Shows / Trades Talk Podcast
Trades Talk Podcast
Trades Talk Podcast is a captivating and dynamic program that is led by Justin White. He’ll delve into the triumphs of various trade industries, showcasing the successes of those who have made a significant impact. With his extensive network of industry connections, Justin provides an unparalleled view into the world of visionary leaders. Prepare to be inspired and enlightened with the trade secrets, career advice, and business tips that are shared. Make sure to have a notepad on hand, as this…
Episodes
Trades Talk PodcastMarcus Sheridan: Why "Call for a Quote" Is Dead in the AI Era
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Marcus Sheridan, bestselling author of They Ask, You Answer and Endless Customers, and the man who saved…
Trades Talk PodcastThe Hidden Costs of Autonomous Mowing, and How to Price Them
In part two of the robotics as a service panel, Justin White gets back in the studio with Joe Langton of Automated Outdoor Solutions and Tyler Reiter of MoTek…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update 71: Robotics, AI, and the Two-Month Sprint
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is fired up and moving fast. He walks through a packed week at K&D, from a brand new autonomous mowing…
Trades Talk PodcastThe Price of Becoming: Ryan Hawk on Compounding, Standards, and Leadership
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Ryan Hawk, host of The Learning Leader Show, keynote speaker, leadership coach, and author of the new…
Trades Talk PodcastThe State of Autonomous Mowing: A Live Robotics Panel
In a special live panel of Trades Talk, Justin White brings together three of the sharpest minds in landscape robotics: Joe Langton of Automated Outdoor…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update 70: Why Justin Abolished K&D's Leadership Team
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White gets personal after what he calls the most rewarding, stressful, and change-filled two weeks of his career…
Trades Talk PodcastFrom $1,000 and a Borrowed Truck to 700 Employees: Robert Underwood's Story
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Robert Underwood, founder of AAA Landscape in Phoenix, Arizona. Robert borrowed $1,000 from his mom and a…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update 69: Aspire Command Center, a Big Goodbye, and the Robotics Gold Rush
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White comes to you from the Monterey Bay in the middle of K&D's Q4 all-hands planning session, and the news is…
Trades Talk PodcastEli Zevin: How Aspire's New Command Center and Atlas AI Change the Game
This is a special one. Justin White sat down with Eli Zevin, General Manager of Aspire, the same day Aspire launched its brand new Command Center, and dropped…
Trades Talk PodcastAndy Worshek: The Master Chief Who Lived Intent-Based Leadership Before It Had a Name
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Andy Worshek, retired US Navy Master Chief and the man who actually implemented Intent-Based Leadership…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #68: Stop Automating Your Mess. The Q4 Playbook for 2027
I sat out Aspire Ignite this week for the first time in five years and recorded this one from the hangar. If you came home from those events feeling behind…
Trades Talk PodcastFrom $700 to the Largest Landscape Company in Connecticut: Ed LaFlamme's Playbook
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Ed LaFlamme, landscape industry legend, author, and co-founder of The Harvesters. Ed borrowed $700 from…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #67 - Landscaping’s AI Revolution: Your 2027 Game Plan
Landscape business owners have a massive opportunity in front of them. Owners are retiring, AI is getting more useful, and robotics is changing how work gets…
Trades Talk PodcastJohn Lee Dumas: Reps Beat Talent, and Most People Just Do Not Want It Bad Enough
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with John Lee Dumas, host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily podcast in the world interviewing…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #66: Building a Company That Runs Without You
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is recording from the backyard on a milestone day. For the first time in eleven years, he is sitting out…
Trades Talk PodcastJoe Langton: The Electrician Who Built the Largest Robotic Mowing Operation in America
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Joe Langton, CEO of Langton Group and founder of Automated Outdoor Solutions (AOS). Joe went from 11…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly update 65: the Kress 60-inch Voyager demo
The future of landscaping is already here, and it starts with the 60-inch Voyager that maps faster, stripes cleaner, and frees crews to do higher-value work…
Trades Talk PodcastDavid Meltzer on Why 80% of Your Work Is Losing You Money
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with David Meltzer, legendary entrepreneur, speaker, and former CEO of the most notable sports agency in the…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #64: Why Now Is the Best Time Ever to Be a Founder
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White runs the show like a newsroom, rapid firing the biggest headlines hitting the trades and the wildest month…
Trades Talk PodcastJack Jostes: The Follow-Up System That Turns Old Bids Into Booked Jobs
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Jack Jostes, founder and CEO of Ramblin Jackson, the snow and landscape exclusive marketing agency, host…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #63: Fatherhood, Robots, and Owning Your Intelligence
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is back after a week off, recording with his newborn daughter asleep right beside him. He opens up on what…
Trades Talk PodcastFitz Owen: Why the Best Trades Companies Are Becoming Their Own Insurance Owners
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Fitz Owen from Garnet Captive Insurance. Fitz runs business development for one of the most respected…
Trades Talk PodcastNathan Dirksen: 38 Years From Crewman to CEO, and the Non-Family Leader of a 70 Year Family Business
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Nathan Dirksen, CEO of 7 Dees, the Portland-area landscape company celebrating its 70th year in business…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #62: Inside the Landscape M&A Frenzy (12 Deals in 3 Weeks)
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White pulls back the curtain on the landscape M&A boom. Fresh off a week of nonstop calls with buyers, brokers…
Trades Talk PodcastCameron Herold: The COO Who Scaled 1-800-GOT-JUNK From $2M to $106M in Six Years
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Cameron Herold, founder of the COO Alliance and one of the most respected voices in operational scaling…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #61: Consistency Beats Intensity (and AI Might Be Your Biggest Distraction)
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is flying solo and going deep on four things: the custom Claude MCP that is unlocking K&D's Aspire data, the…
Trades Talk PodcastPeter Murphy Lewis: 100 Jobs on Camera, 200 CEOs Coached, One Playbook for Trades Storytelling
Episode Description This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Peter Murphy Lewis, founder of Strategic Pete and one of the most creative…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #60: Are We at the Top of the AI S-Curve?
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is back solo with the podcast board loading up fast. Fresh off interviews with David Meltzer, Ryan Hawk…
Trades Talk PodcastAl Levi: The 7-Power Contractor and Why Systems Beat Talent Every Time
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Al Levi, founder of The 7-Power Contractor and one of the most respected voices in trades operations. Al…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #59: Building AI That Actually Serves the Field, Not the Boardroom
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is joined again by Sean Laux, K&D's leader of innovation and technology, fresh off Sean's headline talk at…
Trades Talk PodcastJosh McMillan: The 30 Year Climb From Employee #5 to Nine Figure Landscape CEO
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Josh McMillan, CEO of Roebuck Landscaping out of upstate South Carolina. Josh joined the company as…
Trades Talk PodcastBONUS: The AI Guide That Wrote Itself
This is a bonus episode of Trades Talk, and it is unlike anything we have published before. The entire show, both hosts, all of the analysis, and every…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #58: The Two Levels of AI and the Audit Every Operator Needs to Run
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White unpacks the Lawn and Landscape Technology Conference in Phoenix, the two levels of AI every operator needs…
Trades Talk PodcastJerry Schill: How the Landscape Collective Scaled to $200M and 2,000 Team Members
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Jerry Schill, CEO of The Landscape Collective. Jerry has built a maintenance driven organization at…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #57: K&D's 300% Maintenance Sales Jump and the 54% AI Adoption Gap
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White unpacks the 300 percent year over year jump in K&D maintenance sales, the Service Titan State of AI Survey…
Trades Talk PodcastSteve Wheatcroft: From a B Minus Business Plan to Canada's Biggest Landscape Company
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Steve Wheatcroft, founder of ULS (now Urban Life Solutions), the largest landscape company in Canada…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #56: Teasing the K&D Operating System and Why Justin Is Stepping Back
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White unpacks Q3 planning at K&D, teases the K&D Operating System for the first time publicly, and announces he is…
Trades Talk PodcastTim Hendricks: Lessons From Valley Crest, Cagwin, and the High End Residential World
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Tim Hendricks, a 40 plus year California landscape industry veteran who built his chops at Valley Crest…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #55: Fable 5, The Trillion Dollar Coach, and Permission to Cancel That Meeting
It's Fourth of July weekend and K&D is going for the three peat on most patriotic float in tomorrow's parade. But before the fireworks, we've got work to do…
Trades Talk PodcastBen Hansen: Why More Revenue Will Not Fix Your Profit Problem
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Ben Hansen, founder of Profit Doctor. Ben is a 5x Inc. 5000 founder who scaled his own staffing business…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #54: Inside the K&D AI Operating System with Sean Laux
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is joined by Sean Laux, K&D's leader of innovation and technology, kicking off a new chapter of the Friday…
Trades Talk PodcastJeremy Ross: How K&D's Design Build Division Grew to $8 Million
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits back down with Jeremy Ross, division lead for K&D Landscaping's Design Build Construction division, for round two…
Trades Talk PodcastTrades Talk Weekly Update 53: LeanScaper Takeaways, the Profitability Squeeze, and Why the Bottleneck Is at the Top
Join Disruptors: https://www.skool.com/disruptors/about Year two kicks off here. Justin debriefs the LeanScaper event in Chicago and pulls three takeaways…
Trades Talk PodcastMichael Ding: Inside the $35 Million Series A That Could Triple Construction Productivity
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White brings Michael Ding back for round two. A year ago, Michael was a founder building Bobyard for landscape takeoffs. Today…
Trades Talk PodcastAustyn Roth: From Mowing Lawns at 11 to Selling Lucky Landscaping at 23
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Austyn Roth, founder of Lucky Landscaping in Jupiter, Florida. Austyn started mowing lawns at 11…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #52: The Year One Lessons That Are Reshaping K&D
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White hits the one year mark with a wide angle State of the Industry, plus the four biggest lessons from year one…
Trades Talk PodcastKendel White Part 2: From the 2008 Recession to a $1 Billion BHAG
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White brings Kendel White back for Part 2 of the K&D origin story. If Part 1 was about building it, Part 2 is about almost…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #51: The 7 Day Workflow Sprint That Sets Up Agentic AI
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White breaks down the 7 day sprint K&D just kicked off to document every leadership workflow, and why that boring…
Trades Talk PodcastKendel White Part 1: A $100 Truck, a Sears Credit Card, and the Beginning of K&D Landscaping
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with the K in K&D, his dad, Kendel White, co-founder of K&D Landscaping, for Part 1 of a 2-part father-son…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #50: Lessons from Peter Lemon, a Tour of Cal Poly, and Why Consistency Wins
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White celebrates 50 episodes from the shoreline of Lake Nacimiento with a debrief from this week's Cal Poly tour…
Trades Talk PodcastPeter Lemon: How Graniterock Built a 126 Year Legacy in the Trades
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Peter Lemon, CEO and President of Graniterock, the 126 year old vertically integrated construction and…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #49: Inside the Top 100 List and the Three Layers of Capital Behind Every Platform
On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White breaks down the newly released Lawn and Landscape Top 100 list and the 3-layered capital stack quietly…
Trades Talk PodcastBob Grover: Just Don't Suck at the Landscape Part
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Bob Grover, Chairman of Osprey Landscape Group and founder of Pacific Landscape Management, to break down…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #48: The Owner Operator Advantage in an AI World
On this Weekly Update on Trades Talk, Justin White breaks down what is shaping the landscape industry right now and why the operators who move first are…
Trades Talk PodcastAnna Halstead: How to Build a Marketing Engine That Actually Drives Growth
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Anna Halstead of Halstead Media to unpack the real story behind building growth, both personally and…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #47: Why Owner Operators Have the Biggest Advantage Right Now
On this Weekly Update on Trades Talk, Justin White breaks down one of the most important levers in building a successful trades business, understanding your…
Trades Talk PodcastKory Mitchell: From $8M to $200M and a Nine Figure Exit
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Kory Mitchell of Iconic Founders to break down one of the most important conversations happening in the…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update 46: Pain, Profit, and the AI Gap
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White is back on the ground and diving into one of the most important conversations for operators right now, how to turn pain…
Trades Talk PodcastOrlando Castillo: Build a Sales System That Actually Scales
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Orlando Castillo of The Sales Collective to break down one of the most overlooked drivers of growth in…
Trades Talk PodcastWeekly Update #45: The Future of Landscaping Is Being Built Now
On this weekly update of Trades Talk, Justin White checks in from 4,500 feet in the air, flying back from Palo Alto after attending the Techo Bloc Hardscape…