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The Landscaper's Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing Newsletter
NOVEMBER 2023
IF NOT, YOU CAN LEARN FROM OUR CLIENT JOE COATES! Could You Take 60 Days Away From Your Business?
A few minutes ago, I opened my calendar and realized Veterans Day is just around the corner. The holiday always makes me think about our troops, but this year, it also reminded me of someone specific: Ramblin Jackson client Joe Coates, the owner of Groundshog Landscaping in Baltimore, Maryland. A few weeks ago, I sat down with Joe at the ELEVATE conference to talk about the enormous success he’s having in his business. Joe recently upgraded from our Gold Nugget level to our exclusive Wild Frontier Program because of his fantastic results! Joe is also a U.S. Coast Guard reservist and regularly takes time away from his business to perform military duties, like resupplying military bases after hurricanes. Joe can be off the grid for up to 60 days at a time, and his initial military training required him to take six months off from work. When Joe shared that with me, I got curious. So, I asked him: How did he keep Groundshog Landscaping not only running but also thriving while he was away?
Joe told me there are two secrets to his success: functional systems and excellent employees. When transporting equipment to Puerto Rico for the Coast Guard, for example, he relied on his scheduling software to keep setting appointments for him while he was out of cell service. He uses tools like Jobber, Landscape Management Network, and PayClock to keep his employees paid and leads coming in. He also relies on an accounting firm for back-end bookkeeping and leans on his employees for day-to-day work. “[When I joined the Coast Guard,] I learned the key roles I needed to fill within my business. I needed office personnel. I needed somebody who could really run the ship if I were gone,” he told me. “… That was honestly the most important thing. I had to find the right personnel. That personnel may be expensive, and it may be challenging to find the right ones at first, but [hiring] was a necessity for me to grow from point A to point B.” Joe is entirely out of the sales process thanks to hiring the right people and implementing outsourcing, automation, and other systems.
If you want a life like Joe’s, this winter is the perfect time to start working ON your business instead of IN your business. When you sit down to do that, start by asking yourself, “What systems would need to be in place for me to take 60 days away from my company?” Implementing those fixes will help you get out of sales and spend more time giving back to your community, relaxing with your family, and enjoying your hobbies and passions. It will also keep your business from collapsing if something big happens in your life, like a divorce, a death in the family, or a sick kid. The odds of that kind of disaster might feel slim, but honestly, it’s not a matter of “if” it will happen; it’s a matter of “when.” At some point, you will need to step away from your business for seven days, 30 days, or 60 days. So, you need to do everything you can now to help it survive and thrive without you. For Joe, part of that process was upgrading to our Wild Frontier program. That was a significant investment (Wild Frontier costs about 50% more than Gold Nugget), but he knew it was the right choice to help Groundshog reach its sales goals faster. I’m really impressed by the quality of the company Joe has built, and I’m proud my team could help him do it. This Veterans Day, I’m sending two salutes his way — one for his service and one for his success. Thank you, Joe, for the great work!
Today, he spends most of his time “networking, meeting and greeting people, trying to build the team, and keeping company morale high.”
JACK JOSTES, CEO RAMBLIN JACKSON
RamblinJackson.com • 1
Read It in Your Truck on a Rainy Day
THE PRESTIGE BRAND SUCCESS OF BERNARD ARNAULT How the Wealthiest Man You Don’t Know Made His Fortune
We live in an age where billionaires are celebrities, with Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg regularly making headlines. But the man Forbes named the wealthiest person in the world in 2023 has mostly flown under the radar. So, who is Bernard Arnault, and how did he make his money? Today, Arnault is the CEO of French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, which owns brands like Louis Vuitton, Dom Pérignon, Tiffany & Co., and Dior. But the 74-year-old began his career in real estate when he joined his father’s successful company. He moved
His next move was to acquire Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, which owned Dior’s prior perfume division. He completed a hostile takeover, which became his go-to strategy. Over the years, he continued buying struggling brands and rebuilding them into luxury goods empires. On top of his business acumen, experts have also credited Arnault with an eye for design and fresh talent. He has successfully brought new ideas into his companies and secured substantial media buzz. Expanding into Japan and China also proved wise, as Asia is now the company’s biggest market.
to the U.S. to expand his father’s empire but soon returned to France, bringing cutthroat Wall Street tactics with him. Arnault purchased his first luxury brand, Christian Dior, in 1984 while it was struggling financially. Reports indicate he may have used millions of his father’s money to finance the deal. After the acquisition, Arnault fired over 9,000 workers and sold off most of the company’s smaller labels, retaining only Dior. These strategies quickly earned him the notorious nickname “The Terminator,” but the floundering Dior became profitable again in 1989.
Arnault appears equally adept at retaining his wealth. His five children have close ties to the business, and the family owns a 48% stake in LVMH, intending to maintain control for the long haul. Others note that Arnault contributes much less to charity than many other billionaires, a move that may have helped his wealth accumulate. Since the Forbes ranking, Elon Musk has reclaimed his title as the world’s richest person, but Arnault sits comfortably in second place. His large portfolio and ruthless business tactics almost guarantee he won’t be strapped for cash soon.
MEET KRISTEN, RAMBLIN JACKSON’S WORLD RECORD HOLDER! OUR TEAM WOULDN’T BE THE SAME WITHOUT HER
This summer, a Nebraska volleyball game set a world record for the most people ever to attend a woman’s sporting event. The crowd was 92,003 people strong — and our lead account coordinator, Kristen Bloomquist, was one of them! “I couldn’t see the court very well — it was very far from where I was — but that wasn’t the point,” Kristen says. She wasn’t there to see the game; she was there to set a record. Sand volleyball is one of Kristen and her husband Jordan’s shared passions. They live in the tiny town of Elm Creek, Nebraska, where Jordan runs a local volleyball league. When they’re not playing, Kristen stays busy living the “slow, simple life” with their 4-year-old son, Camden, and working remotely for us at Ramblin Jackson.
Fun fact: Before Kristen became our lead account coordinator, she was a practicing landscape designer. We really lucked out when we found her! Not only does she know all about the green industry, but also she has a degree in graphic design and advertising and years of experience with marketing and social media. Hiring her was a no-brainer, and we were thrilled to celebrate her three- year Ramblerversary with us this summer. Today, Kristen oversees Ramblin Jackson’s growing team of account managers. If you have a Growth Plan with us, you might remember meeting her at your kickoff meeting. Apart from those meetings, Kristen usually stays behind the scenes, managing the creation of our clients’ website copy and putting together monthly reports on their website traffic, rankings, and more.
“I would say that my favorite part of my job is the people I get to work with,” Kristen says. “Ramblin Jackson is the type of company that puts everything out on the table. We have integrity, talk to each other like humans, and don't hide anything. After that, the best part of my work is building our clients’ web pages every month. I love design, and working on those websites gives me a tiny bit of creative play!” We’re as lucky to have Kristen today as we were to find her three years ago. Next time you talk to her, be sure to congratulate her on her world record.
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Read It in Your Tru
Schedule a 15-minute Marketing Brainstorm with one of our Landscape Marketing Assistants. In just 15 minutes, Alyssa and Eli will: • Offer game-changing feedback on your marketing ideas. • Find gaps in your existing campaigns. • Discuss your best marketing strategy. • Share next steps for success! This is a quick, easy, no-pressure call — and we’ll even send you beef jerky or candied almonds for your time. Visit LandscapersGuide.com/ brainstorm to schedule your Marketing Brainstorm today. Ready to Level Up Your Marketing and Get More Hell Yes Customers?
UPCOMING EVENTS
Brand Your Sales Process to Get the Owner OUT of Sales Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023
10–11:30 a.m. MT Virtual Workshop
Real Recruiting Case Studies: WHAT WORKS for Landscapers Now Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023
10–11:30 a.m. MT Virtual Workshop
Landscape Leader Ski Retreat Feb. 6–8, 2024
Breckenridge, CO For details, email jack@ramblinjackson.com
TAKE A BREAK
LandscapersGuide.com/events
RamblinJackson.com • 3
uck on a Rainy Day
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PO Box 1429 • Lyons, CO 80540 (303) 544-2125 • ramblinjackson.com
1 A Landscape Business Tip From a Veteran 2 How Low-Key Billionaire Bernard Arnault Made His Fortune 2 Our Lead Account Coordinator Helped Set a World Record! 3 Upcoming Events 3 Ready to Level Up Your Marketing? 4 How to Set Your Company Up for Growth in 2024 INSIDE
Jack’s Favorite Strategy to Promote Business Growth AND Inspire Your Team
If you’re like me, you probably have big business goals for 2024 — but you can’t accomplish them alone. You need your team to be just as excited about your landscape company’s growth as you are! Luckily, I’ve discovered an easy way to get them 100% on board and keep your growth trajectory on track: the company one-pager. The company one-pager is a one-page document clarifying your vision, mission, core values, and quarterly “rocks” (the bigger, 90-day projects you want to accomplish throughout the year). Distilling those things into a one-page document makes it easy for you to share them with your team. You can hand out printouts or send them over email. A single page is also easy for your team to read and understand. You won’t have to waste time reminding them to read the full document.
Squeezing your vision, mission, core values, and rocks onto one sheet of paper might sound challenging, but great resources are out there to help you. For example, I created Ramblin Jackson’s one-pager using strategies from two books: “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business” by Gino Wickman and “Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool for Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future” by Cameron Herold. I used the strategies from “Vivid Vision” to figure out our company vision and mission. Then, I borrowed the Vision Traction Organizer (VTO) and Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS) from “Traction” to distill my vision into a one-page document. From there, I shared the document with my team to show them where we’re heading. I report back every week to update them on the progress we’ve made on our rocks. I even use this one-pager
during recruiting because I’ve noticed the best people want to join forward-thinking companies going somewhere. Creating and sharing a vision is really important for landscape company owners, so I’ve done an entire podcast on the topic! Scan the QR code on this page for a quick summary of Ramblin Jackson’s Vivid Vision that will help you start your one-pager. I also highly recommend reading or listening to “Vivid Vision” and “Traction”!
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