Jack Jostes [00:00:02]:
What do you want next year? What do you want life to look like? What do you want your business to look like? I've been journaling and setting goals and I've been really doing it for about 15 years.
Wayne Herring [00:00:14]:
I see more potential at times than my clients go. I see you where you're at. I'm always reading books and studying things, which is upgrading my mental hardware to be able to help paint a picture for you of where you might go.
Jack Jostes [00:00:27]:
Part of it just helps me count my blessings, if you will, looking at what's good. Because there's also a lot that isn't good. Right? And if we only focus on what isn't good, the business can kind of eat you alive in some ways.
00:40 - Jack and Wayne Reflect on 2024
Jack Jostes [00:00:40]:
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The Landscaper's Guide. Right now it's December, It's Friday the 13th, 2024, and I normally do an end of the year wrap up podcast where I reflect on the year and share what's coming ahead. And this year I thought it would be interesting to have a guest host interview me.
Jack Jostes [00:01:01]:
So today we have repeat guest, Wayne Herring. Wayne has been my business coach for over eight years now and knows my business really well. He knows me personally really well. Wayne is a great conversationalist. He's really good at talking and interviewing people. So I just figured we'd wear invite Wayne to interview me about Ramblin Jackson and what's going on. So, Wayne, welcome to The Landscaper's Guide and thanks for, thanks for being our guest host today.
Wayne Herring [00:01:31]:
Pleasure to be with you. I always love your end of the year review podcast episode. So good to be part of it. Your end of the end of the year review podcasts are second in terms of my favorites only to the blooper ones or perhaps the one time that you donned the Friday the 13th mask. And we're using power tools at Halloween. So, yeah, this would be a great time. I'm looking forward to it and. Okay.
Wayne Herring [00:01:57]:
So I'll, you know, no pressure or anything. Wayne's a great conversation, conversationalist and ask good questions. I'll do my best. In, in preparing for this, I was thinking about your audience, of course. Right. I mean, that's, that's who you do this for. And so I was thinking you said before we hit record that I could say a little bit about me and my work. And I'm going to gloss over that mostly because again, it's in service to your fans, your listeners, your people.
Wayne Herring [00:02:30]:
So what I wanted to ask you to start with is why do you do these end of the year reviews? You've been doing them for a long time, and I know everything's always in service, so could you. Let's just start there. Why do you do these?
Jack Jostes [00:02:46]:
One of the reasons why I did this and why I wanted to bring you on, on the show to hear me do this is I find, partly just I hope people listen to this and maybe go through a similar exercise of reflecting on the year and getting clear on what do you want next year? What do you want life to look like? What do you want your business to look like? Because I love helping people do that. That's a lot of what we do at Ramblin Jackson is help people figure out their goals. And I end up learning about people's family and how their family members are impacted by the work or some of them work in the business. And I've been journaling and setting goals, and I've been really doing it for about 15 years. And I can't remember when I started this, this podcast version of it, but part of it just helps me count my blessings, if you will, in some ways of looking at what's good. Because there's also a lot that isn't good. Right. And if we only focus on what isn't good, it can, the business can kind of eat you alive in some ways.
Jack Jostes [00:03:58]:
But I just worked with, with our new leadership team on our end of the year video. I make one of these internally sharing with the team, hey, what was good this year and what are the goals for next year? And I read through People's weekly plans and I look for wins. And I remember and acknowledge and try to acknowledge things that were good, nice.
Wayne Herring [00:04:23]:
And so one of the things I jotted down was for everybody listening is, and you hit on this is to hear it as though it is about you. Like, there's a way of reading business books, which is to read it as though it were about you. I know you also like, as I do, some of the Pat Leni business fables where we read about a fictitious CEO. And if you can put yourself into that spot, then it might help you when you're working to lead your team or grow your business. And I was thinking that, yes, as people listen to this, perhaps they would want to go ahead and do something similar. And I also thought we're going to get into some of your personal wins and business wins, as well as maybe some tough stuff from the past year and goals. But I did think it might be helpful for people to understand what is it like to have, what is it like to have a coach or what is it like to have a committed listener in their, in their world? That's part of the magic of you and I being together for this end of the year. Wrap up.
05:30 - Why Every Business Owner Needs a Coach
Wayne Herring [00:05:30]:
So you just talked about how for, you know, for 15 years you've been doing goal setting, you've been writing your journal and to share with your listeners the way that you and I have worked together, especially in the past, let's say five years, I would say we, you know, we used to do some more training stuff, but twice a month we have a conversation. It's intentional conversation. You show up. Sometimes you send me something ahead of time that you've prepared, but you are in the frame of mind where you're going to have this growth conversation. And so we do that for about an hour. And we're, as you said, I know you well. I've gotten to know you, your family, your business. But for those people listening, if you could, how does that, how does that work? How does that work for you to have that twice a month intentional conversation that helps you then grow and stay on track with the goals?
Jack Jostes [00:06:24]:
Well, one of the things that it does, and sometimes I do prepare things ahead of time. Like sometimes we're figuring out role clarity and that's something that you've helped coach me with, learning, disc dis, personality assessments and driving forces. And we work with you through your license or however you get access to those reports. And so we've learned through coaching with you about how to hire. And it's in, it's informed our recruiting. So a lot of the times we talk about people stuff, you know, managing people or hiring people or retaining people or figuring out, well, who do we need to hire this time? So sometimes it's working through a problem. Working with a coach gives you someone else who, hey, look, my wife may not want to hear all of it and she may not really know a lot about hiring or recruiting or like, you know what I mean? Like, there's certain things that make sense to talk about with your employees or your friends or your family. And then there are certain things that a coach could actually help you not only listen to, but process those things.
Jack Jostes [00:07:39]:
And I had another business coach earlier who he called it bibliotherapy of reading books as therapy. And I think part of what you do, Wayne, and you mentioned Patrick Lencioni, is you prescribe books at the right time based on what's going on. And hey, maybe you should read or listen to this book. Having Those calls is helpful. And then sometimes sharing wins. As a business owner is actually kind of lonely. Like maybe I don't want to share how much revenue we did with somebody from my church. It might be kind of weird because maybe they're not growing a business or I have friends who are employees and they may not want to hear about it.
Jack Jostes [00:08:27]:
I have a handful of friends who are business owners and we can talk about those things. But sometimes, you know, who wants to hear about it?
Wayne Herring [00:08:39]:
So my observation of you over the years is you do a lot of vision casting and a lot of getting clarity and a lot of putting voice to your ideas and a lot of then writing it down in Google Docs at times. And so for your business owners, if that's a winning formula and that's partially as year end review as part of that rhythm for you, that's seasonal rhythm throughout the year to pull it all together. And so I would encourage, because I have this too in my life, to have somebody who's a committed listener who you meet with regularly, who kind of carries the dream or vision for you can be really valuable. And that's what I see you doing.
09:20 - Building Your Business Vision with the VTO
Wayne Herring [00:09:20]:
So as I was preparing for this, you sent me your VTO, your Vision Traction Organizer from the book Traction from the EOS system. And the first page that I pulled out of that slide deck is what I would call the foundation. On that page you have core values, core focus, 10 year target marketing strategy. And you had a really nice slide prepared for that.
Wayne Herring [00:09:43]:
And that is the foundation of everything in the business and the things we're going to talk about when it comes to personal goals and business goals. Could you just talk a little bit about the VTO and that foundational page?
Jack Jostes [00:09:57]:
Yeah. So the Vision Traction Organizer, the VTO is from Traction, the EOS framework entrepreneurial operating system. And I was actually just preparing something for Ramblers and helping them tell this, helping tell the story of how we got here. And I looked back through my Apple photos from my phone way back, it was like winter of 2017 and I was at a cigar lounge in Chicago and I brought a paper copy of Traction and I printed out the VTO from that book. And I remember thinking like, oh, I'm just going to go knock this out over a cigar and it's all going to be done. And it asked some really big questions like, who is your Hell Yes Customer? Well, I call it Hell Yes Customer. I think it calls it ideal customer or whatever. And at that time I was at a trade show for the heating and Air industry.
Jack Jostes [00:10:59]:
Because I had one client who I really liked who got amazing results and he was a heating and air contractor. He's still a buddy of mine. He put in the mini splits here at the studio and at my house. I still have an ongoing relationship with him, but I was at that show trying to figure out, is this my, is this my niche market? Am I going to focus on this? And it wasn't. It didn't work out very well. And I tried a Pilates industry and eventually, I mean, some of these big questions in here, they're really simple. It's a deceivingly simple document because it's. When it's done, it's like two pages and the one page encapsulates the most important decisions of your business of what are your core values, what is your core focus, what is your 10 year target? And I remember sharing this with some of the Ramblers.
Jack Jostes [00:11:56]:
It was during COVID It was during a similar point of conflict that I'm in right now with Ramblin Jackson. Rather just a growth period. It was a really fun time because our former director of operations had just left the company on really good terms. We had like a celebration. It was just time. They'd been here seven years and then our new person who was going to take that over left for like a six month maternity leave and it was Covid. And so it was like all of a sudden I had like none of the operations people and I needed to operate the business. But I remember after that meeting with the team and showing them this and asking them, hey, how much revenue do you think we could do in 10 years? And I was thinking $3 million, $5 million, and they were coming back with like $10 million, $15 million in revenue.
Jack Jostes [00:12:52]:
And they were like, yeah, dude, we could totally do this. So it's just been an interesting experience working on that document and now I really use it as a filter for other big ideas that come to me or that other people on my team come to me with, like, hey, should we open a different agency for this vertical similar to landscaping? And that's not part of my vision. Traction Organizer. It kind of filters through here and I use it to meet with people and help them frame up their career path and where are we heading and how do we overlap with where you're heading? So I use it for everything. And part of Traction is creating a new one at the end of the year for your annual goals in your new three year picture. And I found that three year picture component of this to be especially valuable for guiding big decisions. Because 10 years, I mean, like, is there going to be another Covid in the next 10 years? Is there going to be? What will I do? Will we finally have hovercraft? Who knows what's going to happen in 10 years? But three years, I have a good idea of where I want to be three years from now.
14:20 - Celebrating 2024’s Biggest Wins
Wayne Herring [00:14:20]:
So at the end of the year, you're reflecting on the last year. You're creating another one of these videos. You're refining it for the year ahead, communicating it with the team. What. So what are some of the things that you're reflecting on right now? What are some of the wins over the past year, Jack?
Jack Jostes [00:14:42]:
Well, one of them, you know, we launched a record number of new websites this year. We launched over 30. And they all, 100% of them met our gold standard, which means they were launched on time, they were in budget, we got an 8, 9 or a 10 net promoter score, and they met our internal quality standards. And, you know, there are numerous Ramblers. It's really years in the making. We can look at the current people in their roles and they are the reason why we reached it. And it was years of work getting those processes and standards and things to that point. So that was a big win.
Jack Jostes [00:15:26]:
We launched the leadership team. Just. Was that this Monday? I think it was. Yeah, it was this. No, it was Tuesday. So that was a big company win. We met our revenue goal and we, you know, we promoted Robert to our director of client strategy. We, you know, some of the other like, client wins, like a big win for me was reviewing Jobber with a client recently and they, they had never done this.
Jack Jostes [00:16:04]:
They had never like, looked at each lead in their CRM and realized that a lot of times they're not following up with them and they're, they're, you know, these leads, they're doing all this marketing with us to get leads and then they are leaving it at, hey, well, send me your budget and some photos. And then the client never does and they're not following up. So to me, that was a big win. That's where we're, where we're heading is helping people get a little more into the weeds of their, of their sales process. It's always been, you know, we've helped people with these big milestones, but I see us getting a little further into it. Yeah, there have been a lot of wins, a lot of wins in the business and overall, really good year.
Wayne Herring [00:16:55]:
So what I hear in that is at the end part there is the Client focus. I mean, certainly when you talk about the websites you launch that meet the gold standard, that's client focus also. But at the end there, the last part, you're thinking more and more, you love sales and marketing. I mean, that's something over the years that we've geeked out on. You love sales and marketing yourself. You love the process of meeting people who you've never known before, or they find you, and then through your marketing, a relationship is built and they end up hiring you. And you love that for your clients, too. You are really interested, of course, in seeing them thrive and be successful and to be able to help them really convert projects to the right projects that are like what you realize with your vto when you were at that conference with the H Vac folks, that was all nice, but you really want to pass it on to your clients, don't you, where you know that they are meeting Hell Yes.
Wayne Herring [00:18:03]:
Customers and that they're actually being converted at the right price, which enables their business to thrive and their family and all those things.
Jack Jostes [00:18:11]:
Yeah, absolutely. I really enjoy that. And it's kind of just evolved with how. How I've grown in what I want from Ramblin Jackson. You know, before I had kids, I was more just. I was more just like, how do I survive next week? And I was helping people with their sales and marketing, and I was interested in the result for people. But once I started growing my family and I needed more money and I needed more time from my company, I started. And I started recognizing that in my clients, how much time they were spending, you know.
Jack Jostes [00:18:54]:
Yeah, like another big win. One of our clients was telling me that, and this was even before they launched their website, that they learned from us how to lead a sales meeting and how to be punctual, and that this has saved him over five hours a week of his life, that he's not wasting time with unqualified leads or having a disorganized sales process. And he. He said, I learned that that's one of your core values, is be on time and prepared to add value. So that has something to do with the website we're building him. But it was more of like, getting into the, like, hey, how do you operate your business? And how does. How does your website set up this experience for you? One of the big wins, Wayne, was we rebranded. Our third reason to buy is now beyond lead generation.
Jack Jostes [00:19:49]:
We help you craft remarkable customer experiences for your qualified leads. So where I see us heading is further into the customer experience. And we're going to Coach our clients on some of the things we do, like gifts, sending. Sending their own customers gifts and sending them videos. And Robert told me to bring this up because three years ago, Wayne, you're like, well, yeah, well, someday you're going to have a video that people watch before they meet with Robert and they're. They're going to buy from him, and you won't even be involved. And so we made, you know, and we've had variations of this video for years, but we made a new one that people are like, there's still a lot of work to be done. And Robert's doing an amazing job, but he's like, wow, it made that meeting so much easier for me.
Jack Jostes [00:20:43]:
So that was a reflection partly on coaching, because I think sometimes coaches will say things to you that you're like, that doesn't make sense. Or that idea. I guess it might take three years for that one idea to come to fruition. But do you remember telling me that that would happen?
Wayne Herring [00:21:02]:
I do. Oh, I totally do. I totally. I remember saying that to you. And yes, I do think that is one of the roles that I get to play is to. I see more potential at times in my clients where I see more for them than they're able to see at the moment. It's. It's constantly playing in the future with where they might go.
Wayne Herring [00:21:24]:
So I see you where you're at, and then I'm always reading books and studying things, which is upgrading my mental hardware to be able to help paint a picture for you of where you might go. So, yeah, I do remember that. And I think that's what you do for landscapers too. And I think now that is what Robert does too. It's not everybody will want every piece of the vision that you might have or what you see as possible, but some will, and some will want parts of it. And you're creating possibility for them. And that's as you've grown your company and as. As Robert, not only have you grown the company in terms of the number of people or the resources available, but the team members have grown too.
Wayne Herring [00:22:08]:
And now they're able to help your clients realize those types of vision too, right?
Jack Jostes [00:22:15]:
Absolutely.
Wayne Herring [00:22:16]:
Yeah.
Jack Jostes [00:22:16]:
And I was just thinking the other reason I wanted you to do this podcast was partly for our other client facing Ramblers who manage and coach clients. Maybe they're not a business coach per se, but I think there's a coaching element to what we do with our clients.
Wayne Herring [00:22:33]:
Yeah. And your people on your team have the advantage of having team members and other models as they speak to these different landscapers, they can be observing and bringing back the good stuff that then can be shared with others. Yeah, I think that the journey from where you started, as you said, where you were just, you were just trying to survive and you're just trying to do your business to where now you have this. I was with you all at a convention in Pittsburgh that you did want to be at for SIMA and you had nachos and networking and I was in the basement of this taco restaurant with all of you and I got to meet some of your clients and it was amazing to me to hear their stories and to see how much they all really share many of the same values that you have. It's just a good group of people that you've gathered up that you're serving.
Jack Jostes [00:23:38]:
I agree. We have the best clients. And every time I go to those shows, there's kind of like a love hate thing. I'm like, oh, I'm going to be on the road for X number of days. But every time I get there, I'm inspired and refreshed by being with landscape. Snow and landscape people are just, they're great. And that nachos and networking thing was incredible. And what was great was there was nothing else really going on.
Jack Jostes [00:24:04]:
And then somehow our event was like magically perfectly timed and we had like 20 or 30 really cool people that I was unable to introduce to each other. And that was a really great experience.
24:20 - How AI is Changing Business Efficiency
Wayne Herring [00:24:20]:
So you mentioned AI earlier and I think it's a topic that's on many folks mind and it feels like it's been around for a number of years, but 2024 seems like the year where it became more accessible to people. I GUESS it was 2023 that people were experimenting with it, but it certainly has, has grown. Can you talk a bit about how you've implemented and used these tools and what you see in the year ahead?
Jack Jostes [00:24:50]:
Yeah, absolutely. 2024, it seemed like AI just exploded as far as its adoption and accessibility to people. ChatGPT I think one of the challenges with AI is simply deciding which tool you're going to use. So I try and I try and keep it simple. One of the tools that we're using that you're using in this meeting right now with me is Fireflies. And Fireflies records a meeting, it transcribes a meeting, it gives you a summary of things and it can take notes for you. It's an AI note taker. And a big part of my personal background and process has Been using recordings even before AI, I wrote plays by.
Jack Jostes [00:25:40]:
I have a cassette tape player that I took to New Orleans and I recorded people, and then I transcribed it by hand and wrote a play based on what people were saying. And that's a lot of my background in journalism and theater was like recordings and listening and learning music that way. So how I'm personally using it is very similar because our process evolved where when I would shoot video, I would direct clients, and we might take 40 minutes to record a take of a video, and then I would transcribe it and highlight the clips I wanted to use, and I'd give that to a video editor. And now AI can do that so much faster. Like right after the meeting, I already have a transcript. And there are tools in there where you can simply highlight the text and click export sound bite. And you have a video clip of that tool right there. So we're using it in account management to take notes, to do what's already worked well for us, which is show up and ask landscape professionals really great intentional questions.
Jack Jostes [00:26:53]:
They then talk, we transcribe it, and then we are using AI to help write content. The key here is we're not starting with AI. And I think where a lot of people go wrong is they'll let ChatGPT. They'll start with ChatGPT, who is not an expert at landscaping or at sales, but it can pull a lot of data. So we're using those Transcripts, we're using ChatGPT. I see it mainly as assisting us in doing things faster. It's not really a replacement for the creative part.
27:32 - Embracing Growth: How Ramblin Jackson is Evolving in 2025
Wayne Herring [00:27:32]:
So one of the things I heard you say earlier was when I asked you about wins for the year, you started running down through different milestones, you mentioned you called it a period of conflict with words that you used. And you were talking about your. Your company and growth and where you're at. So. And then you. You started by saying that, and then you switched to the word period of growth. And I've observed over the years, you and Ramblin Jackson, like most businesses, a number of periods where you might call it conflict or you might call it messiness. Right? You might call it change.
Wayne Herring [00:28:14]:
And then you. You switch to the word growth, because that's what happens. And I know that that is tied into some of the service offerings and how you're now able to move into a model where, like you said, the third of the reasons to buy has more to do with very getting into it with the client more. Can you talk a bit about how Is your company changing? What is that period of growth and stretching and it's like newness, right? It's new possibility. What's going on?
Jack Jostes [00:28:48]:
Well, you know, it's, it's. We're so, we're, we're heading into our 16th year of business and the first three to five were me as a solo entrepreneur doing SEO and social media. I remember teaching people like how to use the Internet, believe it or not. Like, I mean like I did a lot of, they were like odd jobs. I was like a Internet handyman in some ways and I, and I were, I worked with whoever and doing whatever and that evolved and I eventually learned local SEO and we acquired a local SEO company and in that, in that process I started reading the E. Myth Revisited and later Traction and we became a very systems driven company focused on SEO and websites. And that over time evolved because I was generating leads for people and they, I just, I became very good at sales and interested in sales process and I've read dozens of books on the topic and I started helping build sales and direct response principles into the work we did for clients. But for many years we were very much an SEO company.
Jack Jostes [00:30:01]:
We had an SEO process but in the last few years in particular we have grown into a sales and marketing company that includes websites and includes SEO, but it's way more about customer experience and direct response sales. And a big part of direct response is follow up and having landing pages and videos and lead qualification. So we're growing and we're continually pulling in more of the strategies that I've used to grow Ramblin Jackson like email marketing and social media and video and sales process. And it's working for clients. And the reason why in some ways it's creating some conflict is that how we do things is changing very much from we're doing this deliverable of a webpage for you, we're still doing the deliverable of a webpage for you, but there's a higher level of comprehension and follow up and like, well who's reading this webpage? And then literally looking in the CRM at Mrs. Smith or Laura, I'm gonna, I met with a client and she has a potential client named Laura who has not received any follow up in four weeks. And so I'm like, hey, why don't you call Laura? Why don't you text her and email Laura? So we're moving into like serving Laura and helping Laura, having a great experience. Whereas five or six years ago it was about ranking on Google, generating a number of leads and we still need to rank on Google and we still need to generate a number of leads.
Jack Jostes [00:31:47]:
But where I see us heading is a way more qualitative customer experience. Some people call it sales enablement. Sounds like marketing jargon, but it's essentially enabling the salespeople, or often the landscape company owner, to sell at a better level. Most landscape companies, unfortunately, the bar is really low. They don't get back to people on time. They have a really exciting design meeting and then two or three weeks go by and you haven't heard from them. And so I want to change that. I want my clients to be on time and punctual and send the right combination of automated messages, but also the right timed like personal emails, personal phone calls and help make that really easy for them.
Wayne Herring [00:32:45]:
I love the way that you started the answer to that question by going back to the first several years and how you did whatever it took to be able to generate some income and serve people in the ways that you knew how to serve them at that time. And your journey as a, as a business owner and as a creator is to the benefit of, of those, the clients that are now, as you said, you know, the greatest, the greatest clients for you in the world. And so the way I see you now is you've built this body of, of clients and they're out there doing good work in the world, doing their landscaping. And as they've continued to grow and now, and you continue to grow and you continue to learn and you now have, you don't have to be everything and you don't have to be in the weeds. And sometimes I'm sure clients wish that they could just call you and you could come teach them how to use the Internet or use chat, GPT or whatever it is in today's world. But you have now you have this team of other professionals that are able to help with some of those things. And it gives you the time to go out and look and think about the bigger patterns at play and systems and how to create a system like a combo of automation and humanity reaching out to their prospective customers. And I admire how you're willing to get into the messiness of modifying your systems and your work product in a way that will help your landscapers to maximize resources and thrive.
Wayne Herring [00:34:30]:
So it's, yeah, it's not easy. You live, you and the other Ramblers are in an intellectual type of a business and you're in a type of work that continues to grow, change and evolve because the world is growing, changing and evolving rapidly in the digital world. So slowing down and being willing to, to get into that messiness is going to continue to serve your people.
Jack Jostes [00:34:56]:
Thank you. And it is messy. So it's, I shared with the team this week that it's, it's, hey, we're at a. It's like we're at a construction site for a landscaper. You know, it's the, it's going to be ripped up for a little while. And it's not that I want it to be, but I just, I think that that's just how it is when you're building a business. And what we did was a very consistent thing, and it is consistent. But we are changing and some of that change creates conflict.
Jack Jostes [00:35:30]:
There's change in how we're doing it. We are using AI and that decision doesn't sit well with everyone. And part of what I need to do is be okay with that. I still need to make a decision. I don't want to ruffle feathers unnecessarily, but that's the, I think, part of the, part of the deal in leading a company.
35:59 - Personal Growth: Health and Productivity Reflection
Wayne Herring [00:35:59]:
You've said that this end of the year review is about the clients and it's about helping those business owners to adapt and change. And they're all going through the same thing. So the world is changing and they're needing to keep up and use some of those tools as well. So it's good that you can share the reality of that. You clearly have. You said you have kids and you talk about care a lot and you say those things openly in all of your podcasts. What are some of the good things happened personally this year? What's been going on in Jack Jostas personal life?
Jack Jostes [00:36:38]:
I learned that I have the precursor to a condition called Hashimoto's and it's essentially, it's a thyroid issue. And this was in. Where I worked with a health coach. We did these blood labs and we. He actually read them with me. Like, usually your doctor is like, it's in the normal range. And like, you're like, oh, good, I'm normal. And he helped me realize, well, normally is not optimal, right? You are in the normal range.
Jack Jostes [00:37:08]:
Meaning like most of America who's unhealthy, you fit into the normal range on these things. And. But if you want to, like, not have these health issues, you need to make some adjustments. So I did a carnivore diet, like exclusively eating meat for I think it was like 10 weeks. And it was really difficult. It was one. It was, it was just really hard. But in the process, I healed my gut, and I'm now.
Jack Jostes [00:37:38]:
I'm now able to choose other foods that don't bother my gut. And I'm just. I just feel amazing. So that was a big win, and I'm really grateful that. That I had that and that I learned about this. It's. It's an ongoing journey, you know, figuring out what foods to eat and what things irritate me. And, man, there's so much information out there.
Jack Jostes [00:38:06]:
But. But what I did at least seemed to work at the time and set me on a track to having a better diet. And I. And I realized through that how important, how impactful that is on mental health and just how I feel. And I used to, like, get tired in the middle of the day or have energy slumps, and now I don't eat foods that I don't have that experience anymore. So that was a personal win. Another personal win was I joined the worship team at my church playing mandolin. And that was a win on many fronts because, man, it's been hard to find people to play music with who are at a similar skill level, who are also sober.
Jack Jostes [00:38:55]:
I've been sober for eight years, and I hang out with people who drink beer and whatever. But in playing music, for some reason, every band I've tried to get together with in the last five years, there's at least one or two people who are like, they have a drug problem. And I don't. I don't really want to deal with that, and I don't want to make plans on a Wednesday night for somebody who's not going to show up. And at the church band, we all show up at 8am on Sunday and we play at 10, and then we're done. And my family can come. So it kind of checks like a lot of boxes for me to have that hobby back in my life without the drama that normally comes along with playing in a band.
Wayne Herring [00:39:44]:
So the health testing and that distinction between what is normal and what is optimal or what is possible is really helpful. So I appreciate that. One mandolin on the worship team. Yeah, without a doubt. I've listened over the years to your music, and I know that's a passion for you, and so it's great that, as you said, you found something that checks a lot of boxes for you. And that normal versus optimal theme, I was thinking that distinction between those two and the fact that you experimented, I'm going to call it experimenting with the carnivore diet, which then led to growth and feeling better. Those are things that that's what you're doing in your business, too. When you're serving the landscapers, you are looking for the group of people that are working with you.
36:38 - Real Lessons Learned from Clients This Year
Wayne Herring [00:40:42]:
You're looking for optimal for them. Normal. I was curious, what. What are some things that you learned from your clients this year? When it comes to life and business.
Jack Jostes [00:40:54]:
You know, it's, It's. It's interesting working with a variety of clients. One of the clients that inspired me personally was Jake Harris. Jake. I worked with Jake on his sales process and lead generation, but he's a football coach, and I remember him sharing that some of the work we did he shared on a podcast, saved him 40 hours a week. And one of the things that he did with that time was he became a football coach. And so a couple years ago, we were getting one of my sons involved in soccer, and then an email came out. They're like, hey, we're going to have to close the team this year.
Jack Jostes [00:41:34]:
Not have a team because we don't have a coach. And my wife sent it to me, and I'm like, all right, I need to. I need to be the soccer coach. And I ended up doing it. And it did mean that it took some time out of what I was planning to do for work, but it ended up being really rewarding. On Halloween this year, we always go to the Halloween parade, and I had over 10 kids say, hey, Coach Jack. And they're all wearing masks and things, and I'm like, hey. So I don't even know.
Jack Jostes [00:42:03]:
I didn't even recognize many of them, but that was a rewarding thing. We won a whopping two games. So I don't know if you rated my. My track record that I was the best coach, but we had a great time. And over 90% of the kids came back each season, so that was. That was a win. But on the other side, you know, I've seen some clients who maybe aren't making those time changes or the health changes or are really struggling. And so that was part of why I wanted to share that story about actually getting my blood labs done.
Jack Jostes [00:42:42]:
One, getting them done, and then two, actually looking at them with someone. Because in the first eight years of my business, I was really unhealthy. I ate really bad food, and I worked all the time. And I, you know, I see some people doing that, and I think you. I think people. You can get stuck in the mindset, oh, I'm doing this for my family, and, oh, I have to do this. And I. I do think that running a business takes above and beyond time energy.
Jack Jostes [00:43:16]:
And there are phases where you do need to do that, but it can't be the norm, you know, and it can't. It's not something that you can sustain over time if you want to actually live.
43:32 - What’s Next in 2025: Big Goals and New Plans
Wayne Herring [00:43:31]:
And thrive. So what are some things you're looking forward to in the year ahead?
Jack Jostes [00:43:35]:
Well, one of the things that I'm looking forward to in the year ahead is I'm writing a new book. I'm writing the second edition of the Tree of Good Fortune focused on direct response, sales and marketing. So I'm taking a lot of sales process. I'm writing a chapter on sales management and email marketing and how to do personal emails, how to do automated emails. And we. This coincides with a new service that we're rolling out called Lead Wrangler, where we're going to build a CRM for our clients and help them one. I mean, it was born partly out of wanting to report back to clients, hey, what was the marketing source of this lead? And then taking a step further, did this lead close and how much money did they invest and what was your ROI on your marketing? And to do that, we need to get into the weeds and we need the client to participate at a higher level. So we're rebranding our Wild Frontier plan and it's going to have a higher level of really partnership with our clients focused on sales and marketing and getting into the weeds.
Jack Jostes [00:44:47]:
A bit of like, tell me about Laura and how are we going to follow up with Laura to close this sale? So that those are some, some of the big things that I'm, I'm really excited about. And then personally, I'm planning to run a 10k and not get injured this year. Last 4th of July, I decided to run a 10k in hiking boots. Super dumb idea. I was out of town and I was like, I saw this 4K. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to do that. I've run, I've sprinted in these boots that I have and man, did I injured myself. So the plan, I got some proper running shoes this year and I'm going to run the whole time.
Jack Jostes [00:45:26]:
That's my plan this year.
Wayne Herring [00:45:29]:
Nice. Well, getting something on the calendar like that and having it scheduled certainly leads to success.
45:46 - How Business Builder Camp Helps Entrepreneurs Thrive
Jack Jostes [00:45:36]:
Absolutely. Well, Wayne, thanks so much for being a guest host today. For folks who are curious about working with a coach or having a conversation, tell us about Business Builder Camp and how you work with people.
Wayne Herring [00:45:51]:
Business Builder Camp is a collection of business owners which we call business builders. And we gather together around the campfire. And we do that both live and in person at our retreats. And we do that virtually through our virtual campfire. And so any of your listeners are always welcome to come sit around the fire with us. Just a couple days ago we had an author who wrote a book called Lead from the Middle. His name is Michael Bowman and Michael came and shared his experience. But those talks are always made better by the business owners who are in the trenches day to day and how they ask questions that are really informed.
Wayne Herring [00:46:32]:
So I'd love to have your listeners at our campfires. And then in May we are going to have Rendezvous. And Rendezvous is a live gathering here in Schuylkill county of business owners and we'll be doing our Business Builder Process that I run through when we do retreats with our Mastermind groups. And I'll gladly share a link. It's businessbuildercamp.com and love to have a conversation with anybody who's interested in those things.
Jack Jostes [00:46:59]:
Wayne is also a hunter. So Wayne and I are both hunters and just today I got a really nice doe photo. So I'm mentioning this in part. Wayne also has these hunting coaching excursions. So I went to a Business Builder Camp in Central New York at Turkey Trot Acres. I harvested a beautiful eastern and turkey and we went hog hunting where I infamously missed and had to cut part of my T shirt off. The guide from the camp, I missed a shot and he made me cut my T shirt and put it in the barrel of shame. They have this empty like Hinkley Schmidt water jug full of T shirt clippings.
Jack Jostes [00:47:48]:
So for those of you listening who are into outdoor stuff, so Wayne is to and there's an element of adventure to the Business Builder Camp. So check it out in our show notes.
Wayne Herring [00:48:00]:
Thanks for mentioning that. And just like one of the things I love about working with you, Jack, and I'm really grateful to do this end of the year wrap up with you is that I love my clients. I believe that business owners make the world a better place. They make their communities a better place. They are the ones that go to the county fair and buy the kids fair animals and they're the ones who, you know, don't say no when people ask for donations. You're creating the local economy, not to mention that you're people creating lovely landscapes in a way that I am not able to. And I love how you are going deeper now to serve them more fully. And it is a joy to talk with you about hunting and all those things.
Wayne Herring [00:48:46]:
And. And you get to do that with your clients sometimes, too, those little adventures. So.
Jack Jostes [00:48:52]:
Yeah, I do. Yeah. And we're gonna. We're gonna take a page out of the Wayne Herring book at some point and plan some sort of hunting excursion. Robert's really pushing me to do it. I think big game hunting would be too much logistics. Between the tags and the points.
Wayne Herring [00:49:11]:
I have something for you.
Jack Jostes [00:49:13]:
You've got something.
Wayne Herring [00:49:14]:
I'll have some woman. I'll mention it. We'll talk about it later. We'll keep it a secret to your list.
Jack Jostes [00:49:21]:
Right? We will tell you more about that in the next episode at some point of The Landscaper's Guide Podcast. All right, everyone. So check out Wayne's links in the show notes. My name's Jack Jostis. You've been listening to The Landscaper's Guide Podcast and if you enjoyed this, make sure you leave us a five-star rating wherever you're listening to it. And subscribe at landscapersguide.com/podcast so you never miss an episode. Get on our email list. We will send you invitations to cool events and sometimes Wayne Herring is at them like he was when he came to the SIMA symposium.
Jack Jostes [00:49:59]:
So stay tuned and thanks again, Wayne.
Wayne Herring [00:50:02]:
You bet. Go get em.
Jack Jostes [00:50:04]:
Thanks so much for checking out today's conversation with my business coach, Wayne Herring. Make sure you check him out. Check out Business Builder Camp on Instagram and see our show notes for a link to Wayne's website. My name is Jack Jostes, and you've been listening to The Landscaper's Guide. And make sure you subscribe at landscapersguide.com/podcast so you get on our email list so you never miss an episode. Plus, get exclusive invitations to our live and virtual events. I'll look forward to talking to you next week on The Landscaper's Guide.
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode + see the transcript at: www.landscapersguide.com/podcast
Tell us where to send your beef jerky: www.landscapersguide.com/toolbox
🔥Explore Business Builder Camp: www.businessbuildercamp.com
💼 Connect with Wayne Herring: www.linkedin.com/in/wayneherringjr