Jason Craven has built a mega-successful company (Southern Botanical) in the heart of Texas. At 12 years old, he started mowing lawns to earn money for a new bicycle. In 1995, he turned this endeavor into a company that includes 280+ team members who share the same devotion to quality that the company was founded on.

Jason is unique in his inspiring vision for the green industry, his dedication to the long game, his passion for constant improvement, and for the level of service he demands and trains his team to achieve.

Jeffrey and Jason discuss how ambition and drive can build a company but also how they can get in the way of its continued success. Jason shares many inside secrets and tactics they have implemented on his way to building a Destination Company®.

Learn how Southern Botanical has done extremely well during the pandemic based on their culture and focus to employees and clients.

Listen in below.

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Paul Reder is the President, CFO, and Marketing Manager of Reder Landscaping.

He owns this business along with his two brothers, Dave and Mike. He started working for the business as a teenager back in the seventies, mowing lawns and working the nursery. The big lesson they all learned from their dad, Walt Reder Sr., was to never cut any corners. That work ethic has made the difference and allowed them to keep growing and succeeding during challenging times over the years.

Reder Landscaping today is made up of 60% D/B and 40% maintenance and snow. Jeffrey and Paul discuss how he has been able to grow his sales team, and thus his company, and diversify their business mix by growing maintenance and enhancement sales. They employ up to 80 people during peak season and have a huge depth of talent.

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Dr. Charlie Hall is THE top economist in the Green Industry. He is a passionate speaker on all things green (money and plants).

In this podcast, we discuss economic trends, the future of landscaping, the impact of the elections and the under utilized benefits of landscaping in marketing.

Having grown up in the industry, on a nursery in Western North Carolina, Dr. Hall is a professor in the Department of Horticultural Science at Texas A&M University. He has degrees in landscape design, economics and horticulture, and is the single most influential economist on our industry.

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Join Shawn Edwards, President of A+ Lawn and Landscape in Des Moines, Iowa and Jeffrey Scott for a conversation on building a highly-diversified, high-profit landscape business.

Shawn is a serial entrepreneur, likes to work hard and play hard, and has enjoyed success in multiple industries.

Shawn and his team (including 4 other minority owner/managers) have built up a unique, profitable business model, with a dedication to quality, customer service and scaling their business. They serve both residential and commercial customers with an extensive range of services which makes A+ Lawn and Landscape a dominant player in their market.

A+ Lawn and Landscape will be the host of Jeffrey’s August 2020 Summer Growth Summit. 

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Is joining a peer group the right move for you? Join Jeffrey Scott and three inspirational landscape business owners, to explore the value and impact of peer groups on their business and lives.

Seneca Hull, Franz Witte Contracting, ID;  Paul Reder, Reder Landscaping, MI; and Greg Wildeboer, Whispering Pines Landscaping, ON

As long time members of Jeffrey’s community, we discuss topics related to trust, accountability, empowerment and change management. We also cover how peer group sharing and accountability can help you create a supremely stronger team and culture, better systems, stronger profitable growth, and more fun as a business owner.

We talk about some of the key decisions and important aha’s that changed the course of their business, and how they have accelerated their growth based on the wisdom of being long time members of Jeffrey’s Leader’s Edge peer groups.

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Jim McCutcheon, CEO of Highgrove Partners, Atlanta, GA (200 employees, $20M in revenue) is widely regarded as a landscape industry expert and a dynamic pioneer.

Besides his landscape firm, Jim and his wife Erin started Copiana, an organization that brings local food production to people and places.  It’s a unique business model exposing people to the joys of growing and building a sustainable food chain.

Jeffrey and Jim talk about both companies, his leadership team, people strategy, how bragging rights will get you into trouble, and why he temporarily shrank his business.

Jim is active nationally as well as locally in the landscape industry. His passion comes through in our discussions.

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As the founder of Drost Landscape in Petoskey, MI, Bob Drost has been reinventing landscaping since the company was founded in 1991.

His pioneering spirit helped build Drost Landscape; and his integrity, innovativeness, and commitment to quality have ensured continued success with each passing year.

Jeffrey and Bob discuss how he grew his company from $0 to $5M, and then speedily from $5M to $15M.

Bob shares his newest growth plans and his biggest passion that has powered the company’s growth, along with a bit of name-dropping of those who have contributed to their success.

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Paul Saginaw is the co-founder of Zingerman’s, a highly diversified food enterprise known for its innovative high-end service and out-of-the-box management practices.

Paul and Jeffrey discuss what makes Zingerman’s truly unique, and how other business owners (in the green industry) can copy and learn from the Zingerman’s model. Paul shares his current struggles and how he is pivoting. He tells all and doesn’t hold back!

Zingerman’s started as 1300 square feet of combined restaurant and specialty food retail space, run solely by Paul, his partner Ari and two employees. The Zingerman’s Community of Businesses now has 23 partners, employs over 750 people and generates over $60 million in annual sales from ten separate businesses: Zingerman’s Delicatessen (including Zingerman’s Catering), Zingerman’s Mail Order, Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Zingerman’s Training Inc., Zingerman’s Coffee Company, Zingerman’s Roadhouse, Zingerman’s Creamery, Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory, Zingerman’s Corn Man Farms, and Miss Kim.

Paul believes that he has been successful in spite of the fact that he has limited natural talent and abilities.  He believes that the only real limitations are a lack of vision.

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Phil Key, President and Partner of Ruppert Landscape, and board member of the National Association of Landscape Professionals, has a unique impact on our industry.

Phil started working part-time at Ruppert Landscape when he was 15, and full time for over 22 years with 30+ years industry experience. He and Jeffrey Scott discuss what makes Ruppert so successful, how the new normal is impacting Ruppert Landscape, and what strategies they have put in place to continue their growth curve.

Phil also shares his biggest professional regret and his biggest business challenge.

Ruppert Landscape is a giant in the industry, doubling from $110M to $210M over the last five years.

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As a true industry leader, Bob Grover, CEO of Pacific Landscape Management has built a business that is one of the fastest growing  privately owned companies in Portland, OR.

Jeffrey Scott and Bob Grover discuss how his company is responding to Covid-19, his predictions for the next 24 months, and what his long term strategies are for growth and innovation in the green industry. Bob shares a few business secrets that will intrigue the listeners. He is a passionate outdoorsman and sustainability remains one of his key goals.

Since starting PLM back in 2001, this is not the first crisis that Bob and his team are dealing with. They strived and succeeded in becoming a debt free company since the last economic downturn in order to be ready for any economy.

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