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🌳 Garrett Churchill Inc.: https://garrettchurchill.com/
👤 Connect with Andy Sykes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andysykes11/
📸Garrett Churchill Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GarrettChurchillInc/
🏢 Garrett Churchill Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garrettchurchill/
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00:00 – Building Trust With Video And Creating Career Opportunities
00:00
Andy Sykes
We wanted to take it to the next level and include video so our customers could get just another level of comfort. I think that's important as well, from a recruiting standpoint, to have all the various opportunities out in front of everybody all the time. I originally wanted to be an attorney, and after a semester, I realized that was terrible.
00:23 – Meet Andy Sykes Of Garrett Churchill
00:23
Jack Jostes
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Landscaper's Guide. Today I'm excited to interview my client at Ramblin Jackson andy Sykes, the owner of Garrett Churchill, a landscape company. So, Andy, thanks for coming on the podcast.
00:36
Andy Sykes
Thanks for having me, Jack.
00:37
Jack Jostes
So tell us a little bit about your background and when did you start Garrett Churchill? What all do you guys do?
00:44
Andy Sykes
So, a little bit about my background. I went to college. I originally wanted to be an attorney, and after a semester, I realized that was terrible and not the direction I wanted to go. So I came home and went into landscape design in college, got a business degree, and then got a master's in landscape architecture. And from there, I worked for a couple large corporations and a couple small companies. And I decided in 1999 to start my own business. And we have been up and down, growing, receding, depending on what the market was doing. 2008 Was a pretty rough year, but we've been in business since then, and we started out as a gardening and design build company. So we took kind of a different path from lawn cutting into everything else.
01:45
Andy Sykes
We started in everything else and kind of backed into building a maintenance side of the business.
01:52
Jack Jostes
What kind of law did you think you wanted to do? I didn't. I didn't know this about you. We've worked together for years and I hadn't heard this story, so I'm kind of curious.
02:00
Andy Sykes
I don't bring it up very often. I didn't really have anything in mind.
02:05
Jack Jostes
You. You just were going to college and thought good ideas?
02:09
Andy Sykes
Yeah. At like 18 years old. The money that lawyers make was attractive, for sure.
02:13
Jack Jostes
Yeah. That's cool. And then how. But how did you. Then you. You went right into majoring in landscape design. So did you work at a landscape company in high school or college? How did you shift from studying law to landscape design?
02:29 – From Cutting Lawns To Landscape Architecture
02:29
Andy Sykes
So I had cut lawns in my neighborhood as a kid. I had worked on a golf course. I liked being outside. I liked working with my hands. All things that I wouldn't have been able to do if I pursued a career in law.
02:46
Jack Jostes
Right.
02:46
Andy Sykes
And I just. That was kind of a passion of mine at the time. So I did work for landscape companies through college, worked For a couple good ones in the area. After I graduated with a degree in landscape architecture, I went to work for a company that was the Brickman Group at the time. Now. Brightview.
03:06
Jack Jostes
Yeah.
03:08
Andy Sykes
Learned a lot there. Worked for a couple other smaller companies. Everywhere I went, I picked up something and I felt in 1999 that it was time I needed to kind of get out on my own and decide whether I could do this or not.
03:28 – Building Client Relationships That Last Decades
03:28
Jack Jostes
Do you have any legacy clients that have been with you since around that time or.
03:32
Andy Sykes
I do.
03:33
Jack Jostes
What are you doing for them these days?
03:35
Andy Sykes
We have one that we're going to go do a couple small renovations at a short house for. We maintain her property still. Somebody's name came up the other day that I hadn't talked to for a while, but I had done a ton of work for him. So, yeah, we have long standing residential clients. We have a Pennsylvania Horticulture Society facility. That was my second job when I started in business, was rebuilding a retaining wall with 6 by 8 landscape timbers on the backside of this beautiful formal garden. And I did that by myself. And I came home every day, laid on my living room floor and said, why did I do this?
04:27
Jack Jostes
But for some reason you decided to.
04:28
Andy Sykes
I kept going.
04:29
Jack Jostes
You kept going. Yeah. That's good. And we're still doing. Exhausted.
04:33
Andy Sykes
Yeah, we're still doing work for them today.
04:36
Jack Jostes
That's amazing. I remember feeling exhausted like that. I worked at a garden center and in the spring, like, we would. We. It was hot, it was humid, and it was physical. And just being totally exhausted at the end of the day. It felt good though, too. Like, it does feel good. It felt good. Sometimes I, I get exhausted at Ramblin Jackson, but usually not like that.
05:02
Andy Sykes
Oh, no. My exhaustion nowadays comes mentally.
05:05
Jack Jostes
Yeah, it's more of a mental exhaustion of like I'd fire a bookkeeper, you know, that's like, you know, and then the aftermath of. Okay, now there's all this I need to do until the new person is up and running.
05:21
Andy Sykes
Now I have to hire a bookkeeper and get them onboarded and get them.
05:25
Jack Jostes
Up to speed and just. Even the password changing and the. And then you find stuff that you didn't. You didn't know about or that you don't want to see. Yeah, but it's. It's different. Yeah. So.
05:39
Andy Sykes
So nobody wants to talk about a person that's not doing their job until after they leave.
05:48
Jack Jostes
Yeah, that's. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard because there's a. Like a privacy. I don't know. Yeah. It's tough when you have someone on your team including a key vendor for the company, like a partner, like a bookkeeper or a lawyer or a tax accountant or marketing company or, you know, there's, you know, there's varying people that you hire for key things in your company when they're not performing. It's difficult to talk about it at the right time.
06:24
Andy Sykes
Yeah.
06:25
Jack Jostes
So.
06:25
Andy Sykes
But the longer you let it go, the longer it becomes. Okay.
06:28 – Using Video To Build Trust Before The Sales Appointment
06:28
Jack Jostes
Yeah. Well, we're, right now, we're in Philadelphia. We did a video shoot here at our mobile video studio shoot. Tell me about that. How was it? You kind of killed it. You kind of, you were one and done.
06:42
Andy Sykes
Thank you.
06:43
Jack Jostes
You showed up, literally one take with.
06:46
Andy Sykes
The teleprompter after we rearranged the whole room so I could read the teleprompter.
06:52
Jack Jostes
We did that. But sometimes we got to make accommodations.
06:57
Andy Sykes
I think the video is great. We have been working with Jack for, I think our website's two plus years at this point. It's driven a lot of traffic. We wanted to take it to the next level and include video so our customers could get just another level of comfort with us before went out and met with them. And I think by including some of our team members, our salesperson, myself, they get a snapshot of who they're going to get in the sales process or when the work's being done. And I think that's key.
07:37
Jack Jostes
Yeah, I think it is. Especially when you're selling some of these bigger projects that have a larger investment, a longer time, they're disruptive to absolutely the customer's home and how they live. So there's, there's a lot at stake and video compliments your people. Like you're still going to need great people. But when you're responsive to emails and phone calls and you show up when you say you did and you send this well made video, you're like 10 steps ahead of the competitor who's getting back to them late, showing up late, not responding, doesn't have a video, doesn't have any reviews.
08:22 – Why Google Reviews And Project Photos Matter
08:22
Andy Sykes
Yeah, reviews have been something you guys have pushed and we are moving forward with it and asking for reviews more frequently. Sometimes it was just much like pictures at the end of a job. It didn't seem to be the most important thing at the time.
08:39
Jack Jostes
Well, well, I don't have the number in front of me, but that is something. I remember doing your audit when you Came to us and I. You scored low on reviews, and I made a video. I'm like, hey, you guys are doing well here. You're low here.
08:54
Andy Sykes
Yep.
08:54
Jack Jostes
And it takes sometimes years, but now it seems like you guys are regularly getting them. So are you asking at every project?
09:02
Andy Sykes
We're asking most projects. We're asking when we feel like we've developed a connection with the customer. That's good, as opposed to just asking everybody.
09:13
Jack Jostes
I like that. I think there's some. Some nuance to it. And one of the things that I did with Garrett Churchill today was I interviewed your employees and I came down and told you guys. So they're all hanging out downstairs right now. They are hard workers, and they care about what they do, and that is rewarding for me to work with companies like yours. Both people who are doing a good job. Because I don't. I don't want to help. I don't want to help losers get found online. Like, it's just like, I want. I actually care about. I. I actually care about, you know, what we do in the world, and we help ideally good people get found and win sales. And then, you know, it's. It's.
10:02
Jack Jostes
It's rewarding to hang out with the employees of my clients because, I don't know, it's just like, we do so much digital stuff, Right. That sometimes I'm on, like, a computer all day and then to, like, hang out with the person, then like, hey, we. We love taking care of clients. We do a good job. And I'm like, yeah, these are real people. One of the things, though, that I. I learned from. From Derek was how motivated he is by your reviews. So I don't. I don't. You actually haven't seen the footage yet. I'm going to splice them into this podcast.
10:36 – How Reviews Motivate Your Employees, Too
10:36
Andy Sykes
Okay.
10:37
Jack Jostes
So people can see it. Because he. He's. He's. He feels rewarded knowing how the customer feels about the work. So in my book and in my. Understandable, in my audit, I talk about how reviews impact your. Your ranking on Google. They're a key ranking factor. They impact your revenue people hiring you.
10:59
Andy Sykes
Yep.
10:59
Jack Jostes
And they impact your recruiting and retention. And so I know. You know, he, he. So keep it up. You know, it's not just something your marketing guy wants you to do. It something your customers look at and your. Your employees.
11:13
Andy Sykes
Oh, I know.
11:14
Jack Jostes
Your employees.
11:16
Andy Sykes
I know. It's. It's one of those things where it's like, okay, we got the job done. We really need to get to the next job. But we have to have that last step. We have to make sure the customer is happy, which we do. You know, we have a customer sign off sheet when the project's completed. They don't sign off on it. We don't bill it. If there's something wrong, we'll fix it before we bill it. But that leads to that kind of gives us integrity that other people don't have. So I think that's important. But you know, the Google reviews and the finished photos, you know, Jason's been all over me about getting finished photos and getting.
11:58
Jack Jostes
Jason is your landscape marketing guy. So for folks listening, Jason is the person who works on your account and so he's been all over you on getting reviews.
12:06
Andy Sykes
All over me on getting reviews and getting more photos to them to get to the website.
12:12
Jack Jostes
Yeah, yeah. It, we appreciate you doing that because when clients give us photos and they get reviews, like, we're high fiving each other, we're getting leads, we're kind of killing it. When they have like crappy photos, they're like, well, we want to sell higher end projects. And we're like, you guys have five year old photos of not high end projects. It just doesn't work. It just doesn't work. So there's a partnership component to working together. And so we just appreciate you guys working with us.
12:44
Andy Sykes
Oh, we're enjoying the partnership.
12:49
Jack Jostes
And we got to have steak the other day, so that was pretty fun.
12:53
Andy Sykes
That was the best New York strip I've had in an insanely long time. Unless I cooked it at my house.
13:03
Jack Jostes
I, I agree. My, I, I had the, I had a steak that was as good as I cook at home. Usually when I go out for steak, my wife's like, how was it? I'm like, well, my steak is better. But they're, they actually, they nailed it. I don't know. Well, once you knew how to cook a steak the way it, yeah. Then you, I don't know, it kind of sets the bar.
13:24
Andy Sykes
Yep.
13:25
Jack Jostes
So how do you cook your steak at home?
13:28
Andy Sykes
I have gone, so I have a Traeger.
13:30
Jack Jostes
I, I'm, I, I'm on board with this.
13:33
Andy Sykes
I, and I don't like cooking steak on a Traeger.
13:36
Jack Jostes
Oh, you don't?
13:37
Andy Sykes
No, because I can't get a sear on it.
13:39
Jack Jostes
Okay.
13:39
Andy Sykes
So I've gone to throwing it in a cast iron pan on the stove, searing both sides of it, and then throwing it in the oven for a while.
13:48
Jack Jostes
Well, that's Good, too. I do that right now. We have a fire ban in Colorado, and I can't. I have a. I have a Yoder. I ended up. I started with the Traeger. I admit I. I didn't keep the COVID on it.
14:00
Andy Sykes
Okay.
14:01
Jack Jostes
And it, like, totally rusted out.
14:02
Andy Sykes
Okay.
14:03
Jack Jostes
So I made the mistake. I would have. I was happy with it, but I. I got a Yoder smoker. And what I like doing is I cook it to about 120 degrees on the smoker, and then I sear it in the cast iron and. And butter and tallow. So that way I get the best of both worlds. I get that. That smoky flavor and I get the crust.
14:25
Andy Sykes
I'm going to try that. I did a. We're getting really off topic. I did a.
14:31
Jack Jostes
This is important. This is. This is what life is really about.
14:35
Andy Sykes
I did a pork rib roast the other night. Oh. And I put it on the Traeger for, I'm going to say, two hours, two and a half hours, super smoke until it got to a certain temperature. Then I threw it in a sheet pan, took it in the oven under the broiler, and finished it off. And it was amazing.
14:54
Jack Jostes
Wow. That sounds good.
14:56
Andy Sykes
Yeah, it was good.
14:58
Jack Jostes
Well, good. So. So you've been in business over 25 years.
15:01
Andy Sykes
Yep.
15:02 – Building A Landscape Company That Doesn't Need The Owner
15:02
Jack Jostes
Where are you headed? What do you. What do you. Where are you taking the company?
15:05
Andy Sykes
So we're on. We're on a growth trajectory. Excuse me? We're on a growth trajectory right now. I don't have any children in the business, so I am kind of building the business, and then I'm building it to a point that it doesn't need me anymore. So that's what I'm interested in moving towards at this point.
15:35
Jack Jostes
I like that. What are you doing now that you need to get out of. In order to be. At that point?
15:45
Andy Sykes
I need to get out of sales, ideally out of design, and then work myself out of the management side of things. I think I'm starting in adding another salesperson first, and then we have to fill in. Our management layer is not very strong at the moment in the sense that our operations manager has probably too much under him.
16:13
Jack Jostes
How many people work there?
16:14
Andy Sykes
In the peak season, we have about 18 to 20 field staff and then four, basically four managers at this point.
16:25 – Using AI To Build Job Descriptions And Recruiting Systems
16:25
Jack Jostes
One of the things I know you're doing, you're using. You're part of Landscapers and you're using Lana. And so that was. That was a big part of the dinner conversation was, you know, embracing AI and leveraging AI. And you told me that yesterday you wrote 17 job descriptions.
16:43
Andy Sykes
Yes. Yeah, 17 job descriptions tailored to everybody that is currently working in the company, along with a level, a position post for each level of each division. As it's set up now that we can send to you guys, it's a employee facing job description that can be put on our website, on the site and then they can look at particular jobs. So I think that's important as well from a recruiting standpoint to have all the various opportunities out in front of everybody all the time. But we've also gone another level. And at the same time as building those job descriptions and actually plugging these actual people into different spots on the org chart, we have developed a 30, 60, 90 day onboarding plan for everybody that's starting moving forward with the intent to stick to it.
17:46 – Creating 30-, 60-, And 90-Day Onboarding Plans
17:46
Andy Sykes
And that creates an actual, what's called a lean board for each employee. So we can start tracking movement of all the cards that match those 30, 60, 90 day goals on that lean board.
18:01
Jack Jostes
I like it.
18:02
Andy Sykes
And we've also done a career pathway document for each one of them.
18:08
Jack Jostes
Cool.
18:09
Andy Sykes
So they've got, you know, they're coming in. It's a lot. It's overwhelming at first. They've got access to this system. The cool thing for them at this point is they can literally ask Lana a question like, I know I'm doing this tomorrow, can you give me the steps and the processes so I can review it before I go to work in the morning? Or I've gotten a, B and C done, tell me what step D is on what I'm doing. So, yes, there's a supervisor on site. Yes, there's. So we call them crew managers at this point. And then below, the crew manager is a technician. And then we've labeled the quote, laborer position in apprentice so that they are put into the system and they are taught different skills.
19:05
Jack Jostes
I like it different times. And I interviewed two of your people today who told me they liked it and they liked having that AI component.
19:11
Andy Sykes
Yeah.
19:12 – Giving Field Employees Access To SOPs With AI
19:12
Jack Jostes
And yeah, I just think, yeah, you're doing a lot of things well. You're getting photos, you're getting reviews, you're leveraging AI. You're leveraging it to. You're letting your team use it. That we had some arguments over dinner. I'm not going to say who it was, but somebody was really opposed to this. And it just didn't make any sense to me that you wouldn't let Your team use AI to ask these questions and access your SOPs in the field when they need them.
19:42
Andy Sykes
Exactly.
19:43
Jack Jostes
It just doesn't make any sense. You could, you could do it easily. And, yeah, there are. We were talking about the credits thing. Yeah, you're going to pay for credits and, yeah, you're going to burn through. You're going to burn through tokens and.
19:56
Andy Sykes
But at the same time, those 18 job descriptions, those six onboarding plans, those six career paths were done in a day. In a day.
20:10
Jack Jostes
Let's token it up, pay for the token.
20:12
Andy Sykes
It cost me 200 bucks.
20:13
Jack Jostes
There you go.
20:14
Andy Sykes
I could have spent two weeks on that. Oh, easily, at least. Right. And what's two weeks of my time worth?
20:22
Jack Jostes
Certainly a little more than $200. A little bit more than a little bit more.
20:25 – How AI Could Change Landscape Management
20:25
Andy Sykes
Yeah. So I think there's, you know, there's. There's a lot of people that are really scared of AI, because it's going to come take their job, so to speak. I think it's going to shift jobs. I think the trades are very safe from AI at the moment in terms of their jobs being taken. I think we can maximize what a specific manager can do, like, say, three crews to six crews and still be able to manage that workload with AI. I don't have robots to dig holes. The closest we've got operationally is robotic mowers. And you really have to look at what you're doing, what you're cutting to see whether that even actually fits your profile or not.
21:19
Jack Jostes
Yeah. Well, it'll be interesting to see what we're talking about in a couple years.
21:23
Andy Sykes
Oh, yeah.
21:25
Jack Jostes
It is changing so fast, and it is so fast. To me, it's an exciting time to be in business and in the landscape industry in particular, seeing how much is coming out and what's changing in robotics. We're just getting started.
21:40
Andy Sykes
Yeah, it's. It's fascinating.
21:42
Jack Jostes
Cool. Well, Andy, I know you've got to run, you've got to drive through the glorious Philadelphia traffic. Thanks for coming on the Landscapers Guide. Thanks for working with us, Jack.
21:53
Andy Sykes
Thank you for having me. Yeah, it was a real pleasure.
21:55
Jack Jostes
It was fun and it was a great dinner. Yeah, it was. Hey, everyone. Jack justice here. And let me. Let me move that out of the way. Hey, everyone, Jack Jostas here. You've been listening to the Landscapers Guide and check out Andy's website. Garrett Churchill, we designed and built that with the Ramblin Jackson team. And if you run a landscape company and you're growing and you'd like some new ideas about how to get more of your Hell yes. Customers finding you online. Reach out for a 15 minute marketing brainstorm call at landscapersguide.com brainstorm see our show notes for a link to that. And I look forward to talking with you next week on the Landscapers Guide.