Ep 034 – Building a Legacy: Profile of a Family Landscape Business

Ryan Malone ​[00:00:00] The Roots of Success podcast is for the landscape professional who's looking to up their game. 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: Hey, welcome to another episode of Roots of Success podcast, I'm your host, Tommy Cole. We have a really awesome guest that I've got to know over the last few years. His name is Ryan Malone. How are you, Ryan? Ryan Malone: I'm doing great, man. It's an honor to be here and be talking to you, Tommy. Tommy Cole: That's awesome. SoRyan's been fun to follow on social media and see him at all the events the last few years. And him and I have connected quite a bit from time to time, but Ryan is is part of the team with Malone Landscape in the, around the Seattle, Washington area, way up in the Northwest region. It's highly considered design build landscape company will also with maintenance and we'll get into that. But one of the cool things, it's a family owned business. And you [00:01:00] guys have grown substantially over the course of many years. Very well known brand, very good place to work for according to your team and all the social media platforms that they say that they're a great team. And but welcome to the show. It's going to be fun. Ryan Malone: Yeah, honor to be here. Watched so many of the episodes and had a lot of tremendous people on. So I'm, I'm honored to share any information and anything and all about Malone's and what we've done. So excited to get it going. History of Malone's Landscaping Tommy Cole: Let's good. Let's jump right in. So one of the questions I wanted to ask is, is I started out by saying it's a family owned business. Your mom and dad started it back in early nineties ish, 91, 92. Right. And then here comes little Ryan and his brother, you know, like do, do, do, do kind of take over. So you're technically second generation. Ryan Malone: That's correct. Tommy Cole: Can you give me some stories and some background of like how that happened? Starting out in a crew, starting out gardening type things, and [00:02:00] then talk about the transition into eventually becoming, you know, one of the leaders of the entire business. Ryan Malone: Yeah, totally. So obviously kind of born and raised in the landscape industry. Through and through, right? They've been doing it, you know, two years before I was even born. It all started back with a F 250. You know, my dad doing the installs, doing the bids, doing everything. So from ground zero, and really from there, quick little snippet, funny story. I was at a, at a vendor. And a guy was like, I was your dad's first employee. And I was like, that is crazy. And he could remember me sitting, driving around in the truck and the F two 50 going from job to job with my dad. So through and through, that's kind of where it started. And then we grew up kind of on a nursery running around me and my brother, you know, playing airsoft guns or whatever it may be. But we're always surrounded by it. Whether it was picking up plants with my mom at nurseries, you know, Or later in the, in the evolution of getting out on [00:03:00] crews and install crews in the design build side. So, Tommy Cole: So talk about, that's awesome. I mean, nothing is great than watching mom and dad work their tail off. Right. And you to witness that it was not like, Hey, let's watch video games every day. They were. You guys are pretty much involved in being two young boys. The best thing says you get to get your hands dirty, right? So talk about like, talk about what you employed first or how did that work out? Ryan Malone: I don't think legitimately until gosh, probably 15 years ago, you know, in high school, then we were, getting a paycheck helping out with the nursery, running irrigation, things like that, keeping plants alive. And then ultimately, as we got older, I know most both myself and Jake, my brother worked at Cruz at any different, different summertime or whatever it may be to kind of slowly getting through college, college, both of us played college baseball and so kind of, you know, Both of us came on board at different times [00:04:00] after our college career. So, Tommy Cole: Was there any intentions of like, like early on about the business working in the business? Or you're like, listen, I'm just playing baseball. I'm going to college. My parents have a landscape company. Cool, but not a big deal. Like, was there any like discussion between you and your brother? Like, Ooh, I'm going to get this or no, you get it. Or, well, I'm going to work here. I'm out of this town. See you later. Ryan Malone: Honestly both of us were very dedicated to baseball from a young age. So that took up, you know, the very most of our life in those early days. So it was pro going, going pro, right. Going to college and then going pro baseball. And obviously that's, that's a hard, hard thing to do. So it's a small percentage that get there. And, and once that kind of started to fade away and, and, and that wasn't going to be a reality, I still don't think it was really set in that, Hey, we were going to come back and join the family business. It was. It was kind of an afterthought. It was our parents thing and we, we, we loved every part of it. But it was certainly wasn't there [00:05:00] till pretty late in my college career. And then I was actually going into real estate Tommy Cole: okay. Ryan Malone: before I got offered a job. and really thought about it and, and took it, so, Tommy Cole: Yeah. Ryan Malone: on full bore. Similarities between College Athletics and Business Tommy Cole: Yeah. So what, what did you learn about the business early on? So you went through college, played some ball, got a degree, started to go in that direction. But. What, what brought you to Malone's landscape? Ryan Malone: I think it was mostly, it, it was a good opportunity. It was, it was a management position over our, our very small maintenance division. It was kind of a second. Additional company that they started in 2002 and the design build started in 91. They had a partner that took it to a point and they ended up buying that partner out, and then it kind of floundered for a few years. You know, 10 years floundering, kind of not, not really gaining a ton of traction. But it was there, right? So, I instantly got in there [00:06:00] and, and knew that, okay, I don't know much about maintenance. I know. the basics of landscape install and things like that. But it really, I just treated it like a baseball team or a sports team. Right. I, I did have that aspect of, of leadership and, and how the camaraderie of the team needs to go So I kind of had that base knowledge and some business knowledge from school. to kind of to bring into the, into the play. So, Tommy Cole: Yeah, man, you and I are on the same page. I think we're cut from the same rug. Like sports analogy and business is like the best thing ever. And you guys know my, my son's highly active in baseball and. And it's funny to watch, Ryan on social media and he watches me on social media and we're kind of back and forth. And he's probably reliving some of his dreams when my, you know, when he was 12 and now my son's 12 pushing a teenager in a few weeks, but it's, I love sports to the most extreme because it [00:07:00] gives you just so many avenues and experiences in business. What are some takeaways that you learned in baseball that now you attribute to you? Into your full time job. Ryan Malone: I I'd say the first one was just the work ethic piece and, and really transferring that, that work ethic we had to have in, in baseball to get to the college level, you know, and Saturday, Sundays of 14 hour days at the ballpark and just long, long days. Balancing your, your classes and your, your, your workouts and, and practice. So I really wasn't shying away from those 12, 14, 15 hour days in the early stages of joining Malone's and taking that division over. So that was a big one, right? Just, you gotta work hard, you gotta work long hours, you gotta get it to where you need to go. And then secondly, is just, like I said, that team camaraderie. When I came in, I think the [00:08:00] previous manager just, there was, there was a disconnect between the field and, and, and management. And so there, there wasn't a good culture going on there. It was, it was pretty sour when I came in. So my, my biggest thing was, Hey, I need to get them the tools and the resources and the support to be able to do good quality work first and foremost, before meeting any clients. That, that was my main focus. It's just like baseball, you gotta have the right stuff to get it done, and you gotta feel good. So, Tommy Cole: I love that. Ryan Malone: are my biggest two. Tommy Cole: Yeah. You know, I totally agree. When I started out as a project manager early in my career, my, one of my first steps was to get to know the field team, like they were my, eventually become my best friends. There's a sense of trust. There's a sense of camaraderie with those, those men and women out there in the field. That literally make it all happen. And they're there because you have a job and if they're not there, forget it. So my, one of my first steps was [00:09:00] to get to know those people, understand their strengths and weaknesses, understand what they need. My motivation was they will have work every single day and they will have every single material and every single tool on the job. To form at the highest quality. Done. That's it, right? That's like your job to make sure to happen. It's it's nothing's more depressing than showing up and there's no work and you say you need to go home, right? . How Succession works for a family business Tommy Cole: Yeah. Love it. Love it. So, so talk about how the transition of second generation ownership working with mom and dad, I'm sure they've got their ideas and vision, but here comes Ryan and Jake, you know, with their sort of thing. How, how has that transition been? Ryan Malone: it, it's, it's still in, in full swing I, you know, it, it's probably one of the hardest things I would say that, that transitionary period or even succession planning and, and anything in a, in a multi generational business. And it's something that we still don't have quite our finger on totally yet, but our families really [00:10:00] worked well together from inception of when all of us were working there at the same time. And part of that being we're, we're in different areas, right? And so we're not totally seeing each other every day. We're not totally in each other's ear every single moment. And so I think the separation and, and kind of the, the spread approach of tackling different areas is, has been crucial. And I would say just. All in all, it's been really good for us. Obviously we, we, we have our banter and our, and our times that are harder than others, but I don't know if I don't know if it comes with the territory or not to not have that. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Ryan Malone: I'd say it's been really good as opposed to some. Some family businesses that I know can be really tough. So Tommy Cole: Yeah. Is mom and dad still around? Are they still involved? Ryan Malone: yeah. Yeah My my pops is still doing Quite a bit with the design build side, but he's certainly we are starting to really work on that phase plan They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor For you [00:11:00] know many many years, you know, they've had Malone's just for about 34 years now and, and my mom has really started to work out of the day to day office as we've really set up that support team, gotten a controller in there because she was doing a tremendous amount of work with us. With that So um, we are getting there. Tommy Cole: What's your role now? And what's Jake's role now? Ryan Malone: So right now i'm the general manager of the maintenance company they are two different entities. They were started at different times. For for different reasons but I am the general manager for for that side right now And then jake he's bounced around in a lot of different positions and it's been awesome for him because he's gotten to learn Both maintenance and construction design builds. So but he's in a new role as of pretty recently this year, and he's just been crushing it in the more of the bid build and, and doing quite a bit of design build estimating and [00:12:00] sales. So he's been crushing it there. So it's awesome to see. Tommy Cole: Love that. Love that. You know, I think one of the things that you mentioned that is key to your success in this whole long term succession change, change of command is communication. I feel like that's one of your biggest things and, and you guys are open and honest and transparent with everything. You're probably working through feelings. You know, I can only imagine how mom and dad feel like this is their baby and this is what put you through school and baseball and diapers and you name it. But they want the best for you to you two boys. And there's going to be a little bit of, you know, some, some, some bumps in the road along the way of, of Ryan Malone: right. Tommy Cole: and execution, but communication is probably the single biggest important things of how you guys are feeling and how you. implement new things. Is that correct? Ryan Malone: Yeah. 100%, 100%. I totally agree [00:13:00] with that. The Start of Mantenance Tommy Cole: Love it. So you, you hit on it for a second. This new, this, this maintenance thing your, your dad is through and through one of the best sort of architect people that can do design build. And I think that's his passion. He's always had it for 34 years. But you also understand though, that you've learned, you know, over the course of years of how important maintenance is. And that's your task. So tell me about why you guys started maintenance, even though your dad was heavy DB and then what it is today and what, what are the benefits of that, Ryan Malone: Right. Right. So I think it probably was a year or two in that we really started to see, Hey, we really need to, to grow this thing. Right. And that was more for a, you know, opportunity. Was there and then also to kind of hedge that second department, right? When the economy rolls up and down we've, we've already seen it, right? They were doing design build and, and a lot of plat work and things like that before [00:14:00] the 0 7 0 8 crash. And, and that got, you know, cut us almost in half. And so the hedge was, Hey, let's build up the maintenance side. You know, as best we can and continue to. Continue to, you know, operate our, our highly touted design build side. But, but add that auxiliary service lines so that we got to hedge against things that, you know, if things do get rocky, if things get a little bit slower, softer market we still have that recurring revenue coming in that can kind of help us get through those rougher patches at times. Tommy Cole: right? So how did you gain clients and maintenance when you didn't really have anything maintenance going on? Was it mostly becoming from DB clients over to maintenance? Was that sort of the low hanging fruit? Ryan Malone: So we, I would say they're a DB clients were coming over. And then we really brought [00:15:00] on actually the year before I came on they hired, my dad hired. One of my biggest mentors and, and probably one of our best sales guys ever on the maintenance side. And that's Jeff Jacobson. He's still with us now. But he was a heavy hand in just beating the pavement, getting indoors and getting our name out there. Once he had the support of the staff and picking up the quality of the work and actually producing what we need to produce out there for our clients. And providing the good service. He just went gangbusters on sales in those early days, right? We've built a tremendous team since then. But I would say that was our catapult. And then myself on the back end was just more helping with account management. And, and keeping operations flowing in a good manner. So, and, and supporting that, that field first team. So. Tommy Cole: So was Jeff commercial sales? Gordon, business development salesperson. Tell me about that. What [00:16:00] is, what is banging down doors, hitting the pavement mean to you? Ryan Malone: So we, we, we tracked you know, how many touches is, is he getting on clients, you know, and then that equated to a closing percentage, right. And whatever that closing percentage was, Hey, we knew if we've got to talk to 600 people to get 20, you know, just an example that was kind of the, the, the formula to that. And we could see when those touches dipped, right. Sales debt, right? And so that was a big proponent. And, and really it was just showing up and saying, Hey, how could, you know, we'd love to help in any way possible. You know, do you need anything? And if not, when can we come back in and say hi, right? It wasn't hard sales or anything. It was just seeing who needs who needs our help at that time. Tommy Cole: Love it that I, I love, it's almost like grassroots. Right. I love that term grassroots is like, you're not going to get a whole [00:17:00] lot of sales by sending one email. Ryan Malone: right Tommy Cole: You're going to get a whole lot on, you know, a marketing thing that you sent out a few email blasts or, or social media. Ryan Malone: Exactly. Tommy Cole: get a lot of is the person to person contact touches, right? And the consistency, if you guys went out one time and nothing happened. Well, then the expectation should be zero, Ryan Malone: Yeah, right Tommy Cole: fact that it's just the pavement and get out there and get your face out there Ryan Malone: Mm hmm, Tommy Cole: of clients, potential clients. Love Ryan Malone: right, right and then from there it just built off organic, right? So once we started getting a lot more clients in the door and and really taking good care of them and and being responsive That was kind of the special mix there, right? And that organically took us to just a whole nother level of growth, that didn't necessarily need as much pavement beaten, so. Maintenance Growth Tommy Cole: Yeah. Love it. Love it. So what was it when you started and what is [00:18:00] maintenance to this day as far as crews and trucks, that sort of thing? Ryan Malone: Yeah, when I came on, we probably had right around three to four crews, maintenance crews running out and about a, I would call it a 0. 5 to one truck doing enhancement work. And then we had one irrigation guy. So, so pretty humble, small beginnings. Better than most. So I was, I was very fortunate to walk into something that was kind of, you know, had the bones there to, to work with. And then from there you know, looking at us today, we've got just, just around 1920 maintenance crews running out on any given day. Three enhancement crews and just about six irrigation technicians running at any given moment. I, Tommy Cole: you mentioned something that was interesting, the 0. 5 to 1 ratio on enhancements. That was back in the day. What is it now? Ryan Malone: I would say, depending on the business mix you know, [00:19:00] what, whatever clients we're kind of touching on we've, we've diversified tremendously, but we're, we're, we've seen anywhere from that 33 percent of, of contract value enhancement. You know, up work upwards of 50 percent on in some circumstances. So obviously it differs, but but in between that sweet spot is is what we aim for. So, Tommy Cole: I love that. At least you were tracking enhancement sales on maintenance contracted revenue. That's a very enticing deal because it should be about that range on commercial. Right. That's sort of 30 to 40 to half of the contract value. I love that. And when things start to dip down, you got to go, okay, what do we do to get back up? Right. Ryan Malone: right, right. For Tommy Cole: Love it. Love it. Work Life Balance and The Family Tommy Cole: So interesting couple of things. You, you had you had a baby your, your very first one, a little baby boy. Future Malone, future baseball [00:20:00] player type deal. I know where this is going. I know where this is going. And, and. First off, let's give the congratulations to the baby. All right. Second thing, you did something incredible that I watched all over social media rooting for you, praying for you, but this a hundred miles and 30 hours was, dude, I'm telling you not to get all weird Ryan, but I got slightly a tiny bit emotional reading your post on the pain that you went through and the team that you congratulated. To get you through this, the amazing wife that puts you through this journey and supported you family, friends, et cetera. That's all awesome. But like, how did you do this? Also run into business. We talk about the work life balance and tell me about this and everybody know that these kinds of things can be accomplished during your crazy business. Ryan Malone: Yeah, [00:21:00] you know, hearing you talk about it gets me a little bit emotional. I cracked up a little bit because it was such a tremendous feat for me, personally. But I couldn't do that without an amazing spouse and support system behind me and my family. And Like I said, you can do a lot of things while running a business and, and you have to make time for those things. A lot of people say we don't have the time. You have to make that time. Tommy Cole: Yep. Ryan Malone: and over the course of the last two years, you know I did the full Ironman last year as my wife was pregnant, I kinda think I felt like I had to do something really hard and painful. to kind of experience that with my wife. Although maybe selfish, maybe I don't know. But that was kind of my first step into kind of these ultra athletic. But, but it is, it is so key to keep your body in shape and, and your mind sharp. And [00:22:00] I think that's one of the biggest things that, that we forget about as, as business owners or entrepreneurs or even management staff is, Hey, we lose sight of taking care of ourselves. I don't know how I would run this business if I did not exercise. And, and keep that mental edge because I think I would just self indulge or, you know, be eating too much and drinking too much, and then you just feel like crap. So, That is a huge thing for me and, and I wish I could help more people figure out how to make time for themselves to do these types of things. You don't have to go run a hundred miles. You don't have to go do any of that stuff. That's for me. But it helps me know that, hey, if I can, if I can accomplish this, getting through the business cycle and the business life and the, and the grit and the hardship that you're going to go through. And the ebbs and flows and ups and downs of this business. It's helped me tremendously with, with the mental side of things. Tommy Cole: Yeah, that's [00:23:00] good. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. You know, make time. I will a hundred percent agree with you. I would say, you know, a little bit of advice to you, Ryan is keep doing what you're doing, in my opinion, and, and things will shine for others. Because keep posting the stuff of the insane ice baths that you're doing, you know, breaking the ice and keep that going. Because if you stop that stuff, then it goes away for everybody else. And I had someone recently, you know, tell me they love to follow the journey of whatever I'm doing. And I'm like, well, that's weird. All I'm doing is posting things about my life that I enjoy. And I want to look back on it and go, man, look at all the fun things that you did with you, yourself and your family. Like. Ryan Malone: Right. Tommy Cole: I'm doing, but people love that. It's motivating. So I a hundred percent agree with you, Ryan. Like take care of your damn body at the end of the day as a business owner. I can't express that everywhere I travel for peer groups and speaking engagements. You can always find me [00:24:00] in the gym. Always. Ryan Malone: Always every Tommy Cole: You'll always find me and I'm always like, I'll see you in the gym, 5 a. m. I'll be there. There might be one or two at best, but I want to, you know, have that ingrained in everyone's head that it can be done, even when we travel and have these crazy lives, but I feel like that's the backbone to stay sharp mentally and physically. So keep it going, Ryan. That's, it's, Ryan Malone: Yeah, no, I appreciate it, man. It's, it's, it's a lifestyle for sure, but I think it's, it's very conducive to, to good results. So. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Good things will come in at it. If that's the hardest thing is getting up early and working out, I'm telling you that the rest of the day is, is a cakewalk at the day. Right. Impact of peer groups Tommy Cole: Good stuff. Hey, so moving on, let's switch gears slightly. So peer groups, you got in this thing called peer groups. Like what the heck? You guys have changed a lot. Ryan Malone: 100%. Tommy Cole: fun to see talking to your coaches and seeing you update and then seeing you at the summit, [00:25:00] you know, each year, but like, tell me about some of the things that's made an impact on, on your life and your business and with your family. Ryan Malone: Yeah, 100%. The, I can still remember the day I walked into my dad's office and I had the magazine, the landscape management magazine, and there's a guy I kept seeing on there, Marty Grunder, kept coming up and coming up, coming up, and I was like, Tommy Cole: there's Ryan Malone: Hey, pops, we got to go, we got to go to this, this, this growth conference, right? It's like the second year they did it or something like that. And we just got to go see what this is all about. I, you know, worse comes to worse. We learn a bit, a little bit and we go home. Right. So, that was kind of the jumping off point of, hey, let's go to a conference. We hadn't done anything kind of like that. So went there and then we ended up meeting Jim and Jason and the whole team with McFarland, Stanford and the grow group. And that kind of introduced us to the, the peer group concept. I'd kind of heard about them and you hear about masterminds and things [00:26:00] like that, but I never really crossed my mind. And gosh, I, I don't know where we would be if I hadn't gotten my dad to sign, like, let's, let's sign up for this peer group and let's do it. Let's just go all in and, and, and get around a group of, of owners and like minded individuals. Facilitated by, by great consultants like yourself. Holy crap, that, that can speed up your, your, your success and your growth of your company and where you're trying to go, Tommy Cole: So Ryan Malone: big proponent. Tommy Cole: your dad like, what are you smoking, Ryan? Like, is this? gotta be. Ryan Malone: Yeah. Tommy Cole: I've been doing this for 30 years. Why do we need that? Ryan Malone: Yeah. What are they going to tell me that I don't always already know. Right. So, but you know, how, how many times do you get to, go, go kind of rifle through the underwear drawer of another company in another state doing the same things you're doing. Right. And whether it's just a little tweak here or a little [00:27:00] idea that you can kind of put your own spin on it, man, it, it, it means the world to, to, to be able to be around these guys in our group and really grow together with them and, and then talk to other guys in other groups as well. And, and gosh, I've, I think Jim and Jason have broke me of all my bad habits Tommy Cole: Yeah, Ryan Malone: broke me of all my bad Tommy Cole: yeah, Ryan Malone: how I speak and how I talk and, and it taught me. Unvaluable amount of information. So Tommy Cole: yeah. I would agree. You know, it's interesting. You can learn a bunch of things. You know, going to conferences and being the peer group. But one of the things that I'm impressed with you with you and your team the most is you actually go back and do something. Ryan Malone: right, Tommy Cole: Go try it. You go do it. And like, and then we asked, how's it going? You're like, well, it's going, but I don't, you know, not sure. So that's been great. The second thing that's also been good is your group's been together for a really long time and that's good. You've got some [00:28:00] unbelievable that is going to last. I mean, literally forever. Talk about the friendships that you guys had over the years that you could probably pick up the phone at any point. Any given day or night to anyone in your group and go, I'm sucking wind right now. Help me out. Right. Ryan Malone: 100%. That's, we, we kind of call it almost like it's like a brotherhood, right? It's like you, you get so close with these guys over dinners and, and over the, you know, breaking down problems and, and coming up with solutions for each other. And I am, gosh, so thankful for our group. And, and, and for all of the, the future success of the, that group. And it's, there's nothing really like it, right? You can compare it to, to maybe a baseball team or a college team, you know, things like that, where you're really meeting with these guys and seeing them all the time. But that bond you create over the hardship of entrepreneurship is, you know, [00:29:00] It's something just so strong because it is so hard and it can be incredibly lonely, right? And so you get this group of guys that you can really share like, hey, everyone comes to you with the problems or the issues or the things. But you really don't have anyone to go to with those, right? And so the peer group allows you to have, you know, a phone line to call and say, hey. am struggling with this thing, man. Is it, do you, how do you guys, you know, handle this, you know, any, any food for thought. So that's been crucial. Tommy Cole: That's good. That's really good. You know, it's interesting to see these, these people go through this group and understand, you know, that it's awesome because. When you think you're the only one on the island screwing everything up and you meet 10 other owners, you're like, God, I'm not so crazy or stupid myself. Like I, everyone has the same problem. And and, and you can work as a, as a group and, and move forward. That's great. Ryan Malone: [00:30:00] Yeah, totally. Future of Malone's Landscpae Tommy Cole: Another question I got, what does the future look like from alone landscaping? Like what, what is here on out? What does it look like? Tell me what you, what you guys are, Hoping to get done and some big dreams that you got going on Ryan Malone: Yeah. I think our biggest dream right now is just continuing to build off and, and, and really grow a legacy company, right. Where, where we've got generations and generations of, of management field staff And and ownership, right? And so we, we see a lot of private equity, private equity movement and things like that coming into our industry. And, and, and one of our biggest drivers right now is, is to keep and hold the line on the family owned and operated front because, you know, what we provide and, and what we're trying to produce with our culture and how we treat our people and how that transcends down to our clients and, and, and providing great service. is the true mission, right? [00:31:00] So obviously we've got big growth potential and goals. I think the future is, is, is very bright. It's, it's certainly gonna be hard and it's got a rocky road ahead. But I think right now are we're kind of focusing on really tightening up our, our current, current focus and then you know, expanding north and south. So we're, we're definitely being pulled in both directions by clients and we want to be able to provide really good service and, and it gets really hard in our market without auxiliary locations and branch type type locations to, to service far and wide because of the traffic and things. So. Definitely see that on the horizon for us. Tommy Cole: that I could, I could totally see that to expand expansion slightly, just make sure you get, you get the mothership perfectly ready to go, right? Ryan Malone: Right. Tommy Cole: is the one that provides everything and then you'll be going from there. Ryan Malone: Exactly. Tommy Cole: one last question, Ryan. Ryan Malone: Okay. [00:32:00] Tommy Cole: And our audience is always get looking for a good little takeaway or advice. Anyone that's out there, like, what do you stand by? What's one piece of advice that you would leave that is, is a staple for, for Ryan Malone? Ryan Malone: My biggest one, and it's, it's probably pretty cliche, but it, your people are everything. And the, the, the quality of, of those people that you're able to, to get on your team and on your side. And under that big big BHAG goal and mission is what's going to drive the success of the company. Right. And so we've always been a, a people first and client second type culture, because we know if our people are taken care of and we've got great individuals on our team, those clients are going to benefit the most from that. If we go client before our people, it's, it's a little bit backwards. Right. And so that doesn't always transfer. So we've got a huge focus on our [00:33:00] people and providing a great place to work in a, in a destination place to work and, you know, it's probably said in every, Every single podcast, but I think that's the biggest thing that you have to focus on is really creating a, a great atmosphere for, for good work to transpire. Tommy Cole: I 100 percent agree with you, Ryan. That's a great one. I believe it. I've said it a hundred times, but I'm gonna say it 101 times because that's just what I believe in. The people are your biggest asset. The number one asset in your organization. And as long as you are taking care of them, accountability, structure, training, education, all on the board, everything else falls into place. 100%, 100%, percent agree. And if you don't believe me, go watch Bologna on, on social media, because they are posting all kinds of stuff. about how they truly treat their team from the very top to the very bottom in, in East and West, because I see it. I saw the swag chain not [00:34:00] too long ago that was posted. Like I love all the culture building items that you guys are doing. So 100 percent keep that going. Ryan Malone: A hundred percent and it'll pay dividends. Sometimes you don't see it for a little bit, but, but it starts to really pay off and. Man, it, it's, you can't do it alone. You just can't. And so you need, you need very good people and you need to take good care of them. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Love it. That's great. Well, Ryan, keep up the hard work. I'm going to watch your stories. all the time. I'm sure a lot of people are going to jump on, so you might have a few more followers. So, so yeah, you got to keep your accountability going. So, and I'll keep mine going and we'll watch each other's journey along the way, but. It's been a pleasure having you, Ryan. Thank you for the the feedback, but let me, let me actually get through this real fast before I get off, because I want to make sure this is right. Second generation owner. One of the things that we learned out that you're going through that means the most [00:35:00] important is communication. Between mom, dad, brother, and even the team for that matter is an open, honest and transparent communication with everybody, what's going on, the changes, that sort of thing. Every time you come back from a peer group meeting, I don't need to vomit all over my parents and say, this is the 72 things that we need to learn. Right. Kind of take it all Ryan Malone: Right. Tommy Cole: Building a maintenance team basically from scratch, right? One of the biggest things I learned was get your sales men out there and hit the ground hard as you can. Pedal the metal, knock down some doors, build brand. And be after it. Otherwise, no one's just going to show up at your doorstep and want services. Ryan Malone: Exactly. No one's walking in the door on their own. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Work life balance. It can be done because this guy has shown it. I have seen it and witnessed it, his journeys. So there is literally no excuses for you to have the balance of taking care of your mind [00:36:00] and, your body. I love it. Peer groups is where it's at. Tons of information. My audience and our audience knows that well, all too well. And people first in your organization. Ryan Malone: Right. Right. Tommy Cole: Ryan, it's been a pleasure, buddy. Keep it running and keep it going. Ryan Malone: Likewise. You too, man. Inspiration. Appreciate it, Tommy. All right, buddy. John: Ready to take the next step? Download our free Profitability Scorecard to quickly create your own baseline financial assessment and uncover the fastest ways to improve your business. Just go to McFarlinStanford.com/scorecard to get yours today To learn more about McFarlin Stanford our best in class peer groups and other services go to our website at McFarlinStanford.com And don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. See you next time on the Roots of Success.