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The Landscaper's Guide To Modern Sales and Marketing Newsletter
APRIL 2023
IMAGINE: 20 2-DAY WORK WEEKS PER YEAR I MET A LANDSCAPE OWNER ACHIEVING THIS DREAM!
Did you know that Topgolf in Schaumburg, Illinois, has heated couches you can lounge on while you play? Seriously! I tested them a few months ago when I was in town for the iLandscape show. Between education sessions and client meetings, I invited a couple of industry partners to Topgolf for a game. We couldn’t believe that the normal-looking leather couches had secret heaters inside. As cool as those couches were, they weren’t even the best part of the experience. For me, the best part was talking to Jim Martin of James Martin Associates — a landscape company owner living every entrepreneur’s dream. James Martin Associates is an award-winning landscape company serving the Chicago area, and Jim has successfully turned it into the kind of enterprise that runs itself. He told me that at one point in the process, he cut his hours from full-time to 40 four-day work weeks per year. Then, cut back to 30 three-day work weeks! Now, his goal is to reduce his commitment to 20 two-day work weeks per year — and I have no doubt he’ll be able to do it.
organizations’ scholarships when they could be funding their own. So they did! James Martin Associates has now funded over 25 scholarships for the children of its current employees. The scholarships are so popular that they’ve developed healthy competition among the teams’ kids. Sometimes five JMA kids compete for just three scholarship slots. If they don’t make the cut after applying, they get real-world feedback that helps them improve. Pretty amazing, right? You can probably imagine what Jim’s turnover looks like with programs like that. Jim is a fantastic example of what you can do when you have the right people, systems, and tech in place. He claims that combination was the key to his success. More specifically, he told me, his systems give him the data he needs to monitor his company’s monthly finances and set annual goals. The magic really happened when he “got out of the way” and let his team run those systems for him. While we played one of Topgolf’s high-tech games, each trying to hit the ball farther than the other, Jim told me that he thinks there are four stages of business: survival, survival with meaning, success, and significance. His company’s scholarships have pushed it into the “significance” stage. They’re making a difference in dozens of kids’ lives!
Along the way, Jim came up with inspiring initiatives for his team. At one point, he realized his company was donating to other
I found Jim’s story so insightful that I had to record a podcast with him. To hear our whole conversation, follow the QR code or visit
LandscapersGuide.com/podcast and look for the March 10 episode. And next time you’re at Topgolf, don’t forget to try the couches!
JACK JOSTES, CEO RAMBLIN JACKSON
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Read It in Your Truck on a Rainy Day
TO AVOID BURNOUT LATER! Schedule Your 2023 Vacations NOW
swim across the lap pool to prove he could handle the diving board. He did it like a miniature Michael Phelps.
our businesses. To avoid that, choose your vacation days at the start of the year and commit to your own well-being. 2. Your team has time to prepare. If your team knows when you’ll be out of the office months before the actual dates, they’ll have plenty of time to put systems and processes in place to cover you. Giving them a warning will lower their stress levels and reduce the number of interruptions and emergencies you have to deal with on your trip. If you don’t already have all of your vacations scheduled for 2023 (yes, including Christmas), do it right now! Remember, you don’t need to know where you’re going. You can even stay home! Simply blocking those days off on the calendar will save your mental health.
Last year, my wife and I picked our spring
That last-minute vacation would have been impossible for most business owners. I only made it happen for one reason: Every January, I schedule my entire year’s worth of vacations — even if I don’t know where I’m going! I learned that tip from writer Paul Winans, and I think every entrepreneur should try it. There are two big benefits to this strategy. 1. You save yourself from burnout . Business owners like us tend to work ourselves into the ground almost without noticing. Unless we schedule our time off, we’ll keep grinding until we physically can’t — which isn’t good for us, our families, or
break destination the week before we left town. We were down to the wire, weighing the pros and cons of a half-dozen options. Ultimately, we packed up our boys and took them to the natural hot springs in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It was one of our best vacations ever! I’ll never forget the sight of my then 6-year- old son, Whalen, balancing on his toes as he prepared to leap off the diving board for the first time. He hit the water with a triumphant splash. It was a proud moment because he’d earned it! Whalen had to
HOW TO CREATE HEALTHY HABITS MOTIVATION ISN’T ENOUGH
How do you create healthy habits? Before you can create new routines, you first need to be aware of the habits you have now. What do you typically do when you want to finish
“I’ll complete this task when I feel motivated.” You may have told yourself or heard others say this sentence more times than you can count. Unfortunately, motivation alone will not help you fulfill your goals or complete your tasks. You aren’t going to “feel” motivated every day, so choosing what to do and not do based on a feeling will only get you so far.
something but don’t feel like doing it? What do you usually say to yourself? Once you can identify your trends and patterns, you can start changing your thinking and actions. Developing a healthier routine doesn’t happen overnight — it takes time, patience, dedication, and testing. Therefore, it’s best to start small and make progress each day. You can change one habit at a time until completing that task is second nature. Then, modify another habit until your routine is filled with actions that align with your goals and values. So, the next time you’re not feeling motivated and want to skip or delay one of your tasks, don’t! You made a routine and created healthy habits, and now it’s time to stick to them. Even when you don’t feel like doing something, do it anyway. You may be surprised by how productive you’ll feel.
But not all hope is lost! There is something you can do to help you complete all of your daily items and goals.
Instead of relying on motivation, create habits that will get you into the routine of conducting and completing different activities. Habits are extremely powerful and can shape our lives either positively or negatively — depending on the habits we create. We can have routines that support our values and goals or practices that don’t, making life harder than it should be. Creating healthy habits is essential, because the next time you don’t “feel like it,” it won’t matter — you’ll have a schedule and routine to ensure tasks will be completed. The best way to stick to your goals and values is to make healthy habits.
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Read It in Your Tru
Schedule a 15-minute Marketing Brainstorm with our Senior Landscape Marketing Strategist, Robert Felton! In just 15 minutes, Robert 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/call to schedule your Marketing Brainstorm today. Ready to Level Up Your Marketing and Get More Hell Yes Customers? retaining as many employees as possible. Watch Win The Spring Here: WinTheSpring.com The replay of Win The Spring is here! Watch this workshop to gain new ideas on how to WIN THIS SPRING and kick the year off strong while Maximizing Profits With Mergers & Acquisitions for Snow + Landscape Companies Wednesday, April 19, 2023 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (MDT) LandscapersGuide.com/events UPCOMING EVENTS
TAKE A BREAK
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PO Box 1429 • Lyons, CO 80540 (303) 544-2125 • ramblinjackson.com
1 Good News From Topgolf 2 2 Benefits of Pre-Scheduling Your Vacations 2 Need to Make a Change in Your Life? 3 Upcoming Events 3 Take a Break 4 Boost Employee Retention With Team Engine INSIDE
Have You Signed Up for Team Engine Yet? IT WILL FIX YOUR EMPLOYEE RETENTION PROBLEM!
If you showed up for our Win the Spring virtual event on March 9, you already know all about Team Engine and how their innovative software can help your company’s employee retention. But have you signed up yet? If you haven’t (or missed Win the Spring), now is the time to go for it. As we write this, Team Engine is offering an amazing opportunity to friends of Ramblin Jackson. When you visit Landscapersguide.com/ teamengine and watch the free replay of our webinar “The Landscaper’s Guide to Fixing the Labor Problem,” you’ll score 30% off of your first three months of Team Engine’s service. This is a big deal because, as co-founder Dave Pacifico explained at Win the Spring, Team Engine’s employee messaging and text
message survey software can help you fix the employee churn hitting your landscape company. The more you communicate with your employees, the more valued they’ll feel, and the more likely they will stay with your team! It’s tough to do this when you’re spread out all over town working on projects, but Team Engine makes it easy. With Team Engine’s software, you don’t have to worry about accidentally missing some team member check-ins or clogging your personal phone with work
One of our clients, Kelly Slater of Pleasant Landscapes, Inc., has done a great job using employee feedback to make her whole team happier. Until recently, Pleasant Landscapes Inc. held a breakfast meeting every quarter. They checked in, brainstormed, played cornhole, and got to know each other better. When Kelly started communicating with her team regularly and sending out surveys, she discovered the breakfasts were a hit! Now, Pleasant Landscapes is holding them monthly, and Kelly’s team is closer than ever.
texts. You can easily stay on top of everyone’s birthdays, congratulate them on work anniversaries, and collect feedback that will prevent burnout and miscommunication. All of these things will increase your retention!
When you’re ready to lower your churn, scan the QR code or visit Landscapersguide.com/ teamengine to watch the free replay of “The Landscaper’s Guide to Fixing the Labor Problem” and claim your 30% off Team Engine.
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