00:00 Introduction
Jack Jostes
Hey, I'd love to introduce you to all the cool people I met at the Simon Symposium, but I can't. But I did get to interview a handful of really interesting people and check out today's episode to hear some interesting conversations, including one with some of the youngest people I've met that are working in this snow and landscape industry. Some, some random people on a train, right? What am I doing on a train? And all kinds of different business ideas that that'll help you grow your snow and landscape company. So let's get today's episode. Hey everyone, Jack Jostes here, and welcome to the Landscapers Guide. This show is all about sales, marketing, and inspiring ideas for the snow and landscape industry. Right now, I'm on a train in Hartford, Connecticut, having an amazing time at the final experience of the 2023 Samus Symposium. That's the Snow Ice Management Association. They've done an amazing job. Go to their show next year in Pittsburgh, and let's get into some conversations with people that I met while I was at the show. Okay. So right now, what train are we on right now? Even
1:13 Meet the Conductor!
Stew Macmillan
Right now you're on the, uh, Essex steam train, clipper dinner train,
Jack Jostes
And, and we're in, we're just outside of Hartford, Connecticut. We're having an amazing time. And Stuart, are you the
Stew Macmillan
Conductor? Yeah, I'm the conductor of the train. That's correct.
Jack Jostes
And how long have you done this?
Stew Macmillan
Uh, this is about my 14th year working for the railroad. This is my retirement job. I used to be a public works guy in charge of snow removal.
Jack Jostes
That's what I wanted to talk to you about. So tell us, tell us about some of your snow career.
Stew Macmillan
Well, it was, um, pretty fairly long career. I was public works director for 36 years in a town about, uh, 20 miles west of here, town of Madison, Connecticut. Uh, and when I was in the Navy, my last tour duty was at the Brunswick Naval Air Station where, where I was in charge of snow removal there also. So I've a pretty long experience in snow removal. A lot's changed since I've retired in terms of, uh, technology, that's for
Jack Jostes
Sure. Yeah, definitely. Technology is changing constantly, especially in snow. Um, what do you, what do you love about being the conductor of a train? What's your day like?
Stew Macmillan
Well, it's, it's just kind of, it's fun. Um, you get to meet a lot of people like you, people today from all over the country and Canada. Uh, and usually on our dinner train we have similar people, people traveling from far away. And then we have a lot of local people too. Uh, it's just, uh, fun to, to be out with people and, uh, keeps you busy.
Jack Jostes
Well, well Stu, thanks for, uh, this has been an amazing experience. We've got, we just had prime rib on a train in Connecticut. Who knew that was even possible. That's right.
Stew Macmillan
That's one of our specialties,
Jack Jostes
So I, I loved it. So anyways, thanks for coming on the show and thanks for doing what you do. All everyone, I'm excited to interview Thayne Isaac's. We met last night at the Simonus Symposium after hours event, and I really enjoyed hearing some of your story of how you, you worked in the snow and landscape industry for around, what was it, 20 years?
3:00 Meet the man who’s been in the snow and landscape industry for 20 years
Thane Isaacs
Uh, longer than that. They used to say I was a quarter of a century in 10 years ago.
Jack Jostes
<laugh>. All right. And, and now you, you work primarily as a coach with snow and landscape companies and we we connected over working with people Yes. And the people being the key to running a company and taking care of them. And tell me a little bit about, what were you saying about, you know, bringing on interns and, and and really coaching people up in your, in organizations?
3:26 What is the importance of coaching interns up in your company?
Thane Isaacs
Yeah, I just feel sometimes that businesses bring interns in and they use 'em as summer help. They don't actually have an agenda for them and they're not teaching them about the industry. If you bring someone in as an intern and all you're doing is having 'em out there cut the grass every day, are they really learning about the industry or making it interesting? We're giving 'em a job, not a career path, and I believe we should be investing in them. Cuz when we do that, that makes them excited and that's our future for the industry. We have to keep this industry going at a high level. That's why I'm here today. That's why you do what you do. And I think that's very important. Would you agree?
Jack Jostes
I I agree and I, you know, giving interns real work gives them an opportunity to, to learn right. Get their feet wet and then eventually become potentially a full-time employee. And, and maybe, maybe, you know, Monique Allen, do you know Monique Allen? I do not know Monique Allen. So Monique is, is Monique has a paid apprenticeship program. Oh, cool. And so she runs a landscape company in Massachusetts. I remember interviewing her and during C O V I D when a lot of other industries were closed and landscaping was essential, many people left their current career, joined the landscape industry, and she had the same retention rate from her paid apprentices that she did with people with experience. Wow. So it ended up being a really good, rewarding experience for the people doing the apprenticeship. And then she retained a lot of 'em full-time and one of 'em even did sales.
Thane Isaacs
Right. And again, how do you know what someone is interested in? If you keep them in one area, they may find it's like, I don't like doing this. Oh, this is incredible. I love this. I want to be, I want to get into irrigation, or I want to get into installation. I don't want to do the maintenance, or I want to do the maintenance. And if you just put 'em in one thing, they never have that opportunity. And again, to me, I, I was interviewing the chairman of Simon this year and he mentioned that word three times. You mentioned it several times. Opportunity is before us, but we also have to provide it for other people. Right. When we get so much we have to give back. And if we're taking it all the opportunity and not giving it to other people, that's not sustainable.
Jack Jostes
I, I agree. Tell us a little bit, what's your LinkedIn show? So you interviewed me today. Uh, what, what is the name of the show and where can we, where can we watch it?
5:36 Check out Thane’s Linkedin show; Coffee on the Peak
Thane Isaacs
It's called Coffee on the Peak. We do it every, uh, Friday at 8:00 AM Eastern. And I do it with my partner Scott ak, which, you know, Scott, he, you can almost be twins, <laugh>, uh, and um, then it replays on turfs up radio at, at nauseum. You can hear it anytime you want just by going and putting it in. We've had some amazing guests from Josh ez. Uh, we've had, um, we've had people who are just new to the industry. So we don't just think we need the big players. We've had people who do $250,000 a year cuz their story is as important as Josh's. I'm sorry, I don't mean to put anyone down, but their story is so important because Josh was that guy one time and who, how do we know that guy is not gonna be the next Josh Gay miss. Right. We've gotta give everybody opportunity. And I I have an abundant mindset. I got asked one time, why do you help other coaches? Why do you promote other coaches? 900 million people on LinkedIn? I can only coach half of them. Right,
Jack Jostes
<laugh>. Absolutely. Well, and and I think the personality fit with any kind of coach is so important. Right, right. And, and there are things that you do really well. There are things that Scott does really well, there's other people obviously. Right. Uh, what, um, what, what is the survey that you, you're working on in the future? Can you tell us a little bit about that?
6:49 What future survey is Thane working on?
Thane Isaacs
Well, I, I working on doing a customer satisfaction survey process within the green industry. We're in the process of beta testing it right now. I'm actually, there's this, this guy who I'm gonna get to, uh, help me with my website cuz he is
Jack Jostes
A, you know, a guy, he
Thane Isaacs
Is a deal doer with with that. That's right. And so I'm gonna use that. But we want to help people serve their customers better, but also help the customers understand what they need to do to get better service. And then eventually we're gonna also move this into the sales process within three months of the first sale we wanna be interviewing how the sales process went so people can improve that. Because if you don't have the information, how do you know you're, you think you're great and then you lose a contract. How did that happen? You, you, you thought you were doing, we need to know. And people aren't gonna tell you as a business owner or the account manager as much as they'll tell an outside party. That's a true fact.
Jack Jostes
Yeah. So, so you're gonna be interviewing the customers of your coaching clients?
Thane Isaacs
No, I'm gonna be interviewing the customers of, of, of anybody in the green industry.
Jack Jostes
Oh. Oh, okay. Oh, interesting. I didn't realize that it was that far
Thane Isaacs
Reaching. Yeah. So we're gonna interview anyone in the green industry, uh, who people want to do it. And everyone I brought, when I started my coaching business, I like Okay, that's great. I had one guy go, come, start right away. But everyone I've brought this up to is, is like as soon as you get this going, let me know. The first three people I reached out to do the beta test was like, yes. We're like, we are in, we want to do this. Uh, I think it's something we need. We need to have our pulse. Cause everything that works can break. And if we don't know what's gonna break, if we're not putting it out there, our competition's gonna break it for us. Right. So we have to be aware before and if we have the pulse of what the client is desiring over what we think they need and we can adjust, we can be ahead of the curve. That's my take on it.
Jack Jostes
Yeah, I think so. And uh, I look forward to seeing the results of that. Cool. And uh, Thayne Isaacs, thanks for coming on the show. If you're watching this connect with Thayne on LinkedIn. He's really active there. You'll find out about that survey and other things he's up to. Alright. I'm here with Kevin Larson from Aspire and Kevin, a lot of my clients mastermind members, podcast listeners say, Jack, what software do you recommend? I always recommend that they consider Aspire, especially as they grow beyond a million and they're looking to grow, it pulls a lot of different functions together, um, into uh, one software, right? Yeah. And it allows you to grow and the clients who are using it love it. Yeah. They swear by it. And a lot of people get hung up on, well, doesn't Aspire charge a percentage of revenue? Why do they do that when the other companies are charging a, you know, a per user fee? Sure. So can you kind of explain that to us? Yeah,
9:24 Why does Aspire charge a percentage of revenue?
Kevin Larson
No, it's a good question and and I'm glad that you're asking it. So the user base model does not have any economy to scale built into it. So in other words, if you were to double your company's size, chances are you would double your user count. If you're on a user based model, your price is gonna double mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So the difference with Aspire using the percentage of revenue is that as you grow, every single dollar that you grow on Aspire becomes less of a percentage of revenue. So it's, it's built to scale as you grow.
Jack Jostes
And so that actual, the percentage may even become smaller as I get larger.
Kevin Larson
Absolutely it
Jack Jostes
Will. Okay, great. Significant Whereas if I'm, if I'm charged a per user fee, that cost per, so the cost per user in that case, it could it go down? Yes. If we, if I were to Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. That that makes sense. And then also from a forecasting and growth standpoint, it's, it's often easier to think into the future of, okay, I'm at 2 million, now I'm gonna get to 3 million. And aspire's able to, to work with me on figuring out what the, what I'll need to budget for Exactly. From software.
Kevin Larson
Exactly. Because as you grow, if I say how, how big do you want to be in two years, you're not gonna say 48 users. You're gonna say, I want to be a $5 million company. And with talking in revenue and percentages of revenue, you know exactly what your cost of aspire is gonna be. So it it's a simple algorithm. Um, it's very easy to calculate. So to us, we're keeping things simplified. One other thing we see is on the user base model, everybody wants to save cost by not giving full access to all of their management. That's a problem.
Jack Jostes
Right? Right. Yeah. Cuz then when you're withholding access to this amazing resource from certain people, cuz you're trying to save money, it, it kind of defeats the purpose of having that amazing tool.
Kevin Larson
Right. Exactly. And, and that's how we feel. So with us it's a keys to the castle kind of deal. You you pay the subscription and you have full access to everything we have to offer.
Jack Jostes
Cool. Well Kevin, thanks for for clarifying this. It's a question that a lot of people ask, so I'm looking forward to just sending them this video. Yeah. And for those of you watching, if you're not using Aspire, Lin Jackson is a partner with Aspire and we've created a special offer where you can get your first six months free, um, when you sign up with them through a link at ramblinjackson.com/aspire So check that out. And that form that I built goes directly to our partner team who's aware of the Yeah. The collaboration we have and just have a conversation with the Aspire team. They're super friendly. Yeah, super helpful. And they'll help you figure out what you need to use. And you've got some exciting new products like Property Intel and what's the other one? Marketing
12:14 What are Aspire’s exciting new products?
Kevin Larson
Pro. Yeah. Um, we have a new partnership with Pro Qs, um, where it's, the, the direction that we're going is just beyond incredible. It's one single suite to, to manage all of the different aspects of your businesses. So we would love it if you guys would call us to just have the conversation. Um, I, in my opinion, it's, it's a, it's a equally as big of a decision to stay on the current processes that youre doing as it is to change. And it's worth at least having the conversation of, is this a fit? Can we make Aspire be self-funded for your business? Because at the end of the day, we don't want this to have a cost to you. We want this to be an investment that does have a real tangible ROI to it.
Jack Jostes
All right, everyone, I'm really excited to interview Evan and Clayton. They are 12 and 13 and they're here at the Simonus Symposium. What are you guys doing at a Snow, uh, a snow removal trade show?
13:15 Meet the two youngest guys in the industry!
Evan
Well, I like to come out and check out all the other businesses and try to like get to know some of the other owners. So when I get older and can own Storks plows, I can already have a head start.
Jack Jostes
And, and what is Storks plows and what's your relationship?
Evan
Uh, well my dad owns Storks plows. I like to come over and help him out there. It's a lot of fun and it's a good way to learn about mechanics and stuff like that.
Jack Jostes
And, and so what have you done at the show for work? What, what's your, what's your, what's your week kind of been like?
Evan
Uh, it's like just at, when I'm working at Storage Plaza, I like to help out and supply stuff and try to help him with whatever he asks me to do.
Jack Jostes
That's cool. Have you met any interesting people while you were here?
Evan
Actually, I met him and his dad.
Jack Jostes
Oh, you guys didn't know each other before the show?
Evan
Well, I knew I saw him every once in a while at Storks Plows, but I mainly saw him here. I got to hang out with him and his brother last year.
Jack Jostes
Cool. And, and Clayton, tell us a little bit about you. What, where do you work or what are you doing here? <laugh>?
Clayton
So yeah, my dad name's Winter Stand and then we do a lot of snow removal and a little bit of excavating uhhuh. So I mostly help help with the side of snow removal. And then I, I run a 9 0 8 wheeler. Wow.
Jack Jostes
So how long have you been running that? So you're, you're 13, so when was the first time you you ran that?
Clayton
Um, it was probably like eight. I started running equipment when I was probably like six, but I probably started running that machine when I was like eight and then started working for my dad more when I was probably like 10 or 11.
Jack Jostes
What, what do what do you guys like about the snow and landscape industry? What, what interests you about it?
Clayton
Probably running the equipment. I really enjoy that.
Evan
Yeah. It's getting to learn how to plows work and everything like that. The mechanics about it.
Jack Jostes
How, how, have you met any other people here that are around your age?
Clayton
No, not really. I mean, some of the people that my dad like works with, I've met some of their kids, but none of them are into it like, as much as we are.
Jack Jostes
Yeah. I think it's pretty cool. I think you're some of the youngest people here. Where do you see yourselves? Like what are you interested in doing as you, as you get a little bit older?
Clayton
I mean, I think I wanna keep doing that and maybe like eventually like, take over the business. Uh,
Jack Jostes
What what do you think that would be like, you know, so you've grown up around it, your parents own it. What's, what's, what attracts you to, like, why would you want to do that?
Clayton
Um, mostly I just really enjoy running the equipment a lot. I've always just, ever since I was a lot younger, I've always sit in the machine with my dad and everything like that.
Jack Jostes
What, what would you say to other kids, um, about the, the snow industry, if you were to tell them, is it a fun industry? Is it cool? Should they check it out?
16:20 What is your advice to other kids in the snow industry?
Evan
I would say it's a fun way to learn about mechanics and you can just watch all the, um, snowplows being built a while. You're helping out.
Jack Jostes
Well, um, Clayton, Evan, thanks for coming on the landscapers guide and uh, I'm inspired by you guys working in the industry as young as you are. So there's so much opportunity in it and, uh, keep going. All right. We are here at the Simon Symposium in Hartford, Connecticut. I'm with Tanner from Main Street Mowing. Yep. And you're here all the way from Texas. Yep. So funny meeting you here at a snow show. <laugh>.
Tanner Maxson
Well, you always have to chase the opportunities. So I mean, if you see something, uh, in your market that may be of value, you know, however little it is, if the leads are there and you can verify that people want the service, you gotta like just go chase it and research it and see if it's right and good fit for your company.
Jack Jostes
Yeah. So you, you're doing some really interesting things. We can't talk about all of 'em. No. But what we can talk about is what you're doing with your YouTube channel. And I wanted to, I wanted to hear about this. So you specialize one of the things that you do lawn mowing, but also SOD installation. Correct. And specifically zoia SOD installation. Right. So for, for people watching who may not grow zoia in their local market, what is it and why is it a good product for you to offer?
17:41 What is SOD installation and why is it good to offer?
Tanner Maxson
Okay, so SOD installation is not nothing special, right? Right. So SOD installation is just putting down grass, but Zoia SOD is a special grass. It's the premium grass in my market. So if you want the Cadillac of, of a product, you're going to be a special kind of person that wants to spend a little bit more money. And so I can't compete for SOD installation cuz everybody does SOD installation, but there's a special type of SOD installation and that's the Zoia sod. And so I wanted to focus just on that. So I wanted to go out and see if there's enough people that are searching just for that premium grass. Cuz if so, I then I could focus in, build a whole crew around a premium product and, but I had to first verify I could get the traffic and the leads and enough work that I could focus on that niche within the niche.
Jack Jostes
Well I, I love it because the, the Dallas metro area is one of the most crowded markets in the whole country for so insulation there for landscape services, there's
Tanner Maxson
A, there's a trailer on every corner, you pull up to a stoplight and there's, there's, you know, at least three trucks that are doing stuff out there.
Jack Jostes
So, so instead of though, what many people think is, oh, I can't compete on price because there's so many people willing to do it for solo, you don't, you don't compete on price. No. You went up
Tanner Maxson
My first year, I, I, I proved that I could get the leads and we'll talk about that in a minute. So I did that, but then everybody else is charging $700 a pallet. And so I was like, okay, I'm just gonna price myself at $701 a pallet just, just to be in the market at market price. And low and behold, I didn't make any freaking money. Right. And I was discouraged and I worked my butt off and we did a whole lot of freaking business and I left at the end of the year with no money. So, uh, then I had to back up and find out what are my, what are my costs of goods sold? You know, so I realized to myself, damn the market price, I need to go discover what, what is, what do I have to price myself at for me to make it worth it to me to do the pain in the butt fee of installing grass and focusing on that. So I had enough leads that came in, I knew that there was money in it, but I needed to charge a lot. And so how do you charge a lot in a market where every, everybody's installing grass. And so I had to build value before we ever show up to the house to give the estimate. I had to prove to them that it was worth it to come talk to my company and spend, you know, 60% more than they were willing to spend.
Jack Jostes
And, and so what are some of the ways that you're using video to not only for seo but also to then, you know, really qualify leads? So by the time they get to you, they're ready to buy.
20:24 Harnessing the Power of Video to Fuel Business Growth
Tanner Maxson
So when somebody's gonna spend say $10,000 on a, on any product, in their mind they have that anxiety, there's a risk, I hope I get what I'm paying for. Right? Right. So you gotta prove to them that if they buy from you, they're gonna get what they want. Right. So you wanna, you wanna tear out a good lawn to put in a great lawn? Well, you could hire this guy or that guy, but there's risk there because you're not sure that they can do a great job. Right? So I have to show with video, here's my crew, look at here, this is our install process, this is the final product. And I had to be, you know, I'm excited about my business. I have to show my passion and that I want to do a good job. I had to prove that I can do a job, I want to do a good job. And that our company is large enough and reliable enough that if anything goes wrong, we're gonna stand behind our product. And you can't just do that with a blog post. You have to, they have to get to know you. And the best way for them to know you, like you and trust you is video.
Jack Jostes
So video works even when you're selling sod installation or you said when you're selling anything,
Tanner Maxson
When you're selling anything. So it doesn't matter what you're selling. If you wanna sell a high ticket price item, a landscape installation, pavers, if you want to go out and do anything, that's more than just your average lawn mowing. Some people really want to have that know, like, and trust before they even hire you for lawn mowing. But especially when there's the high ticket price items, anything over say 3000 bucks, they're kind of gonna want to get proven to them before they hire you that you're the right company for the job so that the risk is
Jack Jostes
Not there. I agree. I've been doing video for about 14 years now and um, the, the main reason is it builds that no, like, and trust it also builds that with, with recruiting mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so many of my clients find that when they use video, their potential and employees notice it and have that rapport building. Um, so I absolutely see it working in my business. In your business, what are maybe some tips that you have for people who are the light bulbs going off? They're thinking of, oh, I, I could do video but I can't, or I don't know how to get started. You're making most of yours on your phone, right? Yeah.
Tanner Maxson
Your phone is good enough and it really doesn't matter the quality of the video or even the quality of the audio. You know, shoot, whatever you got, get it out there. Really, the content is what they're looking for, not the quality of the video. Some of the biggest problems is, is finding what am I even gonna shoot about? You know? So you gotta think about when you go to sell your product, what are all these questions that people are asking you If you're selling pavers, are they asking you about the types of pavers? Are they asking you about your grading process or the, the, how long is this paver going to be level in my yard? You know, all those types of questions people ask and saw installation, it's like, you know, what are you gonna do about these roots that are all up on my yard? I have Bermuda that, uh, doesn't survive underneath the trees. It's all gone and now I have all this erosion. You know, um, what, what did they do wrong with their yard? Cause they just got a saw it installed and it looks like hell, you know? So you, all these questions people ask you at the door when you're selling a product, you definitely have to make a video about that. Check
Jack Jostes
Out Tanner's videos, start making your own videos and
Tanner Maxson
You'll see they're not professional. And I'm, I'm a dork and I'm a geek and I'm like, I call myself a dork and I'm just be real with the person cuz Right. You want 'em to know you and like you. Right. And so if you try to read a script, they're not gonna know you. I agree. They're gonna think you're staging it and you're reading from a script and they're not, they're gonna say, oh, this guy's just a robot, but you gotta be real. If you make a mistake, just keep rolling and if you get nervous, delete that son of a gun and start over. Because the good thing is you're not going live or
Jack Jostes
Right.
Tanner Maxson
Right. Not unless you're a pro. And I'm not a pro, so I'm not gonna go live. I'm just gonna shoot a video. If it, if it kind of did the job, then I'm just gonna publish that thing. And the more often you publish it, the
Jack Jostes
Better. Yeah. And some of these have had, you know, dozen or like 45,000 views or that was just what I looked at. Have you had others that have had even more?
Tanner Maxson
Uh, I think there's a couple hundred thousand views on a couple of our
Jack Jostes
Videos. Yeah. You know, so that's the thing about these videos is once you make them, if they answer a question well and how much is always really gonna change over time. Right. I mean, my point is you have, you have evergreen content, meaning once you make it, it's good. Yeah. Ongoing.
24:39 The Power of Evergreen Content for Sustainable Business Growth
Tanner Maxson
So we get, we've made a video, I think two, two and a half years ago and I didn't know it was gonna hit. I didn't know if it was gonna be what people were searching for. Right. But I'm making video about something, so I'll picked, picked a topic and you know, I never know if it's gonna be a good video or if it's just gonna be another one that I get like a hundred views on. But this one, I think it's well over 200,000 views. I made it a couple years ago and I still get, you know, probably 200 views a day right now. And I get leads every day for a video I made two and a half years ago. Video works for me, we generate 40% of our leads come from first generating content for, for video. And then from that, you know, whether that video gets repurposed into Facebook or, um, people just come straight off of YouTube onto our website in the description, we always put a link to our website. Um, but we go to the door and people are like, I've watched all your videos and they're sold. So that's another thing about branding and YouTube and people getting to know you, like you and trust you, is by the time you get to the door, they're 90% of the way sold already.
Jack Jostes
It's much easier selling to people who already like
Tanner Maxson
You. Yeah. And they're, they're like, oh, I can't believe you showed up. They think you're a celebrity when you're like, I'm just the dude iPhone.
Jack Jostes
Well, no, you are, you are. Tanner. Yeah. The, the, yeah.
Tanner Maxson
I can't believe I hear this a lot. I can't believe you actually came. They're like, they expect me to have like a, a sales force. Yeah. And I don't have a sales force, you know, but they, they, they're surprised that the owner came out, the guy that was in the video. And I was like, right, I shot this with a I iPhone a second ago.
Jack Jostes
I, I love it. Cool. We'll keep it up and thanks for coming on the show and Sharon Tanner,
Tanner Maxson
Awesome man. Thank you.
Jack Jostes
Okay, so I'm here with John and John you presented today at Cyber yesterday. Yeah. About emerging technology. Yeah. So what, what were some of the emerging technologies that you presented on?
26:26 Exploring Emerging Technologies in the Industry
John Paganini
Uh, we talked a little bit about the different, uh, aspects of chat, G P T, how that can help the business owners really manage their business in, in ways they may not have considered before. Help me with my emails, help me, uh, write some social media blogs and postings. And maybe I just ask questions like, how can I better manage a lead list, uh, using email or something? Or what is the financial thinking I should do to run my business better? So really it's just using chat sheet pt, but we also talked about other things like anonymous, uh, driving and maybe anonymous snow plows. Uh, we talked about sensors, the importance of sensor data being extracted outta these weather, uh, devices, the air temperature, the humidity. And we also talked about GPS and 5g, where that's going. So there was a lot of, uh, discussion around what's going on in the, in the current industry today with IT and how that can help their businesses become a lot more efficient.
Jack Jostes
Whi which, which of those topics did you feel the audience was most interested in using?
John Paganini
Uh, the, I think what impacted me the most were, people were coming up to me afterwards, uh, maybe an hour or two later and they said, I just downloaded chat g pt, I can't wait to start using it. So I think that might have been an interesting, um, new fact, uh, I information technology that people learned about that they're gonna maybe try to bring into their, you know,
Jack Jostes
Operations. Yeah, I think they definitely can. And I, I've talked with a lot of people who are using chat G B T to write business processes Yes. And standard operating procedures faster. Yeah. And they're giving it ideas and chat. G B T is helping them edit
John Paganini
It. Yeah. They started off with chatt b t then they take it from there. They put their own language into it and their own and
Jack Jostes
Feelings. Yeah. So just before we press record, we were talking about SEO and the, the power you were mentioning blogs and social media. And I see it as a great tool for that and a starting point though, right? So we've gotta edit it, make it personalized, make it on brand. Because if everyone just uses chat g bt hey chat g b t write a hundred words about snow removal and everybody's
John Paganini
Gonna be saying
Jack Jostes
The same thing, everyone's gonna be saying the same thing. Exactly. And I don't think that'll work with Google from a duplicate content standpoint and also from a human standpoint, people reading it, right?
John Paganini
Yeah. In fact, you can't really tell yet what's been written by chat GBT cuz it's so new. But I think it's eventually you're gonna be able to see that this came right from the computer.
Jack Jostes
Right. So, so it's a good starting point. It's a tool for writing, but it's not the the end all be all. That's, that's my take on it. Yeah. Well, well John, where can people connect with you follow more emerging?
John Paganini
Uh, John Paganini from Crew Tracker software and we're a technology company. We made, uh, some great announcements at the show about how we're integrating weather data, how we're taking data from weather systems, uh, and bringing it into the, uh, records so that the crews have, uh, you know, really smart information. I've been making decisions about how they're running their businesses.
Jack Jostes
All right, everyone, thanks so much for checking out today's show. Hopefully you got inspired, entertained. I know I had a good time making this one and I hope to see you at one of my upcoming events. We've got a lot of live events, virtual events, so check out landscapers guide.com/events. See the show notes below, and I look forward to seeing you there. My name's Jack Jostes and I'll talk to you next week on the Landscapers Guide.
Attend one of our live or virtual events! https://landscapersguide.com/events/
Tell us where to send your Landscaper's Marketing Tool Box + Beef Jerky! https://landscapersguide.com/toolbox/
