Jack Jostes [00:00:00]:
I can't imagine what it would be like to do a commercial landscape installation in a high rise building in New York.
Mark Mini [00:00:07]:
You know, we have to be creative in how we access our site. We can't just roll up with a bunch of trucks and vehicles with large crews, drive around. It's hard to get around the dense urban city of New York. Every project is very unique and distinctive in that sense, just from an operational standpoint.
00:23 - Meet the Team Behind NYC’s Most Unique Landscapes
Jack Jostes [00:00:23]:
Hey everyone, Jack Jostes here. We're at the Ramblin Jackson booth at the Elevate show in Charlotte, North Carolina. I just met.
Mark Mini [00:00:31]:
Mark
Jack Jostes [00:00:32]:
Mark. And Matt. Yeah, got it, I got it! So we literally just met. And tell me a little bit, what is John Mini Distinctive Landscapes?
Mark Mini [00:00:41]:
Yeah, John Mini Distinctive Landscapes out in New York. We're a purpose driven company and our purpose is to make places beautiful by bringing nature to the places people live, work and play. So what is that? We design, we build and we maintain indoor and outdoor urban landscapes all over the tri-state area, as well as commercial holiday decorations. Matt heads up the outdoor division company started over 50 years ago, founded by my pops, John Mini, and that's what we do.
Jack Jostes [00:01:04]:
That's cool. So did you grow up working in the business?
Mark Mini [00:01:07]:
Yeah, so I've worked outside the business, but you know, family business. I kind of was around it growing up and I've been full-time in IT in a leadership level for over 10 years now.
Jack Jostes [00:01:17]:
What are some of the roles that you did in the company before you got to the leadership level?
Mark Mini [00:01:22]:
Ground up, man. I drove the trucks for multiple years. I provided service out in the field, got my hands dirty, rolled the sleeves up and had to learn the business from the ground up.
Jack Jostes [00:01:30]:
And then how did you sync up with Matt? Oh, guys, I got a Matt and a Mark here. How many years?
Matt Wessol [00:01:37]:
Just shy of a decade. Be a decade next year.
01:41 - Who’s the Hell Yes Client for Urban Landscaping?
Jack Jostes [00:01:41]:
So you all are based in New York, New York and you do urban landscapes both indoor and outdoor. Who would you say is your Hell Yes Customer? Who do you really want? Who do you really work with?
Mark Mini [00:01:52]:
Yeah. So yeah, outdoor urban scaping is like a whole nother world. We're here at Elevate. Awesome industry, awesome event. Most of this is outdoor landscaping focus. I’ll go there. So not your typical outdoor landscaping company. So when we talk about urban scaping, it's like not a lot of turf. It's rooftops, it's living walls, green walls, pocket parks, you know, high design, high attention to detail projects.
Mark Mini [00:02:16]:
We do mostly commercial, we dabble in a little residential, but it's a little different Right? We don't have a lot of trucks rolling around. We got, like, lean crews with lean equipment in and out of buildings, skyscrapers, all that kind of stuff. This guy runs it all. I don't know. Anything else you want to add to that?
Matt Wessol [00:02:32]:
I would say we're the landscaping ninjas. I mean, we're maintaining plants where they're not supposed to grow, but we keep them happy, keep them thriving, and just. I'm privileged just to be able to do this. I really love what I do.
Jack Jostes [00:02:45]:
What do you love about it?
Matt Wessol [00:02:46]:
Before I started here, I was working in the logistics world. Just wasn't really happy. Didn't really have a good company culture. Didn't really feel like there was any sense of a team or camaraderie. And then I found this job. As a kid, I used to say, I want to drive a dump truck when I grow up. So I'm happy to say I was able to live that dream. But ever since I made that shift, I've just.
Matt Wessol [00:03:11]:
It's awakened this passion inside of me just to care for these plants and see how they affect the people.
Jack Jostes [00:03:20]:
How many clients do you take care of?
Matt Wessol [00:03:21]:
On the outdoor side, we're taking care of over 300 clients across the five boroughs.
03:32 - Hauling Plants Up 40 Floors?! The Challenges of NYC Landscaping
Jack Jostes [00:03:27]:
So you guys grow. I like what you said. You're landscape ninjas, and you grow plants where they're not supposed to grow. I can't imagine what it would be like to do a commercial landscape installation in a high rise building in New York. Tell me about, like. Or maybe we don't want to talk about it, but in my mind, I'm like, wow, that sounds like a permitting nightmare.
Mark Mini [00:03:50]:
No, it's difficult. I mean, like, just like, accessing spaces is like a whole different thing. So, you know, that. That, you know, funny phrase is because, you know, we have to be creative in how we access our sites. We can't just roll up with a bunch of trucks and vehicles with large crews, drive around. It's hard to get around the dense urban city of New York. Accessing sites, these are old buildings. Sometimes we'll have a rooftop garden.
Mark Mini [00:04:13]:
Right. And there's not even an elevator that goes all the way there. So maybe this service elevator brings you, you know, the 40th floor, and you gotta walk the staircase the last two flights just to get all your materials up there and the crew up there to maintain it. So it's just every project is very unique and distinctive in that sense. Just from an operational standpoint.
Jack Jostes [00:04:30]:
Yeah. So physically carrying material up two flights of Stairs would change things. Say, you know, driving into somebody's driveway and dumping things or being able to just haul stuff in.
04:40 - What Plants Actually Thrive in Rooftop Gardens?
Jack Jostes [00:04:40]:
So what kind of plant material? Like what, how does that, what are some of the materials and things that you end up using in those tight spaces where you're literally walking up flights of stairs? What are, what are some of your go to materials?
Matt Wessol [00:04:55]:
I mean, my go to are all my hand tools, my pruners, my soil knife, my folding saw, my hand trowel. Like Mark said, we don't have the luxury of pulling up to someone's driveway. You don't have a truck and trailer right outside your job site. Your truck is, if you're lucky, it's 40 floors below you, but maybe it's a couple blocks down the road. So you really got to carry a backpack with you everywhere. And that's your truck and trailer and all your tools to get the job done need to be in that pack so you can just get in and out and less disruptive to the client.
Jack Jostes [00:05:22]:
So describe to me a recent project that you've worked on. What does it look like? What kind of plants do you have? Are there boulders? I can't imagine you're hauling boulders up. Is it all container gardens? What it like, what, what does it look like? And then I want to, I'm going to go on your website and pull some photos later on. But like for people listening, tell us what it looks like.
Matt Wessol [00:05:41]:
I mean, not necessarily boulders. We do sometimes use feather rock, which is a lightweight rock, to give that stone harsh feel in the landscape. But I mean a wide variety of plantings, a lot of heavy native plantings in New York, stuff that's zone appropriate, appropriate for our region. And also a lot of pollinator friendly plants to help de-impact nature the least, I guess because landscaping as we know, can have adverse effects on the environment. So just trying to do everything we can to correct that, that's what you'll see.
06:13 - Thinking Outside the Truck: How Creativity Drives NYC Landscaping
Mark Mini [00:06:13]:
It's funny you bring up like boulders too, because, you know, sometimes like the constraints of the urban environment, like breed creativity. Like if there's a site in the city where somebody wants a large boulder or like a 20-foot tree, we'll have to do permits, we'll close streets, we'll crane things up. But that's not typical, right? We got to get creative and I say it's funny, bring a boulder. So we have like a fabrication team and obviously our trusted partners, many of them vendors, many of which are at this conference right now where we get creative. Like so, for example, We've created these like hollowed out rock structures. They're actually like, we'll go into nature, find a stone, like a real boulder in nature, in the forest, and we'll do like a precast concrete shape of that. But it'll be hollow, so we can like now. And sometimes it'll be even like cut in pieces.
Mark Mini [00:06:54]:
So we can like huff it up into these tight spaces, install it, backfill it with like planting medium or something that's going to give it some like structural integrity. So that's just an example of how you can get like super creative to deliver some of these ideas that you might want in a space like a large boulder.
07:09 - From Family Business to Industry Leader: How John Mini Evolved
Jack Jostes [00:07:09]:
What, what is the same about your business now from when you were a kid, when your dad started it, or he probably started it before you were alive, and then what. What's the most different about what you're doing with it now?
Mark Mini [00:07:21]:
Oh, man, that's a. I mean, it's over 50 years in business, so I mean everything starts with what they created in the beginning and like all the sweat equity he put into it. But he started as an indoor landscaping business, got pulled into commercial holiday decor. And our outdoor division is new maybe like 15 years ago. And then even since then we've evolved it into large landscape construction projects, a whole nother division as well as a fabrication division that does like custom metal and woodwork in house. So I don't know, it's evolved a lot over the years and like, that's kind of like our culture and MO is like to not be stagnant and always just kind of like evolve and meet our customers needs, where they're at and where they're going. Yeah.
08:00 - Where’s John Mini Expanding Next? (It’s a Secret!)
Jack Jostes [00:08:00]:
Where do you envision the company 10 years from now? Where do you. What do you want? Well, what do you have?
Mark Mini [00:08:05]:
Taken over the world, man. One urban scape at a time. We're going to. You like that one? We're going to keep growing.
Jack Jostes [00:08:15]:
Do you want to expand into other cities?
Mark Mini [00:08:17]:
Hell yeah, we're going to expand. First of all, New York's like our playground and there's so much growth to be had in that market. Anybody who works in that, in that area loves it. Pushes you from like a hustle standpoint, from a creative standpoint. And yeah, we're going to take that to new metropolitan areas in the future for sure.
Jack Jostes [00:08:34]:
Which one's next?
Mark Mini [00:08:36]:
Oh, I don't know, man. That's. That's secret. That's.
Jack Jostes [00:08:37]:
Oh, that's Secret. Okay. All right.
Mark Mini [00:08:39]:
I love you, but I can't tell you. I just know you.
Jack Jostes [00:08:42]:
All right. All right, well, we'll talk to you in a few years and we'll find out what it is. All right, how about that? What do you have to add to that?
Matt Wessol [00:08:48]:
I mean, John Mini to the moon. Like Mark said, we're taking over the world, and the moon's next.
08:52 - The John Mini Podcast: Sharing NYC’s Green Industry Insights
Jack Jostes [00:08:52]:
So one of the ways you guys are taking over the world is with a podcast. Tell me, what's the name of your podcast? Who do you talk to? Where can we find it?
Mark Mini [00:09:00]:
Oh, yeah, the John Mini Podcast. It's on all major platforms. So the John Mini Podcast explores the world of urban horticulture through the many amazing people who have made it their careers. So we'll sit down with our teammates, other people in the industry who can just educate. Right? And that's the premise of the podcast is really just to pay it forward. We believe, like, yo, we want to grow. We love, you know, our company, but we think when everyone in the industry shares knowledge and pushes themselves, like, the whole industry grows. And that's.
Mark Mini [00:09:26]:
I mean, it's part of why we're down here at Elevate. So we just want to pay it forward, share as much of our experiences, knowledge, as well as garner from other people and just keep growing the industry.
Jack Jostes [00:09:34]:
I like that about the industry. It's one of the reasons I love the landscape industry is it's a very generous industry with knowledge. People are always sharing ideas and proposals. Like, you can find whatever you need at these shows. So I'm curious, like, who's the audience of your podcast? Is it mainly other landscape professionals or is it customers?
Mark Mini [00:09:53]:
It's new. We're only like 14 episodes into it. Again, like, decent views, though. Like 400 or 500 views. I think an episode at this point, but I don't. I'm not sure yet. I'm still figuring that out. I think for sure, people in our industry, indoor and outdoor landscapers.
Mark Mini [00:10:12]:
I'm still figuring out if it's going to provide value to, like, the A and D community. So architects and design community. I think there's some viewership there. And then potentially our clients as well.
Jack Jostes [00:10:22]:
Well, one. One idea for you is to interview your customers, right? So then they'll. You can. And don't enter. It's not just a testimonial, but you interview them and then you have that episode to send people who are just like them. Or if you interview an architect, you have the architect episode to send to people. So you know, I've been doing my podcast for around five years, and. And it's growing organically, and I meet.
Jack Jostes [00:10:46]:
I meet people at this show. They're like, oh, good to put a face with the Voice. And I'm always, like, doing this at my house, making it, you know, like, you never know. And then you meet people in real life who are like, yeah, I'm listening to it. But that's something that works really well for me, is sending proactively sending episodes to people like, hey, it was good to meet you. Check out this part. Podcast. And next thing you know, they're driving for half an hour, and they've been listening to you and your customer, and they're like, huh, I think we should talk again.
Mark Mini [00:11:12]:
No, I appreciate that. It's invaluable advice and congrats on five years, man. That's awesome.
Jack Jostes [00:11:16]:
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that.
Jack Jostes [00:11:18]:
Yeah, I think it. I think it's been five years because I started it during COVID. Which. Which was five years ago. And I remember, I'm like, oh, should I do it or should I not do it? And I'm like, screw it, man. I'm going to do it. People need to hear good stuff, so.
Mark Mini [00:11:32]:
Hell, yeah. I love that.
11:33 - Connect with John Mini Distinctive Landscapes
Jack Jostes [00:11:33]:
Yeah. So where can we connect with you on social media and your website? If people listening want to network with you guys, how can we connect?
Mark Mini [00:11:40]:
I think simple as it sounds, start with the website johnmini.com I just think we have a slick website. Go to the portfolio page, you get like, a full, like, visual experience of all the type of beautiful work we do out there, and then all the major things like Instagram. LinkedIn is popular for the B2B.
Jack Jostes [00:11:55]:
And so that's John M I N I. And we'll put. We'll put a link to that in the show notes for everyone. And thanks so much for stopping by The Landscaper's Guide. Yeah, Appreciate it. Yeah. Cool. Good to meet you, Mark.
Jack Jostes [00:12:05]:
Matt. Thank you. Like today's video and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get upcoming videos to help you grow your snow and landscape company. My name's Jack Jostes, and check out my free resources in the show notes and click the next video to grow your business.
Show Notes:
📺 Watch the full episode + read the transcript: landscapersguide.com/podcast
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Learn more about John Mini Distinctive Landscapes:
🌍 Website: www.johnmini.com
🔗 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/john-mini-distinctive-landscapes
📸 Instagram: www.instagram.com/jmdlandscapes