The GROW! Show

Hosted by Marty Grunder

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188

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Oct 2026

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The GROW! Show is a show that highlights Marty Grunder's annual conference, GROW!. The GROW! show will showcase how anyone in the green industry can grow themselves, their team, and their business.

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October 24, 202614 min

The Truth Your Business Needs to Hear | Receiving & Applying Feedback

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #191: In this episode of The GROW! Show, Marty Grunder checks in with three past GROW! hosts: Gene Freeman from Dallas, Texas, Jason Cromley from Columbus, Ohio, and Annette McCarthy from Des Moines, Iowa. Marty asks each of them the same five questions to find out what they’re seeing in the market, what’s working in their businesses, and what they’ve learned along the way. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Feedback Is a Gift. But not every opinion carries the same weight. Judge the quality of the feedback, not whether you like the person delivering it. Ask Your Salespeople First. They’re on the front lines hearing objections, pricing concerns, and the reasons customers buy or don’t buy. Ask them point-blank what’s preventing them from selling more. Then Ask Operations. Production knows if salespeople are setting the right expectations. Ask what gets sold that causes problems and where estimates fall short. Talk to Three Customer Groups. Your best repeat customers, the ones you recently lost, and the prospects who said no. Don’t assume you know why they chose or didn’t choose you. Pull in Trusted Outsiders. Your ACE peer group, a mentor, another landscape owner who understands the business. They see what you can’t because you’re too close. Who Not to Ask. Don’t build strategy around the person who complains about everything but offers no solutions. Don’t let one unreasonable customer dictate how you run the whole company. Three Questions, Not Twenty-Five. What’s working that we should keep doing? What’s not working that we should stop or change? If you were in my shoes, what’s the one thing you’d change? Ask the Follow-Up. When someone says proposals take too long, don’t just write it down. Ask for an example, ask how often, ask what they would recommend. Chase the root cause. Ask Yourself the Hardest Question. What am I, the owner, doing or not doing that’s getting results I don’t want? The 15-Minute Feedback Exercise. Get the team in a room. Three minutes to write down what’s working, what’s not, what to change. Go around once, no debating, just listening. Look for themes. Feedback Without Action Is Just a Conversation. Ignore what people tell you long enough and they stop telling you. Look for Patterns, Then Prioritize. One person flagging a slow estimating process is worth investigating. Five people saying it means you’ve found a pro... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:41) - Why Feedback Matters (00:01:54) - Who to Ask First (00:03:16) - Talk to Customers and Lost Prospects (00:04:03) - Trusted Outside Voices (00:04:24) - Who Not to Ask (00:05:48) - The Three Simple Questions (00:07:34) - The 15-Minute Feedback Exercise (00:09:07) - Private One-on-Ones (00:09:27) - Turn Feedback Into Action (00:11:40) - Your Weekly Feedback Challenge (00:12:50) - Final Takeaways

October 21, 202656 min

Five Questions. Three GROW! Hosts. Plenty of Lessons | The GROW Show! with Marty Grunder

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #190: In this episode of The GROW! Show, Marty Grunder checks in with three past GROW! hosts: Gene Freeman from Dallas, Texas, Jason Cromley from Columbus, Ohio, and Annette McCarthy from Des Moines, Iowa. Marty asks each of them the same five questions to find out what they’re seeing in the market, what’s working in their businesses, and what they’ve learned along the way. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Gene Freeman (Complete Landsculpture, Dallas) The 5/10 Rule for Communication. Any communication received before 5:00 PM gets responded to the same day. Anything after 5:00 PM gets responded to by 10:00 AM the next business day. Shared with clients, subs, and vendors as the standard they can hold you to. Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan. On Monday you shouldn’t be asking “What are we gonna do this week?” That happened Wednesday last week to get it lined up for Thursday and Friday. Relationships Matter at All Levels. Vince and Marty give Gene credit for this one. From smaller operators to peer group heavy hitters, Gene asks questions because the smaller guys are closer to where the tire hits the road. Referrals Are the Number One Lead. A happy client is your best salesperson. Intentionally ask satisfied customers for Google reviews to strengthen trust and brand. No Return Visits Protect Profit. Return visits kill profits and erode trust. Incentivize safety and precision because broken windows and dropped margins come straight off the bottom line. Standardize Your Plant Palette. 111 degree heat index in July, freezes in winter. Spec plants that work in your market. Fewer SKUs, fewer parts, fewer tires, consistent fleet. Educate the Client, Then Void the Warranty. If a client insists on a plant that won’t survive, put it in after educating them, document that it’s not warrantied, and move on. You’re not saying no, you’re giving them value. Jason Cromley (Hidden Creek, Columbus) A Director of Revenue Takes the Pressure Off. When you miss your sales goal three years in a row and you’re the one in charge, it’s time to hire someone who sits beside the sales team daily and holds them accountable. Culture Is Your Brand. Brand isn’t a logo on the truck. It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Do What You Say, On Time, With Quality. Clients are simple. Let them know when you’re doing it, when it’s done, and that it’s right. Everything else is noise. Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:34) - Welcome to The Grow Show! (00:02:19) - Introducing Gene Freeman (00:04:40) - Humility and the Power of Peer Groups (00:06:32) - Humility and Learning Mindset (00:08:33) - Gene’s Economic Outlook (00:11:32) - Portecting the Culture at CLS (00:13:18) - The 5/10 Rule (00:14:21) - Referrals and Social Proof (00:16:07) - Cutting Costs: No Return Visits (00:18:17) - Standardizing Plants and Sales Training (00:20:42) - Fun Plans and Wrap Up (00:22:12) - Thank You to Aspire! (00:22:52) - Introducing Jason Cromley (00:23:18) - Jason’s Family Update (00:26:24) - Jason’s Economic Outlook (00:27:52) - Hiring a Director of Revenue (00:28:45) - Culture Is Your Brand (00:31:46) - Warranty as Marketing (00:34:36) - Project Kickoff and CD Sign-Off (00:38:24) - Jason’s Fun Between Now and Christmas (00:41:00) - Meet Annette McCarthy (00:42:40) - RJ Landscape and the 2027 Outlook (00:45:57) - Beautiful Spaces for Clients and Team (00:49:06) - Word of Mouth and a New Marketing Hire (00:51:00) - The Credit Card Reset and AI Audit (00:54:22) - Annette’s Fun Between Now and Christmas (00:55:42) - Episode Wrap Up

October 17, 202615 min

Hope Is Not a Sales Plan

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #189: Setting a sales goal is easy. Building a plan to actually achieve it? That’s where the real work begins. In this bonus episode of The GROW! Show, Marty Grunder breaks down how landscape professionals can build a realistic, actionable sales plan for 2027, and why simply hoping for more revenue isn’t a strategy. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Hope Is Not a Sales Plan. “We want to grow 10% next year” and “we want to do $8 million” aren’t plans. They’re wishes. Every number needs a compelling reason behind it. Start With the Financial Plan. More sales don’t automatically mean more profit. You can grow yourself broke. Decide what kind of company you want to build first, then back into the revenue. Break the Big Number Down. A $5 million target isn’t one giant number. It’s recurring maintenance, renewals, enhancements, backlog, snow, and only then truly new business. Make the number smaller, visible, and someone’s responsibility. Retention Is Sales. If you lose $300K of maintenance contracts, your sales team is starting in a $300K hole. Every recurring account needs an owner, a renewal date, a strategy, and a next action. Go Where You Already Have Trust. Your existing client list is the most valuable sales tool you own. Walk the properties, look for opportunities, follow up on that outdoor kitchen conversation from three years ago. Revive Unsold Proposals. Somebody who said no six months ago might say yes now with a follow-up. Pick up the phone. Not an automated email. A call. Your Schedule Is a Sales Scorecard. If you need $400K for March and you’ve only sold $175K, you have a problem, and you need to know it in October. Where the schedule is empty, it’s too late to start selling. A Filing Cabinet Isn’t a Pipeline. Open proposals with no follow-up and no next action aren’t opportunities. They’re paperwork. Every Sale Needs a Next Action. A call Tuesday, a site visit Friday, a revision Wednesday. No next action means you’re not managing the opportunity, you’re hoping. Order Makers, Not Order Takers. Good salespeople create activity, follow up, ask questions, find opportunities, and ask for referrals. They don’t sit around waiting for leads. Turn the Yearly Plan Into a Weekly Plan. A $2M annual goal is a monthly number, a weekly number, an appointment count, and a follow-up count. Manage the activities, not the end-of-month pressure. Sales... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:04) - Welcoming NALP as a New Sponsor (00:01:49) - Start With the Financial Plan (00:02:53) - Break the Big Number Down (00:04:03) - Retention Is Sales (00:05:40) - Go Where You Already Have Trust (00:07:11) - Your Schedule Is a Sales Scorecard (00:08:32) - Every Sale Needs a Next Action (00:10:30) - Sales and Operations Must Talk (00:11:44) - Protect Your Margins (00:12:31) - The 8-Point Sales Checklist (00:13:51) - Action Beats Planning

October 14, 202632 min

Relationships, Results & Lessons Learned: Catching Up With Gene Freeman and Chris Strempek

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #188: In this episode of The GROW! Show, Marty Grunder catches up with Gene and Chris from Complete Landsculpture, hosts of GROW! 2026 in Dallas, to see how the goals and initiatives they shared with attendees have played out over the past year. Gene and Chris talk candidly about their push to grow maintenance, the impact of losing major accounts, and why strong client relationships remain one of the most important pieces of their strategy. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Flat Numbers Don't Mean Flat Progress. Despite nearly $2M in new contracts sold, two key losses early in the year kept maintenance numbers flat. The team used the year to build systems that will pay off for years. Managing, Not Mowing. Account managers walk every property and record videos for clients, noting enhancements and ownership. "Anybody can mow grass. One weed can get you canceled." SharePoint as the Central Hub. All communication, schedules, and visibility across business units in one place. A real operational win in 2026. The Platinum Rule. Don't just do unto others what you'd want. Do unto others what they expect. This filter catches the quality gaps that technical execution alone misses. "She Didn't Feel Loved." Chris met with an unhappy client who confirmed CLS had done everything they promised. The problem wasn't the work. It was that she didn't feel cared for. Hard to Fire a Friend. Account managers taking clients to lunch isn't a soft skill, it's a strategic moat. Relationships are what survive competitive bids and board changes. Live Video Property Walks. Account managers walk the property with their face on camera, personalizing with details about the client's family or weekend. Removes the "can't reach them" excuse entirely. Back Porch Parties as a Trust Indicator. When clients and vendors take time away from their work and personal lives to show up at your office, that's a sign the relationships are real. Purchasing Discipline. Two team members bought the same thing on company credit cards with a 65% price variance. Centralize purchasing, share information, don't buy the T-shirt twice. Humility Compounds. Frank Mariani sat in on Grow at CLS 11 years ago doing $50 to $60M and asked more questions than anyone in the room. There's no neutral in this business. AI as Connective Tissue for 2027. The Asset Include Go platform launch plus AI integration will connect data streams that currently d... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:29) - Welcome to The Grow Show (00:01:02) - Bobyard Spotlight (00:01:57) - Life Updates With Gene and Chris (00:03:55) - The Maintenance Growth Update (00:06:55) - Staying on Their Radar (00:08:35) - Training the Relationship Side (00:10:43) - Managing, Not Mowing (00:13:09) - The Platinum Rule in Action (00:17:24) - Wear the T-Shirt Moments (00:23:16) - Looking Ahead to 2027 (00:30:39) - Revenue Follows Relationships (00:31:45) - Early Bird Pricing for Grow 2027!

October 10, 202612 min

Plan Before You Buy: Equipment Planning for 2027

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #187: In this bonus episode of The GROW! Show Marty Grunder breaks down how landscape professionals should be planning their equipment needs for 2027, and why that plan should always start with the business plan. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Equipment Plan Follows Business Plan. Don't start with what equipment you want. Start with the work you're going to do next year and back into what you need. Start With the 2027 Sales Plan. Revenue target, service mix, crews added or cut. Everything downstream depends on it. Inventory Everything You Own. Trucks, trailers, mowers, skid steers, snow equipment. Age, hours, reliability, cost to maintain. Decide what stays and what goes. The Smartest Purchase Is Sometimes a Sale. Get rid of what's breaking down or no longer fits. You're in the landscaping business, not the equipment business. Talk to Your Crews. Group leaders and crew leaders know what breaks, what you rented too much of, and what one more unit would save in labor. Listen to what they need, not everything they want. Buy Labor Savings, Not Price Tags. Don't ask what it costs. Ask what it lets you accomplish. One Boss sidewalk machine replaces four guys with shovels. Repair, Replace, Rent, or Buy. Four questions on every major purchase. If you use the machine six days a year, don't own it. If you're renting the same thing every week, maybe you should. Utilization Decides Ownership. A machine sitting in your yard isn't making you money. Build the Budget in Three Categories. Must-have, should-have, nice-to-have. Forces discipline when every shiny truck looks tempting. Order Early With a Plan B. Supply chains don't care about your production schedule. Know the lead times, and have a contingency if the truck doesn't show up until June. Reflection Questions Does your current equipment list actually match the work you're planning to sell in 2027? What should you be selling before you buy anything new? What are you still owning that you'd be smarter off renting? Additional Resources: BOBYARD Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:28) - Welcome to the Grow Show (00:01:28) - The Reactive Equipment Trap (00:02:10) - Start With Your 2027 Sales Plan (00:02:56) - Inventory Everything You Own (00:04:34) - Talk to Your Crews (00:05:42) - Sign Up for Grow 2027! (00:06:07) - Buy Labor Savings, Not Price Tags (00:07:27) - Repair, Replace, Rent, or Buy (00:08:20) - Build the Budget: Must, Should, Nice (00:09:41) - Order Early With a Plan B (00:10:38) - Scrambling Is Expensive, Planning Is Profitable

October 7, 20261 hr 0 min

Interview Series: The Culture Behind Coastal Shores | Hosts of GROW 2027!

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #186: In this episode of The GROW! Show, Marty Grunder sits down with GROW! 2027 hosts Rob and Jessie Shrieve of Coastal Shores Landscape to talk about their journey from starting small to building a thriving company centered around great people, strong leadership, and premium service. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings From Indiana to the Lowcountry. Rob and Jessie moved from Muncie, Indiana to the South Carolina Lowcountry in 2002 with one little girl, no job, and no landscape experience. The business started with Rob cutting grass on five properties Jessie managed. Doing What You Say You Will Do Is Still a Competitive Advantage. In the early days, clients were shocked when Rob showed up on time and delivered a quote he promised. That alone built the business before he knew much about landscaping. Premium Starts With Your Team. Coastal Shores applies premium to how they care for their team first: high benefits, high training, high respect. That trust earns the right to hold the team to a higher standard for clients. Core Values Need Measuring Sticks. Posters on the wall are not enough. Every value needs tangible, measurable behaviors behind it or the team drifts without knowing why. SALT Training Reinforces Culture Weekly. Spiritual, Attitude, Life, Teamwork. The third Wednesday is Life skills, where team members have learned direct deposit, financial literacy, and even how to change a diaper. Help People at Home and They Work Better. Mama J's philosophy is that personal life and work life always intersect. Smoothing one smooths the other. Not a Culture of Flattery. Build enough trust and care first. When hard conversations come, people are receptive because the deposits in their emotional bank account are already made. From Doing to Coaching. Rob's biggest shift as an owner was moving from knowing every detail of every job to coaching, mentoring, and looking for root causes. He described himself as "a blanket on the team, holding them back." A Healthy Sign of Scale. When the owners find out about a big job neither of them knew was happening, it means the team is actually running the business. Define Your Ideal Client Narrowly. Coastal Shores asks what community you live in before anything else and will decline work outside their footprint. Specialization Enables Scale. Middle management and divided roles are not optional at scale. Delaying those decisions costs profit and bur... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:28) - Welcome to the GROW Show (00:01:39) - Meet Rob and Jessie Shrieve (00:04:27) - Doing What You Say You’ll Do (00:06:32) - Jessie on the Early Survival Years (00:09:52) - What Premium Really Means (00:11:58) - Building Systems to Scale Premium (00:14:37) - Defining the Ideal Client (00:17:51) - Core Values With Measuring Sticks (00:24:48) - Not a Culture of Flattery (00:27:13) - Thank You to Bobyard AI! (00:27:47) - From Doing to Coaching (00:31:43) - The Hardest Parts of Growth (00:33:39) - When Roles Must Split (00:35:01) - Letting Go as Owners (00:35:46) - Married and Running the Business (00:40:00) - Choosing the Right Technology (00:40:43) - The Aspire Commitment (00:45:26) - AI, Claude, and Smarter Data (00:49:10) - GROW 2027! Early Bird Pricing NOW! (00:49:37) - Why They’re Hosting GROW 2027 (00:52:00) - Inside the SALT Program (00:55:29) - Rapid Fire With Rob and Jessie (00:57:48) - Come See It in Savannah (00:59:28) - Please Share this Episode with a Friend!

October 3, 202617 min

Planning for 2027: Build a Financial Plan That Works

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #185: In this bonus episode of The GROW! Show, Vince Torchia walks through the fundamentals of financial planning for the year ahead. He breaks down how to set a realistic revenue target using historical performance, determine the right mix of services, evaluate your sales and production capacity, and plan for margins, overhead, profit, and cash flow. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings A solid 2027 plan starts with a revenue number grounded in historicals from 2025 and 2026, not what you hope to sell 10% growth is the baseline for any company on the planning journey. 20 to 40% is aggressive and requires a specific driver (new market, acquisition, big contract) Revenue is only useful when broken into the right mix: construction, maintenance, lawn care, snow, seasonal services, and enhancements Every revenue target needs a compelling why on both the sales side and the production side. Can we sell it? Can we produce it? Sales teams are increasingly specialized. The old unicorn who sold, designed, estimated, and project managed is giving way to focused roles Industry benchmark margins: 50% on construction, 40% on maintenance, with enhancements pulling maintenance margins up toward construction levels Recurring services are the gift to the industry, the mailbox money that stabilizes cash flow Overhead is everything below the line that gets paid whether work sells or not. The ACE benchmark is 30% of revenue Investing in people early can spike overhead in the short term, but revenue growth should bring overhead as a percentage of revenue back down over time Know your renewal windows, your sell seasons, and your production seasons. Historicals tell you when the cake gets baked Jennifer Murray's framework: every month is either a burn month (losing cash) or a build month (gaining cash) Cash planning is a separate exercise from revenue, margin, and overhead planning. Debt payments, equipment, taxes, bonuses, and distributions all pull from cash A financial plan boils down to four categories: revenue, direct costs, overhead, profit. Everything else is a line item Every number you present to your team needs a compelling reason. Don't make it a hope. Don't make it a dream Reflection Questions What is your compelling reason for the revenue target you're setting in 2027? Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:33) - Welcome to the October Series (00:01:04) - Start With a Revenue Target (00:02:26) - Service Mix and Capacity (00:04:43) - Sales Structure Done Right (00:06:32) - Margin and Pricing Basics (00:07:40) - GROW 2027! Early Bird Pricing NOW! (00:08:27) - Overhead and the P&L (00:11:42) - Renewals and Key Dates (00:13:47) - Burn Months vs Build Months (00:15:38) - Final Takeaway for 2027

September 30, 202632 min

Production Meetings That Actually Work | Marty Grunder & Bill Rosell

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #184: In this episode of The Grow Show, Marty Grunder sits down with Bill Rosell, Director of Production Operations at Grunder Landscaping Co., to break down what an effective production meeting actually looks like. They share how the GLC team uses weekly meetings to improve communication, plan ahead, coordinate crews and equipment, address safety and scheduling issues, and catch problems before they reach the jobsite. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! GLC Production Meeting Agenda Meeting Template Key Learnings The Purpose Is to Make Production Run Better: Not to have a meeting. Not to get everyone in a room. If people leave without knowing where they're going, what equipment they need, or what problems are coming, you had a gathering, not a meeting. Different Meetings Have Different Purposes: Don't try to accomplish everything in one big meeting. You'll end up with 25 people listening to a conversation that applies to three of them. Start With the Mission Statement: Every GLC production meeting begins with the mission statement. It anchors the room in why we're here before we get into what we're doing. Have the Right People in the Room, Only While You Need Them: Zach (fleet assistant) presents his fleet updates first so he can leave and start his day. He doesn't need to sit through personnel discussions that don't involve him. Meetings Should End in Laughter: Bill's number one sign of a great meeting is when it ends in laughter. Direction and clarity are the two must-haves, but laughter is what tells you people leave energized. Team Leaders Look at Today and Tomorrow. Group Leaders Look 2 Weeks Out: Great group leaders are not walking in every morning asking "what do I need to do today?" They knew last night. Bill wants group leaders looking two weeks out on equipment and materials. Sales and Production Cannot Live on an Island: Bill attends the first 20 minutes of every sales meeting. If production has a hole, sales needs to know. If sales has a monster project coming, production needs to know. Bill's job is to help sales know: whatever you sell, we can get it done. Break Big Projects Into Small Ones: A 3,000-hour job is overwhelming until you break it into phases. Then it becomes a series of 50-60 hour jobs. Team members can see progress and see the end in sight. Know What Stresses Your People: Bill knows what stresses Gaston, so he takes those things off his plate. On big projects, Bill stays the main point of communication early on to protect his group leader from being overwhelmed. One-on-Ones Every Other Week: Bill sche... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:00:28) - Welcome to the GROW Show (00:01:51) - Why Production Meetings Matter (00:02:34) - Meet Bill Rosell (00:03:37) - Meeting Cadence and Who Attends (00:05:09) - The Agenda Starts With Fleet (00:06:18) - Safety First, Every Week (00:08:18) - Building the Two Week Schedule (00:10:09) - Aligning Production and Sales (00:13:08) - Check out Proven Winners! (00:14:24) - Navigating Complex Projects (00:16:03) - Coaching Leaders Through Pressure (00:17:23) - Running Effective One on Ones (00:18:03) - Why Face to Face Wins (00:19:27) - How Meetings Save Time (00:20:03) - Two Weeks Out on Equipment (00:22:31) - Renting Smarter, Not More (00:23:11) - Communicating With Team Leads (00:24:39) - Boards Set by Four O’Clock (00:26:19) - Sign Up for a GLC Field Trip! (00:26:49) - What a Great Meeting Delivers (00:28:51) - The Production Meeting Checklist (00:31:04) - Keep It Simple: Final Takeaway

September 23, 202627 min

What You Should Market and When: The 2027 Playbook for Grunder Landscaping

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #183: In this episode of The Grow Show, Emily Lindley shares how Grunder Landscaping Company evaluates its marketing channels, which efforts are worth the investment, and which ones need to be cut. The goal isn't to market everywhere. It's to give every channel a clear job and build a plan that supports where your company is headed. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Every Channel Needs One Clear Job: Ask what specific job that channel does for your business. Design build leads? Lawn care leads? Residential maintenance? If the job isn't clear anymore, cut it or shrink it. Balance the Jobs Across Your Marketing Mix: Make sure you have enough coverage for every line of business, and that no one service line is eating all the attention. Residential Design Build Drives Broadcast Marketing: It's easier to drive inbound leads for design build than for commercial or maintenance. The strategy at Grunder: capture a design build client, then convert them into a maintenance client. Postcards Still Work (When Timed Right): Start with an aggressive spring push. Every other week for design build, every other week for lawn care, alternating so mailing list recipients get a card weekly for 6-8 weeks. Capture spring demand or you won't make it up later in the year. Email Is the Best Marketing Channel Right Now: Grunder is seeing 40% open rates. Marketing Pro integrates with Aspire, so lists stay current with actual maintenance and lawn care route data. Every other week, March through November, with rotating seasonal messaging. Skip the Rigid Newsletter Template: Templates feel stale and restrict what you can say. Instead, rotate messaging by season: design build in spring, mosquito fogging in summer, aeration/overseeding in fall. Small Add-Ons Add Up: Mosquito fogging is a great example. Techs are already on the property. No extra drive time. It's profitable per stop and adds real value for the client. Small services stack up over the year. Time Add-On Emails to the Application Route: Send the mosquito fogging pitch BEFORE the tech goes out for the round, not mid-round. Otherwise you're asking your team to backtrack. Social Media Is About Consistency, Not Perfection: Post consistently so prospects can verify you're a real, polished company when they Google you. Paid social gets zip code targeted and overlaid on postcard drop zones. That's reinforcement, not redundancy. Door Hangers Work in Neighborhoods You Already Serve: Neighbors of active jobs, HOAs where you maintain the common areas, streets with existing maintenance stops. Brand reinforcement is the win here. ... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:32) - The Framework: Give Every Channel One Clear Job (00:03:03) - Why Residential Drives Broadcast Marketing (00:04:25) - Postcards: The Aggressive Spring Push (00:07:32) - Email: The 40% Open Rate Playbook (00:14:13) - Social Media: Consistency and Zip Code Targeting (00:15:14) - Door Hangers: Working the Neighborhoods You Serve (00:17:38) - SEO: The Sleeper Channel for Commercial Leads (00:18:57) - Sign Up for a GLC Field Trip! (00:19:17) - Adjusting the Budget as You Grow (00:22:20) - What Emily Is Considering for 2027 (00:25:45) - Final Takeaway

September 16, 202623 min

Busy Today Doesn't Mean Busy Tomorrow: The Fall Sales Playbook

Join Us for a GLC Field Trip (Dayton, OH) Join Us for GROW! Snow 2026 (Dayton, OH - September 21-23, 2026) Connect with Fellow ACE Members at ACE Connect (Tucson, AZ - November 17-20, 2026) Master Aspire Software at the GLC Aspire Workshop (Dayton, OH - August TBD & December 2-3, 2026) Register for GROW! 2027 Annual Conference (Savannah, GA - February 17-19, 2027) Episode #182: It's easy to feel good about business when the crews are busy and the schedule is full, but what does your schedule look like 30, 60, or 90 days from now? This week on The Grow Show, Marty Grunder talks about the importance of staying ahead of your workload and continuing to sell even when business is busy. He shares where your team should be looking for opportunities, how to make the most of the clients and proposals you already have, and why now is the time to start thinking about next spring. BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leave a Review for the Grow Show! ️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel! Key Learnings Your Schedule Is a Sales Scorecard: Do not look at your sales pipeline. Look at your production schedule board. What is actually sold and on the calendar 30, 60, 90, and 120 days out? A pipeline filled with proposals nobody's going to buy isn't a pipeline. It's a filing cabinet. Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Something: No sales, no work for production, no invoices for accounting, no gross profit, no reinvestment. Spring conditions your team to become order takers. Fall reveals whether you have order takers or order makers. Order Takers Wait. Order Makers Create: When leads slow down, the order taker asks when marketing is going to do more. The order maker asks what proposals to revisit, what properties need enhancements, and what phase two or phase three opportunities exist. Start With People Who Already Know You: It is far easier to sell to someone who has done business with you than to create something new. Do not just call and ask if they need anything. Walk the property, take pictures, and send unsolicited quotes with recommendations. A Good Doctor Doesn't Ask What Procedure You Want: They diagnose and recommend. A professional landscape salesperson does the same. Your clients hired you because you know more about landscaping than they do, so act like it. Revisit Every Proposal You Did Not Sell: A no six months ago is not a no today. Timing changes. Do not send a "just checking in" email. Give them a specific reason to respond - a scheduling opening, a seasonal window, a follow-up on the exact conversation you had. Sell the Season You're In: Your clients don't live and breathe landscaping. They don't know what makes sense in October, November, and December. That's your job. Build a fall campaign around 2-3 specific services you want to sell. Break the Number Down: A $2M goal sounds intimidating. Break it into weekly targets per salesperson. $10K per week per salesperson is believable and manageable. Small numbers compound. $5K in enhancement work per week for 50 weeks is $250K. Hunt Where You Already Work: Route density matters. Tr... Chapters (00:00:00) - Start (00:01:37) - Why Busy Today Can Fool You (00:02:40) - Point 1: Your Schedule Is the Real Scorecard (00:04:12) - Point 2: Order Makers vs Order Takers (00:05:54) - Point 3: Start With the Clients Who Already Know You (00:08:06) - Point 4: Revisit Every Proposal You Didn’t Sell (00:09:44) - BobYard AI (00:10:18) - Point 5: Sell the Season You’re In (00:11:19) - Point 6: Break the Big Number Into Weekly Goals (00:12:37) - Point 7: Hunt Where You Already Work (00:14:19) - Point 8: Ask for Referrals the Right Way (00:15:12) - Point 9: Sell Spring Before Winter Hits (00:16:37) - Sign up for GROW Snow 2026! (00:17:07) - Point 10: Run a Sales Meeting That Actually Manages Sales (00:18:16) - Point 11: Don’t Destroy Your Margins to Stay Busy (00:19:21) - The Fall Sales Playbook (8 Actions) (00:20:52) - Final Takeaway (00:21:51) - Register for GROW! 2027