Jack Jostes [00:00:00]:
Many landscape company owners dream of passing their business on to their kids or selling it. And today I'm excited to do an interview with the founder of Alpine Gardens, my Ramblin Jackson client, and also the same company that designed and installed this landscape where we recorded today's podcast. And he talks with his son, Nate Fetig, who is the new owner of the company and also their sales manager, Kris. And they brought a bunch of interesting props, including phone books and design tools that they used in the seventies and eighties. We look at a landscape design from 1980. So join me in today's video podcast as we talk about how communication has changed over the years, what they were doing before, and also what hasn't changed that's core to their success. So make sure you watch this video. If you're listening to this one on audio, check out the video podcast because we have lots of cool video and photo to share with you.
Nate Fetig [00:00:55]:
Our industry has gotten so much more sophisticated. The tools available to us are unbelievable compared to, you know, what he had available when he started. The technology aspect has, you know, changed customer expectations.
Jack Fetig [00:01:11]:
It's a major investment for most of our customers. And look at it like we were buying the product.
Nate Fetig [00:01:17]:
Communication is completely different. It's allowed us to do some incredible work that we never would have been able to do without some of the advancements.
Jack Fetig [00:01:28]:
They know that they're going to get us a good product from us where they might or might not from a smaller, maybe less expensive company.
01:28 - Meet Alpine Gardens: 45 Years of Growth
Jack Jostes [00:01:41]:
Hey, everyone, welcome back to The Landscaper’s Guide. Today we're actually under the pergola at my personal residence at a landscape installation that my client, Alpine Gardens did for me. They did an incredible job. So I brought them here to talk about communication through the ages. We've got Jack Fetig, who founded the company in 1978, Nate Fetig, who is now the new owner with his wife Heidi, and Kris Nylander, who's the sales manager. So I just thought it was interesting, you know, having worked with you guys for a while, hearing stories of the name of the company and like, advertising you used to do. And we designed your website, Alpine Gardens, to have online scheduling for phone calls. And I remember this all kind of started, Nate, you and I were having a chat one time and that Jack would come to you and say, so how are the phones? And you're like, well, actually, dad, we designed the websites.
Jack Jostes [00:02:35]:
The phone doesn't ring. We get appointments on our calendar. So tell me a little bit about that.
Nate Fetig [00:02:40]:
Yeah, I mean, that was always the barometer of how business was. It was the phone ringing and it was definitely adjustment there for dad. The last couple of years that he was active, the phones weren't ringing and we were happy about it, but he was panicked.
Jack Jostes [00:03:00]:
Yeah. How was that for you, Jack?
Jack Fetig [00:03:03]:
Well, a lot of it. As cell phones came in, we found that a lot of past customers, which seems to be where you get a lot of your work, ended up calling the cell phones instead of the main lines. And so you couldn't always measure it by the phones anyway anymore because they were ringing in someone's pocket and not at the main line. Only the new customers were calling on the main lines.
03:29 - The Deep Roots of Alpine Gardens
Jack Jostes [00:03:29]:
Well, Jack, maybe could you tell us the brief history of Alpine Gardens? How did you start the company? What inspired you to do it?
Jack Fetig [00:03:36]:
Well, at that time there really weren't a lot of landscape contractors and I worked my way through college by working for a nursery. And landscaping was really done after the nursery work was done in the spring, then landscaper, we would go landscape people's houses. So it was kind of something that they did as a second business. And people kept asking us to come, asking me to come do work for them because the company I work for just couldn't handle them. And so I kind of had that in my mind and I thought that we could do more work than just planting plants. And so in August of 1978, we started the business. We really weren't prepared. We really didn't understand business at all, but we understood how we wanted to keep people happy and we knew how to work hard.
Jack Jostes [00:04:35]:
I love it. So tell me about the name of the company. How did you pick Alpine Gardens?
Jack Fetig [00:04:40]:
Well, we really didn't have a name when we started. And as we've got a phone book.
Nate Fetig [00:04:46]:
Right here for you.
Jack Fetig [00:04:46]:
Oh, there we go. So the phone book was really an important way to get business at that point. In fact, it was one of the only ways besides meeting people to get new business. And so you wanted to be one of the first people under the listings in the yellow pages. And so we would. I was trying to come up with something that started with a, and I didn't want it to be AAA landscape. And so I came up with Alpine Gardens. So that's where the name originally came from.
Jack Jostes [00:05:23]:
Yeah, Nate told me that. And you're essentially trying to rank in the phone book. So we've done a lot to rank on Google and show up when people Google landscape design or landscape companies or whatever. But that's awesome that that's how the name originally started. What year is this phone book?
Nate Fetig [00:05:42]:
From this was delivered to my house last week.
Jack Jostes [00:05:46]:
Oh, wow.
Nate Fetig [00:05:46]:
I didn't know they still made phone books.
Jack Jostes [00:05:48]:
I didn't know.
Nate Fetig [00:05:49]:
But yeah, this is apparently someone in Fort Collins. Still is. And we are right in there in the a's. Still right at the beginning.
Jack Jostes [00:06:01]:
So I'm looking for landscaping. Let's see if I can spell today.
Kris Nylander [00:06:09]:
The sections are pretty short.
Jack Jostes [00:06:11]:
Yeah, they're very short.
Nate Fetig [00:06:12]:
That one is only business listing.
Jack Jostes [00:06:14]:
Okay. Landscape contractor. Landscape architects. We're going to have to vet these people. Are they actual architects? Is site one landscape supply and architecture?
Nate Fetig [00:06:24]:
No, they are not.
Jack Jostes [00:06:25]:
I don't think so. But that's interesting. So they have landfills, land development, land companies and then landscape contractors. Yeah. You're number two after A&M. So was A&M in business when you started? Who was that?
Jack Fetig [00:06:42]:
You know, you have to remember we started in Greeley, Colorado. And so A&M was a company that was over in Fort Collins. And yes, they were around.
Jack Jostes [00:06:53]:
Do you know how much it costs to be in here?
Nate Fetig [00:06:57]:
That is free at this point? If you want to create a larger ad, then it's pretty substantial. I think we paid our last phone book advertisement two years ago. I think it was the year before we. We signed our agreement with Ramblin Jackson. I mean, I think it's been, you know, since COVID.
Jack Jostes [00:07:16]:
Does anyone call and say, hi, I found you in the. In the Fort Collins phone book.
Nate Fetig [00:07:22]:
I can't say that anyone has ever said that in the last 15 years.
Jack Fetig [00:07:27]:
But I would tell you that I'm still friends with our. With our ad salesman. From the phone book? From. Oh yeah. From Dex. And that was a big deal job. And I think back in those days we were spending 4,000 a month On ads.
Jack Jostes [00:07:49]:
Wow. In what days?
Jack Fetig [00:07:50]:
Oh, that would be in the late eighties.
Jack Jostes [00:07:52]:
In the late eighties you guys were spending like 50 grand a year.
Jack Fetig [00:07:55]:
Yeah. Ish.
Jack Jostes [00:07:56]:
On the phone book. Would you pay for anything else or was that enough?
Jack Fetig [00:08:01]:
Well, that was. We were in all these Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland phone book. Because of course they were all different. And then we would also do shows. We did gardening shows. Those were pretty productive. But they were exhausting.
Jack Fetig [00:08:20]:
There was a Greeley show that you had to be invited to and we would. It got you face to face. There were a lot of customers that even though they were old customers, they would want to come by because that's all there was to do in March and there was flowers and it was a big deal. To do that show, but we had to. The salesman built the show, mostly. And then you had to stand there through the whole show, on your feet, on the concrete, and talk to everyone. But it was how we got business that makes sense.
08:56 - How Things Have Changed
Jack Jostes [00:08:56]:
That makes sense. And so when did it start to shift? Like, where does the rest of the business come from now?
Nate Fetig [00:09:04]:
I mean, we've got a lot of long standing relationships, obviously, so there's a lot of referral business. But I would say 70% of our advertising budget is spent online, Kris. And so, you know, over the course of the business, we've focused on relationship building, and then online is how we reach people.
Jack Jostes [00:09:28]:
Yeah, well, that's cool. So I was curious, like, how else has, how else have things changed over the years? And so I asked you guys to bring some props. So thanks for bringing a phone book. I was hoping to have an enormous one. I know from, like, back in the day.
Nate Fetig [00:09:44]:
Yeah, they're all just propping up where the leg broke off my couch.
Jack Jostes [00:09:48]:
Oh, yeah. So they're in use right now.
Nate Fetig [00:09:50]:
Yeah, I couldn't free up any.
Jack Jostes [00:09:51]:
Yeah, that's. That's important. So what else. What's next? What do we. What did you bring to us?
Kris Nylander [00:09:56]:
Well.
08:56 - The Evolution of the Contact App
Nate Fetig [00:09:56]:
Well, I guess we should start with his contact app.
Jack Jostes [00:10:01]:
Oh, I like that.
Jack Fetig [00:10:02]:
Yeah. So you started out, you just carried a calendar with you because you didn't have a phone to keep track of things, and you. So you carried a calendar with you. And then we had this to keep. This is how you remembered someone's phone number was. They got a little card.
Jack Jostes [00:10:20]:
So would you drive that around with you or would that stay?
Jack Fetig [00:10:22]:
No, that was. That was on my desk. Eventually, probably by the late eighties, we got the. What were they called? The late nineties.
Nate Fetig [00:10:32]:
Late nineties. You had a palm pilot.
Jack Fetig [00:10:35]:
No, no, before that, we had the paperwork.
Nate Fetig [00:10:37]:
Day planners.
Jack Fetig [00:10:38]:
Day planners day planner was a big deal. And so all these contacts would be in your day planner?
Jack Jostes [00:10:45]:
Yeah.
Jack Fetig [00:10:46]:
And. But you didn't have a cell phone, so you couldn't call anyone anyway, and they couldn't call you. And when we first started, we lived, we rented a farmhouse, thinking that was going to be a great deal, but it had a party line, and so you couldn't have a recorder. And when the phone would ring, you'd have to wait until you heard the pattern so you knew if it was your phone or the neighbor's phone who was ringing. And then while you were talking to your customer, if they wanted to use the phone, they were clicking on the phone up and down. And so that part of communication was really different. But then I would carry a bunch of change with me in my truck, and then during the day, I would go to, like, 711, sit out in their parking lot on the payphone and be calling my customers or my vendors or the office. Or the office.
Jack Jostes [00:11:41]:
So would you, like, call the office and be like, hey, who called so far? And then. That's, that's awesome.
Jack Fetig [00:11:46]:
Yeah. And we had a friend, good friend, and they had a, they had a baby and they needed. So it kind of worked out where I was able to pay her a low salary. And she just answered our phone and took care of her baby at our house and, but answered our phone for us, and then her husband actually worked for us, but that was how we answered the phone until my wife was still working and she worked for a title company, which actually worked out really well because every time there was a new project in town, she would know about it because she was helping them with their title insurance. And so she would make sure I talk to them. And that helped us build that part of our business. And then once we had our first son, then she stayed home and she took over the, answering the phone and doing the books. Up till then, I had been doing the books on the twelve column accounting paper, and all the receipts were just thrown in a box till winter. And then I deal with it then.
Jack Jostes [00:12:50]:
Wow.
Jack Fetig [00:12:51]:
Yeah.
Jack Jostes [00:12:51]:
That's amazing. That must have been one hell of a winter project.
Jack Fetig [00:12:54]:
It was. I mean, you know, you couldn't do near the amount of work we do now. The efficiency of trying to deal with someone, draw a physical plan, physically meet with them. When I'd go to meet with them, I would have to carry, I looked like I was going to college. I would have big piles of books and they were all marked as to where their plants were. And we'd spend the whole evening flipping through, looking at pictures of plants and going through the plan. And then if they wanted to change anything, if it was ink, then it was a big deal. A lot of times I'd have to redo the whole thing and go through the whole mess all over again.
Jack Jostes [00:13:34]:
Wow.
Jack Fetig [00:13:36]:
So the efficiency of sales was really different.
Jack Jostes [00:13:41]:
How long would it take you from the time that somebody found you in the phone book, they called, maybe left a message with somebody, you called them back to you meeting with them to like, getting a design to them. Like, how long would that take?
Jack Fetig [00:13:54]:
Back when you said how much we needed the work, if we needed the work right away, it was done in a couple days. If we were stretched out. I could take a little more time, but I found through the years that once people talk to me, they want to be responded to within two weeks with something. They want to know how we're doing, and some see some progress.
Jack Jostes [00:14:19]:
Yeah.
Jack Fetig [00:14:19]:
It just seems to be that where that makes sense, you know, how long people would wait.
14:25 - Design Plans and Lettering from the '80s
Jack Jostes [00:14:25]:
So what other. What other props did you bring today? We've got.
Nate Fetig [00:14:28]:
Well, I've got some plans from 1980.
Jack Fetig [00:14:31]:
That can kind of show you the.
Nate Fetig [00:14:33]:
Design process and, you know, why it was a big deal if somebody wanted to make a change.
Jack Jostes [00:14:39]:
Mister and misses Royal Henry. Yeah. If you could pass me another one. And I'm gonna grab a rock.
Nate Fetig [00:14:53]:
Along with this prop. We kind of have some tools of how. How these designs were created, so. Well, dad, I guess, tell us a little about what I'm looking at here.
Jack Fetig [00:15:05]:
So this is a Leroy lettering set, and it was my dad's. My dad was a civil engineer. And so you would take these and you would put them on your t square, and then you would set up this pen, and you would pick which letter you wanted to recreate, and this pen would follow that and create it on your design so that you could get perfect lettering. I didn't use it. I did it for original logos that we permitted.
Jack Jostes [00:15:37]:
You've got little mountains here in the.
Jack Fetig [00:15:39]:
Yeah, I did those by hand, but.
Jack Jostes [00:15:41]:
Nice.
Jack Fetig [00:15:41]:
But this was all originally, like when I did our business cards. That's how I did the lettering, but it was pretty cumbersome. But that's how people used to do the lettering, because you had people who were just draftsmen and that's all they did.
Nate Fetig [00:15:58]:
Well, looks like you used. You got high tech here and used some stamps.
Jack Fetig [00:16:05]:
You know, I did not. My degree was not in landscape design. And so at the back, there's that stamp, right. Here we go. Yeah.
Nate Fetig [00:16:19]:
Yeah. So you just send a rubber stamp.
Jack Jostes [00:16:23]:
This is silver maple.
Nate Fetig [00:16:25]:
Yeah, but the symbol is the same there.
Jack Jostes [00:16:27]:
Oh, it's a symbol. So. Wow. Yeah. So if people wanted to change this, would they?
Jack Fetig [00:16:34]:
I'd have to redraft.
Jack Jostes [00:16:37]:
How many revisions would you do for.
Jack Fetig [00:16:39]:
Somebody versus just usually, you know, if they were changing, they were gonna buy. But, you know, when you met with someone, you had kind of figured out your schedule, and a lot of redrafting wasn't necessarily in your schedule. And so if it was just some changes where you're changing some varieties, you could see, I did it by pencil when we got to this far.
Jack Jostes [00:17:06]:
Right.
Jack Fetig [00:17:07]:
But if it was a total redoing, a concept, then it could take a week or two, and then you had to go through and meet with them again, redo the beds, the whole thing. And at that time, doing takeoffs was interesting in that, you know, when you start doing irregular shaped beds, this was a digitizer, and so it's set up so that you could. You would run this around these irregular shaped beds, and then you had a chart here that, depending on what scale you were using, you could use a multiplier, and you could tell by the number that you got, and it would tell you how many square feet were in there.
Nate Fetig [00:17:58]:
So it's called a polynomial. And, yeah, it was a mechanical takeoff.
Jack Fetig [00:18:05]:
Yeah, it did all the calculus for you.
Jack Jostes [00:18:09]:
So when did you start to switch to, like, digital tools for landscape design?
Jack Fetig [00:18:14]:
I was trying to remember. I can still remember. My wife's brother was a distributor for computers, some early, early computers. And he said, you know, you really need to think about a computer. And it was a big deal for us. It was a big expense. It was almost as much as a truck. And really what it did was it was a word processor, and it had a primitive spreadsheet.
Jack Fetig [00:18:41]:
And that's it. That's all it did. And it could store some things. And so. And so that was. But we got some, and they were. It worked out really well. But one of the unknown things that started that happened with that was that once we started to use that, we really didn't need, we had extra secretaries, because at a certain point, if you had a fancy job.
Jack Fetig [00:19:08]:
I don't know if we have any with the sticky back on.
Nate Fetig [00:19:11]:
No, I didn't bring any with the sticky back.
Jack Fetig [00:19:13]:
We would do these where we would ink them, and we would. These. All the notes in the plant list would be typed on sticky back paper that would stick on this, and then you could copy it. And there was also, the proposals were all typed by a secretary with carbon paper. And so one of the unknown results of getting a computer is now I'm typing my own proposals. And so that was a little ugly at first. Luckily, I had taken a typing class, so I could kind of type. But that was just one of the things that people probably didn't think of.
Jack Fetig [00:20:03]:
That when. When we went to a computer, you started moving everything to the designer. It's even now to where the designer's doing a lot of the accounting jobs. Now. That used to be that you'd have someone like an accounts receivable or accounts payable person.
20:24 - Transitioning to Computers and New Roles
Jack Jostes [00:20:24]:
As you started using computers and things, the landscape designer started taking on more responsibilities. Tell me more about that.
Jack Fetig [00:20:32]:
So a lot of the new software that we have now makes, the landscape designer is doing the billing. They're creating the bills, the bill goes directly into your accounting software. And so they're really responsible for a lot of the things that keep a company profitable. And unfortunately, a lot of designers never really cared a darn thing about accounting. And so they're ending up being really creating what we need as a business and having to do something that most of them really don't even understand.
Jack Jostes [00:21:14]:
Well, how does that. What are some of the challenges with that? Maybe. I don't know. What's it like?
Jack Fetig [00:21:20]:
I don't know.
Nate Fetig [00:21:20]:
Kris, what's it like?
Jack Jostes [00:21:21]:
Kris, what's it like being the guy that, you know, I'm curious about your background and all the things you're doing now that maybe you didn't think you were going to do.
Kris Nylander [00:21:30]:
A lot of the processes are pretty similar. It's just the. I mean, we're using different systems. I mean, we were doing it when I started. We did have computers. We had a spreadsheet software, but it was Lotus, it was not excel. We had transitioned to excel a couple years later, but we were still, we weren't, we weren't doing as much by hand, but we were doing a lot of manual input. And so it was a lot of repetitive tasks, like writing their name and address and phone number multiple times on the plan, on material order lists, on the invoice, on everything.
Kris Nylander [00:22:12]:
Like, everything was mailed, so you knew their address and phone number by heart. Right. Like, and now everything is done for you. I mean, you kind of, you enter it once, and that's where, you know, we've talked a lot about some of the automation stuff, and you can make some mistakes by, by trusting some of it in that if there's a mistake early on, it can, it can last a long time for you to catch it, whereas when you were doing it yourself, you'd catch it a lot sooner. But we were, we were just starting out doing, doing autocad, where we were designing everything on the computer and doing all the estimating on the computer and all of that. I'm familiar with all of this because I did it in school, so we learned that way. But then I was really starting right when we were transitioning to a lot of the computer apps and software.
Jack Jostes [00:23:02]:
Did you start out at Alpine Gardens or where did you?
Kris Nylander [00:23:05]:
Yeah. So 25 years now, so, 1999. Yeah, right out of school.
Jack Jostes [00:23:11]:
That's amazing.
Kris Nylander [00:23:12]:
Yeah.
23:12 - What’s Different at Alpine Gardens Today?
Jack Jostes [00:23:12]:
Well, I was curious, Nate, you know, what do you do now? That I just want to hear from the Fetig’s for a minute, like, what is Alpine Gardens now that it was back in the day when you started it? And what are also then some of the biggest changes. Obviously, technology has changed everything. Yeah, but what's the same?
Nate Fetig [00:23:35]:
Well, we're still digging holes and putting plants in them. A lot of the construction techniques at their basis are the same. You know, we've mechanized quite a bit. You know, the equipment we use has changed a lot over the years, but, you know, the ultimate principles of what we do has remained the same. But beyond that, I'd say there's been so much change. I mean, our industry has gotten so much more sophisticated. The tools available to us are unbelievable compared to what he had available when he started. And then the technology aspect has changed customer expectations.
Nate Fetig [00:24:20]:
It's changed how rapidly the process happens. Communication is completely different. And, you know, it's not all. It's not good or bad necessarily. I think, you know, some of the positive things is it's allowed us to do some incredible work that we never would have been able to do without some of the advancements.
Jack Fetig [00:24:45]:
Yeah, but I would say one of the things that we had to really stay with is that we really had to respect the customer and really think about that. It's a major investment for most of our customers. And look at it like we were buying the product and that empower all the employees. That, would you buy this? And if not, let's figure out how to fix it? Because that, and that's, I think that's really what's helped us so that the customer really has, they know that they're going to get a, a good product from us where they might or might not from a smaller, maybe less expensive company.
Nate Fetig [00:25:31]:
Yeah, I mean, we've got a lot of, we're fortunate. We have a lot of long time employees like Kris and some that even been with us longer. I think our longest tenured employee right now is 38 years. And a lot of them, I think, like, just the family atmosphere. But they understand that. Like Dad was saying, that our principle is, yes, we want to make money as a company, but ultimately, like, we want to satisfy the customer and fulfill their needs. And so you will never get in trouble as an employee with us if something doesn't feel right and you make an action on that, you know, we want people to feel like, hey, would I be okay with this if it was my money? And I think beyond all the technology, all the changes, that's one of the core principles is you have to have sound business practices.
26:33 - Working at Alpine Gardens as a Kid
Jack Jostes [00:26:33]:
What are maybe some stories or experiences? Because maybe you could tell us a little bit. You worked in the business as a kid?
Nate Fetig [00:26:37]:
Yeah.
Jack Jostes [00:26:38]:
So tell us. I want to hear that. I want to hear more about that.
Jack Fetig [00:26:42]:
His version or mine?
Nate Fetig [00:26:44]:
Yeah, I'm sure. You know, I think it was probably to get me out of the house, right? Like, just go to work. But I know I wasn't earning my money's worth when I was first starting out. It probably cost them more. They had to go fix everything I touched. But, no, I think it taught a lot of foundational principles on how to work. Growing up and working in the summers in the family business and doing hard work, and, you know, it's tough in a family business, trying to, I'm sure for him, you know, trying to treat me like any other employee and ensuring there's no favoritism or anything like that. And then from my perspective, trying to earn the respect of the people you're working with, because there's certainly a connotation that comes with that, but ultimately, I think it's paid off.
Nate Fetig [00:27:39]:
You know, here I am, owner of the company, and, you know, we have employees that started with us when I was one year old, and now I'm their boss. And I think it has helped, having seen me come up through the company, and so they understand that I wasn't handed anything. I learned how to work. I have that work ethic, and that probably benefited me as I worked through the career path.
Jack Jostes [00:28:09]:
Yeah, I think that's worth talking about on the podcast, because a lot of people listening are family businesses, and they may pass their business on to their kids. And I liked hearing the story of you. What are some of the positions specifically that you've had starting at, like, age eight?
Nate Fetig [00:28:26]:
Well, so we own a garden center and nursery as well. So when I was younger, I worked on the potting crew. I watered plants a lot. I'd pull weeds, and then worked my way up through different positions, through labor positions. When I kind of came back and was working through my horticulture degree in college, I was working as our commercial estimator. I oversaw our fleet and equipment repair that side of the division and eventually worked up to general manager and then Owner.
Jack Fetig [00:29:04]:
When he was going to school and told me that he really wanted to take over the company, I actually tried to change what jobs he was doing, so he was exposed to things that I didn't think he had been exposed to properly before, and equipment and the commercial side, and I felt like that would really help him as he started to run the company and did a great job with it.
29:34 - The Challenges of Handing Over Ownership
Jack Jostes [00:29:34]:
What are some of the things, maybe, Jack, that have been hard for you now that you're not the owner? Right. You've transitioned, as far as I understand, what's been the hardest part?
Jack Fetig [00:29:47]:
It's really. I mean, we were ready to retiree, and they've done a good job of taking over things and trying to find the time when it was time for me to. They didn't want to tell me they didn't need me anymore, but I was starting to occupy meetings that I shouldn't have. I was making things take too long and that type of thing, and they didn't want to say anything. But I wanted to make sure that the person I was training was new enough to do the job for the few jobs that I maintained. So probably, for me, it's really. It's probably been more trouble for them than for me, because they probably were ready sooner than I was. But, you know, between.
Jack Fetig [00:30:36]:
Right when all this was going to happen, it took a little longer because Covid came. Then their first son came, and so it seemed like they might need more help for a little while longer. And so that part ended up making it interesting. Good. Interesting. But it was interesting.
30:58 - Old 35mm Camera: Capturing Landscapes
Jack Jostes [00:30:58]:
Cool. Well, appreciate you guys bringing all these designs and instruments and rolodexes. The one last thing we didn't see was the camera. I'm just. I've got to know. What kind of camera is it?
Nate Fetig [00:31:08]:
Well, this is an old 35 millimeter camera. Let's see. What if I can get it out?
Jack Fetig [00:31:16]:
Go the other way.
Nate Fetig [00:31:18]:
It's buttoned in. The case is attached to it.
Jack Fetig [00:31:21]:
It's probably been on there for 30 years.
Jack Jostes [00:31:24]:
Cool. A pentax.
Nate Fetig [00:31:26]:
So, you know, from a marketing perspective, we always wanted to take pictures of our jobs, and so. But we would take slides mostly.
Jack Fetig [00:31:38]:
Yeah, we probably have 10,000 slides.
Nate Fetig [00:31:43]:
And so, yeah, that, and there was one camera, and now every foreman has a smartphone in their pocket that takes a better picture than that.
Jack Fetig [00:31:54]:
And we carried a. What's the instant camera?
Nate Fetig [00:31:58]:
Polaroid.
Jack Fetig [00:31:58]:
Polaroid. But back then, a Polaroid picture was about a dollar a picture.
Jack Jostes [00:32:03]:
Wow.
Jack Fetig [00:32:03]:
And so when we would go to a job site, you were kind of scotch on the pictures where now it has saved it at the end. It saved me so much time using those, using the pictures, because I could look at it and say, oh, it drops here or where before I'd have to drive back out there and look at whatever it was I was trying to figure out.
32:29 - Thanks for Tuning In!
Jack Jostes [00:32:29]:
All right, guys, well, thanks for coming on. The Landscaper’s Guide and sharing your story. Appreciate it.
Nate Fetig [00:32:33]:
Yeah, thank you, guys.
Jack Fetig [00:32:34]:
Thanks for having us.
Jack Jostes [00:32:35]:
Hey, it's Jack Jostes, and thanks for listening to the Landscaper’s Guide Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, give us a 5 Star Rating! Wherever you're listening to this, help more people find out about it. And I hope to see you at one of our upcoming events. We have virtual events, webinars and live events, so join us landscapersguide.com/events. I look forward to meeting you, maybe interviewing you on our podcast at one of these events. And thanks again. I'll talk to you next week on The Landscaper’s Guide.
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode + see the transcript at: https://landscapersguide.com/podcast/
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🏞️ Learn more about Alpine Gardens: https://alpinelandscaping.com/
🌿 Connect with Nate Fetig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nate-fetig-7b173231/