The Lawn & Landscape Technology Conference is in full swing this week. Take a look at some impactful quotes from throughout the event — and stay tuned for more coverage!
Overheard Thursday
"The thing doesn't call out sick."
Maurice Coley, the superintendent of landscape operations at Georgia Southern University, joined a panel discussion on autonomous mowing and reminded attendees of one key benefit amidst the industry's labor shortage: the mowers are always available.
In other words, the mowers won't call operators the morning of a shift to say their dog died or that they don't feel good.
"You don't have to pay additional (wage) taxes," Cooley says. "You don't have health insurance."
Overheard Wednesday
"When the Super Bowl is on the line, do you want to be reliant on your memory?”
Speaker Justin White, the CEO of K&D Landscaping and columnist for Lawn & Landscape magazine, showed attendees a picture of NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes is universally regarded as the best quarterback currently playing today. But White pointed out that in the picture, he's wearing a wristband with the playbook. White reminded attendees that while Mahomes is the best in the business, he's still ready for the stressful moments because he has his game plan ready to go.
Of course, it's hard to send your team out on sales calls with a plan that doesn't yet exist.
“(As landscapers), we are (often) lacking a play book. We are lacking vision in a company," White says. "Many of us do not know where we’re going to be in 10 years. At least have an idea, at least have a goal to put out there.”
“If you have the right platform and implement it correctly and execute it correctly, you eliminate a lot of your overhead.”
Niwar Nasim and Christian Guerrero told attendees how they've grown their business to $10 million in revenue, leveraging technology since 2019 to grow from $1.2 million. They covered everything from smart irrigation, AI measuring and scheduling, but the biggest takeaway was that implementing the right tech can transform a business in just five years.
"These are tools that, if you're not using, you're missing out on so much," Nasim says. "It's a no-brainer for sure."
Meanwhile, Guerrero shouted out Jerry Schill from Schill Grounds Management, who told him that there are folks at these events who are willing to share their industry knowledge but are just never approached because people are afraid to ask them questions.
Guerrero adds that there is such a thing as a dumb question, but even then, at least by asking those questions, attendees will receive the answers.
“Who cares if people think it’s a dumb question?" Guerrero says. "At least you’re building your knowledge.”
“We’re increasing great people’s capacity to do great work. Our people aren’t thinking about what they need to do, they’re just executing all the time.”
Dave DiGregorio, general manager of Ground Works Land Design, and Adam Swank, director of technology, shared how embracing automation saved the company over $25,000 last year during their session at the Tech Conference. In 2023, Ground Works completed 61,383 automations, which equates to about 127 working days worth of time saved.
The duo also discussed how brining automation to the project managers, HR department and sales team helped them do their jobs better and faster.
“We’re increasing great people’s capacity to do great work,” DiGregorio says. “Our people aren’t thinking about what they need to do, they’re just executing all the time.”
“Allow them to focus on the results of the data and not putting together the data and the report."
Natalie Shaw, director of business intelligence at Heartland, gave attendees a step-by-step guide on how to improve their reporting during her session "Building Intuitive Reports for Operators."
Shaw suggests companies keep their reports highly visual but uncluttered. This will allow those reviewing them to quickly understand the data and apply it.
She says that reports should also have consistent templates, color schemes and branding.
And once the reports are introduced, the next step becomes all about training.
“With any tool or technology its important to have great training and support — what we’ve done at heartland is create an excellent learning management system online,” she says. “All of this training is fundamental for the users to gain value out of the tools and use it effectively."
“The biggest thing I always told them was, we’re not here to watch you all day long. I don’t have time for that.”
Sure, some of the drivers at Fairway Lawns were initially skeptical of the cameras installed in their trucks. But Jim Milliman, the vice president of safety at the company, says they've been able to show drivers how the cameras are there to protect them, not harm them.
The drivers had questions, and at implementation, Milliman says Fairway brought all employees in to ask away. He told them that no, they wouldn't have sound on to hear private phone conversations, and no, they wouldn't be watching drivers 24/7. Management would only be notified if there was a collision or if drivers had been warned to fix phone use or speeding and hadn't adjusted accordingly.
Fairway also implemented some rewards for high-quality driving scores. They made it competitive, so drivers earned anything from cookouts to the chance to win new trucks at locations without any accidents.
“Everybody became engaged with the safety culture, which turned their minds away from, 'This is a bad thing,'" Milliman says.
Overheard Tuesday
Technology Conference:
- “I’ve watched a lot of things blossom. When a new wave of technology blossoms there will be winners and losers in terms of how people adapt to it.”
- “There’s a great opportunity now for some organizations to leapfrog others. That’s one thing I love about this technology — small players are able to play. There’s a lot of power for not a lot of money.”
- “We should get rid of the word artificial — it’s not fake intelligence — it’s just not human intelligence."
Scott Klososky, founding partner of Future Point of View, gave the keynote session at this year's Tech Conference.
Klososky talked all about synthetic intelligence and gave attendees an insider's look at how AI is rapidly growing.
He also gave advice on how and why companies should be developing their own AI strategies so they can stay competitive.
Some simple implementations Klososky recommends is encouraging all team members to improve their AI skills by at least 5% in 2025 to increase their personal efficiency. He suggests companies commit to improved decision making through AI-driven analytics and more innovative problem solving by embracing the technology.
“The rearview mirror is smaller for a reason.”
Mike McCarron, the founder and CEO of Image Works Landscape Management, kicked off the 2024 Lawn & Landscape Technology Conference by reminding attendees that your truck's windshield is bigger than its rearview mirror.
That is to say, landscapers should be looking ahead to the future more than they are in the past. Data is useful for identifying company trends, but landscapers should use that data to plan for the future rather than lamenting bad numbers and sitting comfortably with the good numbers.
"We need to be looking forward as a culture and as a company," McCarron says.
“Automating allows you to focus on the things that really matter. The quicker you can get to doing those things and not the meaningless tasks you can pass off to a machine — the better.”
Brothers and business partners Aaron and Jason Thomas, with Don's Lawn, made the case for automation during their session "Put Your Business on Autopilot with Automation."
Just by automating several processes, the company has done 50% more revenue with the same number of staff.
“All of our staff is now higher compensated,” Jason notes. “The field and office staff are both more efficient and less stressed and a lot happier.”
According to Aaron and Jason, simple tasks to automate include appointment reminders, sales quoting, customer and employee on-boarding, upsell opportunities, reviews and so much more.
Tales from the Top 100 event
“I am very honest and transparent up front. You’d be surprised when you open up the conversation with a direct question…that most people are willing and wanting to be honest.”
Panelist Lori Johnson, the CEO of The Grounds Guys, told Top 100 attendees that soliciting honest feedback from employees can be a challenge as a leader. She joined Austin Ashmore (CEO, Sunrise Landscape), Harry Lamberton (President & CEO, Yellowstone Landscape) and Billy McEnery (CEO, Green Garden Group) as a group of leaders who came from outside of the industry.
Lamberton also recognized a trend that the higher you rise in an organization, the less honesty you receive from coworkers. Employees withhold feedback sometimes because they fear it'll affect their career. So, he agreed with Johnson that spending time with employees and being transparent with them will help them mirror that transparency.
"It’s spending time with them. It’s not just talking to them, it’s having conversations about what’s going on," he says. "Don’t just show up one time and now all of the sudden, everybody’s going to tell you what’s going on."
“You never know when you’re going to sell but you need to always be prepared to sell."
Brad Cox, senior vice president of operations with LMC Landscape Partners, was one of four panelists talking about all things mergers & acquisitions during the Lawn & Landscape Top 100 Executive Summit.
With M&A activity still being so high within the industry, owners need to start thinking about what will make them appealing to prospective buyers. And one simple thing is just be transparent.
“Every company has its weaknesses,” says Robbie Blair, vice president of M&A and corporate development with Yardnique. “Go in with a plan around those weaknesses, and be upfront about them.”
Another easy focus is culture.
“It’s rare to find organizations these days who would be a good acquisition target who doesn’t have good culture,” adds Patrick Quinlan, director of M&A with Schill Grounds Management. “Typically, the culture box is an easy one to check for us.”
“I haven’t seen a tremendous amount of change in behavior because it’s an election year. I think we’re getting to a point in this country where we’re trying to not let the politics impact our day-to-day."
Jeff Domenick, CEO of KeyServ Companies, mentioned during the Top 100 State of the Industry Panel that while tensions are always high during election years, he doesn't expect it to have too much of an impact on the green industry.
Instead, Domenick and other panelists including Kevin McHale, of McHale Landscape Design; John Moehn, of Experigreen Lawn Care; and Hugh Cooper, of Russell Landscape Group, discussed what challenges the industry is currently facing and what can be expected for the year ahead.
These challenges include a diminishing labor pool and not enough students or young people interested in a career with landscaping.
“There’s not enough information to the younger generation that this is a good career and a good way to support a family,” Cooper notes.
Fuel costs can be another hurdle to get over.
“Whenever you have 300 trucks on the road — fuel is always on your mind,” Moehn says.
But panelists agree that staying on top of things and being diligent with the budgeting process can help smooth over any bumps in the road when it comes to fuel costs.
Overheard Monday
"If you don’t like change, you’re going to hate extinction.”
Keynote spaker Ross Shafer told Top 100 attendees what he believed would help businesses separate themselves from competitors in 2025 and beyond. Among those messages: generate endless ideas (and get them from outside the green industry) and consider the customer's pain points.
“Sit down and listen to other industries’ ideas. It will shake you up," Shafer says. "What money is slipping through our fingers and we’re not getting? Are we really thinking about the herd or are we thinking about us?”
Keep checking lawnandlandscape.com for more coverage from our events.
