The LeanScaper Podcast

Check out Intrigue's Marketing Report: https://intriguemedia.com/lmi/Most landscapers take their marketing to near zero from November to February, then spend March buying the most expensive leads of the year trying to make up for it.Rob Murray, Co-founder of Intrigue Media, has four years of aggregated client marketing data showing exactly where a spring schedule actually gets built — and it isn't in the spring.For a $1M-$10M landscape company, winter is the only quarter where an owner has the bandwidth to work on demand instead of chasing it.IN THIS EPISODE:Why January and February leads carry roughly 4x the average quote value of April and May — and the specific buyer profile behind that numberThe funnel math every owner should run before building a 2027 budget: 400 leads → 100 visits → 50 quotes → 25 customers, and what a $4,000 customer acquisition cost actually buys you on the maintenance sideThe one-hour spreadsheet exercise that takes a full-service company from zero focus to three profitable prongs — scored on margin, owner-dependence, and whether the crew actually likes the work

Dwayne Kerrigan is an entrepreneur, performance coach, and veteran owner of 31 businesses across 15 industries. He explores why operators burn out while owners focus on strategy, culture, and purpose. Topics include identity-driven leadership, the event-to-result mindset chain, using physiology, language, and focus to shift behavior, and adapting leadership through changing economic seasons.

Mike Michalowicz, entrepreneur, author, and business finance expert, brings his Profit First mindset to personal money management. He explores why budgets clash with human wiring, how six bank accounts can organize every dollar, and why household finances directly affect business health. He also discusses supporting employees with confidential financial guidance and strengthening the weakest link in an entrepreneur’s financial chain.

Adam Coffey, CEO, author, and private-equity executive who has acquired 58 businesses, explores what makes a company truly valuable. He unpacks the real owner-dependency test, the 30-20-10 performance standard, and why profitability beats revenue. The conversation covers building transferable wealth, private equity’s appetite for blue-collar services, AI in the trades, and a three-year roadmap for landscape leaders.

Your books can be perfectly accurate and still leave you guessing on every decision that actually costs money.Arron Bennett, Founder of Bennett Financials, has looked under the hood of hundreds of contracting businesses and can usually name the constraint before the owner can.At $1M-$10M, one wrong pricing or hiring call doesn't cost you a quarter — it costs you a year of growth.IN THIS EPISODE:Why an unreconciled balance sheet makes your P&L wrong too — including the client who had to recognize $500K of hidden revenue after four bad years.The 1-to-4 salary cap: every dollar of labor should return four in revenue, and why a close rate above 40% means you're priced too cheap.How equipment bought on a loan for the tax deduction empties your bank account while your P&L still shows profit you owe taxes on.

Two people run the business. Only one decision gets made. That's the math that quietly wears down most husband-and-wife companies in this industry.Caleb & Brittany Auman have run Auman Outdoor together for fifteen years, and now host Together in the Trades — an event built for the couples doing exactly this.The company gets the cadence, the roles, and the escalation path. The marriage gets whatever's left. Whichever one has structure ends up governing the other.IN THIS EPISODE:- The tells that you're already off the same team — and why the dangerous version is quiet, not loud.- Why couples don't grow apart: one keeps learning, the other stops. What that looks like from the outside, and the free 20-minute exercise that starts closing the gap.- The $45,000 excavator Caleb bought right after they had a baby. Good idea? Listen to the episode to find outCheck out togetherinthetrades.com to learn how you can attend0:00 — Why Couples Feel Unseen1:17 — Running a Business Together7:02 — Together in the Trades9:44 — Three Keys for Couples10:35 — Getting on the Same Team17:21 — Become a Student of Yourself21:02 — Growing Together as Partners25:56 — Practical Tools for Your Relationship28:59 — Choose Your Hills to Die On32:32 — How Priorities Change Over Time34:14 — Preventing Conflict Before It Starts36:06 — Believe the Best in Your Spouse

Commercial maintenance is the recurring, sticky revenue every landscaper wants — the stuff that makes a business worth buying — but from the outside it looks like a grandfathered club with no door in.Jeremy Talboy, founder of North Georgia Landscape Management, built a $9M four-division operation from a standing start knowing no one, and he lays out the exact engine he used to crack the commercial world.For a $1M–$10M landscape company, commercial maintenance is what turns unpredictable project revenue into a recurring book of business — and real enterprise value when it's time to sell.IN THIS EPISODE:Why the regional property manager with 15 properties is the one relationship that unlocks a portfolio — and how to actually get in front of them.The 15-office-visits-a-month scorecard Jeremy runs his business development team on, plus the exact hire profile that wins the role.How he prices customer service as the product (the Chick-fil-A vs. McDonald's math) to earn more dollars per minute than bigger competitors.

Every book, podcast, and conference adds another item to your fix-it list — and somewhere along the way, knowing exactly what's broken started to feel worse than not knowing.David Jenyns, author of Systemology and Systems Champion, has helped thousands of owners turn a chaotic mental backlog into a sequence they can actually execute.For a $1M–$10M landscape operation still running off the owner's memory, picking the wrong system to fix first can cost you a whole season.IN THIS EPISODE:- How to use the Critical Client Flow to narrow forty problems down to the one bottleneck actually capping your revenue.- The "squeaky wheel vs. broken axle" filter for telling a merely loud problem from one that's quietly binding the whole business.- Why your first system should be the worst you'll ever build — and the exact profile of the Systems Champion who should hold the pen instead of you.00:00 — Why Systemizing Feels So Overwhelming01:44 — Start Where the Pain Is04:16 — Make the Invisible Visible06:32 — Why Business Owners Get Stuck09:02 — The Systems Champion Role14:21 — Finding Your Biggest Bottleneck19:28 — When Is a System "Good Enough"?23:25 — AI Is Changing Every Business26:25 — Why AI Creates Urgency30:10 — Your First Step to Systemizing31:18 — Books & Where to Learn More

Most landscapers don't abandon social media because they're bad on camera, they quit at week three because nobody ever handed them a system.Sebastian Lopez Fernandez, Co-Founder of Awake Abroad Media, has helped landscaping companies turn owner-led content into millions of views and real revenue and he breaks down exactly how.For a $1M–$10M landscape business, an invisible owner is leaving trust, leads, and booked jobs on the table every single week.IN THIS EPISODE:- The three-pinned-post foundation — who you are, what you do, and client results — that converts visitors before you ever post a single reel.- The "comment SPRING" funnel: how a ManyChat auto-DM hands over a lead magnet, captures the email, and tees up a follow-up call. Built once, then automated.- The 7-11-4 trust rule and why five posts across five platforms equals 25 weekly exposure points working for you.⏱ TIMESTAMPS0:00 — Why "Not Wanting to Be an Influencer" Is a Myth 3:41 — Why Owners Must Be the Face of Their Business 9:35 — Getting Past Shyness and Fear of Content 11:21 — The 3 Pinned Posts to Optimize Your Profile 14:00 — Hook, Story, Takeaway: The Content Framework 15:26 — Building Funnels Bottom-Up with ManyChat 16:24 — Posting Cadence and the 7-11-4 Trust Rule 17:57 — Cross-Posting Across All 5 Platforms 20:00 — The HEM Framework for Idea Generation 23:00 — Where and How to Shoot Content 25:07 — 3 Metrics That Measure Social Media Success 27:56 — Landscaper Growth Accelerator ProgramTo learn how the only AI platform purpose-built for landscapers can help your business → https://leanscaper.com/platform

Most landscapers don't lose their season during the season — the money already walked out the door last winter, before a single truck rolled.Mark Bradley, founder of LeanScaper, scaled a trades business through twenty peak seasons and watched the same hidden traps swallow good operators every single year.For a $1M–$10M landscape business, the decisions you make in the next eight weeks decide your November P&L — not your July bank balance.IN THIS EPISODE:- Why $100K a week flowing through the business in July can hide a margin problem you won't feel until cash gets tight in November.- The three traps that quietly water down your crew: saying yes to revenue you can't absorb, running the business from the truck, and hiring in the rush.- The off-season move that gets you to $250K revenue per employee without adding a single middle manager.⏱ TIMESTAMPS0:00 — Cash Flow is a Lie0:45 — How to Survive Peak Season1:15 — My Worst Busy Season (2005)2:30 — Missing Systems Catch Up4:00 — Burnout: The Real Cost5:15 — Peak Season Paradox6:00 — The Winter Trap (Saying Yes)8:00 — Systems Alone Won't Work9:30 — The Tale of Two Operators20:00 — The Hiring-in-Rush Mistake24:00 — Slow Down to Speed Up26:15 — Five Whys & Continuous ImprovementTo learn how the only AI platform purpose-built for landscapers can help your business → https://leanscaper.com/platform