Episode 16 - Blueprints of Grit: Transforming Trials into Triumphs with Matt Green

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's Libby with Fearlessness. What is Fearlessness? Well, it's the underlying

[00:00:07] grit as we have as entrepreneurs that really empowers us to forge ahead even when

[00:00:12] hope seems distant. It's the courage to walk through those fires of hell knowing

[00:00:17] that will come out better and stronger on the other side. Stay tuned and learn how to

[00:00:21] get Fearlessness. I'm your host Libby DeLucien and today we have a very special guest

[00:00:27] and I'm excited to talk to him about his rebrand journey, but why don't you tell us a

[00:00:30] little bit about yourself? Well my name is Matt Green. We started 20 as Greens

[00:00:35] lawn care, but you know we grew up, I grew up very poor, but that taught me a lot of

[00:00:41] things about life and you know like not having water on at the house, not having electricity

[00:00:47] on. You know like these types of things teach you a lot about life and that's really helped

[00:00:53] me in this journey of lawn care and entrepreneurship. But aside from business, I'm married and have

[00:01:01] two awesome daughters. One can't stop talking right now and one hasn't started talking

[00:01:07] yet so. Enjoy it right now because my daughter will not stop talking. I love that story

[00:01:16] about how you grew up as a kid, you grew up not super well off. So do you think that

[00:01:23] you're not going to spoil your daughters? You know, I was that it's so interesting. You

[00:01:28] know like things have happened in the last two days where like you either have this thought

[00:01:33] or a dream and like all of a sudden it's happening, you know. And I was thinking about that

[00:01:38] exact question. It was either yesterday on my walker because I walk a lot, I talked about

[00:01:44] seven miles a day and or was it, I don't know, but it was that exact same thing. You know

[00:01:50] like does the struggle make the person and would what I've been the same leader as I am today

[00:01:56] and business owner, not willing to give up if I didn't go through the struggle. You know,

[00:02:02] so do you like give your kids a great life? Or do you just live a mediocre life until they

[00:02:08] and let them learn it? And then once they get out on their own, then maybe you live this miraculous

[00:02:14] life, you know like maybe buy that dream house. Maybe drive by the dream car's like once they're

[00:02:20] out of the house or do you let them see it? You know, but if they don't struggle, they don't get

[00:02:26] that same drive that I got. You know, but there's a lot of people that are super successful that never

[00:02:31] struggled with their day in their life. You know, they were fed with the golden spoon and they're still

[00:02:37] successful. I don't know. I don't know what that common denominator is is what makes somebody truly

[00:02:42] successful. I know it drove me. Yeah, absolutely. I never wanted to be back in that situation again. So

[00:02:50] 100% agree because as a kid, we weren't well off and it drove me. But the other thing that it does

[00:02:56] too though is it doesn't make me scared of not having money, which I think is also a bad thing

[00:03:01] because you're like, Oh, I could do it again or I can be okay. Like if something happens instead of

[00:03:07] saying, no, I will not put up with it or I'll know like that's true too because I have those

[00:03:12] same exact feelings. I'm like, you know, some people's risk tolerance is really high. My

[00:03:17] wrist tolerance is pretty high. And some people are super conservative. You know, they're the,

[00:03:22] hey, save a penny, you know, person. And I'm just like, you know, and I'll give a shit because

[00:03:26] like I'll risk it all because I know I can grow it again. But that makes you make some bad decisions

[00:03:32] sometimes. Well, and I'm rereading the book, three sink and grow rich. Well, so I'm on this journey

[00:03:39] of like reading the chapters over and over and over. It's kind of not reading it to read it. I'm

[00:03:44] reading it to study it. Right. And so there's, it's like the last chapter in there. And it talks about

[00:03:52] how it's your mindset with money. But if you're okay with the thought of saying, Oh, I could just do

[00:04:00] it again. I'm okay. Like, I don't have to pay myself. I'll rather like put it into the company

[00:04:06] instead of saying I will never, I will not tolerate it. It changes that, that success factor to

[00:04:11] saying because it's our fallback plan subconsciously. Right. Not get that. But like, would I have at the

[00:04:17] same time that I made a decision to rebrand what I have done that if I wasn't risk tolerance? I know.

[00:04:25] So it's like I was going to the doll because I would talk to marketing people and they would say,

[00:04:31] look, man, I don't know what's going to happen next year. Nobody can no one knows what Google is

[00:04:36] going to do. You change your whole brain. You change your whole name. Maybe you're not even on the

[00:04:39] first page of Google anymore. Like maybe you're not any of this stuff. And I was like, I don't give a

[00:04:43] shit like let's do this. Yeah. I'm all in. You know, and if it happens, it happens if it doesn't

[00:04:49] then, you know, like we have contingency plans. Like that's why we're doing TV. We're doing radio.

[00:04:54] We're doing a lot of billboards this year. Like what if we don't, what if we do this rebrand and

[00:04:59] we drop off the first page of Google? Yeah. Typically I would never do billboards. I would never do

[00:05:05] radio and I'll never do TV. But like what happens? What if you know, and it's funny because we are

[00:05:12] we are risk junkies. I just interviewed Marvin, Solcito on the podcast for that. We were talking about

[00:05:17] risk and I told him I was going to put him through an intervention of bank companies of acquisitions.

[00:05:25] And yeah. And there's a part of us that do it for the thrill of it. Like it makes us feel alive.

[00:05:31] Right? Or excited or like the unknown makes us like what is that fearlessness? It's like we have

[00:05:37] no idea what the other side looks like, but we're okay going through it. Yeah. 100%. And sometimes

[00:05:41] that makes you frustrated with people that work with you that don't understand. I don't have

[00:05:47] that risk tolerance. You know, like hey, just go do this and they're like too scared to do it.

[00:05:52] And you've been through this so many times. It's not the big deal. Just go do it, but

[00:05:58] it is a big deal to them. Like they don't have that same mindset. You know? Absolutely.

[00:06:03] So I want to ask you a few questions about rebrand. Yeah. Right? This is an entrepreneur podcast,

[00:06:09] the journey like the rebrand. What do you think was the number one mistake you made in deciding

[00:06:15] to rebrand? Like what did you not think through or what was harder than you thought?

[00:06:21] Well, we never considered the so the timeline was there originally, but we never

[00:06:28] understood. We never considered delays in the original like branding getting done,

[00:06:35] causing delays all the way down the road. And so now I never considered like not having

[00:06:41] this stuff done in time for it to roll out to the market and to our customer base to letting

[00:06:48] them know, but we had an early spring this year like it is abnormally warm right now. And we've

[00:06:54] been out taking care of properties and we're still taking care of properties under our previous

[00:06:59] branded vehicles. And like because typically spring doesn't come this early for us. And so

[00:07:06] the website's not even done yet. And so we were hoping to have all this stuff done so then we

[00:07:11] can push into the market and all the trucks were already wrapped.

[00:07:15] Correctly, the roadside was done. And so everybody knows this stuff. Like that was, I mean there's

[00:07:20] a lot of things I've never done a rebrand. So a lot of stuff that I've learned. But those were some

[00:07:26] big things. We get a lot of calls right now. It's like hey is this still the same company that

[00:07:30] it used to be? And we have to explain to them yes. But how many people like know our name because

[00:07:36] we built a really, really good brand. We have hundreds and hundreds of Google reviews across different

[00:07:43] locations on Google. So we have this reputation and people talk about GreensLineCare on next door

[00:07:50] and on Facebook groups just organically. But then they come and they type in GreensLineCare

[00:07:56] and Blue.com's up and they're just like really confused. You know so we should have done more

[00:08:02] pushing out into the market of this name change and doing some PR stuff. And you know but it's

[00:08:09] too right now I feel like we're already here. So why did you decide to rebrand? So tell everybody

[00:08:15] what your old brand name was and what the new one is. And why did you decide to rebrand?

[00:08:22] And then I'm going to ask you why you went with the Blue Duck. I like I already know the story

[00:08:25] but I want you to share it. Yeah so we were GreensLineCare property services and that's what we started

[00:08:31] as. And so when I first started, we started in 2017 so this was going in our eight-year

[00:08:39] we're starting our eighth year and so we've been GreensLineCare for seven years now

[00:08:44] and built a really good reputation but I didn't understand anything about business when I started

[00:08:49] this like it's a known story that I've told when I started I didn't even know what cogs were

[00:08:54] I'd never even heard of the name cost of goods sold I'd never heard about that term when I started

[00:09:00] in business you know and but it was just out of that like not knowing better you just got to

[00:09:07] jump in you know it's one of those risks things you know just got to jump in first. And so I wrote

[00:09:13] down on a piece of paper all these different names like 30 different names and we were sitting

[00:09:18] in a bar one night with some friends and we like everyone circled the name that they liked to

[00:09:24] and it happened to be GreensLineCare property services but then you know you go to this

[00:09:30] now you got to build a website well you don't want it to be GreensLineCare property services.com

[00:09:34] because no one's going to type that in and everyone's going to absolutely hate sending you an email

[00:09:39] because they got to type at and then five minutes later they're done with the email address

[00:09:45] you know so I never considered these things and so we started this now to do it again I probably

[00:09:50] would have changed chose a better name from the get co but there's probably 50 other GreensLineCare

[00:09:58] or GreensSumpans in our market space. Oh really? Yeah GreenVista GreenScapes Green Image Green you

[00:10:05] know like all green all there's like least 50 different companies in our area but your last name

[00:10:11] is actually Green so hey yeah tell them to back up. We're the only ones that you love the end of

[00:10:15] Greens but yeah I told them at one point I was just going to pop their tires and they don't listen

[00:10:21] to that so my owes of empty grip must they change the rename but you know going to that we spent

[00:10:28] an insane amount of money last year in marketing. We spent 15% of our P&L and nobody would ever

[00:10:35] recommend that I'm not recommending that again but we spent 15% of our P&L on marketing last year

[00:10:40] massive amount of money and when I started engaging this branding professional branding company they

[00:10:48] said that we were only getting 60 to 70% ROI on all that money that we're spending because people

[00:10:56] might remember it when they see a lawn sign or whatever Greens Green Landscaping GreenModka like they

[00:11:02] might remember that amount of it and then we just pissed that money away I gave it to somebody else

[00:11:08] you know whoever came up that day on Google first now we dominate Google we'd have like

[00:11:13] we rank really well so that's a good thing for us but at the same point it's like man wouldn't

[00:11:19] it be awesome to control all of that marketing spend and actually going to return on it I mean our

[00:11:26] cost-pro acquisition last year was insanely high for a lawn care company.

[00:11:31] Yeah because you're giving it or you're exposing it to everyone else who has the name green

[00:11:36] in there so we were getting it in there.

[00:11:39] So I want all the house cleaning and cleaning companies to hear that right if you have

[00:11:45] if every one of you have the same word cleaning or maids in your name you're sharing that market space.

[00:11:51] Yeah yeah and that's why we're going to be knowing as Blue Duck Town so that's the new brand Blue

[00:11:56] Duck ClawnCare and so it's in the process of getting trademarked and copyrighted so there will be

[00:12:03] no other Blue Duck ClawnCare in the United States and so now when we market that we are going to be

[00:12:09] the only Blue Duck. I think when when we were searching for domains there's another Blue Duck but

[00:12:14] they're an airline Blue like go Blue Duck is some regional airline that I've never even heard of

[00:12:23] and I think there was like one other Blue Duck something had nothing to do with our space so

[00:12:29] it's going to be great and we that's a great brand. It's going to be very well known.

[00:12:34] So I just trademarked it's in the final steps, organized it for service it for the service industry

[00:12:40] because no one has done that yet oddly enough so we do tight you know organizing and cleaning but

[00:12:45] because it's not a common name of what we call cleaning companies and we do organizing

[00:12:51] I was able to trademark the term so watch out. It makes total sense and I love that the name of my

[00:12:57] business is different because it doesn't it stands out and so it's like when you call the office

[00:13:02] it's like how can we tidy your day you know tidy and clean and organized it kind of all go inside

[00:13:08] well it's one of those things that makes people think like did I really just hear that you know

[00:13:12] when they say Blue Duck ClawnCare you're like what? Like that doesn't even make sense. Like there's

[00:13:19] no such thing as a Blue Duck and what does a Blue Duck have to do with like making my lawnlake break?

[00:13:25] You know so it's just one of those like oxymoron type things that makes people think and you

[00:13:30] know at the end of the day that's what you pay a branding company like lots and lots of money

[00:13:35] to come up with these brands I mean it's because they're great at that kind of stuff.

[00:13:39] Oh yeah I know who you like I know who you used in it's lots of money but they're very good.

[00:13:44] Yeah yeah so that was uh that was a risky business decision over the winter time

[00:13:50] because what you pay him is only a small part of what it really costs to like we're we're

[00:13:56] working with you guys today uh with WooRooCrewn on having to rebrand all of WooRoo now.

[00:14:02] Oh yeah you have to rebrand all your sites your funnels your your links.

[00:14:09] All the videos we made specific for WooRooCrewn for you guys to put on that like landing

[00:14:13] page thing we got to make all those again we got to make all everything all over again and you need

[00:14:18] a new damn shirt because you keep you can't make a video with that shirt on.

[00:14:22] I know exactly so now we're it's even longer but I didn't even think about the you know

[00:14:27] I'm sure you guys think about this but I didn't even think about WooRooCrewn when we're going

[00:14:31] through this rebranding thing like oh shit we're gonna have to do this and all these videos

[00:14:35] you know like never didn't crop in the mind I thought about like the stationary you know

[00:14:42] the things that we're gonna do the trade show like that stuff was like yeah we're gonna have

[00:14:46] to change all this but eventually as you go you start seeing all these other things that are

[00:14:51] just left out that add up you know oh 100% so why did you choose Blue Duck?

[00:14:58] So I had a very similar story to a famous uh movie that's out there and when I was uh in

[00:15:06] elementary school I I vividly remember I don't remember the teacher's name but I remember

[00:15:11] the clock I could go back to the school and take you right back to the classroom

[00:15:15] as we she we had a draw in the lines you know when you were a kid you were learning to have

[00:15:18] drawing the lines of shapes and stuff and not draw it color outside and so she made a you know drew

[00:15:25] a duck on a paper and I drew a blue and everyone else drew a yellow duck and it's like well I'm

[00:15:33] never really seen a yellow duck either but I got enough on it because she said there's no such thing

[00:15:37] as a blue duck and you know funny thing is there is such thing as a blue duck you can buy a Swedish

[00:15:43] blue duck on mine and almost are you gonna buy some?

[00:15:48] so the office should buy one for like you're gonna have an office pet

[00:15:53] you know our at least says we actually have three dogs in the office and some of our teammates

[00:15:58] bring him but we're not supposed to have dogs but there's nothing in the least that says we can't

[00:16:02] have ducks there you go so maybe we'll have some ducks walking around I don't know that'd be pretty

[00:16:07] funny I think you should buy at least one blue duck

[00:16:10] and we made this blue duck and it's super memorable it sits like six foot tall on the side of our

[00:16:15] veins and so whenever our team is out working they partner next to the house and kids absolutely love

[00:16:22] it and then we also like we printed these things if these are our old ones but these are like little

[00:16:26] stickers kids lovely like my daughter absolutely loves these types of things and so our teammates

[00:16:34] are our team will give these out to kids you know like the other dogs you told me about

[00:16:41] yeah we have I don't have one on my desk here but we have like these little rubber duckies that

[00:16:46] kids can put in like my daughter has these ducks that when she's taking a bath she like plays with all

[00:16:52] these little rubber duckies and you know so we give those out you know and so it's super memorable

[00:16:58] and it sits on the side of the truck and so that's why we love it you know because parents are

[00:17:02] gonna do like parents spend an ungodly amount of money on their kids you know you know if like if

[00:17:08] we can touch into that you know like we give good results but we also make their kids happy you

[00:17:13] know like that seems like a no-brainer yeah absolutely you know so um we'll put some of the information

[00:17:22] so that you can find Matt and blue duck lawn care um in the show notes but you know as far as

[00:17:28] your entrepreneur journey all the things that you've been through the rebrand what would you say

[00:17:33] that you would tell the younger version of yourself like if you had any of this to do over again

[00:17:39] what's the what's the advice you or maybe the advice you get you're gonna give your daughters

[00:17:43] uh if they want to start a business you know I I struggle with this because I don't know if I

[00:17:48] would give them really business advice like you may you probably do know this right now just from

[00:17:53] following me on Facebook but I'm in this health journey again you know and so I'm losing a ton of

[00:17:59] weight I've already lost almost 45 pounds my goal is a lot bigger than that well over a hundred pounds

[00:18:05] so I was in incredible shape coming out of college I was a one of the three finalists to make

[00:18:12] inside cover of minstitentist magazine like I wasn't really really good shape we might have to

[00:18:17] see those pictures Matt I wasn't I wasn't like bodybuilder but I had lost a ton of weight so it was

[00:18:23] like there was a story on this way lost I had lost 130 pounds in 13 months and um so it was a story

[00:18:31] on those type of inspirational journeys so I had lost all this weight before and then I started

[00:18:36] this business I got out of the field I'm sitting in the office and you know the early days of

[00:18:42] starting a business it's now no such nine to five you know it's a hundred and 130 how many

[00:18:48] ever hours you can stay awake that's what you're working at the beginning because you're running

[00:18:52] every single estimate you're doing all the jobs you're doing you know all the computer work you're

[00:18:56] dealing with the taxes you know everything it's you and then eventually you get some people that

[00:19:01] help you but then I start sitting at this chair and I went from 185 pounds to backup past where

[00:19:09] I was in college to 369 and a half pounds so in November I was over 369 pounds and so now I'm on

[00:19:18] this weight loss kick going back but it got to a point where I almost needed a nap in the middle of

[00:19:25] the day just to stay awake that's how much energy I was using just trying to think and I couldn't

[00:19:31] even stay awake it's like how can you make great decisions you know because every decision that

[00:19:37] a leader makes it's not just a it's not it's no longer about you anymore it's no longer a small

[00:19:43] decision every decision you make affects every other person in every other family every other child

[00:19:50] within that family that you're responsible for now and I couldn't even stay awake for a whole day

[00:19:56] before I needed an app and I was like how the world can I make a decision for you know a team members

[00:20:05] child you know because every everything affects them at some way his pay we make a bad decision

[00:20:10] like it affects that person so like how can I make great decisions if I can't even stay awake for

[00:20:16] a whole day almost and so then I started this journey of like losing weight again like getting all

[00:20:22] this energy so I have more mental clarity and I hope just from other people seeing it I don't post

[00:20:28] a whole lot about it on social media but I hope just it changes somebody's life and then maybe

[00:20:35] my daughters will see it you know them they will want to spend more time you know being outside

[00:20:41] and I granted their my oldest ones three and a half years old like she's probably not going to

[00:20:46] remember it anyways but you know maybe she will maybe she'll start wanting to be more active as

[00:20:52] I mean she's super active right now but maybe it'll make those little changes in her life too

[00:20:57] and so maybe she won't go down the same rabbit hole I do because I've been it now this is going to be

[00:21:02] hard my second time I don't I don't want to have to lose over a hundred pounds ever get in my life

[00:21:06] it sucks yeah it's a lot of work I think one of the hardest things like you said is we're in the field

[00:21:13] we're doing it then we get stuck in a chair and I when I first started being stuck in that chair

[00:21:20] my brain and my feelings were like my god I'd rather go organize a house or scrub a toilet then

[00:21:25] sit in this chair for another six or eight hours I gained oh go ahead you were really good at this

[00:21:29] I think you talked about this early on this is something that you did that uh you were definitely

[00:21:36] I believe this is accurate way ahead of your time in that you know when you first get that first

[00:21:42] person you just having like sit right here they're your buddy you they watch everything and then

[00:21:47] you're like okay go do that and then they can do this for a little bit but as you know for

[00:21:52] men and a recruiting company the average person stays I don't know who knows the status anymore but

[00:21:57] like with three to five years they might stay at a company before they move on so you might have

[00:22:02] three years of time with that person and then you have to go and that's if you're lucky and the

[00:22:08] most times the first people you hire they might last two months or maybe you know like many times

[00:22:15] of turn and so you're like constantly training these people and training these people as opposed to

[00:22:22] what if you just documented it from the beginning and I think you mentioned that you documented stuff

[00:22:27] like really early on yes it's like okay here's a video here's a document or an SOP this is how you do

[00:22:33] it you know go go run with it you know now we finally learned all right maybe we should start doing

[00:22:39] that oh so I will say that's my jam that's probably my superpower is the way we document stuff

[00:22:46] but when I started sitting in that chair for six or eight hours I got myself out of the field it

[00:22:50] was like a whole different misery of sitting there and then I think I had gained like 50 pounds I

[00:22:57] have now lost it because you know I was lucky enough to have mentors around us well we had the same

[00:23:03] mentor for a little while being an essay academy with Jonathan he was always into fitness I think

[00:23:08] he's gonna live forever so he wants to live forever so he says yeah but then you know I had another

[00:23:15] another mentor and he was is like you know your health and your your marriage comes first

[00:23:19] because without those things he's like if you think running a business is expensive or a failing

[00:23:24] business try getting a divorce is his statement but then he has the statements it's like belt buckles

[00:23:33] in bank accounts one must go up for the other to one must go down for the other to go up right

[00:23:40] the camp both go up and so it's his face he's like he's always on stage saying bank bank account but

[00:23:44] that belt buckles and bank accounts and so he's always into fitness and it's gotten to the point

[00:23:50] where he barely teaches us now about business because he's teaching us about health mental health

[00:23:55] and physical health because we can't make decisions we can't operate at our peak or prime

[00:24:02] if we're not physically and mentally healthy you know they're at the end of the academy

[00:24:07] well that's exactly it's the very interesting you just said that I think I know if you're talking

[00:24:13] about but with JP this same thing like they're near the end it stopped being more about all the business

[00:24:20] stuff and started being more about the health stuff and you know a lot of people go get these coaches

[00:24:27] and now for me I need to coach just for accountability like I'll put that out there but most of us

[00:24:34] for the most part I mean there's some things that you don't know but for the most part you've been

[00:24:38] around long enough you know how to grow your business you know everything that you need to do

[00:24:43] for the most part you don't really need that coach you know but you need them to keep you accountable

[00:24:52] and I wonder if that's why they stopped talking as much about business because you already know

[00:24:55] that stuff you know like you already know what you need to do but what about the health stuff like

[00:25:01] did they see in their community like man there's all these people that aren't focusing on that I

[00:25:05] need a shift you know my message to this community that listens to me and has I have influence

[00:25:10] over to start thinking about these things because what if you what if you got to a place where you had

[00:25:16] 10 million 50 million hundred doesn't even matter at that point millions of dollars in the bank or

[00:25:20] you're that's your net worth but you're like so overweight that she can't ever do anything with it

[00:25:26] you can't enjoy going you know on a cruise or a hike or you just want to sit in your house and

[00:25:32] just you know like what's the point of having all this if you can never use it but I also think that

[00:25:39] statistically it's gonna be really hard to get to that much money if you are that overweight

[00:25:42] because you cannot operate you cannot make clear decisions and that's why they say like they

[00:25:46] don't coincide yeah or one must go up for the other to go down because I don't you know it would

[00:25:51] be really hard to be a high functioning CEO if that was the case yeah and I think Jeff Bezos he

[00:25:58] said you only get like three decisions I believe he said one time I was listening to a podcast he

[00:26:04] was on he said you only get three decisions a day like really high level decisions I mean you're

[00:26:09] gonna make a lot of other decisions but your brain can really focus on three high level decisions

[00:26:17] and that's if you're healthy and like you have mental clarity and he's dealing with problems

[00:26:21] that are like way better like we can't even fathom probably you know and so but what if

[00:26:27] what if you only have those three but what if you're like super unhealthy and now you only get like

[00:26:32] one decision a day like in that it's gonna slow the growth of your business down like he doesn't even

[00:26:40] I heard him to also say on top of that you get three decisions but he will never talk first

[00:26:45] in any meeting he was always the last person to talk because he has too much influence in his

[00:26:51] business if he talks first most people also they won't tell the truth of what they're really thinking

[00:26:57] because they don't want to go against him so if he says something everyone's gonna move their

[00:27:03] decision of what they were going to say and it Amazon would never have been what it was essentially

[00:27:08] have you ever read the book his autobiography no he's a crazy dude man I mean

[00:27:15] he's great it was an interesting biography because it you know some of the things and the ways that

[00:27:19] they came up with like the Alexa and and some of the very innovative things that they they've come

[00:27:24] up with he has a strategy for it it's not very nice I'll have to get it so I have to listen to it

[00:27:31] so he has a strategy it's pretty much where they lock themselves somewhere and they cannot come out

[00:27:35] until they have thought of it so it's like he forces the innovation he forces but but they they

[00:27:43] lock themselves in a room and I think in the biography they talk about they even spent a Christmas

[00:27:47] locked in the room because they hadn't gotten to it yet oh god yeah well you know I don't feel

[00:27:53] bad for maulk is there I bet everybody who was locked in a room makes well over half a million

[00:27:57] dollars a year so they they brought it on themselves taking that level job absolutely so you know when

[00:28:05] I said what was the advice you give your younger self or your daughters you know is it going to be

[00:28:10] more around health and yeah then business it's gonna be I also there's two things health

[00:28:21] and follow follow your dreams follow your passions and because you know this was a passion of mine by

[00:28:27] growing a business like that was a dream of mine a passion of mine but most people if you just want

[00:28:33] to go out and start a business but you're not really passionate about it or what you're doing

[00:28:37] you're never going to be able to survive all of the shit that comes at you and the sleepless nights

[00:28:43] and how are you gonna make payroll this week like you're never gonna survive that you'll just

[00:28:50] you know my football coach I never you know you never understand people's wisdom in the time

[00:28:57] you typically understand somebody's wisdom you know 10 20 30 years you know past when they

[00:29:02] actually told to you and he always told me to follow your passion follow your dreams and the

[00:29:07] money will follow it and that's how I was like yeah I don't know like we were I was mowing yards

[00:29:13] at that time like I actually enjoy mowing most people probably don't but I enjoyed it I enjoy doing

[00:29:19] what I do and through school everybody was saying like if you don't go to college like you're a loser

[00:29:25] like you got to go to college I mean that was what was brainwashed into us and I don't think that

[00:29:31] they're that negligent anymore of telling every student that you know you know go to college or a

[00:29:35] loser but that's what we were told so I go to college don't use an event I end up back in the

[00:29:41] thing that I was passionate about back then to making money and giving back to people and finding

[00:29:49] that true why in your life and if you can find that and you like you would do that whatever you

[00:29:56] could do if you would do it for free like the money will always follow it you know like there will

[00:30:02] be some way that you can monetize that and then you will nothing can stop you at that point like

[00:30:08] I've been trying my brother loves to hike and I was like and he's always lived off the grid kind of

[00:30:13] thing I was like why don't you just like document like you hike in the Appalachian Trail or like

[00:30:19] you know you could write a blog about this you could document it you could like help other people

[00:30:24] you know this could be their life goal like you could help take people there I was like that would be

[00:30:30] a business that you could do that you could survive on and you would absolutely love it it was like

[00:30:35] you would never work a day in your life absolutely no I love that because I think motivation

[00:30:42] but motivation is short it isn't like it's it's short lived it burns it if it's out after a while

[00:30:48] where you have to have that passion like you said and I've been there where like I don't know how

[00:30:53] I'm gonna make payroll or I'm not gonna pay myself this week and that's not for everybody

[00:31:00] that's not the why that's what keeps you going and you know I don't know about you with your wife

[00:31:06] but like Chris watches me especially at the beginning going through stuff and not not can't really

[00:31:11] like he supports me 100% but he doesn't understand how I can deal with the stress and it doesn't

[00:31:16] eat me alive from the inside out because it's not for everything oh same no yeah same here

[00:31:26] but I got to manage any like personal finance like my wife does all the personal finance and

[00:31:32] I do the business stuff and like if she ever asked me like she could look at I have no like she

[00:31:40] could look at the business finance so I could care less but I don't think that she she couldn't handle

[00:31:46] the day-to-day like flows and like all the cash flows that like it would drive for us it would

[00:31:52] yeah it would just cause so much money you know absolutely and it's not a back at her you know it's

[00:31:58] just like not everybody can deal with it you know I'm like I'm a quick start kind of like I can move

[00:32:05] and groove like really easy most a lot of people can't do that I want to ask you about you said giving

[00:32:11] back and so I want you to share a little bit about how you give back I love what you're doing

[00:32:15] but I want you to share it with the listeners and you know how did it get started and what exactly

[00:32:21] is it so I'm the president of the board of this nonprofit called the Law and More Project

[00:32:26] and so Gary and myself kind of came up with this project together but it came up out of COVID

[00:32:33] and so he was bored he he works restaurant jobs typically is what he's been doing most of his life he's

[00:32:40] done some other things in there but as you know and during COVID like well all the restaurant shut

[00:32:46] down at least for a good period of time so he didn't have anything to do and so he's trying to

[00:32:51] down the street one day and he sees this person they look like left out a lawnmower on the side of

[00:32:55] the road and so he has he's like I'm bored I have nothing to do I'll pick it up I'll go see if

[00:33:01] I can fix it he jumped on YouTube and he made it work any calls or OG so he and he still has a

[00:33:07] smear he puts it on display at his shop now and so he still has OG and but he fixed it up he watched

[00:33:14] a YouTube video fixed it up and he was like interesting I wonder how many people throw a lawnmower away

[00:33:21] even though all it typically needs is like a very easy carburetor clean which might take you

[00:33:26] five minutes that a normal person doesn't know that's they go and spend three four hundred dollars

[00:33:32] on a brand new one when they could have just fixed it so as he's driving around he finds these

[00:33:37] motors and he would pick him up and then he would fix him and then I would see him put him on Facebook

[00:33:42] hey anybody know of somebody in need or an elderly person something like this that they can't afford

[00:33:51] to buy a new motor I'll just it's free I'll just drop it off so he started doing he did like 10

[00:33:55] of these things and so I messaged him was like area like this could be super awesome let's go get lunch

[00:34:03] and so few months later we went and we have lunch and I showed him this master plan of like what if

[00:34:09] we like teach youth that want to be entrepreneurs how to build a business through low and grass

[00:34:18] and he was like okay tell me more so we we go and meet with kids like he has made connections with

[00:34:25] local schools so we talk to alternate kids and alternative classrooms so the people who

[00:34:31] aren't the ones that are going to listen to the teacher and sit down and shut up that's what I

[00:34:35] call them they're not the kids that are just gonna sit down and shut up and listen you know memorize

[00:34:39] the bike that's most of the entrepreneurs in the world these are the be to their own drum and when

[00:34:44] we go and talk to him I said maybe not this classroom but the next person changes the world is

[00:34:49] sitting in a classroom just like this somewhere in the country you know most of the entrepreneurs

[00:34:55] are going to come out of this room because they don't fit in this box they're gonna be to their

[00:34:59] own drum they're gonna make it happen and so we go and we meet with these classrooms we usually

[00:35:05] talk in my kind of seven different classrooms maybe in the springtime we recruit these kids they

[00:35:11] have to fill out a job application essentially to make a video why they want to do this and then

[00:35:17] we teach them how to run a little business we give them a mower as far as like these are mowers

[00:35:23] that have been donated Gary fixes them up we give it to them we teach them marketing we teach

[00:35:27] them sales we teach them counting we teach them all these different things and we've gone out and I

[00:35:33] have a lot of connections and so I will go out like our mentor I had him create a he created like an

[00:35:42] hour long training on marketing for free and we get like so we've gotten those level of people people

[00:35:49] who are experts in their industry to talk about marketing finance budgets all this stuff and then

[00:35:56] we serve it to them these kids on a not a dumb to down level but a a level that they can understand I

[00:36:03] mean you're talking about like 13 14 15 year olds you know and so it's got to be at a level or

[00:36:09] they can understand and so they start learning business and there's a guy that's on the board and

[00:36:15] he has a 300 million dollar engineering company like they do like nuclear engineering now like

[00:36:21] crazy stuff but he associates his insane company with pushing a lawnmower on it was 15 years old

[00:36:31] and so we tell him like hey just because we're teaching you through lawn care that doesn't mean

[00:36:38] that you have to do on color rest your life business principles or business principles if you

[00:36:42] want to be a welder you want to be a beautician you want to be a cleaner you want to whatever you

[00:36:46] want to do you can take these basic principles and you can start your own business when you you know

[00:36:52] get a little bit older and so we typically take under 10 kids a year because after you get too many

[00:37:00] kids it's really hard to manage them and like actually make it meaningful and yeah all that kind of

[00:37:05] stuff um that's what the lawnmower project is I love it I think it's amazing I wanted to do

[00:37:12] something like that with house cleaning because this supply costs are so low but you could teach

[00:37:16] them the business part of it but I have a question because this is what a lot of people probably

[00:37:22] thinking in their head you're creating competitors in your own area essentially yeah they may be

[00:37:29] 14 or 15 years old but when when so a lot of business owners struggle with this fear it's fear of

[00:37:37] like criticism fear of competition like um does that bother you whatsoever yeah do you think

[00:37:43] Michael Jordan ever got to be Michael Jordan without amazing competition around them heck no

[00:37:48] so like we're never going to be anything if we try to eliminate the competition my competition

[00:37:53] just makes us a better person a better entrepreneur it makes your skills better but no like

[00:38:00] we are not competing with these kids at all absolutely not our customer and their customer

[00:38:06] totally different um we've actually had people call in yeah like I started that way like

[00:38:12] we were by poor poor growing up like I started mowing lawns with my two brothers and my mom

[00:38:17] when i was nine years old just to afford you know food on the table and pay the electricity bill

[00:38:23] like I understand the hustle and the grind and like we used to get people when we mowed lawns

[00:38:31] if they would ask hey should we hire you or should we hire the kid down the street and I'm like

[00:38:35] I'm removing my proposal from this like I don't want to compete with that kid give him your money

[00:38:41] he needs he needs that life left and way more than I need your money

[00:38:45] like I would love to help you but now that you said that there is a kid that could learn a valuable

[00:38:51] now you know valuable lesson in I mean when they're that young like that's when they're making

[00:38:57] all these changes and they're just a sponge and they need to learn these life by pleasant

[00:39:02] I'm like I don't want your money anymore and not a chance give it to that kid

[00:39:07] and if he has any questions have them call me and I'll help him out as much as he wants

[00:39:11] yeah I think that's great I did uh and I think there's a place for everybody for everything

[00:39:17] I just did a youtube video for organize it on like why is someone 85 dollars and I'm two

[00:39:22] yeah but there's also a place in life because we I started that way too I was the 85 dollar cleaner

[00:39:26] but as we grow up and as the customer changes their needs change and that's when companies

[00:39:34] are a better fit versus the solo prer knewer or the kid around the corner um because we have more

[00:39:39] to protect and we have more liability now and more assets versus you know maybe that's all they

[00:39:45] can afford is the eighty five dollar cleaner and they just need help and I appreciate that person

[00:39:51] because there's a place for everybody in every type of company yeah and

[00:39:56] not everybody is as blessed as I am like I'm in Indiana or Indianapolis

[00:40:01] and the whole like metro area we have like I think the last stat was like 2.6 or 2.9 million people

[00:40:10] so like you don't need like there's so many people so many households like it's insane you know

[00:40:18] like so the biggest lawn care company in Indian Indianapolis it's local or was local as a last year

[00:40:24] are they sold but they have like 20 or 30,000 accounts and they were huge like in our area

[00:40:31] massed the biggest local company in central indiana and they only had 20 or 30,000 accounts out of

[00:40:37] 2.9 million people so the sea is so big that it really doesn't matter I mean people are the people

[00:40:46] that buy from you are buying you you know so I make yourself a better person a better company and

[00:40:51] they're going to buy from you I think I've gained this reputation which is really interesting in

[00:40:55] in our area a lot of people ask me questions like they'll message me and I don't even know some

[00:40:59] of these people and I'm happy to meet with them I just some guy called me out of the blue

[00:41:06] and he asked me about vol control and vol control at a house and he the customer wanted to hire him

[00:41:12] like he already had the account and he was just wanted to do this he had no idea how to do it

[00:41:17] and I was like yeah sure I'll meet you over there like one o'clock this was last week so I met

[00:41:22] when over there met with him and the customer sold the job for him to want him how to do the thing

[00:41:28] and the customer thought that I was the business house like now I'm this is I've never met this guy

[00:41:33] I never talked to him I was like no it's just my buddy I'm helping him out and it's like you know

[00:41:39] how cool is that to me that is to me that that fills my cup it's helping other people that's awesome

[00:41:44] like my previous job as a teacher so I helping people just fills my cup well I love the help

[00:41:52] because it's you know we have to continue to give to receive and then I love your your stance

[00:41:59] against competition so I come from sports and you know my coach always said you play to the level

[00:42:05] of your competition right so if we keep upping and helping our competition we're they're going to

[00:42:12] up level ourselves at the same time yeah now I was a competitive athlete too like I had to

[00:42:17] division one college football scholarship blew my back out lost it but like I was super competitive

[00:42:23] yeah I'm like when I was playing sports back then it was I was very cutthroat but it's like

[00:42:29] you know I have a lot of need of my needs met right now you know so helping other people is

[00:42:35] just like that next thing you know another more money you know put another million dollars

[00:42:41] of my bank house not gonna make me any happier guaranteed well yeah well all my needs to

[00:42:47] totally know it was great having you on the show before we wrap up is there any big things

[00:42:55] in the works happening I mean you did the rebrand anything else no no no right now I'm just trying

[00:43:00] to get focused again I am sitting in the sales manager position this year um fine we're managing that

[00:43:09] I just want to get through this rebrand get on and start leading this team down no um

[00:43:18] because sales season isn't going to be here very fast so I just want to eliminate all the rest

[00:43:23] of the distractions so we can get very blazer focused well that sounds great I want to thank you

[00:43:29] for being a guest on the Fearlessness podcast and if you guys want to hear more episodes you can

[00:43:35] find them at libbyd.com or the fearlessness.com and so that's a wrap for today's journey into

[00:43:41] the heart of Fearlessness remember every step we take is a move towards our own strength and courage

[00:43:48] keep walking through those fires because on the other side lies a version of ourselves

[00:43:52] that's unstoppable until next time stay brave stay bold and keep pushing forward