, if it's good enough for you to just bring yourself or one or two people, imagine a company bringing 12 folks to give their whole team the education and the sauce. All right. So I'll just tell you, if you guys are listening to this same day or next day, make the track. Come on out, like make the investment. I promise you you'll be so glad that you did and get the shake hands, network, make friends. And just again, kind of peel back some layers of the of the onion and see how other folks

36:10are doing it. I promise you you're going to leave with a notebook full of great ideas. And so it's going to be a really, really good time. And again, we hope to see you guys there not only at kind of Sega, but the other three or so shop tours and break record tour spots remaining. So that's all I really got. Chase. I really thank you for your time. So fun. And again, it's been great to make friends in the industry. And again, I see you at events everywhere I go. So I know you guys are putting in the work. And again, Kudos and props to you, brother, for taking it to the front and building a beautiful great company out there. I know it's a lot of work, but dude, you're doing it and we're really proud of you. Yeah. Thanks, Brian. This was the second podcast I've ever done. You make it easy. Well, great guests. Make great interviews. Amen. So all I do is hit start and stop. Amen. So let's go. This has been good. Folks, we all know that you guys got a lot to get back to myself included. We are making it in a short week. We got endless logistics to get done. And I got to go sell some freaking snow. Amen. So that being said, we'll leave links in the show notes for everything we shared today.

37:12And if you guys have any questions, shoot us an email, shoot us a DM. We're always here for you. And I hope to see a bunch of you guys here at Waterloo. Pretty much today or tomorrow, depending on when you guys listen to the show. All right. Over now, guys, have a great day. We look forward to catch up with all of you guys here on the next one. Doing a successful lawn care business can feel lonely. But you don't have to figure everything out by yourself. On Saturday, November 7th, join the lawn care and landscaping community at Lawntrap Producer Academy Live, 2026, and Nova, Michigan. This is more than just another business conference. It's a full day of honest conversations, proven strategies, powerful networking, and practical ideas you can take home and put to work. Starting from successful business owners and industry leaders, including Brian Fullerton, Mark Bradley, Mike Arnold, Steve Woodcroft, Jerry Schill, and more. Bring your questions, your challenges, and your biggest business goals you may find the answer from the stage in the hallway or from another owner sitting right beside you.

38:14Early bird tickets are only $297 through September 17th. Reserve your seat now at lawntraprenureacademy.com. On Trapreneur Academy Live, 2026, there's also a link in the show description. Thanks for taking the time to listen to the Fullerton unfiltered podcast with Brian Fullerton. We hope you enjoyed this production. If so, please consider leaving us a five star review for the show. While the techniques and ideas presented here are designed to help you grow a more successful and profitable business, no one can guarantee these results for you. Anyone emphasized that entrepreneurship is not easy. And the ideas presented here are just the opinions of Brian Fullerton and his respective guests. No one can guarantee success for you. That being said, we hope the ideas presented here help you and motivate you to go on out there and crush it with your own business. Fullerton unfiltered podcast. Thanks for listening, and we hope to see you on the next episode. This has been a Brian Fullerton and Mr. Producer Production.