Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Daniel Thomas's Landscaping Journey: From $1 First Mows to Blue Ribbon Outdoor Acquisition

Transcript

Daniel Thomas's Landscaping Journey: From $1 First Mows to Blue Ribbon Outdoor Acquisition · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Daniel Thomas. He's always been an entrepreneur
0:22
for mowing lawns as a teen to founding his company called
0:26
Cutting Edge Outdoors, a boutique design build firm
0:30
creating high end outdoor living spaces, patios, retaining walls,
0:34
drainage systems and custom details.
0:37
He didn't just run Cruise, he built systems, adopting EOS, the
0:42
entrepreneurial operating system and core values like serve the
0:46
customer, be on time, develop people and work as unto the
0:51
Lord. That process driven approach
0:54
shaped both team culture and client experience.
0:57
In 2025, Blue Ribbon Outdoor acquired Cutting Edge Outdoors,
1:03
recognizing a well run business and a leader who could scale
1:07
sales and systems. Daniel joined their leadership
1:11
team to expand sales and elevate the brand experience.
1:14
Today, he's applying everything he learned as a scrappy founder
1:18
to help build a larger organization, continuing to
1:21
innovate in landscaping with resilience, discipline, growth,
1:25
and a readiness to seize bigger opportunities.
1:29
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:35
brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where
1:38
we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that
1:41
are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your
1:44
bottom line. Imagine being able to give your
1:47
landscaping employees free access to doctors, therapists
1:50
and prescription meds. And here's the fun part.
1:53
The program actually puts more money in your employee's pockets
1:57
and the company's too. One recent client was able to
2:00
increase net profits by $900 per employee per year.
2:05
Results vary for each company, and some organizations may not
2:08
be eligible. To find out if your company
2:10
qualifies, contact us today at AD back benefits.com.
2:14
All right. Back to our guest today, Manager
2:17
of New Business Development of Blue Ribbon Outdoor, Daniel
2:20
Thomas. Thanks for making the time to
2:22
Share your story today. Sure.
2:24
Thank you for having me on. So, Daniel, what first drew you
2:27
into the landscaping industry? Oh, you know, truly, it was.
2:32
It's not a cool story at all, but I was 13 years old and my
2:37
family had just moved to a new town because of my dad's job.
2:41
And I honestly think that I was spending too much time being a
2:44
useless teenager for my dad's taste.
2:47
And so he, I just remember him kind of popping his head into
2:50
the living room one day. I'm sure I was playing a video
2:52
game or something. And he just sort of said, Hey,
2:57
why don't you go mow some lawns and make some money this summer?
3:00
And I said, OK. And so he made me some business
3:03
cards and I just started going door to door.
3:05
And it was, it was kind of just a way to make some money.
3:08
And then did that for a few years until I turned 16 and I
3:12
got a kind of an actual part time job at a diner close to my
3:15
house. And I worked there for six weeks
3:17
before they closed. And I don't even know why they
3:20
hired me. You know, I never never found
3:22
out why they hired me when they were that close to shutting
3:25
down. But when they when I lost or
3:27
when they shut down, my mom told me she's like, well, it's OK,
3:30
Daniel, you can go get another job.
3:32
And I just remember thinking, no, I don't think so.
3:36
But I thought, you know, I make one, I mow 1 lawn.
3:39
And that money is more than my entire two week paycheck I got
3:43
from that diner, you know. Oh, wow.
3:45
I mean, of course that was a minimum wage part time employee,
3:47
you know, but still I was like, that doesn't make sense to me.
3:51
And so that was kind of the day I decided like, I think I kind
3:54
of want to make this my income stream, at least for now.
3:56
You know, it just, it just seemed, you know, that was when
3:59
the the entrepreneur was saying clicked in my head of like,
4:03
seems like I could just make more money doing this.
4:05
I can just make as much money as I want.
4:06
I can just go mow more lawns. I don't have to work a certain
4:09
amount of hours to make a certain amount of money
4:11
determined by somebody else. Like, it's up to me, you know?
4:14
And that was just too appealing to give up.
4:16
So when your dad poked his head in the door that day and he was
4:20
like, hey son, why don't you go mow some lawns as you're telling
4:25
the story, you're like, OK, sure.
4:27
But was it really that like agreeable in the moment or did
4:30
it take a little more arm twisting?
4:32
No, I, I, I mean, I was a very, I was not a very rebellious
4:37
teenager or anything. Like I and I, me and my dad got
4:40
along super well and I just thought, OK, I mean, literally,
4:43
I just, I just remember saying, think at first kind of thinking
4:46
like, why is he telling me this? But then I just thought, sounds
4:50
OK to me because I, I like to make money.
4:52
So, you know, so, and I, I liked mowing lawns.
4:56
Like even when I was a little kid, I begged him to let me mow
4:58
the lawn because all my older brothers did and I was jealous
5:01
And I was like, that looks fun. So, you know, I always kind of
5:03
had this interest in mowing for some reason.
5:06
So then when he said it, like, again, it was 15 years ago, but
5:09
as far as I remember, I just said, OK.
5:12
And he was like, what do I, what do I do?
5:15
He said, well, I'll make you some business cards.
5:16
So that's what he did. And then he said, and I'll go
5:18
knock on every neighbor's door and tell him who you are and
5:21
tell him you mow their lawn for $25.
5:24
And I said, OK, so then I did that.
5:26
And I, I was, what's funny is I was very shy at the time.
5:29
I mean, not like horribly shy, but I really didn't like.
5:32
Talking this was uncomfortable for you?
5:34
It was, yeah. So knocking on door, like, I
5:37
hated doing any kind of door to door.
5:39
My dad was a pastor. And so whenever like, Easter
5:41
came around or Bible school came around, we had to go knock on
5:45
doors and like, pass out Flyers inviting kids to come to
5:47
vacation Bible school. And I hate it.
5:49
I hated it. Hated it with everything in me.
5:52
So I was really not looking forward to that.
5:54
But again, I liked mowing and, you know, making money sounded
5:58
cool. So.
5:59
So that's what I did. And yeah, I got 2 lawns on my
6:03
street. And then since he was a pastor,
6:05
he let me mow the church yard, which was like 4 acres for like
6:08
$25, you know? But I was like, yeah, sure, why
6:11
not? You know it was.
6:13
Kind of like the tithing, right you were.
6:15
Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
6:17
And then I was like, do I still have to tie if the church pays
6:19
me? You know, how does that work?
6:22
But yeah, that's that's truly how it the initial entrance of
6:26
me into the lawn care industry. So when did you formally create
6:31
Cutting Edge as a business? Sure.
6:33
So, so when I was 16, once I kind of decided like, OK, I'm
6:38
not going to get in. I'm not going to get a different
6:39
job. I'm just going to try to see
6:41
what I can do with this. That's when I named it, you
6:44
know, change from Daniel Thomas lawn care or lawn mowing.
6:47
And I thought, well, I need a name.
6:48
So, you know, bounce around all kinds of names with my family
6:51
and cutting edge was the one that I liked.
6:53
And so my brother made me this really, you know, he's a great
6:56
artist, graphic design guy. So he made me this great logo,
6:59
which I kept for the entire time I ever did it.
7:03
And that's when I've got a couple T-shirts made.
7:05
Now I formerly like, you know, like got ALLCI mean I I ran it
7:12
as a sole proprietorship for a long time until finally I got a
7:14
good accountant that was like, you don't need to be you don't
7:17
need to be running this under assault, you know, under your
7:19
own name. You should, you know, you need
7:20
to get some liability protection and stuff.
7:23
So, so I got my first LLCI think in 2020 or 21.
7:27
It went for a long time before I really started thinking outside
7:31
of just the work, you know, and like how do I which you know,
7:35
and this it's kind of a long story, but but yeah, cutting
7:38
edge, I think as it was name was in 20 16, I believe.
7:46
OK, OK. And so at what point did you
7:48
hire your first employee? Well, I mean, all throughout my
7:52
teenage years, people would help me, you know, if I got if I got
7:55
rained out, I'd grab a friend of mine and I would pay them, you
7:58
know, pay them for the day or pay them hourly.
8:01
I hired my first full time employee in 2021, which you
8:07
know, and then this is The funny thing is like from about, you
8:11
know, 2010. Oh, I'm sorry, 2014 is what I
8:14
named it. But from about 2010 to 2020,
8:18
like it was literally this is the interesting thing about the
8:22
history of Cutting Edge is like I was just a teenager mowing
8:26
lawns. Even when I turned 20 and 21, I
8:28
kind of still operated like a teenager mowing lawns.
8:31
So I'll kind of give you like the most interesting part of the
8:33
story here is like, I did good. I made good money for a
8:37
teenager. And even when I turned 18, my
8:41
mom was like really pushing me to go to college.
8:43
And I just said, I don't, I don't understand why.
8:46
Why would I do that? Like I like doing this and like
8:48
my brother just graduated college and he got a job at UPS
8:51
and I make more money than he does.
8:52
So why would I do that, you know?
8:55
And it was when I truly when I got married in 21.
9:02
No, I'm sorry, I got married in 2019.
9:08
It was when I got married that my wife really honestly pointed
9:13
out to me she was like, hey, you don't make enough money to build
9:17
a family with as it is, you know?
9:20
And so this was kind of my light bulb moment of like, I made
9:23
really good money for a teenager.
9:25
But now I'm 2122, this isn't build a family kind of money,
9:29
you know? And so my wife had a very, you
9:31
know, bless her heart. She had to have a really honest
9:33
conversation with me where she said you either need to do
9:36
something else or you need to do this better and which really
9:40
hurt me in the moment. I'm not going to like.
9:41
You thought you were doing great.
9:43
I've been doing great, you know, and, and I remember I had this
9:46
really big lawn close to my house that I was took me hours
9:49
to mow and I was out there mowing it just really thinking
9:52
and praying like, OK, like, honestly, she's right.
9:54
Like what do I need to do? And I thought like, I really
9:57
like this and I don't want to change what I do.
9:59
This is what I know how to do. But I thought, how do I turn
10:02
this into a real business? You know, like, how do I just
10:05
think beyond the people that call me that asked me to mow and
10:08
I go mow it and how do I make more money?
10:11
So I got turned on to a friend of mine that told me about is
10:14
the business podcast that I was thought, you know, I'm just
10:16
going to start listening to that.
10:18
And it was just a super down to earth, bare bones.
10:21
This is the simple applicable steps.
10:23
It's not theory. It's like these are steps you
10:25
take to make your business grow. And so I started, I started
10:29
doing that and just the name of the podcast podcast was called
10:34
the Thrive Time show, which I'm not going to lie to you, it's
10:38
kind of a controversial show these days.
10:40
Back in the day, it used to just be strict business.
10:42
And now I don't listen to it a whole lot.
10:45
It's, it's not bad, but it's very, it's almost more politics
10:49
than there's anything now, which is not my thing.
10:51
So if anyone's looking for it, I don't necessarily recommend that
10:53
show for business, but, but back then it was fantastic, like such
10:59
good content. And so I just started applying
11:01
these little things, simple things like wake up earlier and
11:04
make A to do list for the day. Set a goal for how much money
11:07
you want to make and then figure out how many lawns you need to
11:11
mow to make that much muddle. You know, like things that seem
11:13
dumb and like, why didn't I think of that?
11:15
So one day I just woke up early and I made a list.
11:19
These are the lawns I want to mow today.
11:21
And I got up early and went out and did them.
11:23
And I, you know, set a personal record of how many lawns I mowed
11:26
in one day by myself. And I made like, it was like
11:29
$500, which for me, I was like never made $500 in one day
11:33
before. Then I thought, can I do this
11:35
every day? So then I thought, well, maybe I
11:37
should try setting a goal. So I set a goal for OK, what
11:40
would it take for me to make $500 every day?
11:43
Like, well, that's $2500 in a week.
11:45
So then I wrote down all the lawns I had to mow that week and
11:48
it was about 12 or $1300. And then I that sparked the next
11:52
question. How do I make more than that?
11:54
So then I started calling my customers like, hey, your bushes
11:56
look a little shaggy. You want me to trim them while
11:58
I'm there this week? And then I called somebody else.
12:00
Hey, I think you mentioned you wanted to re mulch sometime
12:02
soon. And guess what?
12:04
It wasn't even hard to figure out how to make $2500 in a week,
12:08
you know, And I was like, you were just calling the.
12:10
Customers who you were already mowing their lawn and basically
12:13
you were doing the McDonald's. Hey, you want fries with that?
12:16
Exactly. What else can I do for you right
12:18
it it? Became from a, it changed from a
12:21
just literally doing exactly what they asked me to do to
12:24
looking for other things, other needs that they had that maybe I
12:27
could help them out with, right? So that's when things started to
12:30
grow. And so I, you know, increased my
12:33
weekly, weekly revenue by like $1000 just by doing that.
12:37
And it was, I was blown away. And so then this podcast that I
12:41
listened to, they taught you how to do search engine
12:42
optimization. So that's when I made a Google
12:44
profile and I started building my Google profile app so that I
12:47
could rank it high in Google. And once I did that and they,
12:53
they told you that you need to come up with a no brainer, like
12:56
an offer that's just too good. How can anybody pass it up to
12:59
get you in the door? So I came up with a no brainer,
13:01
which was I will mow your lawn for $1.00 for the first time.
13:05
So you know when people are calling to get their lawn mowed,
13:08
they Google it, they get 3 to 5 people.
13:12
They call all of them and say how much does it cost to mow a
13:14
lawn? And what does everybody tell
13:17
them, well I need to come look at it.
13:18
So they'll call and set up three to five people to come look at
13:20
their lawn. But when I got cutting edge to
13:23
rank number one, they would call me first.
13:25
And when they say how much does it cost, I say I'll come mow it
13:29
for $1.00. And they would go, what?
13:33
And I'm like, it's true. The first mow is $1.00.
13:35
And after that, if you like it, I'll tell you how much it costs
13:38
to get the mowed. Well, at that point they say
13:41
we'll come on. And then they don't call anybody
13:43
else because they want the $1.00.
13:45
Genius. So then I went, I mowed it.
13:47
I did a great job. Then I knocked on the door, they
13:50
came outside and I was like, here it is.
13:53
They go, Oh my God, I love it. And I say, if you like it, it's
13:55
$50 per cup. And then it also gave me a
13:58
chance to mow it once and really see how long it took me, right?
14:01
Because there's so many times where you, like, go look at it.
14:03
You think it looks like a $40 yard?
14:06
So on paper, this this idea sounds genius, right?
14:09
You're to the top of the listings.
14:11
They call you when you tell them a dollar for the first, they're
14:14
like, this is no brainer. Come on out.
14:16
So you're getting that opportunity to get in front of
14:19
them. And I'm going to guess at least
14:22
again, on paper, it sounds like you probably close a lot of
14:24
these because you're the first guy out there.
14:27
But did it backfire at all? Was it like you get deluged with
14:31
people who just want the $1.00 cut and then they're like, see
14:35
you later. Thanks for the the good deal.
14:37
So you. Would think so, and that was my
14:39
fear because I really hesitated on even doing that because
14:41
that's what I was afraid of. But the first season that I did
14:44
that where it was just me, I had a 90% conversion rate.
14:48
Wow. I can only think of like one
14:50
person ever that didn't actually take me up on continual service,
14:56
which was funny because it was actually a person that I knew.
14:58
And I thought, man, of all the people who would actually just
15:00
take me up on the one cut, like I didn't think it would be the
15:03
person that I knew, you know? But yeah, it it everybody I can
15:07
think of except for that one person signed up for continual
15:11
ServiceNow the next year when I actually started hiring people
15:14
and sending out crews to mow without me, that definitely it
15:17
definitely dropped off because nobody will sell it like I sell
15:20
it, right? Like, yeah, it's just that they
15:22
didn't have, because I've been doing it for, you know, 10 years
15:25
at this point. I knew how to talk to the
15:27
customer. And it's like I they, you know,
15:30
employees, they just don't have quite the same mentality of
15:32
like, this needs to be perfect. If nothing else, this one time
15:35
it's got to be like, we have to double check and make sure we
15:38
didn't miss a single blade of grass on the driveway that needs
15:40
to be blown off. You know, of course, we should
15:43
be striving for that every time. So anyway, I think the
15:45
conversion rate, I would say probably drops to like 60%.
15:49
OK, it's a big drop, but. It's still a pretty good
15:51
conversion rate. It was still.
15:53
Worth it for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
15:56
And what? Geography.
15:56
Are we talking about what? What area were you serving at
15:59
this time? This was this.
16:00
Was in Fort Smith, AR. OK, now I want to go back.
16:04
Sorry you had something you want to say just.
16:06
A little bit of surrounding towns, but definitely mostly
16:08
Fort Smith, OK. And I want to go back to that,
16:11
you know, time where you're a 13 year old and you hate knocking
16:14
door to door, like just hate it, hate it, hate it.
16:17
But you do it and, and you take the business card with you And
16:20
you got a couple of people lined up, 'cause I know that there's a
16:23
lot of people listening, 'cause this is really common.
16:25
Very few people like to cold call or knock on a door or, you
16:29
know, whatever it is like that's really uncomfortable to do.
16:33
How did you get past it? Cause a lot of people are
16:35
listening saying, Oh, I can't do that.
16:36
That's never, never not. Oh, sure.
16:39
What'd you do? I mean, if you're ready for a
16:42
really underwhelming answer, you just, I just did it, You know,
16:47
it's one of those things like I, I there's, I can't tell you
16:49
probably how many times I would just stand outside the door, you
16:52
know, and just kind of sit there going, you know, and then I
16:57
would kind of reach and be like, I'm not ready, you know, and
16:59
eventually it's like you just kind of have to count down.
17:02
OK, 321 Wow. You know, and then it's like you
17:06
just throw your hand out and knock the door so it's too late.
17:08
You can't take it back, you know.
17:10
So but you know, eventually I just kind of got comfortable
17:12
with it to where now I am, I mean, again, I was say a pretty
17:17
like shy person back then and now like I am like kind of
17:23
overwhelmingly extroverted. Like I I just brought you out.
17:27
Of your shell, yes. Yes, like I, I turned into this
17:29
kind of weird social butterfly to where like I, I still, I
17:33
mean, to be honest, I still don't like cold calling,
17:35
knocking on doors. It's still not something I like
17:37
to do, but but I'm really good at it.
17:40
You know, I can talk to anybody and it's and once I get it
17:43
started, like I love it and I love making a new connection and
17:46
starting to build a relationship with somebody.
17:48
And so here's why I love the answer that you just gave,
17:51
because I think sometimes people are like, oh, it takes some sort
17:54
of special magic wand or like a, a high level training session or
17:59
like there's a secret to it. And, and sometimes those things
18:02
help. But to me, the biggest
18:04
differentiator is the person who just does the thing right.
18:09
It's not always easy. And things like this cold
18:11
calling, knocking on doors is particularly hard for almost
18:14
everybody. It's not easy, but you just have
18:17
to do it. And the more reps that you get
18:19
in, the more comfortable you become with it.
18:21
And that's what we hear from your story.
18:23
Oh, for. Sure, for sure.
18:25
I mean every yes, and that's and because when you learn, when you
18:29
learn how to deal with that, you have to have that, you have to
18:32
build that skill because if you're in customer service,
18:36
because then that ability to just do that uncomfortable
18:39
thing. Well, guess what?
18:40
The first time you have a customer call and leave you a
18:42
voicemail that they're unhappy about something, it's it's even
18:46
harder. The harder thing to do is just
18:48
call them back because you don't want to get yelled at, you know,
18:52
And so it's like what I've, I've always found much harder is
18:55
like, I can knock on a door now a lot easier than I can sit
18:58
there listening to a voicemail from somebody and hit the call
19:01
back button. You know, that's what now I'm
19:03
like, but like, you've got to do it and like it's a skill that
19:07
you, you have to build. And again, now I don't enjoy it,
19:10
but I'm good at it. Like you know, I've I've learned
19:12
from a lot of people and have read some great books that help
19:14
me with de escalation and taking care of those issues.
19:18
Talk to us about what you learn. What are some tips that you can
19:20
give our listeners about how to de escalate in a situation like
19:23
that? Oh.
19:24
Sure, so great book. Fantastic book.
19:27
I literally just finished reading it for probably the
19:29
fourth time is Never split the Difference by Chris Voss, a book
19:34
about negotiations and this man literally negotiated terrorists
19:37
and hostage takers for a living. So he's a very good at de
19:41
escalating tense situations. And so I mean, the first thing
19:45
you have to do to me is just call them.
19:48
And first of all, just not sound, not be defensive at all.
19:52
Because what I've learned is yes, I don't know what that is.
19:55
I'm sorry when you call them, but until you call them back,
20:00
they've been running through their head all the scenarios of
20:02
how this conversation is going to go.
20:05
And I've had so many people where they answer the phone and
20:08
they're they're ticked. They're like, hello.
20:10
And I say, hey, how are you? Oh, not good.
20:13
And what they're expecting is for you to be very hard to deal
20:17
with and they're expecting you to be defensive and to try to
20:20
stand up for yourself and tell them that they're being
20:22
unreasonable. And they've been running through
20:24
that in their head ready to fire back all the things they've all
20:27
the responses they've thought of to that kind of answer.
20:30
So really my thing is to just call them and just try to listen
20:34
to them and say, hey, what's going on, What happened?
20:37
And then they tell me all these things and again, I think I
20:41
don't know what the exactly what they're expecting me to say, but
20:43
I just go, Oh my God, I'm so sorry.
20:45
And the easiest thing to do is say I'm on my way right now to
20:48
fix that. Or if I broke a window or
20:51
something I say, or if somebody I wasn't there, I hear a window
20:54
got broken, I just say, Oh my God, I'm so sorry.
20:57
Let me take care of it. Like do you want to, do you want
21:00
to fix it and invoice me or do you just want me to handle it?
21:02
Like you don't even have to call anybody if you don't want to.
21:04
So one, just being super willing to, we deal with that in general
21:08
and to accommodate and make sure they're taken care of that
21:11
usually just yes, I had one guy actually, here's a good story,
21:15
did a huge drainage project for these folks and it rained And
21:20
he, he calls me and he's, he's really pissed.
21:23
He's like, oh, Daniel, we've got yards sitting water sitting in
21:26
the yard. And I'm shocked because I put in
21:29
a ton of drains and I called him back and he was ready to fight.
21:33
And he got, he's just letting me know what's going on.
21:37
And I said, Oh my gosh, Mr. I forget his name.
21:40
It's like, but I'm so sorry. It's like, let me just drive out
21:42
there right now and take a look at what's going on while it's
21:44
raining. And he goes, oh, OK, thanks,
21:48
Daniel. And it was banned, like
21:49
deescalated just like that. And then he was just happy that
21:52
I was coming to take a look at it.
21:53
So what I've learned is that people really just get in their
21:55
head about how you're going to react and you just have to be
21:59
really nice and listen to what they have to say and just treat
22:02
them like a customer because they spent money with you.
22:04
They need to be happy about that money they spent.
22:07
And what I found in my experience, I'd be curious to
22:09
hear if this is true for you too, Daniel, is that when you do
22:12
have an upset customer and you jump through hoops to make it
22:17
right and you do it quickly. Often.
22:20
Times you end up with an ally for life.
22:24
They see how you handle the toughs that you it.
22:27
You know it's good to, you know, when everything's going well,
22:30
people are friendly and you know, every, everything's rosy
22:33
when when prep hits the fan. That's the true measure of a
22:37
person and, and how you handle it.
22:38
And when you can show them that and I really stand behind my
22:41
work, they become a fan. They talk about you, they send
22:45
you other business. They want to give you more of
22:47
their business. You find the same thing 100.
22:50
Percent, yes. There's a, there's a great book
22:52
called Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath, and they have a
22:56
quote from a contractor who says that he says there is some level
22:59
of benefit to a mistake being made during the job.
23:03
Because a perfect job is great and they're happy with you.
23:06
But when they see you bust your butt to make something right
23:09
that in their view was wrong, that just makes you, they just
23:12
love you even more. A matter of fact, that happened
23:14
to me. I didn't do it, but I got my
23:16
truck wrapped at this place and they did it wrong.
23:19
You know, they, they took a bad logo, which I had told them I
23:23
was like, hey, when you blow this up, it's not going to look
23:24
good. Here's a cleaner version.
23:26
And for some reason they didn't see that and they blew up this
23:29
logo that looked awful. And I pointed it out to them.
23:31
And what did they do? They said, Oh my gosh, you're so
23:34
right. Leave it here.
23:34
We'll have it ready for you in the morning.
23:36
They didn't charge me, didn't even try to blame me or charge
23:40
me. And I've, I've sent so many
23:41
people to that place because I'm just so impressed that they
23:44
didn't even try to not take the blame for it.
23:47
They just immediately said, oh, wow, you're so right.
23:49
Give us six hours and we will have it fixed no problem.
23:53
And that, that means the world to me.
23:55
You know, that's that's integrity.
23:57
Let's let's give those guys a shout out right now for doing
23:59
the right thing. That is, that is.
24:00
ABC printing and signs in Fort Smith, AR All right.
24:04
I like it. OK, so at what point did you
24:07
come across EOS and why was this so helpful for you?
24:12
Oh. Great question.
24:13
So that podcast that I told you about before the right time,
24:17
they, I think the first I, I know that they would quote that
24:20
book and I know that they, I heard them mention it.
24:24
I'd heard about the book traction.
24:26
And then it was some time later that they actually interviewed
24:28
Gino Wigman on the show, the author of the book.
24:31
And that's when I got very curious about it and thought
24:33
maybe I should read that book. And so there was a time,
24:36
probably around 21 or 22 where I actually bought the book and I
24:41
bought it for kind of all the guys I had on my crew.
24:44
And I kind of made the mistake of trying to make everybody read
24:46
it and it didn't go that well. My business coach pointed out to
24:50
me, he said, man, they're not going to read that book.
24:53
They don't want to read that book.
24:54
You just need to read it with your leaders, whoever your top
24:57
guys are. You know, you can tell anybody
25:00
that, hey, we're going to read it and I'm going to be here
25:02
every morning. If you want to read along and
25:04
come talk about it, you can. But he's like, but don't require
25:07
that of everybody because they're not, they're not into
25:08
that. Like you're into that, which is
25:11
very true. And so honestly, I, I started
25:13
reading it and we didn't finish, we kind of fell off, but there
25:16
were so many good things like the principles of hiring, right?
25:18
The GWC, do they get it? Do they want it?
25:21
Do they have the capacity to do it?
25:22
The, the vision, the mission statement, the core values, the
25:26
uniques, the 10 year, you know, all that stuff that I didn't go
25:31
like hardcore start running my business off EOS, but I just
25:33
tried to apply these principles. That's when I wrote down all of
25:37
our core values and I have these signs printed out that I put up
25:40
in our office. And then actually it wasn't till
25:44
I met there was a man who goes to my church who he owned a very
25:47
large heating and air company. I think it was the largest one
25:50
in Arkansas actually. And he had sold it.
25:52
And I asked him what he was doing now and he said I'm an EO
25:54
S implementer, which I actually didn't know was a thing.
25:57
But yeah, he's one of the people that companies hire to help them
26:00
implement EOS. So that kind of re sparked my
26:02
interest. And that's when I talked to him
26:06
about it and I finished reading the book and then he just took
26:08
me to lunch one day and just tried to help help me work
26:11
through how at my small stage, you know, because I'm not a
26:14
multi multi $1,000,000 business where I wasn't.
26:17
He's like, you know, you shouldn't hire somebody like me.
26:19
He's like, you should try to self implement now.
26:21
But he took me to lunch and gave me lots of cornered.
26:23
Here's the things that you should focus on.
26:25
And now that I'm at Blue Ribbon, they are an EOS run company,
26:28
which is one of the things that I was very excited about to be
26:31
here is that they have an implementer that they work with.
26:33
And we run all of our meetings through the L10 format that
26:39
Traction and the EOS teaches. We have our core values posted
26:43
all over this building. We have our 10 year vision and
26:46
our three-year, our one year, gosh, there's like a few
26:49
different things you call it. It's like the one year goal, the
26:51
three-year there's like. Goals and there's rocks and
26:55
there's we've. Got our quarterly rocks The
26:58
yeah, it's like the 10 year vision, the one year goal and
27:01
the three-year plan. What was?
27:03
The big thing that you got out of your own implementation of
27:07
it? I would say the biggest thing
27:12
first is core values. Which core values I didn't learn
27:15
from traction. I'd heard that many times, but
27:17
Traction reading through it was really made me go, OK, I've got
27:20
a, I've got to make core bags. I got to write these down and I
27:23
have to put them up so everybody can see them.
27:25
But I'd say also the biggest thing was, as traction puts it,
27:28
getting the right people in the right seats.
27:32
Because it's like, I knew that people were important, but I
27:36
didn't really, I didn't really know what the method is to
27:39
decide what person is right for which position aside from just
27:43
thinking he seems good for that. So traction, laying out the GWC
27:48
as it calls it, you know, does this person get it?
27:51
Do they want it? And do they have the capacity to
27:53
do it though? You know, having that framework
27:56
really helped me a lot to look, kind of look at my employees and
28:00
go, OK, like, Yep, he wants it. He like he wants what he does.
28:03
But like, at this point in time, at least he doesn't have the
28:06
capacity to have to have that position, you know, which
28:09
allowed me to realize that make changes and swap people into
28:12
different places and try to just try to get the right people in
28:16
the right seats, as the book says.
28:18
At what point did you meet the folks from Blue Ribbon Outdoor?
28:22
So I met them. I was, I was aware of this
28:24
company. Yeah, they're really big, so
28:26
it's hard not to know about them.
28:28
And actually that same guy, the implementer, he put me in touch
28:32
with them back in in November. He gave me a call and he knew
28:37
somebody here and he said, Hey, I was having lunch with them and
28:40
they said they were looking for a certain position for their
28:43
sales role. And they asked if I knew
28:47
somebody with experience and landscaping.
28:49
Told them about you told them that I thought you were
28:51
impressive and that they would have to buy your business if
28:53
they wanted you, which I was like, what did you just say?
28:58
You know, he said, but they want to talk to you.
28:59
Do you want to talk to them? I was like, I mean, I sure, I
29:03
thought I, I didn't have any much interest to be honest.
29:05
Like I, I didn't want to sell my business, but I thought, what's
29:08
the harm in talking to somebody? So I think we had a first really
29:11
contact on a phone call with them in December was my, we
29:15
actually got together. So this is December.
29:17
Of 24. Correct.
29:18
Yeah, we're talking. Right now at the end of
29:20
September of 25, OK. So this is recent.
29:23
OK. Very recent, yeah.
29:24
Yeah, so we had a brief phone call and which, you know, just
29:27
kind of a hey, who are you? What's your deal?
29:30
And just getting to know each other and, and that fellow asked
29:34
me. He was like, are you looking to
29:35
make a change? And I said, well, no, I I love
29:38
what I do. I'm just curious to hear what
29:41
you have to say. He said, OK, well, he goes,
29:43
well, let's get past the holidays.
29:44
Let's maybe why don't you come up and we'll take you to lunch
29:46
in January. So Fast forward into January.
29:49
I came up him that was Michael and Doug, who's Doug's my boss
29:53
now. They took me to lunch and Doug
29:56
asked me kind of the same thing. He's like, what are you looking
29:58
for? I said, ah, nothing, I'm not
30:02
looking for anything. I'm, I'm just again, I'm here to
30:05
to hear what you all have to say, you know, because it seems
30:08
like you wanted to talk to me. So I was like, what are you
30:11
looking for? And so they told me about the
30:13
person they were looking to, you know, the position they were
30:16
looking to fill. And they told me about their,
30:19
you know, their values, what they're doing.
30:21
And, and it's interesting because at the beginning of all
30:23
this, when I got that phone call, I told my wife about it
30:26
and she said, Oh, that's exciting.
30:28
And I was like, no, it's not exciting.
30:30
She said, why not? I was like, well, because it's
30:31
not going to happen. And I was like, there's no way
30:34
this goes anywhere. Like because I'm not in their
30:35
market. Like we're in a different.
30:37
I mean, they're about an hour and 20 minutes north of me.
30:40
Oh, I. Figured they were right here in
30:41
the same geography, like almost like friendly competitors.
30:44
No, no, we. Didn't I mean, I did a little
30:46
bit of work in their area because Northwest Arkansas,
30:49
where blue ribbon is, is like the booming part of Arkansas.
30:51
You know, Fort Smith is like, it's fine, but but Northwest
30:55
Arkansas, where Bentonville and Fayetteville and the university
30:57
is it's it's University Walmart. Yeah, exactly.
31:01
So so I did some work up here rarely, but but no, they didn't
31:05
really hardly ever do anything in Fort Smith unless it was some
31:07
humongous projects that nobody in Fort Smith was.
31:10
So why did this? Eventually come together.
31:12
What was the synergy here? So it's a crazy story.
31:16
And what happened was, as I told my wife, I was like, there's no
31:21
reason for them to buy a business that's not in their
31:23
market. There's no reason for them to
31:25
spend the amount of money they would have to, to get me to
31:27
leave my business because I love it.
31:29
There's no reason for them to pay me as much as they would
31:31
have to. You know, it's like for me to
31:34
work for somebody else, the Commission, they would have to
31:37
that Great Commission plan, our values would have to align
31:40
because I'm, I don't have a job. Like I'm on a mission with
31:43
cutting edge and I believe in what I'm doing and I'm trying to
31:45
make a difference for my employees, my customers, and
31:48
I'm, I want to build something really cool.
31:50
Like I don't want to just go work for somebody.
31:52
I want to be a, this is saying I, I didn't point this, but I
31:55
want to be a missionary, not a mercenary, you know what I mean?
31:59
I just want to do what I love and happen to get paid for it.
32:01
I don't want to just get paid to do something.
32:04
And so just all these things like the flexibility.
32:06
I, I don't want to move to this area at the moment.
32:10
I would have to really like those people, you know, like,
32:13
and just feel like I have flexibility and freedom and
32:15
just, I was like, I don't know, I can't imagine all those things
32:17
would line up. So after our first meeting they
32:20
told me about their values and I thought wow those are my core
32:22
values and what are the? Values.
32:24
What are your values? The values here.
32:27
So at cutting Edge, our values were Dang it, I'm not blanking
32:31
on them all the sudden, but let's see it was serve the
32:34
customer, work harder than everyone else, be on time,
32:40
develop people and work is under the Lord.
32:44
Develop People was really important to me because there's
32:46
a, a leadership podcast I love by Craig Rochelle where he says
32:50
that people are not a means of getting things done, but getting
32:53
things done as a means of developing people.
32:55
And that was a thing I really, and I was not always good at it,
32:58
but I really tried to always have that in mind.
33:01
It's like I don't want I don't want people to just feel like
33:03
they're just working to get paid, but I don't want them to
33:05
feel like they're learning and they're getting better and like
33:09
if it's even possible. I want them to feel like working
33:11
here makes them better men and makes them better husbands and
33:14
fathers. I don't even know how that
33:15
works, but that's how I want them to feel, you know, So
33:18
that's the kind of culture and work environment that I wanted
33:22
to have here at Blue Ribbon. Their values are chase better
33:26
means like get better every day, gritty resolve, which is the
33:29
same thing as just work harder, right?
33:31
And then do the right thing and care for others.
33:35
And I was like, those are like my like, like worded
33:37
differently, but I was like, those are my values.
33:38
Like these are my guys. This is my tribe, yeah.
33:41
And. Then they told me about their,
33:43
their mission, their, their vision statement is inspiring
33:46
the enjoyment of life by creating beautiful outdoor
33:48
spaces. And I was like, that's literally
33:51
mine is much longer than that because I couldn't figure out
33:53
how to condense it. It's like, but literally I'm
33:56
like, my philosophy was I want to make the world a better place
34:00
and I want to do that one backyard at a time because if I
34:03
can so much a part of improving yourself is changing your
34:06
environment. So I thought if we can help
34:08
people change their environments and if that helps them become
34:11
better people, then like, you know, to me, and I wasn't, I
34:14
didn't, I wasn't good at condensing that into a statement
34:16
like they did, but I was like, that's literally perfect.
34:20
And then I just found out that I really like these people.
34:22
So after like a couple more meetings, finally in April, I
34:26
came and met with them again and I met with their CEO and that's
34:29
when he really sold me on the company.
34:31
He told me their, their 10 year vision.
34:33
They're, you know, really honed in on the mission for me in the
34:36
vision statement and their values.
34:38
And he just said, like, this is the kind of person we want.
34:40
We want an entrepreneur. I don't want just somebody to
34:43
come work a job, but I want somebody that we can just give
34:45
this to and say, grow it, make it happen.
34:49
And so after talking with and I asked them, I was like, why are
34:53
you talking to me? It's like, I don't get this.
34:56
I was like, I'm not in your market.
34:57
Why would you buy my business? Well, I like, you've interviewed
35:00
people. Why don't you hire one of them?
35:02
You know, like I don't get this. And my boss Doug, now he's like,
35:06
well, it's like, I don't want a salesman.
35:09
I want a landscaper that knows how to sell.
35:11
I want an expert in this industry and you're the only one
35:13
I can find that fits the bill of what I want.
35:15
It's like, and that's was like, we just want you.
35:18
And so after that meeting, there was a whole lot more to it, but
35:20
I was kind of sold and my mentality had gone from, I mean,
35:24
I guess if they paid me enough money, I might, could do this to
35:29
honestly, I really kind of want to do this and I hope they make
35:32
it worth my while. So we went back and forth for
35:35
about another 3 or 4 weeks and they, everything that I laid out
35:40
to my wife five months previously of like this is
35:43
everything that would have to happen.
35:45
It all happened. And it was just like, I tell
35:48
people like it was like, God put a neon sign in the sky saying go
35:51
here and in A, and this, this is the most bizarre thing to say,
35:54
but it, it felt like the entire 15 years I'd spent building my
35:58
business, you know, had led to this point in a, which I never
36:02
thought it was not something I wanted, wasn't something I was
36:04
looking for, but it got here and I was like, wow, feels like this
36:07
is what I've been leading to this whole time just because I
36:09
was, I love what they were doing.
36:12
And our CEO told me he's like, look, you're a business owner.
36:15
You have a dream and you're on a mission.
36:17
You don't have to give it up. You can just bring it here and
36:21
jump. Just jump 10 years ahead and we
36:22
can do it together. You know what's?
36:24
Really cool about this story is I think it's a great example of
36:28
always being open to possibilities, right?
36:32
Because, and I've been guilty of this so many times, I've got a
36:34
vision in my head. This is where I'm going.
36:37
This is what it's going to look like when I get there.
36:39
And I just put blinders on. And, you know, there's some
36:42
value to being able to say no to, you know, things that come
36:44
up. But when you're too rigid, you
36:47
know, if you had been too rigid in that moment, you would have
36:49
passed by this great opportunity to be part of an organization
36:53
that you know, is, is shares the same values as going up and to
36:57
the right. And so I think being open to
37:00
infinite possibilities, that's the message to take away from
37:03
this little bit of Daniel's story here.
37:05
Oh, absolutely. So they acquired your business,
37:09
did you? Where are you now?
37:11
Are you still in in your hometown or did you move to
37:15
where they are? Are you going back and forth?
37:17
How's, how's this working today? Yeah.
37:19
So I I. Commute so every day I drive in
37:21
the early in the morning it's about an hour up here and in the
37:24
afternoon it's about an hour and 20 minutes back home.
37:26
So, you know, we plan to move closer at some point, but
37:29
that's, that's down the road a little bit, you know, but
37:32
eventually, eventually we will. But you know, they give me a
37:35
truck to drive and they pay for the all the fuel.
37:37
And honestly, I with little kids at home, I don't mind a little
37:40
time, quiet time in the car. So, you know, it kind of works
37:45
out right now, but I would love to be be able to get home
37:47
sooner. But yeah, so I work in Rogers,
37:49
AR every day and I live in Fort Smith and still.
37:52
Servicing the same accounts. So here's the crazy thing.
37:56
They were not operating in Fort Smith anymore.
38:00
Like effectively Cutting Edge was, was shut down because in 22
38:05
Cutting Edge stopped maintenance.
38:09
So even though I started mowing lawns in 2022, I decided I just,
38:13
I didn't want to do maintenance anymore and I loved the bit, the
38:15
install side of it. So we actually stopped
38:17
maintenance completely and just became a design build company.
38:21
So Cutting Edge didn't really have any recurring maintenance
38:23
accounts. We had a lot of repeat
38:24
customers. So Lee Ribbon bought us, they
38:28
finished out our backlog. And I mean, we, I still will
38:31
talk to people down there. And if my old customers call me,
38:33
I'll certainly go meet with them, see what they need.
38:36
And not each of the time. Blue Ribbon's probably not going
38:39
to do it, but I'll hook them up with a friend of mine that works
38:41
down there. So we still see all those people
38:44
as potential customers because we might be in Fort Smith one
38:47
day. But that was also kind of the
38:48
crazy thing is like they bought Cutting Edge, even though
38:52
Cutting Edge really had no value to them at the time.
38:55
They just didn't. The value is you, apparently.
38:58
Yeah. What's again, I don't even like
38:59
to say that, but I guess it's I guess it's true is like they it
39:04
was the only barrier that stopped me from coming here.
39:06
So they were like, OK, but we'll buy that and get you up here.
39:09
It's like an Aqua higher, right? Literally.
39:11
Yeah, an Aqua higher. So.
39:14
OK. So how have things gone so far?
39:16
Any time there's that sort of a transition, an acquisition, an
39:19
Aqua hire, whatever you want to call it, there's, you know,
39:22
there's wrinkles to iron out. How's it been for you so far?
39:25
Well, I have loved it. I mean, I have not regretted
39:29
this for a single minute since I've done it.
39:32
My boss Doug is fantastic. Like he's been doing this for 30
39:34
years. We get along super well.
39:36
I love working for him. There definitely were a few
39:39
wrinkles as far as work was still going on in Fort Smith.
39:43
And even though I'm completely on the sales side at Blue
39:46
Ribbon, usually the production department handles getting the
39:50
jobs done. But because those were all jobs
39:52
that I had designed and sold and I still live down there, I still
39:56
kind of had to act like production manager to my old
39:59
crew that they hired doing the work but also trying to sell up
40:03
here. So that was a lot.
40:05
And then even now some stuff still pops up from my old like,
40:08
you know. Water feature last week the auto
40:10
fill line busted. So it's like, well, I have to go
40:12
deal with that because who we're just going to send a crew down
40:15
to Fort Smith to fix that, do a 15 minute fix.
40:18
So that's kind of the wrinkles right now is sometimes it takes
40:21
me a little later getting home because I have to sort that
40:23
stuff out. But it's not I mean it's not a
40:25
lot. It's just a couple little things
40:28
that we're still, it's going to take a little time to get all
40:30
those situated before I really don't have to spend any time,
40:35
you know, extra time outside of the office here doing production
40:38
things. So what have you introduced so
40:43
far in terms of new sales marketing techniques to help
40:47
build the business there at Blue Ribbon?
40:49
So yes, good question. So I run or I'm in the, I'm one
40:54
of the people that run the new business development department.
40:56
So we have account managers here which take care of all of the
40:59
existing maintenance customers at Blue Ribbon.
41:03
And so until, until I got here, there's nobody to do new
41:07
business. So all the new calls that came
41:09
in got split up between the account managers and kind of
41:11
added to their plates. And so it was really hectic.
41:15
And because they just didn't have time for that, like there's
41:17
plates are so full. We have hundreds and hundreds of
41:20
customers here. And so they had very full
41:23
plates. And so it was like, get a call,
41:25
call them, go meet them. And so the first thing that I
41:27
tried to introduce here, which we do, I do is the qualifying
41:31
call. Because one thing I learned at
41:32
Cutting Edge is if I just go meet everybody that calls,
41:36
there's a lot of tire kickers, there's a lot of window shoppers
41:39
and, and really there's a lot of people who have unrealistic
41:41
ideas of how much things cost. So I would go, one of the best
41:45
stories is I met this guy, super nice guy.
41:48
I spent probably an hour and a half at his house.
41:50
He wanted landscaping, he wanted lighting, he wanted all, you
41:53
know, everything. And I spent hours, you know,
41:55
designing this, pricing it send him the bid and he emails me
41:58
back and says, Daniel, thank you.
42:00
This exceeds our $1500 budget. You know, it's like so so only
42:06
I. Had known.
42:08
Yeah. So there's a great sales course
42:12
by the contractor fight, which is like a little contractor
42:14
coaching program called Shinfu. And this is a little system that
42:18
just teaches you how to have a very effective qualifying call
42:22
before you go meet somebody, which saved me so much time when
42:26
I started using it. Exactly.
42:28
So, So that was kind of the first thing when I got here and
42:31
they were talking about how do we handle these calls as they
42:33
come in? Do we just immediately schedule
42:34
them on Daniel's calendar? And I didn't want that because
42:38
I'm like, I don't want to go around all those people.
42:40
So that's when I was like, OK, why don't you just send the info
42:43
to me and I'll e-mail them, set up a, a phone call.
42:47
And so that's the first thing I did here is like, I just call
42:49
them, I talk with them, I try to build alternate poor that I can
42:53
get to know like why they want what they want.
42:55
What's the reason behind this? How bad do they want it?
42:58
Then I look at it on Google Earth and I just give them a
43:01
bracket is what I learned at Shinfu.
43:02
It's like you don't have to give them an exact prize because you
43:04
don't know till you look at it. But I can tell them, you know,
43:08
from previous jobs I've done like this, this could cost you
43:10
somewhere between 5 to 10,000 dollars.
43:14
And I just see what they say, you know, if they go OK, or if
43:17
they go, Oh my God, no, you know, and then if they freak out
43:21
about that, I say, well, there's really probably not anything I
43:23
can do for you then, you know, like this is kind of the budget
43:25
you need to have. Or if they go, oh, that's not
43:28
bad. Like, OK, great.
43:30
You know, so that just already saves me so much time.
43:34
And then it gives me a really kind of realistic idea of like,
43:37
because we're, we're kind of expensive, like Urban's very
43:40
premium. And so that also opens them up
43:43
to say, let yesterday just happened.
43:45
Lady said, well, I got a quote for 5900 from somebody already.
43:50
And I said, well, that's great. Like, that's great.
43:52
Like we, we can't, we can't do that, you know, So I mean, I can
43:55
come look at it if you really want me to give you a prize, but
43:58
it's going to be $2000 more than that for sure.
44:01
Or you can just stick with those guys.
44:03
And then they say, we'll just go with this guy, you know, So I, I
44:05
just saved myself an hour and a half at least driving out there,
44:09
spending 30 minutes on the side with them, driving back, putting
44:12
this book together and you. Guys are in a position where you
44:14
can do that. This isn't like the early days
44:16
when you were first starting up where you wanted every scrap of
44:19
business that you could take. And it's kind of understanding
44:23
where you are in sort of the life cycle of your business to
44:26
know that, hey, early days, I got to take everything I can
44:30
get. If I, you know, got to sharpen
44:32
my pencil a little bit to get that job, I'm going to do it Now
44:35
where you guys are, you're so busy, you've got such a backlog
44:40
of work. You got so much credibility in
44:42
the area. You actually need to to sort of
44:45
tighten the scope. You, you can't go talk to
44:48
everybody. You don't want every job.
44:49
You're not a good fit for every job, Yes.
44:52
Yes, I mean it's exactly, it's supply and demand.
44:54
You know, if you don't have a lot of demand, you just got to
44:56
do what you can to get your product sold.
44:58
When everybody wants your product, you then you have to, I
45:01
mean, frankly, you just have to raise your prices to, to make it
45:05
more worth. Am I trying to say, I mean, you
45:07
know, you know, the principles of supply and demand, obviously.
45:11
But yeah, 100%. Excuse me.
45:15
And, you know, there's a story which we talked a little bit
45:17
about earlier, but I applied it to like, my children because
45:21
it's like when we had it, my wife and I had a newborn baby.
45:24
Whenever that baby cries, we just got to do whatever it takes
45:27
to get it to stop crying, feed it, change it, burp it, whatever
45:31
you know. And then that's what you have to
45:33
do. Even the contractor fight when
45:35
they teach the shinfu course, he says, well guess what?
45:38
If you're a startup, forget it. You got to keep the baby alive.
45:41
Like you have a baby on your hands and you got to take you
45:44
and meet anybody that will call you and sell them a job because
45:47
you have to keep revenue coming in otherwise your baby will die.
45:50
So in the beginning, you keep your baby alive and then as you
45:53
progress a little bit, you have a toddler on your hands.
45:55
And sometimes you have to tell your toddler no.
45:58
Because like if I give you everything that you asked for,
46:01
it's actually not good for you because now you, you know, now
46:03
you've got desires beyond just feed me, put me to bed and
46:06
change my diaper, you know, So then you have to start parenting
46:10
it. Then you get out of the Topper
46:11
stage and it's like this thing starts to take on a life of its
46:14
own. And all of a sudden, sometimes
46:17
you feel like it's running your life all of a sudden out of
46:19
nowhere, you know, like that's kind of there's.
46:21
I found that these stages really mirror my parenting journey and
46:25
my business journey at the same time.
46:27
Where are you? On the parenting journey, how
46:29
old are your kids? My oldest I'm not very far, my
46:33
oldest will be 4 next next week and then I've got a 2 year old
46:37
and I got one on the way in February.
46:39
Oh hot. Dog OK, you're in it.
46:42
I'm in it, yeah. And.
46:43
Right away it feels like they're running your life because
46:45
before. They get to toddler age, but
46:47
yeah the the. Parallels are are helpful in
46:50
thinking about business to to child raising.
46:53
So. What's the future of Blue Ribbon
46:54
look like? Where are you guys going?
46:56
So right now we have grand, grand aspirations like we want
47:03
to be. I mean, eventually you want to
47:05
be in other states. You know, this is not a vision.
47:07
This is not my vision. This is the vision that I one
47:10
second, excuse me, you know, this was a vision that I bought
47:16
into that they sold to me. But right now we're in Northwest
47:19
Arkansas, which Northwest Arkansas is an incredible
47:22
market. I mean, there are, you know,
47:26
the, the population here is super dense.
47:28
The, you know, here you have Walmart and Tyson and JB Hunt.
47:31
So there's the income classes are like perfect for our
47:36
industry right here for the luxury landscape industry.
47:39
So right now we definitely even our CEO when we were talking
47:43
about what to do with cutting edge, it was do you want to do
47:45
work in Fort Smith? His answer to me was, well,
47:48
maybe one day, but not right now.
47:50
I was like, right now we need to nail it here.
47:53
You know, there's a good saying it's nail it thin scale it.
47:56
So right now we're still trying to just nail it and just figure
47:59
out to get this smooth before we just overextend ourselves and go
48:03
everywhere. But eventually, I mean, we want
48:05
to be in Little Rock, We might want to be in Dallas or Tulsa.
48:08
You know, we have, we want to expand, but right now we're just
48:11
really trying to focus on how do we just make this run so smooth
48:15
that those expansions will be so much easier and not, you know,
48:20
'cause a mass massive catastrophe.
48:22
Because we, we're still figuring out how to do it here at home,
48:26
much less 100 miles away. And I wonder.
48:29
When you get to that point of being ready for that expansion,
48:32
if that will be just sort of like starting from scratch in a
48:35
new city or will that be another acquisition a bit of?
48:39
Both, I believe, you know, depends on the situation, but I,
48:42
I imagine that both, both scenarios will come into play
48:45
when that happens, Let's shift. Gears for a moment, Daniel and
48:50
I'd like to explore a serious challenge that you've overcome
48:53
in your life. What was that?
48:55
How'd you get through it? What did you learn?
48:58
A good question. Let's see.
49:02
So I've had some big personal challenges or one really big
49:07
personal challenge. And I'll tell you about a little
49:09
business challenge, which one of them, which was before, I mean,
49:14
I was mowing cutting edge. Wasn't like I was still a
49:16
teenager at this point. And this is probably going to
49:19
sound not like a big deal, but I was 18 and my parents separated
49:25
and it wasn't just a simple, oh, hey, we've decided to go our
49:29
separate ways. It was a volatile, like ugly
49:33
separation that really just kind of rocked my world and my my
49:38
siblings world and it just kind of shifted my worldview in a in
49:42
a way, you know, and it made me question a whole lot of things
49:44
because you know, it was I had I remember having moments where
49:47
it's like, man, I want to I want to call my dad and ask him for
49:52
advice, but at this moment I don't know which one of my
49:55
parents I can trust because one of them's crazy.
49:58
You know, I was like, I don't know which one it is yet, but
50:00
one of them's kind of off the rocker.
50:03
I'm so sorry. My throat 's try to clear that
50:07
up. And so I just remember being so
50:11
numb during that time. And you know, I was raised in a
50:14
Christian home. My dad was a pastor and you
50:17
know, I've been a Christian since I was nine years old.
50:21
And I just remember like feeling like I don't know even what's
50:25
real. The people who taught me what I
50:28
believe. I don't even know if I can trust
50:30
what they taught me anymore. And and everything was just
50:34
going wrong. Like on top of my mom having
50:37
just kind of basically disappeared and she just like
50:40
left one day and then my siblings and I had to move out
50:43
of the house because we were like, we don't know what's going
50:45
on. We're just going to get safe.
50:46
And let me just say this right now that things are much better
50:50
now. And my dad and I have a
50:52
wonderful relationship. Like he's an amazing man.
50:54
And I really, I don't talk to my mother much because of it all,
50:58
but I don't want you to think we were like abused or anything.
51:01
It was like a There was a lot of.
51:02
Turmoil. A lot of.
51:03
Uncertainty and turmoil and we were like, whatever's going to
51:06
happen, let's just get out of it, basically.
51:10
And so like, so on top of my mother having just basically
51:13
just vanished, I went to work one day and all my equipment had
51:19
been stolen. So I pull into my shop and my
51:22
trailer and my lawn mowers are gone.
51:24
And somebody had come in at 2:00 at night, cut the lock off the
51:27
gate, just hooked up and drove off with it.
51:29
And that was kind of, you know, like, wow, OK, great.
51:32
Now this. And and then that's where I was
51:35
starting to kind of like somebody let me use a trailer
51:37
and let me use a lawnmower to keep things going.
51:40
And then my truck broke down and then my lawnmower broke.
51:44
But, you know, it's just everything just kept like every
51:46
time I was just trying to have a good productive day, it just
51:49
crashed and burned. And there was a time where every
51:52
day I would go home and me and my sisters had an apartment
51:55
together. My older sister would ask me,
51:56
hey, how was your day? And I would just always say, oh,
51:59
it was rough. It was a bad day.
52:01
It was a bad day and I remember one day, I don't remember what
52:04
happened but it wasn't good and I was driving home and I
52:06
thought, man, my sister's going to ask me how was my day and I'm
52:10
tired of telling her I had a bad day.
52:12
This sparked this thought in my mind of like what does it take
52:16
to not have a bad day? Is it up to me or is it up to
52:19
what happens to me during the day?
52:21
So I decided to try and experiment and this experiment,
52:23
like changed the course of my life, which is where in the
52:26
morning I would wake up and I would just say again, this is
52:31
Christian talk for anybody who's not going to be offended.
52:33
But I would wake up and I would say my sins are forgiven and I
52:37
know where I'm going. It's a good day.
52:40
Nothing can take that away from me.
52:42
If anything else good happens, it's icing on the cake.
52:44
You know, if nothing else good happens, I've still got cake.
52:47
And so, you know, honestly, I didn't internalize that.
52:51
It took like weeks of doing that before it started to like
52:53
actually get itself into my, my mindset.
52:56
But that's what started to help me develop this mindset of
52:59
nothing happens to me. It all happens for me.
53:02
So even when the hardest thing happens to me, when my reaction
53:05
would just be to be like frustrated and angry, Not that I
53:08
don't get frustrated, but I just have to stop and say OK like
53:13
what's God trying to teach me right now?
53:15
Like, am I some victim here or is this just an opportunity for
53:17
me to become a stronger person capable of handling bigger
53:20
challenges? And so that application like day
53:24
after day, like totally reworked my mindset at just about
53:27
everything in life. And I just started to view
53:30
challenges not as things in my way, but things that are there
53:34
to make me better and things that are there to for me to grow
53:38
from. So that was a big, big, big
53:41
challenge that I had to, and that was probably the biggest
53:42
challenge. And through that time really
53:45
have to decide for myself, like what do I believe?
53:47
Do I believe in God? Do I believe in the Bible?
53:49
Do I, you know, and I've spent about two years wrestling with
53:52
just all of this. But I look back on that time in
53:55
my life and like that was the most formative time in my life.
53:57
And those are the two years that made me who I am and turned me
54:01
into this person that I wouldn't have built that business if it
54:03
wasn't for those two years. You know, I wouldn't be here, I
54:06
wouldn't have my wife, I wouldn't have my children if I
54:08
hadn't gone through those two years of my life, which were the
54:11
hardest in business. The hardest thing I've ever done
54:14
is get sued. You know, probably that was a
54:17
challenge as a had kind of a crazy customer that was not
54:20
happy and leveled. It was small clampings, but it
54:23
was really annoying and stressful for me for about 6
54:25
months. And I mean, I won and she did
54:29
not go her way because I had all the things to prove that I
54:31
didn't do anything wrong. But that was extremely stressful
54:34
for six months because I had, I had no idea what was going to
54:37
happen with that. You know, it's like this is this
54:39
is crazy. Let's go back to what happened
54:42
when you were 18 years old. And it just seems like one thing
54:46
after another. I mean, parents splitting up in
54:49
this volatile way that would be enough to rock anybody's world.
54:52
And then your trailer and all your gear is stolen.
54:55
And then your truck breaks down, and it just feels like you're
54:58
running into a wall every time you turn around.
55:02
But somehow you find it within yourself.
55:05
Was this, I don't know, was or was this a podcast you were
55:09
listening to that sort of planted this in your head where
55:12
you sort of had this idea of? How can I?
55:15
Stop having a bad day. And how did you put it?
55:18
You know, is having a bad day, like is that up to me?
55:22
Or is that am I just sort of a victim of whatever happens
55:25
during my day? Right?
55:27
So like that particular day, I don't remember a certain podcast
55:31
that like I as far as I remember now that I don't want to take
55:34
credit for it if it wasn't on me.
55:35
But I, I literally just remembering, think, remember
55:37
thinking like I can't deal with this anymore.
55:41
Like if this is how date. Like I'm like I'm tired of just
55:44
having 0 control over how the day goes, whether or not I can
55:47
control the lawn mower snapping a belt off.
55:50
Like I'm tired of just feeling completely at the mercy of
55:54
whatever the heck happens to me. And so that was strictly just a
55:58
thought experiment. I just was tired of it.
56:00
And I thought, is there any way for it not to be like this?
56:04
Now during that time, and as as I tried to kind of develop that
56:08
mindset, there were podcasts. Like there was a there was a
56:11
preacher named Timothy Keller that again, at that time, I was
56:14
really having to figure out if I still believed in the face that
56:17
I grew up with. And you know, I listen to music
56:21
all the time when I was mowing lawns.
56:22
And one day I just thought, I'm so tired of this playlist, this
56:25
stupid playlist I listen to every day.
56:27
And I heard about podcasts and I thought, man, let me try this,
56:31
this Timothy Keller guy that my brother told me about.
56:34
And I don't know, you know, if you're a Christian or anything,
56:36
but Timothy Keller was just a wonderful preacher that just
56:40
helped me. It kind of brought it back into
56:42
my heart, like the beauty of what Jesus did for us and the
56:45
gospel and how that integrates into my entire life and every
56:49
challenge I go through. When I view through this lens,
56:52
it shows you that like these things, if you treat them the
56:55
right way, are actually things that make you a better person
56:57
and they bring you closer to God and they strengthen your
56:59
relationship. But you have to, you have to
57:02
view it that way, and you have to take the steps to view these
57:05
things, as the Bible says, count it all as joy and not become
57:10
bitter because of the circumstance.
57:13
It's not happening to you. It's happening for you.
57:15
It's helping to shape you. Those challenges are where the
57:18
growth comes from, right? Yeah, exactly.
57:20
Exactly. And that's, and that's just it
57:22
because you know, you never get stronger if you don't lift a
57:25
weight. You know, it's like, so lifting
57:27
the weight is hard, but you do. If you don't do that hard thing,
57:30
you never get strong, right. You know, it's just, it's a
57:33
simple principle that I it's hard to see when you're 18 years
57:35
old and it feels like your world's falling apart.
57:39
Daniel, I just got one more question for you, but before I
57:42
ask it, I want to do a few things.
57:43
First of all, folks, if you want to get in touch with
57:46
daniel.thomasyoucancontacttheirbusiness@blueribbonoutdoor.com, that's Blue Ribbon outdoor.com.
57:53
Or if you want to reach out directly to Daniel himself, his
57:57
e-mail address is dee.thomas@blueribbonoutdoor.com,
58:00
d.thomas@blueribbonoutdoor.com, dee.thomas@blueribbonoutdoor.com,
58:06
and we'll have links to that in the show notes for everybody.
58:09
And as a reminder, if you want to get more employees access to
58:12
benefits that won't hurt them financially and carries a
58:15
financial upside for the company, reach out to us at at
58:18
backbenefits.com. Finally, if you take just a
58:21
moment and leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast
58:25
app, we will be forever grateful.
58:27
All right, last question for you, Daniel.
58:29
As you look to the future, what exciting changes do you see
58:33
coming to the industry and how are you guys going to be prepped
58:36
to take advantage of that? So that is one thing that our
58:42
CEO here, Dan, I think he's a great leader and he's one of the
58:46
big reasons why I'm here. And he has three things that he
58:49
says are very important to our future, which is again, every
58:54
time I try to say these things, I blank on him all the sudden.
58:56
But it's culture, brand and technology.
59:02
So one thing that's really prevalent in our industry right
59:05
now is the technology that's starting to really change
59:08
things. So even up here in Northwest
59:11
Arkansas, there are already RC. You know, people know what
59:15
Walmart is, they know who the Waltons are, right?
59:17
The Waltons live here and we have so many, there's so many
59:20
properties that the Waltons have.
59:21
And there are some contracts about at least one contract that
59:24
we lost because this, I think it was a school, excuse me, I think
59:30
it was a school that they decided we are.
59:33
If you want this contract, you have to be a fully electric
59:37
crew. So your truck has to be
59:39
electric, the mower has to be electric, the trimmers and
59:41
blowers all have to be electric. And so one SEC.
59:46
Thank you. Sorry.
59:53
And so we are not set up, we are demoing and testing electric
59:57
equipment, but we are not we don't have any fully electric
1:00:00
crew just yet. So that's a big thing that we're
1:00:02
working towards right now is in the next year or two to have at
1:00:05
least one crew that is fully electric because they're already
1:00:08
people who are only hiring a service if you can offer that
1:00:12
option. So that's a really big deal
1:00:15
going on. And then just the use of
1:00:16
technology, you know, we. Really, we picked a totally
1:00:19
different software to run this business well before I got here,
1:00:21
but they started using a brand new software because the size of
1:00:25
this business is, you know, eventually I used to use Jabber
1:00:28
at Cutting Edge, which was a great software for the company
1:00:30
that I was, but Jabber is not robust enough for this business.
1:00:33
So we had to find a different software that could handle all
1:00:37
the data inputs there are for us to properly track our labor, our
1:00:41
materials, you know, how efficient are we being, you
1:00:44
know, and so technology is a big, big deal right now.
1:00:47
And previously technology was not a factor in the green in the
1:00:50
mowing lawns industry. You just need a lawnmower and a
1:00:53
blower and a weed eater. Well, now for you to be a
1:00:57
company that handles very high end, you know, luxury
1:01:01
neighborhoods, luxury businesses, that's what people
1:01:03
are starting to require. So that's a, that's a big effort
1:01:06
that we're making right now. That'll be fun to follow.
1:01:11
Interesting to hear that there's really such a push.
1:01:13
And obviously it requires a pretty big investment in, you
1:01:17
know, all kinds of new equipment, new truck, lots of
1:01:20
batteries, right, Not just going down to the gas station to
1:01:23
refuel for the day. Oh yeah.
1:01:26
Yeah, it's a, it's, it changes a lot.
1:01:27
So we've, we've demoed a lot of electric equipment this year.
1:01:30
I, I think I'm not on the production side, but I, I
1:01:33
believe we settled on a brand that we're going to start
1:01:35
actually sending out with crews. I'm I'm not sure what it is
1:01:37
actually, to be honest with you. We can cover that in a follow up
1:01:41
interview because that Daniel Thomas from Blue Ribbon Outdoor.
1:01:45
I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time
1:01:47
and your story with us today. I really appreciate it, of
1:01:50
course. Thank you.
1:01:50
Thanks again for having me. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:01:53
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:01:55
Thanks for learning with us today.