Nathan Stinnett [00:00:00]:
Some of the biggest takeaways was, like, the sales processing. People call in and they want, like, one flower planted over behind their bush over here. And I'm like, man, I just. I can't afford to do that anymore. But we had the nice guy syndrome.
Jack Jostes [00:00:12]:
That may serve the customer. To hear. Hey, we'd love to help you with this. Right now, we're currently. We have a backlog. Would it be helpful if I sent you our pricing guide?
00:21 – From Marine Corps to Landscaper
Jack Jostes [00:00:21]:
Here we are with Landscapin’ Nathan from Crystal Coast Custom Landscapes. We're at Belgard University right now.
Jack Jostes [00:00:29]:
How are you doing?
Nathan Stinnett [00:00:29]:
I'm doing great. Great. A little cold, but great.
Jack Jostes [00:00:32]:
It is a little cold, I guess. What is the actual temperature right now?
Nathan Stinnett [00:00:36]:
I think it's about 54.
Jack Jostes [00:00:37]:
54. Okay. So when I came from Colorado, it was 23. Oh, boy. But it's really dry there, so it's more humid here. It actually, I don't know, I'm feeling. I'm enjoying being outside right now.
Nathan Stinnett [00:00:48]:
Really? Okay. Yeah. I'm from Michigan as well, so we're kind of used to the cold, but after being acclimatized for 10 years here, I'm kind of liking the warm a little bit.
Nathan Stinnett [00:00:48]:
Really? Okay. Yeah. I'm from Michigan as well, so we're kind of used to the cold, but after being acclimatized for 10 years here, I'm kind of liking the warm a little bit.
Jack Jostes [00:00:56]:
Well, so landscape and Nathan, I just gave a talk, and I said, hey, does anyone want to be on the podcast? And you're like, yeah, let's do it. So here we are having a chat. Tell us a little bit about your company.
Nathan Stinnett [00:01:06]:
Okay. Yeah. So I was a Marine, obviously, for five years, and that's why we're in the Camp Lejeune area, kind of. The surrounding Swansboro is actually a town we work out of. I had worked for a local US Lawns franchise. Didn't quite see eye to eye with some of the. The regulations and stuff that they had working as a franchise. So that's where I had stepped away and began our landscaping venture by ourselves about 2021, I think, is when I was our first year.
Nathan Stinnett [00:01:33]:
We've been in business about four years now, and we've grown from just me running around with F150 and a trailer about the size of a picnic table to a company that has 20+ employees.
Jack Jostes [00:01:42]:
Wow, that's amazing. And what are all the different services you guys do?
Nathan Stinnett [00:01:46]:
We do anything like outdoor custom landscaping. Your vision is our mastery. That's our motto. So if you can dream it, we can just about build anything that you want.
01:55 – The Problem with “Nice Guy” Syndrome in Sales
Jack Jostes [00:01:55]:
What were some of your takeaways from the talk today?
Nathan Stinnett [00:01:57]:
Some of the biggest takeaways was, like, the sales processing. So actually, like, eliminating those, because that's where we were struggling the last couple years is we would get all these small leads. I'll call them for lack of better term. So it's like these people calling and they want, like, one flower planted over behind their bush over here. And I'm like, man, I just. I can't afford to do that anymore. But we had the nice guy syndrome where we were taking on every little job. And I'm like, man, like, we're losing money at this point.
Nathan Stinnett [00:02:22]:
So after you had kind of described like, hey, we can't be doing nice guy syndrome. We can't just every Chris and Joe calling and needs this and that. We can't do that anymore. And I think that's going to be like, the number one thing that we take away from this. Bring back home and immediately start vetting these customers better.
02:38 – Pre-Qualifying Leads & Sharing Pricing Upfront
Jack Jostes [00:02:38]:
One of the things that I share with people is it may serve the customer to hear that you're, hey, we'd love to help you with this. Right now we're currently. We have a backlog or we're currently taking projects around this investment range. And one thing you can do is, is say it sounds like you're researching your project right now. Would it be helpful if I sent you our pricing guide?
Nathan Stinnett [00:02:59]:
Yep.
Jack Jostes [00:03:00]:
So that was one of the things I shared today because now maybe you need to decline the project. But the customer then realizes when they call another couple companies that they're all telling them a similar budget range, and they're like, you know, what? Landscapin’ Nathan was honest with me and helpful and sent me pricing information. And I actually trust him now because he was at least helpful in telling me no.
Nathan Stinnett [00:03:27]:
Yep. I've received several reviews just from people reaching out on, like, Facebook and stuff, like, hey, we're looking to get this amount of gravel for my driveway. And I'm like, hey, yeah, it's going to be about this much. Like, wow. No one else was telling us a rough idea, and that helped us out a lot. Now we're not going to do the project or now we're going to move forward with the project. Typically, we get it.
Jack Jostes [00:03:44]:
So you were in the Marines.
Nathan Stinnett [00:03:46]:
Yes.
Jack Jostes [00:03:47]:
And now you're in landscaping.
Nathan Stinnett [00:03:48]:
Yeah. Quite the change.
Jack Jostes [00:03:49]:
How. Tell me about that career path. How did you. How did you get into this?
Nathan Stinnett [00:03:53]:
So I actually, as soon as I got out, I was coaching baseball for the local high school, like, travel ball team. And that's where I met the family that wanted to start the local franchise, US Lawns. I met two of their sons because they were in my team. And we just got talking and found out that we were kind of like minded at the time and they needed someone to run teams and start stepping into a management position. So I raised my hand, Hey, I would love to give it a shot. We did, did that, like I said, about two years and then just stepped away and started doing our own thing.
Jack Jostes [00:04:23]:
So you hadn't worked in the green industry prior to that?
Nathan Stinnett [00:04:25]:
Correct? Yeah, my mom was always kind of a gardener. You know, she had a green thumb. We had a big extravagant garden. Who?
Jack Jostes [00:04:31]:
In Michigan?
Nathan Stinnett [00:04:31]:
Yeah, in Michigan. Learning obviously the plants down here was a big, big change for us because we had a lot of different stuff up north. But that's, I'd say we always kind of had somewhat of a green thumb because of my mom's garden growing up and our vegetables and stuff. But I never really worked in the industry until I got out of the Marine Corps.
04:32 – How Nathan Built a 20-Person Team in 4 Years
Jack Jostes [00:04:49]:
And what do you want to do with your company? Where do you want to take it?
Nathan Stinnett [00:04:53]:
Honestly, that's a very good question because I haven't really thought about that yet. As of right now, it's my biggest motivation is my two daughters because I have a five year old and a two year old and the nine to five was taking away a lot of milestones I was missing. So the reason I got out was to start a family. And then as soon as I started doing the nine to five, I found out, hey, I'm still missing her first steps, her first words and stuff. And I'm like, hey, let's find a way to kind of become more independent, more financially free. And starting a business and getting that cash flow with commercial contracts and expanding has been wonderful because I bought back that time and now with my 2 year old, I don't think I've missed a single thing.
Jack Jostes [00:05:30]:
So you feel like you have the time?
Nathan Stinnett [00:05:32]:
Yes, absolutely.
Jack Jostes [00:05:33]:
And you're only four years in.
Nathan Stinnett [00:05:35]:
Yeah, I'd say we have, I'd say probably 80% of my time back. If I wanted to step out fully, the only issue would be that sales process. That's why I'm really glad that we met you guys today and that we started discussing that.
Jack Jostes [00:05:47]:
That's amazing. I mean, I don't know many business owners that would say that they have that time. At least in the first four years it seemed to take me like 10. Now I have more time, but it was because of the time that I put in before. But I also, I had no idea what I was doing in business at all.
Nathan Stinnett [00:06:08]:
I think that's where a lot of people struggle first, you know.
Jack Jostes [00:06:11]:
Yeah, well. And so maybe working in that franchise, do you feel like that gave you a head start?
Nathan Stinnett [00:06:16]:
Absolutely. Because I already had the connections. I already knew a lot of the same people that would be my clients later on after my year non compete was up. So after that non compete was up, that's when I started getting calls from all of my old clients and they were like, hey, things are just different. Can you give us a quote with your new company? And then we just kind of expanded from there very rapidly.
06:20 – Growing Through Referrals Without Burning Out
Jack Jostes [00:06:33]:
Yeah. So tell me more about sales process. So you've scaled your business quite a bit. You have a team, 20 plus people, give or take. What was it that you took away from the talk today about sales process that you're like, huh? I could maybe dig into that a bit more.
Nathan Stinnett [00:06:49]:
Really? Really. The vetting, just having that process and I think it's just going to streamline everything and then we're going to get more high end clients that are more qualified leads. As of right now, we just, I'd say are probably 90% referrals. So out of all of our jobs, you know, we'll have a team in the field and we have three maintenance teams that run around with our logos and stuff. People will call. So a little bit of passive, but 90% of it comes from us doing work for like so and so's neighbor. And then they're like yeah, they did great. And then the next neighbor will call us and then the next neighbor will call us.
Nathan Stinnett [00:07:20]:
So once we get rooted into a community, typically it's like a year long event because all the neighbors want the same kind of rough idea project or they'll need some kind of hardscape and some kind of stamp concrete. It just kind of goes from there.
Jack Jostes [00:07:33]:
So what, what about the sales process? Are you thinking that somebody else would do part of it or is it, is it just that you need to.
Nathan Stinnett [00:07:40]:
Pre qualify last like 25%. I need to get out of the field of the sales process because I'm the one that's going to these and answering the phone and stuff and like all right, so what are you looking to spend? What's your budget? This and that. So that's where if we have a system, like I haven't come up with a system also you think your system's great. We have a system for you know, our office manager to follow answer these phones, start vetting them or going online, which we already have a automatic like scheduling through Jobber. I'm not sure.
Jack Jostes [00:08:06]:
Oh yeah.
Nathan Stinnett [00:08:07]:
So that's connected to our website says contact us. You click on it, goes through, like, the rough idea, what you want, what we're going to require to have, if you have plot maps, if you have days and times available, and then they can schedule right on Jobber for a consultation with us. So that has helped a lot.
08:25 – Why Pricing Transparency Works (Even If It’s Uncomfortable)
Jack Jostes [00:08:25]:
That's cool. I like. Yeah, Jobber's great. Online scheduling is amazing.
Nathan Stinnett [00:08:29]:
Yes.
Jack Jostes [00:08:31]:
One of the ideas I shared that was kind of controversial today. He got a lot of pushback today for some people. And I don't really care, like I said, where you land with it. I'm like, hey, I'm gonna share an idea that you might not like. And, boy, some people were vocal that they didn't like it.
Nathan Stinnett [00:08:47]:
Yeah, I was actually really surprised. And then same thing with, like, the price sharing that the same individual that stood up and was like, hey, I don't know about this scheduling. I don't know about the price sharing thing. And yeah, I don't know. To me, they seem like great ideas.
Jack Jostes [00:08:58]:
Well, so wait, that's what I was talking about was the price guide.
Nathan Stinnett [00:09:01]:
Yeah.
Jack Jostes [00:09:01]:
What was the thing that you were thinking of?
Nathan Stinnett [00:09:05]:
I thought it was the same guy that had voiced up about the price sharing thing. I think he was the same one that was like, well, I do like going in person.
Jack Jostes [00:09:11]:
Oh. About sharing the bracket, the budget. So he disliked having pricing on the website and also talking about budget with people where I'm in the camp of, like, it serves the customer for them to know ranges and to talk about it early. That. That to me is service to the customer. He was in the mindset of that is disservice. It's. It's rude.
Jack Jostes [00:09:37]:
And that's fine. I was curious, where. Which camp are you in or where are you?
Nathan Stinnett [00:09:40]:
100% for it. Because believe it or not, like, I met. Another funny situation is that we were sitting right next to these gentlemen that had carteret on the back of their shirt, and lo and behold, three and a half hours away. Those guys are not necessarily our competition because they're like, the next county over, but they're our neighbors, and we just got shooting the crab. I don't know if we could swear on here. Yeah, we just got shooting the shit back and forth for lack of better terms.
Jack Jostes [00:10:07]:
Sure.
Nathan Stinnett [00:10:08]:
And found out that I was undercharging for my services. So instead of, you know, competing against each other and being like, oh, well, we're gonna undercut you. We're undercut you. Why not raise the market in the totality of the area?
Jack Jostes [00:10:20]:
This is exactly. What needs to happen in the landscaping industry.
Nathan Stinnett [00:10:23]:
Yes.
Jack Jostes [00:10:23]:
Because let's pretend that you do magically end up competing on a handful of projects next year. But instead of you being down here on price, you're both up here.
Nathan Stinnett [00:10:34]:
Correct.
Jack Jostes [00:10:34]:
And then maybe you get the third guy, and now he's up here. Now you're. Now the whole industry is. Is doing better. If two of you are up here and one of them is way down here, it kind of makes this guy look like.
Nathan Stinnett [00:10:46]:
Yeah. What's offering.
Jack Jostes [00:10:47]:
Why. Why is the price so low?
Nathan Stinnett [00:10:49]:
Yep.
Jack Jostes [00:10:50]:
So I'm really glad that you. I think that that's how I feel about it. I talk shop with my competitors also, and I actually learned I was underpriced.
Nathan Stinnett [00:10:59]:
Yep.
Jack Jostes [00:11:00]:
They were like, oh, you're not charging for that.
Nathan Stinnett [00:11:02]:
I'm like, oh, I've learned probably more from those interactions with other business owners and just being like, hey, man, this is where we're at. Where are you at? And that has helped us out immensely as well with pricing.
11:12 – Why Landscapin’ Nathan Needs to Dominate Google
Jack Jostes [00:11:12]:
So do you have Landscapin’ Nathan in your email signature?
Nathan Stinnett [00:11:15]:
No, but every. Cause we do a lot of lives and stuff and a lot of videos, and it's always, hey, guys, what's Landscapin’ Nathan here and then Landscapin’ Nathan out at the end. So we're trying to kind of build that name, I guess.
Jack Jostes [00:11:25]:
I think you should. I think you should put it in your. On your card and in your email because people. People will remember that and they'll be like, oh, you gotta. You gotta talk to Landscapin’ Nathan.
Nathan Stinnett [00:11:35]:
Yep.
Jack Jostes [00:11:36]:
And then put it on your website because they might Google it.
Nathan Stinnett [00:11:39]:
Yep. That was another thing that you talked about today is obviously we're a very referred company, so people refer.
Jack Jostes [00:11:45]:
Well, so wait, what is your name? I'm gonna Google you right now. Okay.
Nathan Stinnett [00:11:48]:
Yeah, please.
Jack Jostes [00:11:49]:
Okay. Nathan Stanett. Did you found the Environmental Voter Project?
Nathan Stinnett [00:11:54]:
No, not me.
Jack Jostes [00:11:54]:
Okay, so this is exactly why you need. What I'm talking about is. Cause now there's some other dude who is the founder. I have no idea who this person is, but I'm gonna add in landscaping, so let's pretend that I do that. Okay. So what's Southern Tides?
Nathan Stinnett [00:12:12]:
Southern Tides is our buddy, actually, that I helped him step out of the field about a year. This was his first year, so he used to do duct cleaning. He stopped by to clean my house as ducks. And we got talking and I finally had convinced him. I was like, hey, man, just start it. Like, just do it. Because everyone gets stuck in the ready weight phase. Why not just start it and figure it out like most other people.
Jack Jostes [00:12:35]:
All right, so you must be mentioned on that Facebook page. Maybe you wrote a review.
Nathan Stinnett [00:12:41]:
Yes, probably.
Jack Jostes [00:12:43]:
Okay, so. So you're showing up there and then who is Nathan Stemp for Lawn and Landscape?
Nathan Stinnett [00:12:47]:
That's a good question.
Jack Jostes [00:12:48]:
That's not you. It's some guy from Greensburg, Pennsylvania. And then there's you, your LinkedIn and you're an entrepreneur and self employed. So this isn't really going to help me if I'm a potential customer being referred to you. So if you had a bio about yourself.
Nathan Stinnett [00:13:04]:
Yep. Just like right on the webpage, right.
Jack Jostes [00:13:06]:
On your about page and you had a nice photo of you, maybe you have your family in there. Some people put their family on their website, some people don't. But you have your full name. Nathan Stinnett. Also known as Nathaniel Nathan and Raleigh. He's in the Raleigh area and services XYZ areas. He was in the Marines. And honestly, you could run your interview with me through ChatGPT and say, Write a 50 word bio for Nathan Stinnett.
Nathan Stinnett [00:13:34]:
Yeah, yeah, we use ChatGPT a lot.
Jack Jostes [00:13:37]:
There's your bio and that would help your website show up when you get referred. And so the story I shared, I'm in the process of hiring a remodeling company and I have a friend that I've known for a while in my neighborhood and we're working with him and my wife and I had a question. We're like, does he do design? And we don't know because we don't actually know him that well. We know he does construction. So we tried to find his website and we googled this stuff. Couldn't find them. It wasn't a deal breaker necessarily, but depending on your level of referral, somebody may, oh, I can't find anything about them. Let's Google the next referral we got.
Jack Jostes [00:14:20]:
And that's where you. I want you them to find you and then find your website and geek out on your photos and be like, all right, these are my people.
14:27 – Jack’s Backstory: From Bluegrass to Branding
Nathan Stinnett [00:14:27]:
Yes. Yep. And that's exactly what we're going for too. So what made you want to start doing this stuff?
Jack Jostes [00:14:33]:
It's kind of a long story, but I play mandolin, so I play bluegrass music and I played in a band in high school and I got our band on MySpace and Facebook and I built our email list to get people to come and see me. Yeah, right. So this is back in the day and this was like amazing because we went from literally recording on cassette tapes to then saving money to go into a studio to burn CDs. But, like, on my mom's computer, like, every CD took, like, 20 minutes to burn.
Nathan Stinnett [00:15:03]:
Everything you just said is so nostalgic.
Jack Jostes [00:15:05]:
I know. It is. That's why it's a long story. But when we could get our music online, it was amazing because we had gone through the hassle of, like, all this stuff. And so I was always excited about getting people to come and see my music. But I realized that I was learning marketing skills.
Nathan Stinnett [00:15:24]:
Okay.
Jack Jostes [00:15:24]:
Around that time, I worked at a garden center.
Nathan Stinnett [00:15:27]:
Okay.
Jack Jostes [00:15:27]:
And after college, I went for it with my band. We had a manager, and we made hundreds of dollars total. As a band, right? Yes. You know, so I was like, wow, I don't like this. I need to make a living. And I thought I would do journalism, which was what I studied. But the Rocky Mountain News went out of business, and I started doing freelance social media for people. This was like 2009.
Jack Jostes [00:15:55]:
And it was mainly like. That was. The job market was terrible. The market crashed. And I was like, how do I pay rent? And I was like, I can write. And I have figured out email and social media. So I just started doing it for businesses. Kind of like people just start doing landscaping.
Jack Jostes [00:16:11]:
They're like, I can mow your lawn. I can plant some stuff for you. I was like, I can build your Facebook page. And that kept growing, and I realized that there were a lot of businesses who needed a website. So I started subbing out a web developer, and I'm like, cool, I'll write the web content. I hired an SEO guy, eventually acquired his company and started my own agency. So that was how I got into it and about eight years of doing everything for everyone. I started speaking for Constant Contact, the email company.
Jack Jostes [00:16:43]:
They had me speak at a landscape show. And I was like, hey, I used to work at a garden center, and I found I could just talk to landscape people. And I got a landscaper, an arborist, and a garden center, and they referred me. And then I got invited to speak again. And I presented the results that I got for those clients, and they were like, this guy? And then before I knew it, like, 40% of my business was in the landscape industry.
Nathan Stinnett [00:17:06]:
That was going to be my follow up is like, do you just do landscaping or is it any industry at this time?
Jack Jostes [00:17:11]:
90% of my business is landscaping.
Nathan Stinnett [00:17:14]:
Okay, awesome.
Jack Jostes [00:17:14]:
The remaining 10% is what I'd call legacy clients. So we have some industrial clients, we have some dentists. We have a handful of other small businesses. I have a auto repair shop that still gets great results. From me and I work with some other construction type companies, but 90% is in the landscape business now.
Nathan Stinnett [00:17:39]:
The system just seems to fit this better.
Jack Jostes [00:17:41]:
Well, part of it, and this is related to my talk and what I tell people is figuring out who is your hell yes customer and then figuring out a system for serving that customer allows you to scale and get you the owner out of everything. So I used to do everything. I used to write all of our web copy. I used to do all of our sales. I used to do. I've built websites very poorly. I'm not a very good web developer. So now I'm able to hire specialists, like, who are actual web developers or SEO strategists.
Jack Jostes [00:18:14]:
And the quality that we do is higher because we do it repeatedly for landscapers. So every time we take on a client, we are that much better and that much more knowledgeable of the landscape industry.
Nathan Stinnett [00:18:27]:
Wow. Okay.
Jack Jostes [00:18:27]:
So that's where it's.
Nathan Stinnett [00:18:28]:
You can specialize.
Jack Jostes [00:18:29]:
Yeah. And instead of. Whereas when I worked with everyone, it was interesting, but it was kind of reinventing the wheel and it was kind of like, hey, Nathan, I haven't done this before, but it might work. And like, sometimes it didn't, you know, and that didn't feel very.
Nathan Stinnett [00:18:43]:
Some examples of that. Do you remember any specific industries that just. It didn't work in that.
Jack Jostes [00:18:49]:
Yeah, one was E Commerce.
Nathan Stinnett [00:18:51]:
E commerce.
Jack Jostes [00:18:51]:
You know, so I learned very quickly that I love local SEO. I'm all about it. I understand how to do it well. And when I had clients that were outside of local, local SEO, like I had a. A client that sold jewelry supplies and we did a good job for them with Facebook ads. But Facebook ads change all the time and E-commerce changes all the time. And like the Amazon of things, you know, like at that time, Amazon was not what it is now, but wow, it was very quickly becoming what it is now. And I was like, I don't really care about jewelry supplies at all.
Jack Jostes [00:19:36]:
I don't. So part of it I was just like, I'm not interested enough to learn about how to sell jewelry supplies to do this really well to the level that your little business could compete with Amazon Gotcha. Or with the mega online retailers. So I was like, I don't really want to do e-commerce. I worked with a number of attorneys who were just from a personality standpoint, a pain in the butt.
Nathan Stinnett [00:20:05]:
Gotcha.
Jack Jostes [00:20:06]:
They just were not enjoyable to work with. Or I worked with a major national brand mouthwash company and on Christmas was managing an email campaign. And I was like, I want to enjoy Christmas. I don't really want to be working on anything. So part of it was a lot of just experiences of, like, wow, this. Oh, I'm working with this national brand doing, like, terrible. Like, they. What.
Jack Jostes [00:20:37]:
What I learned was they bought their email addresses from a different marketing agency, and that company bought them from a different marketing agency. And the way they bought the leads was at, like, a free raffle at their grocery store. It was like, enter your email address to enter to win an iPad.
Nathan Stinnett [00:20:57]:
Oh, my God.
Jack Jostes [00:20:57]:
You know, so everyone gives you their, like, junk Yahoo address. And now we had. I was like, wow, I'm doing this campaign with 300,000 email addresses. This is sweet. We start sending them out, and they immediately got blacklisted because people were reporting it as spam. So it was partly. It was a combination of feeling like I wasn't actually helping people get a result.
Nathan Stinnett [00:21:20]:
Gotcha.
Jack Jostes [00:21:21]:
And then also, landscapers are great. They're just easy to talk to. They're easy to work with. I don't need to do anything on Christmas. Like, it's the slow time of year for them.
Nathan Stinnett [00:21:33]:
Speaking of not doing anything on Christmas, do you have any children like, you got?
Jack Jostes [00:21:36]:
Yeah, I have two kids.
Nathan Stinnett [00:21:37]:
You got two kids as well?
Jack Jostes [00:21:38]:
They're eight and nine, and I coach their basketball team.
Nathan Stinnett [00:21:41]:
That's what you were saying. That's awesome, man. Being a coach is really fun.
Jack Jostes [00:21:44]:
You coach baseball?
Nathan Stinnett [00:21:45]:
I did, I did. I have since then stepped away. Once I had my first daughter, I was working nine to five and coming home, being a parent and just taking away that 9 to 5 and then also doing baseball in the evenings. It was a lot. It was a lot.
Jack Jostes [00:21:56]:
So that is a lot.
Nathan Stinnett [00:21:57]:
We just want to step back and focus on her.
Jack Jostes [00:21:59]:
Yeah, thanks for asking. I hadn't thought about the projects that didn't go well, but it was the landscape clients of mine. It was also partly. I did a lot of business with customers that had a retail location, and now I still help garden centers and nurseries. But it's different in the sense that I realized that a lot of my clients who had a retail. A downtown retail location, that was their marketing budget. It was like, wow, you have this enormous rent. So they would have these tiny marketing budgets, and then no way of measuring what I do.
Jack Jostes [00:22:37]:
Because unless you ask every person in your how did you hear of us? How did you hear of us? And we're going to write that down for a $17 sale versus I help a landscaper close a 50, 70, $100,000. How did you hear of us? Oh, we found your website.
Nathan Stinnett [00:22:52]:
Yep.
Jack Jostes [00:22:53]:
Much larger, you know, and now I can come back to that landscaper and be like, hey, looks like we closed 10 leads this quarter and you made, you know, $300,000. And they're like, yeah, Jack, good job.
Nathan Stinnett [00:23:06]:
A lot easier to justify this program.
Jack Jostes [00:23:09]:
And so I might do the same level of work for the landscaper, but the value of it, the financial return on investment is way higher than to the customer who can't measure it.
Nathan Stinnett [00:23:21]:
Yep. Going full circle back to the beginning of what we were talking about, just being resilient when I was mentioning Tyler is just getting out there and starting, like, that's exactly what your story kind of was. Hey, I just. I was doing it and I started and it went from this. And then I learned, hey, this doesn't work. So it's trial and error. Anyone can do it.
Jack Jostes [00:23:37]:
Well, anyone. Anyone can do it. It's the best country to do it correct. And landscaping is the. I. I love the story of landscaping because so many people just start their company and then, like, no ideas, they keep going, and then they have a million dollar or multimillion dollar enterprise. At some point when I had kids was when I needed to start making money.
Nathan Stinnett [00:24:01]:
Yeah.
Jack Jostes [00:24:02]:
And that was when I really niched down into landscaping, because until then, I was like, I've got beer money. My wife works. And then it was like, oh, two kids and my wife didn't go back to work. And that was when I was like, I need. I. One, I can't be working this amount of hours, and two, I need to make more money. And that was where a lot of what I learned about pre qualifying people, because I used to drive around Colorado hours to meet with people and like, what are we doing here? And then I just got better at like, hey, tell me more. What are you doing? What kind of budget do you have?
Nathan Stinnett [00:24:37]:
And I. I found speaking to guys like you, I'm a prime example myself as well. Just when you have kids, it's a different kind of motivation. It's. It just puts a fire under your butt and it's like, all right, hey, it's time to go, man.
Jack Jostes [00:24:48]:
Well, the sleep deprivation is real.
Nathan Stinnett [00:24:51]:
Yeah.
Jack Jostes [00:24:51]:
That's the other thing is when you're exhausted and you need to make more money, like, it's time to stop playing around.
Nathan Stinnett [00:24:57]:
Yep, that's right. There's no more powerful mold reader than that. Just lack of sleep, too. Yeah, man, that brings back some good memories.
25:05 – Final Thoughts: Growth, Focus, and Family
Jack Jostes [00:25:05]:
Well, we're starting to lose daylight, I think, actually, so we better wrap up the podcast. Thanks for coming on the show. Landscapin’ Nathan, I want to Google you and I want to. I want to read that on your website.
Nathan Stinnett [00:25:17]:
Give me a week. It'll be there.
Jack Jostes [00:25:17]:
Okay, good.
Nathan Stinnett [00:25:18]:
Even tonight, maybe.
Jack Jostes [00:25:19]:
I'm gonna go do it tonight.
Nathan Stinnett [00:25:20]:
Might as well.
Jack Jostes [00:25:22]:
All right, man. Thank you.
Nathan Stinnett [00:25:23]:
Pleasure talking to you.
Jack Jostes [00:25:25]:
Well, I love talking with Landscapin’ Nathan and you know, he took away a lot of ideas on sales process, branding, video and more. And we only scratched the surface into the today's episode and in my talk. So if you'd like to learn more, you can grab a free copy of my book at treeofgoodfortune.com. Go ahead and go to treeofgoodfortune.com all you have to do is pay for shipping and we will mail out a copy of the book to you right away so you can grow your own Tree of Good Fortune that attracts hell yes customers to your snow and landscape company. My name is Jack Jostes and I'll look forward to talking with you next week week on The Landscaper’s Guide Podcast.
Show Notes:
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