Day at work Running a Landscaping Company

good morning it's 5:30 a.m. and you're going to work with me today I don't schedule my days but they fill up pretty fast so let's see what's going to happen today typical day at work this is beginning of April 2016 all right 7:00 a.m. I'm out of the site where we're going to be knocking down the house behind us we got to get all the asbestos out of it I want to bring you on the inside first thing that I want to tell you is I don't want you to get intimidated by projects like this if you're in the lawn care if you're beginning out in landscaping something like this can feel overwhelming there was a time when I knew nothing about this stuff but slowly you're going to build up to stuff like this they want you just to keep at it I've got to gain access from here the street that I'm on to that house so I can rebuild a patio this is common area it can't be destroyed it can't be altered for plywood comes in handy alright I'm at a site where we do on average about ninety thousand dollars of maintenance new installation per year for this townhome development took me six years I don't hide this fact took me six years to get a two-year college degree but the reason I'm able to land contracts like this is because success doesn't care if I have a piece of paper that says I graduated from college or not with that I want to caution caution you about not going to college if you have the opportunity to go to college if you're in high school looking at this do so by every means possible but I also want to challenge you for a moment instead of going to college and having your mom and dad pay the bill I want you to go to college and try to pay the bill on your own if at all possible you will learn as much fiscal responsibility by taking on the challenge of paying for college yourself as you will learn actually in college studying you're also going to appreciate your classes more you're going to appreciate everything that College has to offer when you pay for and that's what the real world is so if you're in high school watching this go to college please do so but if you don't have that opportunity understand that it's not going to close a single door on you if you don't go to college success doesn't care it doesn't care about that piece of paper here's about what's in your heart and what's in your head and what's on your feet your boots you got to get up and got to put your pants on you got to go to work those are the true definers of success all right I'm on site I'm with Lisa and Don and we are looking looking at access to removing the swimming pool this one is to say the least a very restricted site to get into the reason is we have this building which is completely blocking our access point the only way to get into their site is by removing the building behind me or doing something that I recommend which is going actually through the neighbor's yard it requires cooperation from what two parties Lisa yes two parties so we've got to get access from the White House right there we've got to gain access through their yard but to gain access through their yard we've got to actually use the other houses driveway so we're going to go over and check with both properties and see if we can do it so to gain access to the site we cut through this yard and we hook up to their driveway so it requires three people to do this one site now I've also offered to do the negotiating for these guys if they're uncomfortable with doing that or they can do it themselves I've done it many times but this is a swimming pool we're going to be removing for them and you can see right there that's the shed that's the only point in this point over here no access whatsoever so we either take that shut down or we cut through their yard to gain access to the site it makes more sense to cut through that yard to gain access to the site so we're gonna see what we can we can accomplish on this one so you lived in Switzerland and yeah that was kind of fun you know it's Gooden some ways you know it's it's a lot different than going on vacation yeah I know when you go on vacation you're in a hotel and everything you have to live there and you have grocery shopping and of course your wife speaks French I was in the French part of Switzerland so how's that oh you know they polite because I've mmm you know they're similar used to Minnesota yeah with some people it's so expensive people have mean homes have been in the family for generations yeah so all the generations have friends in generations so you know so it's a very insular community kind of like Minnesota right if you're an outsider they do outsider they don't have hugs and kisses for you alikum yeah yeah and then of course you know the language barrier is an additional cut they didn't find your accent fascinating imagine that so what we're going to be doing for Roger is we're going to take out the swimming pool we're going to remove the fence and then we got to catch up to that opening this opening right here and then we're after the fact okay if I put you on camera Roger after the fact we're going to design because you have a lot of outdoor furniture from Switzerland oh we're going to design a patio too we're going to actually lay out his furniture so what we're going to do is we're going to take a garden hose I love the garden hose trick and then what we do is we put the garden hose out we put your furniture in place and then we know exactly how much patio you can actually use there's no guessing and then out there we're going to build an outdoor fire pit because he's got a retaining wall on the backdrop and we're going to use that and we can see that we're not underneath the drip line of the tree we've got a nice kind of a nice backdrop that he's going to be able to look out from his living room see the fire pit come off from his main deck we're going to connect it up with a with just a three-foot sidewalk so coming off from here we're just going to have a three-foot sideway the reason we want to connect it is we want it to feel like it's part of the house if we separate it I really don't think that although visually it's going to be there it's just the feel that it gives so connecting it's going to going to be a strong Paulo it's not necessary when it's when you see the finished product it makes a huge impact really I mean it does and we also discussed using gravel out there because you know we have other options but on a fire pit like that you know we could make it look really nice we could use a glue trap stone to go against the shading of the house but you got the the issues with you on your feet the gravel it's just not as inviting as having a nice brick stone patio that blends in and we can use charcoal gray out here or we could contrast a little bit with the color of your house and we could catch up some of the colors of the deck because I see you've got looks like a kind of a red reddish cedar color with the white so we could pull the red out of the deck and hook that into the landscaping or we can pull the color off your house and go with blue so we can bring out a few samples and we can kind of lay that out and get a really good feel for what we're going to be doing before we proceed so we're taking this project one step at a time the first step is to demo remove then lay the garden hose off so we're going to we're going to demo and remove all this was a six grand I think I told you six grand where a demo would remove all this for six grand haul it away and then we're going to do phase two which is laying everything out but we're not going to have a break in the action that's the critical thing even though we're going to be doing this in two phases we're not leaving your job and coming back it's one right after another and can just continuing it on so we'll be working hand in hand and I don't know I think it's going to be a fun project well to say I didn't have a plan for today this morning was kind of a like they did have a plan I actually have about 46 open hardscape leads that I was going to hopefully call and what I wanted to do today was at least film one or two sales calls and include that in the video but it I don't think I'm going to be able to get back to the office because the phone has been ringing my cell phone has been ringing nonstop and customers that have my cell phone number have a priority because it means I've already vetted them which means I've already made sure that they have the money they're ready to move on a job and they're ready to sign on the dotted line by doing that I save myself a lot of time going out to different projects well good example is right here is a hundred dollar deposit that last job I just looked at it was only a six thousand dollar demo but it also has over fifteen dollars for the paperwork side work that he's already verbally committed to and so unfortunately I'm not going to be able to get to the office and give you guys a couple sales calls which I really wanted to do because I firmly believe that the sales is the heart and soul of the company and I want you guys to wrap your head around the fact that as soon as you get really good at doing sales you're going to have way more work than you can ever ever handle all right meeting with Bryan right now we are going to be real an scaping your front yard Bryan and so I make sure we got it we're on the same page what we're going to be doing there we'll be pulling tree 1/2 a tree behind it this tree were to be yanking so we got four trees I was important to my wife that I moved into a house hearing a member in the landscaper the farmer housing from the edging and relax remove some of the shrubs and mulch and lay down new rock and such in the front ah and my guess just if you guys might be someone that would be able to work in the West Metro so if you are able if you give me a call back that you're a number okay so he's inside right now getting the departmental down payment even for a small job like that I require hundred dollars down the things I want to talk to you about is even driving the rusty rocket today I'm still able to close all these jobs because it's about building rapport on top of that I'm wearing my competitions sweatshirt not even technically my competition but one of the guys from YouTube sent me his sweatshirt so technically I'm wearing another company's clothes I'm driving a rusty rock and I'm still able to call them because of the rapport you know you're gonna hear me say time and time again you got to make a good first impression and part of that is going to be the way you look and the initial impression that your vehicle gives off today I was able to sign three jobs for sure and a fourth one that is probably going to confirm driving the rusty rocket and not even wearing my own clothes so it's proof that you can do it but it does give you a bigger initial hurdle to get over and I don't want you guys to have hurdles to get over I want you guys to be able to go out there and have everything fall in line so you can quickly and easily sell your jobs and move on down the road so that's why you're going to hear my podcasts and other videos where I talk about try to make that good first impression try to have your car clean try to be dressed appropriately because it's just going to open more doors and make life that much easier for you alright I talked to you a little bit about the importance of impressions and how you can overcome you know initial impressions it also depends on the level of importance of the project it let's be frank you know the bigger the project the more important that first impression is here's a great example I'm going out to meet with a board association on a massive retaining wall project we're talking about a two to three year scope of work probably coming in a little bit under $100,000 am i taking the rusty rocket not a chance are they going to see my car probably not but if they do it's got to be a work vehicle so it's either going to be the Mustang or in this case it's going to be easier for me to grab one of the work trucks they're new they're clean they look official I'm going to grab that am i wearing my competitors sweatshirt anymore nope it's a button-up collar button up collar plus it also has the Versa lock name versa lock logo which is what I'm going to be talking to them about I still have brochures I also have the official brochures from versa lock which they highlight our work in their brochures and I can point that out at the town home board a meeting all right the the board Association meeting those are all I I need every tool in my tool belt I need every weapon possible to make sure that I come away with this contract and the most important weapon possible is your ability to effectively communicate and this is something that you perfect outside of the job where the monies are when the dollar bills are not on the table so do I feel confident about what's going to happen I do because I've taken the time to go to be and I in the past I've taken the time to go to Toastmasters religiously without ever meeting I force myself and force I don't enjoy it but I forced myself to go into these contests speaking contest but why do it no but when it comes time for me to meet with a panel of people and I have $100,000 on the line I want to go in feeling confident so the rusty rocket stays home I change trucks I dress up a little bit I've practiced outside of where it's important so now when I go into this meeting I can nail it or at least know that I've done the best the best I can and feel confident about what I'm doing that's my day to day that meetings at 5:30 I'm probably not going to be out of there till 6:30 7 o'clock I'll let you know how it goes after I'm done wish me luck 7 o'clock the day is done wrap the day up with a meeting with a townhome association went well a pretty big project at least $100,000 job sounds like I'm a very strong contender Burke fingers crossed hopefully get it I don't know if videos like this help you guys out hopefully they do I don't know how they can be honest with you I don't know what you guys get out of these things but you seem to like them so I make them for you guys hope this has helped you out love you guys I want nothing but the very best for you guys I try to share some thoughts during the day maybe they maybe that was good maybe it wasn't I don't know it is what it is god bless take care each and every one of you guys all right 7:00 a.m. in the morning this house is slotted to be demoed before we can actually take it down we've got to get all the asbestos removed we've been working on this project for the over the last 10 days getting all the paperwork set and ready and sorry the number you have dialed is not inserted at this time all right it's 7:00 a.m. in the morning and we're going to be knocking down this gorgeous house that you see behind me all right at 7:00 a.m. in the morning this house is slotted to be demoed before we can actually take it down we've got to get all the asbestos removed we've been working on this project for the over the last 10 days getting all the paperwork sat and ready champey I'm trying