Ep 023 – Empowerment & Accountability: Sam Rankin’s Guide to Explosive Growth

Sam Rankin [00:00:00] The Roots of Success podcast is for the landscape professional who's looking to up their game. We're not talking lawns or grass here. We're talking about people, process, and profits. The things deep within the business that need focus to scale a successful company from hiring the right people and managing your team to improving your operations and mastering your finances. We've got a brain trust of experts to help you nurture the roots of a successful business and grow to the next level. This is The Roots of Success. Tommy Cole: Hello, welcome to another episode of Roots of Success podcast, and I'm your host Tommy, and this is where we talk about everything and anything between business owners in the landscape industry, and I got a special guest and also a good friend for the last few years. It is Sam Rankin. all the way from Des Moines, Iowa, has Etch Outdoor Living. Sam, welcome. Sam Rankin: Thank you. Good to be here. I appreciate it. Beginnings of Etch Outdoor Living Tommy Cole: Good, good, good. Let's just jump right in. Sam, I [00:01:00] know you made your introduction into some peer groups a few years ago, sort of with guns blazing a little bit, and we'll talk about that, but how did you get into this industry from, from such an early age? Sam Rankin: Yeah. I started just like every kid 10 years old. I saw the neighbor across the street had, you know, a market leader taking care of their property. And, and I wanted my mom to go across the street with me to help me to get my first client. And, and my mom's walking across the street with me and she stands on the sidewalk. She goes, I'm not mowing the lawn. You are. So I I walked up the front door, nervous, just shaking in my boots at 10 years old. And, and I knocked on the door and I said, Hey, I'd like to cut your grass for 15 bucks. And he goes, well, I got to see if I can cancel, but I'll let you know. And next day I'm outside playing street hockey or something stupid. And, and he drives past and he said, Hey, I'll give you 20. And I'm like, sweet. And so that's, that's literally how I got [00:02:00] started. And, and I actually, he was. First client, and he had another lot and, and, you know, was mowing that and cut over a 30, 000 check and handed that to the homeowner. And, and, you know, that's how we landed our second client. And so from there, you know, just a couple of people pushing our brand and our name from the, from the early stages that helped really start things. Tommy Cole: Yeah, it always starts with somebody, right? That little, that little nudge at the end of the day to kind of get the ball rolling a little bit. I, I, It's a great story. So, so, you took it from just mowing grass to like, I mean, to get to your first, let's just say, you know, half a million dollars worth of work. That's, that's in and of itself, you're trying to figure out the books, sales and how to estimate properly. You've probably screwed up a lot of estimates along the way and learn the hard way, but like, it's not been easy. Right. And you're probably been times you're like, I don't know if this is even right. Can I even make a career out of this thing?[00:03:00] Sam Rankin: Yeah. And, and, and, you know, we did just over half a million dollars. It would have been our, our second full year in business. And, and I still remember the number of times that do a mulch project or specifically projects is where I noticed a lot of concern and a lot of issues because, you know, bidding that compared to, you know, just simply bidding, cutting grass or fertilizer was pretty easy at square foot production rates. It's, it's simple. And so I learned, you know, honestly, I learned through YouTube. I watched a ton of YouTube videos. I soaked up every nugget and every piece of knowledge I could get from, from anybody from podcasts and audio books and all that good stuff. And I realized that, you know, there's a lot of audio books and podcasts that I was like this 99 percent of this is dumb, but I took one thing. And I, I implemented one thing and it's the same thing when we do these peer group trips that I come back with 99 things and I tried that two or three times and it didn't work very well. And so now I come back with, with two things because that's, you know, that's actionable, that's, that's simple to implement. So you know, it's just one thing after another and, and, you know, honestly, [00:04:00] it's, it's getting crap done. That's what it boils down to and taking the action every single day to just get something done. There's a lot of people that, that sit there planning and write 10 page, you know, business plans. And it's like, you need a one page business plan with one line on it. Bid work, sell work, do work. Simple. It's all it Tommy Cole: it. Sam Rankin: all it is. Exactly. Tommy Cole: Yeah. So one thing that intrigues me, Sam, is we met a couple of years ago when you were joining a peer groups and, the group you joined in just turned out just, it's just an awesome group, a group of people. I mean, we have, we have a lot of fun. We probably crack way too many jokes but all kidding aside I think landscape owners tend to overthink things. And I think you had mentioned it is that we always find a reason why not to. That's our first gut reaction is, well, have you tried that software? No, I just don't know if she's going to work that way. Well, have you increased your pricing? Man, man, [00:05:00] Sally's not going to like it. But for you, Sam, you take this a different approach and you're, you're all in going from almost zero, right? Two years ago to now, what you doing is, is. Tenfold, but I feel like one of the things you're always focused on is just executing on things, right? Not overthink it just go. Is that your motto? Don't overthink Sam Rankin: Very simply, yeah. And Tommy, you've been around me for almost two years exactly now, and I think you've come to realize that I'm not an operationally focused individual. I don't, I don't enjoy operations. I went to your, your breakout at Grow strictly because I needed to learn more about operations. And it was a great breakout. I don't enjoy it. Don't love it. It's not my thing. I like sales. I don't care for production. It's just not my thing. But, but ultimately, you know, our brand is built on just simply fulfilling the promise of doing what you say you will do. And so that is, you know, a lot of it is, is I'm probably almost too much the other way.[00:06:00] You know, you talk about think, plan, act is kind of the motto I act and then I'm like, huh, I should probably think about what I just did there and you know, it's, it's almost the opposite, but I can, I can promise you, I'm never going to have analysis paralysis because I'm going to pull the trigger and then I'm going to look down the sites and aim, you know, it's, it's, it's different and, you know, I think it's been really instrumental in getting us from, from zero to, you know, to, to just over four and a half and 23. And, you know, I think. Okay. My mindset is going to have to develop and change a little bit and grow up, if you will because what got us here won't get us there. Right? So I, I'm going to have to really focus myself on, on growing with the thinking and the planning to make sure the action is, is matching that and it's fitting in the right area. But you know, the, the breakout and our group, I can't say enough good things about ACE Destiny. Our, our group is a heck of a lot of fun. But also, you know, we're not afraid to speak up. You know, I know that we're not afraid to hold each [00:07:00] other accountable and. You know, ask the hard questions that, that need to be asked. And, one of my favorite stories, I think one of your favorite stories is, down at discovery. I'm a kid. All right. I made a mistake. Mistakes happen, but I made a mistake. You know, I was in the hot seat, which is honest, open and transparent. I was the first one sitting in the hot seat and they were kind of asking me questions and, you know, I talked about that. We had an older guy working for us And they said, well, how old is he? So 33. And at that moment, I knew I messed up because I don't think there's anybody in our group. I think about 40 before, you know, we had some, some new ones added. So I was talking about the older guy being several years younger than, than all of them. And at that moment, they, they kind of knew that I was a kid. I needed a little extra love and a little extra coaching. But nonetheless, man, I can't say enough good things about our group. They're a heck of a lot of fun and it's been a huge part of our Tommy Cole: you know what I think you just painted your picture at that point there was no thinking involved that it was just basically [00:08:00] Acting right? I just said there was this old guy down the road, you know down in the other office And we all just, and to this day, two years down the road, not another meeting goes by without giving you all kinds of crap about it. And that's, that's, and that's a great thing, right? At the end of the day, that keeps, things in perspective and, and that's what I love, you know, also, you're just the guy that just always will just do anything and everything. And so you got loads of lists and things to move on for. From 1 Million to 4 Million Tommy Cole: So let's talk about, you mentioned it briefly that about 1 million, roughly when you started, that's probably A little bit drastic because I think you came in maybe slightly under that, but it's okay. And you've catapulted in two years to four and a half. Like, what happened? Like, give us the roots of what happened there. Sam Rankin: Yeah. Yeah. So at discovery I remember you had to be about a million dollar company is, is the target And you know, I was like, ah, it's the same way I signed up for our marketing company as I signed up and I [00:09:00] just didn't tell them what you're under a million because I figured you fake it till you make it and they'll call you out if they want to. And I remember y'all wrote 1. 5 or something on my sheet of paper and I was like, whew. past that Good. We, at the time,we had just done, 899. And so we were, a hundred thousand dollars under a million. And the last two years have been. You know, nothing short of incredible. Our team has, has continually stepped up day after day after day and has continued to embody the, as we call it, the GSD, the get shit done mentality. And that's,simply what it boils down to. We're actually going to make an award. That's a toilet seat that opens up and the lid of the toilet seat has a poop emoji because you're the get shit done champion little stuff like that, that, that we've got, and they, that's about the reaction that they had to start. And then they're like, you know what? That's actually kind of great. I like that. And so, yes, absolutely. So it's been a day after day and every single day, just, do what's expected. And, we don't expect people to work [00:10:00] 50, 60, 70 hours a week. That's not our brand, but you know, we expect that people get 40 hours or 50 hours worth of work done in their 40. That is expected. and, having a general sense of accountability. And most importantly, as I explained to our team all the time, not building a house of cards, if everything has to flow through me, they're eventually going to get so frustrated, pissed off that they're going to go find a new place to work where it's not, an hourglass where every single decision and idea has to come strictly from me and, and frankly. I'll make ideas and I'll make decisions strictly because I'm, I'm willing to live with them, but chances are good that I'm actually the least qualified person to make that decision because I don't have all the available information that you do. And so it's, it's been inviting and pushing our team to be willing to make mistakes and I've let them make mistakes that I knew. When they told me I'm going to make this decision. I said, okay, let me know how that goes. Knowing that the decision is not going to be detrimental to a client relationship or, or significantly expensive, but letting them make the mistake and learn from it, because when you make a mistake, [00:11:00] you're often going to learn a lot harder lesson because you have to go undo that mistake. And so, you know, some of those little things, we celebrate failures on that stuff because we learned from them. And if you don't, then it truly is just a failure. And, and you know, those we really try not to have. Tommy Cole: So you're okay if they fail, right? Sam Rankin: Yeah, absolutely. They should. Tommy Cole: And how do you handle that? Because that's a very common practice here is I just had a conversation last week with somebody,and he kept saying, well, I have to get involved. I have to get involved. And I'm like, well, do you? And he goes, yeah, because they don't know what they're doing. And I'm going, Oh my gosh, that's like a literally a direct reflection of me, the owner. I'm the problem, probably because I haven't coached them enough, educated them enough. Think my thoughts, let them fail. Right? And so I feel like that is one of the things that you're really good at is, I don't know how to do a lot of the stuff to run this company, but I'm going to put people in place to fail and succeed along the way. And I feel like that is your [00:12:00] practice. Sam Rankin: Yeah, absolutely. And, and you know, if we're not failing, we're not learning and failure doesn't have to be losing an account losing, all of the available margin for the year that that's not necessarily failure failure is, not paying attention to a site plan and doing an extra 1500 square feet on the other side of the fence. That's a failure, right? We failed there, but we're going to learn from it because now we know next time we're going to look at the site plan to make sure we're doing the right areas. I mean, I'm not perfect, right? I I've made those mistakes and that's how I learned. And now I don't make those same mistakes. And so we've identified that, that that's our model. And that's the way that we invest in our team members to grow, obviously. No, we hope we don't make those mistakes, but. But as you grow, it's inevitable. You can't, it's not possible just to continue to grow and know what's going on. It's simply not. And having the ability and almost the cultural freedom to be willing and able to fail, I think is actually a huge bright side. So that's what it boils down to for us is just having that culture of, [00:13:00] accountability. Like when you make a mistake, you're going to speak up and you're going to say you made a mistake and here's what you learned. But just simply not, not feeling a threat of any punishment for, making a decision that's within somebody's wheelhouse. That's, that's Tommy Cole: Yeah, it's that you don't have a fear based management as, as an owner. And, you could almost say, I'd rather you go think of something and go try it and fail because that means you're looking to improve. as a person in the company to make things better, right? Maybe Sam knew the answer was like, that's not probably not going to work. But he's got to hold himself back a little bit to go, man, he's, he or she has to have that ability. And I think your team recognizes it. When we did a site tour, it was very apparent that people love to work there. And, and people have been there a long time. I mean, you have your right hand man. That's been there since almost day one. Sam Rankin: Yeah Tommy Cole: And grow with you, you know, and that's, that's hard in [00:14:00] itself because. When you're doing a half a million dollars, it's kind of okay, right? But then you scale five times bigger, you're like, Adapting through Growth Tommy Cole: I have to evolve and everyone has to evolve. So my question is how have you had to adapt moving forward? Like you had no visions getting started, but now it's I almost gotta like tee it up if my vision right and let them go get it. Is that correct? Sam Rankin: absolutely. So one of the things is actually pump your tires here for a second. One of the things you told me was was to lead with your head in, but your hands behind your back and that, doesn't come natural for me, right? I'm good with delegating and empowering our team. That that doesn't bother me at all. A lot of times I just don't know how to. And so if I lead with my head in and I'm coaching them through something, but my hands are behind the back and they're tied. So I can't actually perform the task. That's where I've noticed that the growth actually takes place and they're going to learn how to do that for the second time it's when you're just constantly, [00:15:00] I'll just take care of it. I'll just do it. And I still, find myself doing this and, having our whole team at grow listening to don't take the monkey from Megan Parker or other facilitator, that they saw some of the things that I had been trying to do, but just not been excellent at. And so now, we have this, morale or culture that, they're trying not to give me the monkey now, which is even better. And so it's now, the leading with your head in your hands behind your back has, has almost now been passed down a level to, to where, our production managers in the field. Well, I could get that done in two hours. I'm sure you could. You're probably the most talented craftsman we have, but you got to lead with your head in your hands behind the back or you are always going to be doing that. And, and seeing that and talking through that with them, teaching them that, that it comes apparent and you can just watch the light bulb go off. You know, they see it and they're like, okay, if I train them once, I teach them a second time. And the third time I watched them do it, now I'm not going to have to do this. You know, now I'm not going to have to be the one that's actually [00:16:00] boots on the ground. Working and doing this, but instead, you know, we've got a team that has stepped up and has grown and is able to, to, to solve this problem themselves. Tommy Cole: I get a lot of this, where let's just not take it for granted. Sam is involved in pretty much everything just at a different level, right? So I hear all the time, well, I got to get back into operations or I gotta supervise this or that good, but not good. Like you know what the grand scope of things is, you know, Some revenue goals and profit goals and how many quotes need to kind of get out the door And what our margins are on those quotes like what jobs you're on you still have a high level of what's going on 100 percent and then you can pull all that data up right now through software whatever it means, but you're not actually jumping in and taking over situations whether it be A phone call or a group text, right? You're letting things develop along the way. It's like in football, you're not actually out there in the [00:17:00] play, gonna run the football back, right? you gotta let your, your players play Sam Rankin: Absolutely. Absolutely. And Tommy Cole: that's why people like Sam or to go work for Sam. Sam Rankin: yeah, I mean, you stay out of the way and things are going to get done. Like we're usually our own worst enemy, like the owner is almost always the problem and the solution. The solution oftentimes is to take a step back. The problem is that they're too deep into it. You know, we talk about the being involved in being in the know. we have a simple scorecard, It's got everything from, from labor efficiency, labor utilization rates to, you know, our controller has, has metrics for how many days it takes to close the month. I've got metrics on there about social media that everything is reported on the scorecard. And so it's very simple for me to get a general grasp of the way that the business is operating without actually going to each person and say, what's going on here? What's going on there? How is this coming? You know, that's going to give me the 30, 000 foot view. To make sure that, things are being built, things are getting done, everything's getting billed [00:18:00] and, and most importantly collected, but not have to go micromanage every single person, because that's where honestly, a lot of times the issues sprout. that's, Implementing Ideas with the Team Tommy Cole: Take me back where you used to come back from meetings and conferences. And all your big travel and you used to come with pages of notes and say, do all this stuff, right? How, how have you been able to channel some of this? Because whether you're just starting out in your business, Or you've got a very large business. We all do this as business owners. How have you been able to channel that with your team? Sam Rankin: I think the first thing is, is realize how you feel. So when you're trying to give your three takeaways at the end of a meeting, a lot of times now I'm to the point where I still take, five to seven pages of notes, but my takeaways are usually one. And sometimes it's actually hard to give you three because they're simply things that I know that are important, but are not a priority. And, it's that matrix of, [00:19:00] of how urgent and important is something. And, you know, if there's something that's not urgent and important, then it's probably not going to make it on my takeaway list. And, and the things that I'm telling our team are more overarching ideas and thoughts. we talked about coming away from grow, for example, we talked about how, onboarding, off boarding, training, retaining, all of these things. We talked about like, probably had 20 ideas up on the board. And I said, look at this. All of these right here in this grouping can be summed up into training. One word, right? And so being able to actually attack the bigger idea, which is going to solve some of those smaller, problems that problem will be solved as a by product of improving our training process. And so let's focus on this big picture item. Like let's train, new hires. Let's have reoccurring, you know, Wednesday tailgate talks with, with our training. So let's, let's do some of these things. That's going to ultimately solve. That little problem that we bring up so important, but, but if we just solve the big problem, that's going to be a byproduct that's going to take care of itself. [00:20:00] And so, I've stopped some meetings. I want you to come back and really share much because maybe my takeaway is more, a feeling, right? When you talk about leading with your, your head in and your hands behind your back, like. That's not something that I'm going to even tell everybody about, I'm going to, you know, teach people about don't take the monkey. I'm going to take some of these takeaways. I'm going to tell them about it. But when it's something maybe more interpersonal skills and professional skills that I got to work on, I don't usually share those because I don't want them to necessarily know that's a change coming and expect that. I want to just. is, that's just the way we do things here. Tommy Cole: Love it. Social Media at Etch Tommy Cole: Let's talk about one of the things that you're pretty good at. I know it takes a lot of time, but you're somewhat of a social media kind of extraordinaire. And if you don't know Sam, then you probably think he's just, that's all he does. If you know Sam, then you know he's pretty much like doing it in his free, free time as far as [00:21:00] mowing the grass, you know, at the gas station pumping gas and he's doing it and it's literally right there, right? Why, why are you taking this approach of all in on, on social postings and all that, whether it's a snowstorm or an awesome install or just. The day to day of everything at at Etch. Sam Rankin: Sure. First things first, Tommy, one of the things that I would like to say decent at is delegation and empowerment. I actually don't post anything on social media myself. I do a few stories here and there, but my fiance is actually the one that does all of our content. She records it, she posts it. She replies to some of the comments. A lot of the comments are still me, but. I don't actually post any of it myself. Best decision I've ever made because I'm not very good at it. And I don't really enjoy the posting part of it, but interacting, I do. I've had some, some clients, you know, man, if you'd get off TikTok, you'd probably be able to run a better business. And it's like, you don't understand that. I actually record for maybe an hour every other week [00:22:00] and that's it. Like that, that's my time commitment. A lot of it is. You know, for our production managers, what jobs are we on? So I can go get some clips. Why is it important? You know, I think it's multifaceted, right? obviously everybody says clients. There's only about 4 percent of our followers that are actually from our market. it's not follower based. And it's not, marketing based more branding. We want that etch name and that etch, we call it blue. And we've just decided that it's our color. We want to continue to push that and to drive that throughout the market, but also, Most importantly, it's actually for a team. There is nothing better than, team members liking the videos that they're involved in or, giving me a hard time behind the scenes of, dude, why'd you post that? I look so stupid, I look so stupid, but that's more so what it's about. It's, it's actually less about our clients seeing it and landing a new installed job or a new maintenance contract based on that. Now there is some level of social proof, right? That, that. An Instagram account with 10. 1 thousand followers is obviously regarded [00:23:00] as telling the truth more often than, you know an account with 1100 followers. It's just a different perception. And so when we have our team or a new hire that we're trying to recruit sees that we have a social media page with a large following, they're obviously going to believe in us and what we do just a little bit more. Same thing that a client may not follow us, but they might Google etch outdoor and. You know, our, our social media pops up, they're going to click on it. See, wow, they're clearly respected in what they do. And so, you know, those byproducts of, working hard in social media, not as a marketing effort, but actually more so focused on it as a, as a branding effort. And that's, what's really carrying the weight more important with us. Tommy Cole: Well, I, what I like about it is, you know, back in the day you could say social media was about taking that steel picture of like the most perfect picture of the backyard, right? That's what we all like. Are attracted to of that finished product, but I will tell you what now people are really focused on is just the story to get to that project.[00:24:00] Like, tell me about your teams and tell me about the owner and why does he, have pants that show his ankles all the time, right? Like that's you at the end of the day. And that's you and your story and your team. And they, they get to throw a few jabs at Sam, which is. Completely healthy us at McFarlin. Stanford are always bantering pretty much seven days a week about everything going on. Right. But people love to see that banter going back and forth because it just makes it fun. And if I'm like a client looking at etch and I see all this stuff, I'm going, wow, they must be having fun. They really enjoy that experience from a client perspective, but also a new team member onboarding or an attractive part. That's the part we don't focus a lot is. Man, Tommy, like, how do you get more people to your business? Hey, Sam, how do you get more people? Well, I'm just telling a story of [00:25:00] like what we're going through the day in the life of working at Etch, right? Sam Rankin: it's not all. So, you know, a lot of people focus on, on social media as being the ideal case, the, the a hundred percent, the best day. Right. And that's all, that's all the content they're putting out there. And that's fine. Right. I think there's a lot of companies with these social media pages that are just pristine, professionally Photoshop projects. Through and through they post, you know, once every two to three weeks and that to me is more of a, of an advertising style account. And I think that's good, but we're posting the raw every day shot on an iPhone, nothing special, not highly edited, we're not using final cut pro we're not using it. We're just editing right. Tick tock. Write up a caption and post it, be done with it because, you know, that's again, back to the think, plan, act that there's so many people that are just thinking and planning on how to get that perfect post, just post it because people I found would rather see the how you got to that point. They would rather see the mistake. And how you [00:26:00] fixed it and flat out that you fixed it, not, you know, we only showcase eight projects a year from, from 16 different angles, because they're going to say, well, this isn't like the project that I want to do. So probably not the right fit for a company, we're showing our team members and them having fun and them interacting becausethat's ultimately the face of the company. I'm not the face of the company. I am on social media maybe, but on job sites, most clients don't even interact with me anymore. I'm not there. I didn't sell it. I'm not a project manager. I'm not running the operations by any stretch. And I'm certainly not the one installing it because. My ankles would probably get dirty, but no, no, the but, but it's, it's more so about, you know, showcasing the team that truly is the frontline. Show that show the team that you truly are proud of, because that is ultimately your best sales tool. Future of Etch Outdoor Tommy Cole: totally, totally agree. So what is, what's the future like for, Etch Outdoor without giving us All the secrets, but you've got some big dreams out [00:27:00] there and just paint a broad brushstroke of what that's all about. Sam Rankin: Yeah, our path to this point has been, fairly quick, right? There's a lot of guys that are doing it too. And, you know, props to you guys. I know how hard it is and, it's a grind every single day. It's all consuming. Etch Outdoor is, is going to continue to grow. If one thing's constant here, you know, it's not written in our core values. It's not. It's not in our mission or vision statement, but it is ultimately an underlying theme of our culture is that we're going to continue to grow to continue to provide additional high paying, you know, high level responsibility positions for our team, because ultimately that's one of my biggest fears is, having them walk away because there's not that next step up for them. Over the next, you know, five years, 10 years, our goal is to be in a number of different markets. we've evaluated an opportunity and didn't end up going through with it, but evaluated an opportunity in another state and that didn't pan out like we wanted it to. And so, we ended up walking, but. But our goal is to continue to grow. we want to see, you know, it sounds outlandish, [00:28:00] but, we told our team the revenue number that was in the multiple, what would it be? Eight figures. And and you could hear a pin drop. It was, it was fun. And I told him, I said, Hey, respectfully, there's a door and nobody walked. I said, all right, let's get to work because we are going to continue to make waves, ultimately I feel like it's part of my why is to create excellent places to work. It's something that I know we can do better than almost anyone else. And we're surrounded by some people that are absolutely incredible that with that and the peer groups, but. I want to continue to find these markets where, there's not a true a player in the market or even if there is, but they don't have a, an excellent culture where we can step in and be that excellent place to work, that excellent place for somebody to grow their career or to come in as a crew member. On a mowing crew and end up as a crew leader or a production manager in, you know, Any department for that matter? So Yeah, it's growth. it's you know, it's exciting. we want to do big things We want to make waves [00:29:00] in this market and i'm incredibly proud that we've got the team to do it Let it be known that i'm the one talking to you today tommy But after your site visit, I think you saw it that Tommy Cole: Yeah. Sam Rankin: not all me. Tommy Cole: No, it's not. And it's Sam Rankin: team of fantastic professionals. We've Tommy Cole: yeah, I think, some of us thought, man, you probably are the company just with your, based on your personality and you know, kindness and outgoing, demeanor, but really and truly they just like to work at etch, and I think you paint a really good vision. And everyone loves Sam. Sometimes we don't know, always know where Sam is. That's a little inside joke. But, growth is a good thing for you and your business. You're young and aggressive and you're going to try as much as you can along the way. And growth means career wise and the bottom line, the top line and all the middle lines in between everything is, is all growth at the end of the day. So it's great Sam, what's one nugget that you want to leave by and go, man, this is great for our audience to something that you've either experienced or [00:30:00] you live and die by running a landscape business. Sam Rankin: I, I frankly, I don't like people's advice. And I, I invite you to actually be the same way. Advice is, is coming from, and,I absolutely love my mom. But she's, quick to give me advice. You know, I love some of my good buddies. They're a heck of a lot of fun and they're quick to give me advice. Oh, why don't you do it like this? It's like, well, you're talking about this, like a college professor, you have no experience, and that is the perfect way to do it in this theoretical la la land that you seem to think that running a business lives in and it, and it doesn't, and you said the word already, but share your experience, learn from somebody that is going where you want to be or, or is where you want to be. I see it far too often. Well, this guy on Instagram said that you should do it this way. It's like, well, that guy's full of shit. He has no idea what's going on. he's not, he's running a mentorship program and he's never actually been a part of a business that's larger than a million dollars. What are you listening to him for? You know, I think there are some people that have [00:31:00] really bright ideas, but. listen to somebody and follow the experience of somebody that's actually been there, that's actually done it. you can't learn a lot of this stuff without doing it. And, that's where we celebrate failures because you're going to make mistakes. I can live with mistakes because that means you actually put forth the effort to, to try. it's, when you don't try, that's when I got a problem. When you just throw your hands up before you've actually given it some efforts and thought, that's where we got a problem. And it's something I struggle with. So, that and and the other one I'll leave you is don't be a victim. Everything happens because of you. It doesn't happen to you. know, regardless of what it is, you know, so and so cut me off. Well, you should have been in the other lane anyway, right? Like three lanes were open. You chose to be in the right lane when there's an on ramp. Don't be an idiot. You know, don't be a victim. Don't continue to play the victim card. Oh, poor me. You know, this thing. So don't just continue to come up with excuses. Just step up and do the work and be done with it. Tommy Cole: Those are, those are great. [00:32:00] That's a great experience here at the end of the day and who you associate with. you can listen to the guy. Nothing's great than having buddies, right? To go play golf and socialize and all that. But I would honestly tell you if they haven't done a whole lot of anything, then why are you receiving that advice from that person, right? And so you just got to go with what's, what's right for your business and right for your family and your company at the day and who you associate is also who you become. So, I get it. I don't have a whole lot of friends, but I got a lot of good friends. And that's what matters the most is, is ones that are more encouraging. At the end of the day and then I love how you just said, you just got to put in the work. You just got to do it. You know, we all signed up for this entrepreneur type style, and I'm blown away by the victims of complaining of everything going well. There's no one that wants to work anymore. Well, I'm here to tell you there is plenty of people that want to Sam Rankin: We've never had a labor shortage. [00:33:00] Tommy Cole: perspective of this. Whole thing. Sam Rankin: Absolutely. You know, and being a victim is the easy thing. That's very easy to do. You know, just stepping up and taking action is actually a little bit more challenging because you actually have to To do something about it, you know, so I really enjoy surrounding myself with the people that are going to challenge the status quo or that are going to go do something different instead of just, basically being cheap and falling in line. That's Tommy Cole: percent. Sam Rankin: know, I want to, I want to be part of something different and that's what we've got going. Tommy Cole: Well, a hundred percent. Sam Rankin: Thanks. Thanks again, Sam. It's always a pleasure having you on board and we'll see you next time. That sounds good to me. Thanks, Tommy. John: Ready to take the next step? 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