Expanding Horizons: Jake Malone on Family Dynamics and Branch Management

Jake Malone John: [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: Hey, Tommy here with Roots of Success podcast. I'm your host and we have an awesome guest once again. Jake Malone of Malone's Landscaping in Seattle, Washington. We're actually a beautiful onsite location. We just finished up Ace Discovery in New Orleans, Louisiana, and I'm like, Jake, we gotta have you on the show. We had your brother. Cool. Love the dude. But we gotta have Jake on here. I love the Malone family. So welcome. Hey, good to have on the show. Yeah. Thanks for having Jake Malone: me. It seems like every time we meet it's in New Orleans. It's always in New Orleans, and we were just Tommy Cole: together a few weeks ago from Mar Girl. Yeah, a little different story. We had lots of fun lots of partying and got to know the town. This, this trip was a little different. A lot more business, a lot more business, less, out there on Bourbon Street, hanging out. But, jake, it's so good to have [00:01:00] you. I, I love you guys and your brother and your family. It's just been phenomenal to watch you guys over the years. Thank you. It's just I think I like everything on social media that you guys do, whether it be videos and installs and maintenance. So tell us that you are second generation, you and your brother, your mom and dad started it. Like take us way back how your dad got involved and. And that sort of thing. Yeah. Start of Malone's Landscape Tommy Cole: Talk about the business and where we are today. For Jake Malone: sure. I mean, he's he's got a story similar to a lot of folks that joined the, the ACE groups. You know, started with the, out of the back of his truck, he was working like a sales job for a corporation. Mm-hmm. And then on the side started doing a little bit of like installing water features and whatnot. And then it just started. Taken off, he hired one person, then eventually had a couple crews, and then my mom was able to quit her job and yeah, get into some of the accounting functions of the, of the business. Mm-hmm. So really took off. He was primarily design build [00:02:00] until 2002. That's when he opened up the, the management company. Tommy Cole: Okay. And so when did your, you and your brother get involved? Was it real early or did you, I mean. Was it working some part-time roles a little bit like before, during college? After college? Take us through all that. Yeah, for Jake Malone: sure. And both Ryan and I were baseball players, so our summers were pretty, we love, we love baseball, that's all we talk about. We love baseball. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Jake Malone: But so, you know, we weren't full-time in the summer. Kind of dabbled Tommy Cole: into it a little bit, Jake Malone: but yeah, anytime we needed, like if. You know, Hey, I want the latest Airsoft gun or, you know, whatever we were into at the time. They're like, okay, well we got a job on a crew for you. So they, they were good about making us earn, earn things. And working on Construc, I mainly worked on construction crews. Mm-hmm. I'm sure, I think Ryan's the same. Just throughout the summers and then after college, that's when we kind of get got into. Like account [00:03:00] managing or the management positions. Yeah. Yeah. And stuff like that. So, Tommy Cole: alright, so you guys worked off and on a little bit, then you go to college. Mm-hmm. How, what's the age difference between your brother? Three. Three years. So you go play baseball, we talk about stories all the time. Yep. My, my son is in youth baseball and I love it. We were talking jealous on the bus the other day about some videos and all that and college ball, so that's been fun. So baseball's over school's over, then what happens? You get into the business as sort of an entry level? Jake Malone: Yeah, so, well I ha I actually had a sales job for like a drone manufacturing company. Okay. Okay, great. For a, for my senior year, the whole senior year I was like kind of a, working like 20 hours a week for them and playing baseball. Tommy Cole: Mm-hmm. Jake Malone: And then. I didn't like cold calling. Yeah. Like, and you know, the grind, I wasn't making very much money. And then my parents called and they were like, Hey, we need an account manager. Ryan was already in the business. Ryan was already there Tommy Cole: working. And So back in Seattle? Yep. Yeah. [00:04:00] And you were still in Florida kind of working. All right. And I was like, Jake Malone: I remembered working on the construction crew, so I was like, ah, I don't know. And then Ryan called me and yeah, basically sold me on it and yeah, moved back and. I actually really enjoyed the account. Like it, like I wasn't quite as into the labor part, but the account managing was a lot more fun, a lot better sales position for me rather than just picking up the phone and cold calling. How is it working with family in the business Tommy Cole: Okay. So how's it working for mom and dad? Like young kid coming in. Right. We kind of think, right, we know how it works, right. Outta college, we've learned a lot. Absolutely. How is it like, this is dad's, this is dad's com, this is his baby. Yeah. Right. And so. The find family dynamics can be a little odd. Great. Great things. And then some, some things like you got your ideas, Ryan has his ideas. How, how did that all work out? Did, did, did, did Jim, your dad just really take you on as a, as a. Coaching moment and really train and get you into the business. [00:05:00] Did you guys sort of, kind of do your own thing? Like how, talk about that. The reason why I wanna know is like we have a lot of people that are family oriented businesses. Yeah. And this is an interesting dynamic. Jake Malone: Yeah, for sure. I would say for us it's, luckily we're relatively on the same page. There's definitely some like new generation butting of heads, like mm-hmm. How we schedule certain things, like what software to use. Tommy Cole: Oh, Jake Malone: yeah. Which is always this sour topic. Mm-hmm. Because we use a proprietary software system that my mom's kind of built since like 2012 Tommy Cole: to this day. You still have Jake Malone: that? Yep. Oh wow. Okay. And we're rolling out a new version. We'll have to show a new version, show it to you when it's ready. So it's Tommy Cole: like a self-built software? Jake Malone: Yeah. Okay. And it's, right now we just mainly use it for estimating and project management, but there'll be some maintenance functions on the new one, so. Okay. That's exciting, but that's, we definitely butted ahead. Like we need to upgrade the Right, Tommy Cole: so they were used to their system, right. Yeah. And you guys inject your sort of experience, young [00:06:00] generation systematize, more tech involvement. Okay. Exactly. A little bit of pushback. What's okay though? Definitely, yeah. It's okay to have a little bit of disagreement with, with the family and the partners. Okay. And then, so talk about what's your role? Jake Malone: Right now. Oh. So I've basically done every position in the company. Like I was on a crew account manager for maintenance enhancement manager. Then I was a project manager for construction, and now I'm the north branch manager, which we can talk about. Okay. We opened that up in October and, construction business development manager. Okay. So Tommy Cole: everything install. And that's what I focus on. Everything construction. I love. That's the trick. I love construction. You know me. This is great. So what kind of construction do you guys do? We, I, I'd say Jake Malone: our average project on the construction side is between 102 hundred and 50,000. Okay. We'll have, you know, the occasional 800, [00:07:00] $900,000 job and. You know, some filler, 50, 20 to $50,000 jobs, but Tommy Cole: Okay. Jake Malone: It's kinda what we do. Outdoor patios, kitchens, covered structures is I, I would say we're one of the companies Okay. In Seattle that can do that. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Outdoor living experiences. Yeah. Outdoor living. And is it, is it design build with homeowners? Is it bid build or? Jake Malone: So notoriously we've been designed build, residential, like 95%. Right. But over the last, since I became the business development, the goal was to use our maintenance commercial portfolio to increase our bid build work. Yeah. And find like outside architects and stuff like that. Yeah. Love Tommy Cole: it. Love it. You guys do fascinating work. Like, let me give you, go find Malone's Landscaping on social media, Instagram. And LinkedIn. Yep. I follow you guys all the time. Amazing footage and drones probably. That's probably you a little bit, right? But you guys do amazing high [00:08:00] quality work, so go, go check these guys out. Chanllenges when installing Tommy Cole: It's awesome. Tell me about some challenges you've had to overcome installing landscapes, whether it's selling. The handoff production, you know, from sales Absolutely. To operations has always been a tricky one to completing jobs ever, never ending punch list. Like what are some things that you guys had to really challenge yourself and overcome to be where you are today? Jake Malone: Yeah. I'd say the system we've worked really hard on the systems and processes. Okay. The, the handoff. And then like closing out jobs was really, and to be fair is still in a work in progress, a work in progress. But that's a very tricky, and it's hard to find that balance where operations isn't blaming sales for a bad handoff or a bad estimate. And then sales isn't blaming Yeah. Operations for poor profits which we've improved quite a bit, but yeah. It's definitely systematizing it and holding people accountable to those systems. Yeah. So Tommy Cole: tell me about it. Do you guys do it once a [00:09:00] week, once a month? Like what, what is it? Is it a physical handoff? Is it a digital hand? What, how, how do you guys do that? What do you finds that successful for you guys, even though it's a work in progress? Yeah, for sure. So we, we, Jake Malone: we have a weekly, like first that helped a lot is a weekly production slash scheduling meeting. Okay. Where the sales team and production team get together. They go through the schedule, progress payments, and then any punch list items like ongoing to hold. It's basically a way that sales can hold the production accountable to their clients. Yeah. Like and finishing the job. Tommy Cole: Yep. Jake Malone: And then with pre-con meetings or pre-construction meetings, those happen, you know, depending on how busy we are, but hopefully. A month, two weeks out from the project starting. Mm-hmm. Preferably a month. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Jake Malone: And that happens in person and the designers or salesperson's accountable for bringing the, a plan set that's approved by the client [00:10:00] and approved, like signed estimate with everything we're doing and laying out the scope. And then, the foreman does, pre-con with the project manager. Tommy Cole: Right. So what I'm hearing is you have a formal process. It's not perfect. I don't think anyone's gonna have a perfect deal. Yeah. But you, at least you're doing it for every, install a formal process to do handoff from sales to operations. Great. Mm-hmm. To you're having some documents exchanged. More importantly, you're having a drawing or a plan, or a sketch. Some sort where they're very detailed of what's going on. Yeah. And Jake Malone: approved by the client. That's and approved. Okay. That's so that's a Tommy Cole: great one. Yeah. Approved by the client. So you've set the client expectation very up the very front. Yeah. So they've approved this design. Now we carry it over to operations as far as even the crew leader. Yep. Has got the same plan. So everyone's on the same PLA page. As far as the install, love that a lot. What, what are other some things that you guys are known for during your [00:11:00] installations? Is it some closeouts? Is it some, you know, customer service, communication? What? Anything else? Jake Malone: Well, I mean, I, I think we're known like a positive, like we're known for like high quality you know, we're a little bit higher priced. Yeah. And then we have a dedicated project manager that's communicating. We, you know, like anybody you get. You get five star review on being a good communicator. Okay. And then you get a one star review for being a bad communicator. Yeah. So it's, you know, finding the balance, getting the right people in the right spots. Tommy Cole: How do you get quality? How do you, how do you guys keep quality? I mean, you guys have grown a lot over the years. You're doing something right. How you even Sure. Crime. I Jake Malone: think it's a culture thing. Okay. Tommy Cole: Explain Jake Malone: that. Because our foreman on the construction side especially, I mean, each foreman's been with us for at least 10 years, you know? Or like if, if it hasn't been 10 consecutive, they left for a couple years and came back. Yeah. They came back to the best they [00:12:00] came. We like to think so. Yeah. So, and I think that plays a big role. And then we're big on like the la like the third guy is in training to be a second, and then the second hand guy is in training to be labor or, I mean. A foreman. Tommy Cole: Foreman. Wow. So Jake Malone: I think that plays a huge role in the older guys that have been there for, you know, 20 years. Tommy Cole: Yeah. They're, Jake Malone: they're bringing in a lot of the talent that we get. So, yeah. Tommy Cole: I, you said it, you nailed the, the head perfectly. You're always training that person to take the next role on the crew or in the organization. Yeah. So. We got crew member one training up to be the next crew member to train up to the technician or whatever you call it, or even the crew leader. Right? Right. So they're always being trained to advance for the, that's where you get the longevity. That's where you get the quality. Yeah, the consistency in your installs. For sure. And it all starts with you guys. That's not been implemented for since day one with your dad, right? No. Well, and like [00:13:00] I, I'm sure. Jake Malone: The recession really hurt the construction side. Yeah. A lot. So he, he was actually pretty big. Like he had like 13 crews. We're at eight right now, so Ah, we're still building back to that. Yeah. But it was pretty stagnant. And I think just over, like the guys seeing the growth that we've experienced over the last 7, 5, 7 years they're seeing those like a supervisor positions now available. Yeah. And they're seeing a little bit more growth. And we, we pay, you know, better than a lot of, a lot of people in our area. Well, you Tommy Cole: can, when you have that career ladder defined positions in your organizations, you can start to pay more and more and more and beat up that competition. Exactly. 'cause you're, you're, you're wanting high growth performance out of these crew members. Yep. Crew leaders, crew technicians along the way, which actually makes a better performing company. Yeah. Love it. Love it. Yep. Alright. You've mentioned a couple times about this branch. Yeah. I, I'm really intrigued by this. Okay. [00:14:00] Oftentimes, you know, branches can be scary because it, it's very scary. Yeah. Jake Malone: Like, what's so, WHat's scary about opening a new branch Jake Malone: what's so scary about it? Well, you're basically adding another 12 grand onto your right. Well, monthly payments. The most scary Tommy Cole: part is how do you get that culture at the main building? 'cause everyone is there. And then how do you duplicate it somewhere else from a distance? Yeah. Okay. That's a, that's a big challenge. So what was the opportunity to have another branch? Was it because of clientele to service better? Yeah. So we Jake Malone: found that we're, so our main branch is about an hour south of Seattle. Okay. And heavy traffic. Yeah. So we found that a lot of our clientele and we are still like relatively competitive on pricing 'cause. It's hard to get into the city. Super expensive. No one has yards near there. Mm-hmm. So it's all competitive. Tommy Cole: Right. Jake Malone: So we just found that a lot of our clientele were Seattle, other side [00:15:00] of the water and some Amish in North. So we are just getting killed on windshield time. Yeah. And we've definitely found that we're much more competitive with the north branch. And like you said, we were concerned about the culture issue. Yeah, but I think we approached, how'd you overcome that? We started, so luckily it kind of worked out, like timing wise. We get, we got the lease in October and then started running crews out of there in November, which is right when we go from once a week services or four times a month services to two times a month services. Okay. So. We were able to, instead of lay people off for the seasonality, just have them come, the people that were already with us come to the North Branch. So they kind of know our culture, know our processes and systems. And then now we're getting back into spring, so we're getting an influx of new people that live up there mm-hmm. Applying, and we just kind of [00:16:00] filtered them in. And then slowly sent some of the other guys back to the south where they live. Tommy Cole: Right. Jake Malone: Good. And it's worked out great so far. Yeah. Knock on wood. Well, Tommy Cole: and, and what I'm hearing, this is great because I think, I think what you've hit is you and your brother and your family have been running the main headquarters, we'll call it. Mm-hmm. Right. But you've been in that for a very long time. Consistency. I, I know you're in, you're in the family and, and, and all that, but. For our audience. That's where you get the, the brand and the culture built. Yeah. So for you to be able to pull out of the mothership Yep. And go over, because then you would keep that same culture. I think that's, that. That's the part of, versus if you and your brother and your mom and dad would stay at the same and you hired without with somewhere else and said, now you're gonna run the North Bridge. You probably wouldn't have gained that consistency across the board. So it was like, all right, Jake. You're going north, we will stay south, and we both have the [00:17:00] consistency. Would that, would you say that's accurate? Jake Malone: Yeah, it's, it's that's exactly right. Like we wanted to have like a, a Malone like ownership presence at the North branch. And then we actually, our, the production supervisor he's kind of responsible for, for quality and getting the crews out in the morning. Tommy Cole: Yep. Jake Malone: He was actually, sorry, I'm forgetting the word I'm looking for. He was promoted from within. Oh, within, okay. Yeah. Yeah. He was promoted from within, very valuable from a crew lead. And he had been doing maintenance for 20, 25 years. Yeah. So super valuable. Great guy. Speaks English like the whole Yeah. Tommy Cole: So you're getting got lucky. You're grabbing parts of. Of the mothership to kind of pull out there to get a consistency. Yeah. Jake Malone: Well, his career advancement for him, he drives a little bit further now for work. Okay. But for him, it made, made sense. Makes sense. And he, he's liking it so far. Tommy Cole: Yeah. What's a lesson learned in starting a new branch? Jake Malone: I mean, I've, I'm gonna be honest, I've been pretty fortunate. It's gone pretty well. I would say the biggest thing is. We were thinking the business development [00:18:00] would be going a little better. Okay. Than it is right now. Tommy Cole: And how's that a challenge? Jake Malone: That's been a challenge. Getting our, like, letting people know we're Tommy Cole: in that area. Yeah. And Jake Malone: that, and just like rebidding stuff that we might have been a little bit too high on. Mm-hmm. With that new drive time. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Jake Malone: Accounted for. So just really. Having the time, like it's only been a couple months, but Tommy Cole: yeah, Jake Malone: like having the time to really beat the pavement and get those new contracts signed Tommy Cole: Yeah. Has Jake Malone: been a struggle for sure. Yeah, Tommy Cole: I get it. But it's since six October, so I mean, it's, it's relatively new. It, it takes time to, to develop that. But the fact that you've got your trucks there, you've got a physical location. Yeah. You've got your IT and software. I'm sure billing and invoicing is. Communicated back to the mothership too. Jake Malone: Yeah. Tommy Cole: Okay. Jake Malone: Yeah, so that's through our software right system. Which is good. It's a, it's a challenge with the MEChA. Our in-house mechanics are back at the main shop. Mm-hmm. [00:19:00] So we're still trying to, basically our supervisor does on Fridays when no one's working mm-hmm. Takes any broken equipment. But I can foresee that potentially being an issue Yeah. In, in the prime season. Tommy Cole: Yeah. So tell me about. Installation work. What, what makes you guys profitable? Installation work? What do you guys observe? Is there's metrics Yeah. KPIs. SOPs in design build Tommy Cole: Is there SOPs for a audience that does either it's design build or bid build, or t something along the lines. What makes you guys successful To be profitable and know how to win. Jake Malone: Yeah, for sure. Well, when we, when we do win, we're definitely working on it. Yeah. But when we do win, we. Our software, like there's a project management tool. We're, we're constantly updating actual hours versus bid hours. Okay. And I think since we started tracking that and then revenue per week, oh, so the project managers started, they just started this, last year, like middle of last [00:20:00] year, tracking their revenue per week. 'cause we found, like if. If you don't hit your revenue goals, you're not gonna cover, then you're not covering your overhead overheads. Yeah. Percentage goes up. Yeah. So that was a big, Tommy Cole: and project Jake Malone: managers are tracking that. Mm-hmm. Tommy Cole: Oh, love Jake Malone: it. Yeah. So it's holding them accountable, like mm-hmm. If, if it's a Tommy Cole: commitment of revenue for, let's say four weeks, yep. I've gotta produce this revenue in four weeks, because let's say it's 200 k. You know, times two, project manager, three project managers. You gotta commit to that. 'cause that yeah. Covers everything for our team and our group and everything else. It Jake Malone: really forces 'em to like, we need to wrap up this job, or I'm not gonna hit my revenue goal this week. Yeah. Like, I gotta get someone, I gotta go do it myself. Or you know, whatever it is. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Jake Malone: And we found that that's really helped us get into the more like 10 to 12% months. Tommy Cole: Okay. Jake Malone: And then, Tommy Cole: and then you said, bid versus actual hours. How do you guys manage that? Do you see it, you know, is it a [00:21:00] report? Is it printed? Is it on TVs? Is it shared with crew leaders? How, give us some feedback on that. Jake Malone: Yeah, for sure. And they have, they get a weekly hours sheet that they have to sign off on. Okay. So they're seeing where they're at, how much time they spent on each. We're, we're still trying to figure out the best, like, 'cause you know, there'll be two guys, you know, working on the patio and then one guy's finishing the caps on the retaining wall. Yeah. So it's a little tricky to get it perfect. Tommy Cole: Yeah. But I say it's a big bucket of hours though. That's, yeah. So they can still Jake Malone: see where they're at. They're like, okay, I got 20 hours left, I gotta finish the caps tomorrow. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Jake Malone: Done deal. Tommy Cole: Yeah. That's great. Jake Malone: And, and they're signing off on their weekly hours. So How to effectively push goals Tommy Cole: what I'm hearing is you're watching. Daily and weekly, the hours. Mm-hmm. So the, the, the bid of amount of hours, which is super successful, but I'm also hearing, which is really fascinating, is the revenue per week. And that's what we [00:22:00] did in our old landscape business. So every project manager was committed to a certain amount of revenue for that month. Mm-hmm. And. We had some that would sandbag a little bit, you know? Yeah. Every year you got those sandbaggers, well, they're like, Jake Malone: oh, we ordered the plates this week. And Yeah. But, Tommy Cole: right. Yeah. So it's funny, but what that does, it's a, it's a daily, weekly process to hit your goals at by the end of the month. So let's say we're now in the, well, this is the last week of the month. We're technically where we're sitting here. Mm-hmm. It's an, it's, it's a sense of urgency to get things done. Yes. Maybe it's a change order to get signed off to get put in the ground with an extra flats of flowers or whatever, or buy those containers or sign off on some extra work, or go ahead and get all the plants in, bill for the plants, and then we can bill for the labor the next month so that everyone's being strategic on. Get to that revenue goal for the month to pay for everything. That's what made us successful by far. Huge game changer. 'cause you're, it, it, you're, it's a momentum push Yep. To get done and, and never [00:23:00] push the, the revenue to the following month. Jake Malone: Right. Tommy Cole: Try to get as much in as, as you can every single month. Yeah. If you Jake Malone: can get it in this month, let's get it in. Right. And it helps. The operations manager make a better decision if he needs to work guys overtime. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Right, right. Like, it's Jake Malone: not just guessing, like Tommy Cole: Right. But oftentimes, Jake, a lot of companies are, you know, they look at and go, well, we missed our target. Right. You know, it's a tend to the following, well, it just didn't, you know, didn't get it. You gotta know how you're progressing daily and weekly of that month in order to try to strive for those goals. I, it, it, it, it, it, it's sort of. It, it's hurting to know that, man, we didn't hit it. We didn't hit it. Mm-hmm. And if you, if you came 20 grand shorten this month, now we gotta make up the 20 plus the other that we have to make up for the following month. Right. So it's, it's a team sport, you know? Yeah. Here we go. We're talking about teams, but. I really like the revenue per week that you guys do. Yeah, for sure. For, that's what's got you guys to where you are now. Jake Malone: Oh, absolutely. And also another thing we did we use [00:24:00] Asana. I don't know if you know what that is, but Internal project Tommy Cole: management tool. Yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm. So Jake Malone: our operations man, our constructions ops manager, he started doing a pipe, a production pipeline Okay. In there so everyone can see, and we can actually project based on what he has scheduled. The revenue we're gonna do. So he can tell middle of the month, Hey sales, I'm gonna be short this month if I, we don't close this project, or mm-hmm. You know, so he can forecast a lot better and then like we can kind of narrow our focus a little better. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Jake Malone: On where we're, we might be short. This is Tommy Cole: great. So. A, A production projection. Yep. Jake Malone: Yeah. I love Tommy Cole: this. Right? Yeah. 'cause sales has a pipeline that they need to go sell. Jake Malone: Yeah. Tommy Cole: Right. Which is a whole nother separate one, but it we're talking about production and construction and that sort of thing. Mm-hmm. That's what made us successful too, is the same thing you're doing is producing the revenue within that month as much as possible, maximizing that. But if you don't have a system [00:25:00] that lets you know where you are through the. Through the four weeks, then you're, it's a guessing game. Yeah. Jake Malone: Major, right? So Tommy Cole: now you guys use as sauna, which is a great tool as sauna. And there's a couple of 'em out the trello monday.com. They're all similar, somewhat similar. Have someone in your organization to track that stuff. Yeah. When it goes into the ground or it's purchased, we gotta, we gotta calculate that to see where we are to the goal. Jake Malone: Well not just guess when it's gonna happen, like Right. See it on the schedule. This is the amount of dollars we are gonna do that week, or, you know, whatever it is. Yeah, Tommy Cole: yeah, for sure. Very good. That's, that's that's been huge, Jake Malone: like over the, we just started doing that three years ago and like, and like if we have bad months, it's 'cause the sales weren't there. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Jake Malone: It's not because we didn't schedule enough, you know. Tommy Cole: Right. Come on. Sales. Pick Jake Malone: it Tommy Cole: up. Jake Malone: Exactly. Tommy Cole: Exactly. Yeah, that's good. what has a sport taught you in business Tommy Cole: $Tell me about, I got a little fun topic. Baseball. We love the sport. My son's in youth, we've talked so much. What has a, a, a A A team sport or any sport has [00:26:00] taught you in business? Gimme some. So much. So much. So when we talked about this too, on the Jake Malone: bus, like when you see an applicant that's played college sports, like get 'em. But I think the biggest thing is work ethic. Like nowadays, like it, see, it's hard to find people with really, like a hard drive in work ethic. Yeah. Like when you're in college sports, you got 5:00 AM weights class all day, six hours of baseball practice, homework, bed, repeat. Yeah. It's a, it's a grind. Yeah. And the real world. Landscaping particularly. It's a, it's a grind. It's Tommy Cole: literally the same thing. Jake Malone: Yeah. Tommy Cole: Every day and every day is a challenge. I, I, I love sports. I love to watch. I was reading your strengths just a few minutes ago in the last, and your top five strengths are the same as almost close to mine, but we have, we have competitive Yep. And we have significance, so Yep. This is, [00:27:00] this is why we're sitting here right now. Yeah. Because we're very similar and I love that, but. You know I, I, I played all through high school and some college and I would agree, you know, no discount to anything else out there, but, you know, athletes and sports people just have this ability to sort of, have a team comradery because you got, you win together. Yep. And you lose together for sure. And it's, it's discipline. It's, it's being coachable. That's why I tell my son all the time, you gotta be coachable. You gotta be understand of, you know, how to take constructive criticism. I mean, all facets of it. Yeah, that's, that's a Jake Malone: big one that's missed too. 'cause customers aren't always like the ni like if you mess up, they're not gonna be very nice. All the time and like how you handle that and like if you've already been yelled at by your coach, like Yeah. You probably know like, yeah, you, you get yelled at in, in sports and so being able to like not break down Tommy Cole: Yeah. Jake Malone: [00:28:00] And be able to continue the conversation and resolve the problem is huge. Tommy Cole: Yeah. You know, whether you're sports or not athlete or not. That's a good point. Constructive criticism is very good and healthy. Yes. And. I will tell you, I'll tell our audience this, and I'll tell you this. I learned the best and the most from the toughest and strictest clients ever. Yeah. I have a top five client list that I did not like at all to this day. I don't know if I would show up at their property, but that top five bad client lists taught me a ton. Mm-hmm. And it challenged me and it pushed me to the most extreme to dig deep in some challenging situations that. You know, we messed up. He might have messed up as well, but it was like constant on my rear about something all the time. And those are the ones that I, I really probably at that time I hated. Yeah. But now looking back, I really [00:29:00] encouraged, 'cause I learned a lot during that tough time. And I'm sure you've got some clients that have been really? Oh yeah. My very first Jake Malone: client. First day on my butt about porta-potties in the wrong place. Oh yeah. Guys showed up late. I need to, I need to schedule every single morning what they're gonna do. And that was like for the first week after, you know, after that week we started building rapport. Yeah. I mean, I would chill up to his house and we'd probably be able to have a beer and that's great. Like be, Tommy Cole: but that, but that sets you up to where you're now. Yeah. Like now you have to find a spot for the porta-potty. Yep. Now they have to be clean consistency. Figure that out in the Jake Malone: precon and, Tommy Cole: and figure that out in the precon. Oh my God. Add that note to this. This as well is in the precon. Figure out where the materials go. Yep. Where you park the trucks, where can we stage Jake Malone: it? Tommy Cole: Where can you stage it, where the trash cans go, the dumpsters, all of that, make it very clear to the, mm-hmm. To the client and the homeowner. So they have an expectation, man. Could you imagine starting off a job [00:30:00] knowing that all that's been figured out? Yeah. Which is not even in the estimate. Nope. Right. A lot of that stuff's not figured out. But a pre-con meeting supervised, Jake Malone: well, an onsite pre-con with the client, especially residentially. Mm-hmm. Like an onsite precon where you can, it's their own personal space. Yeah. Well, they might've just spent a hundred grand on their driveway and don't want you to drive on it, but you would never know unless you brought it up. Tommy Cole: Brought it up. Brought it up. Jake, any last minute words of wisdom advice schedules, books. Anything that's out there that you live by that you're like, man, this is, this is me. This is what got to me where I'm today. I'm not perfect, but this is, this is me. Jake Malone: Yeah. Well, definitely far from perfect. I would say, at, at like as business owners and like higher up performers and, and companies, you just gotta keep, keep plugging away and trust the process. Yeah. You know, nothing works if you don't. Do it for a long enough period of time. Mm-hmm. There's a lot of [00:31:00] influencer, you know, successful people out there that, that I listen to that mm-hmm. Live by that. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Jake Malone: And that's all I've been trying to do for the last, you know, five, six years. Tommy Cole: Yeah. I think, I think what stands out in my observation of you is you being the baseball player. Like if you're batting 300, you're super successful. So you're, you're not doing something, you're getting out of some say or away 70% of the time. Yeah. Sales. Sales, right. It's sales and it's everything in life. But I think what you got to understand is keep grinding and trust the process. Develop the process. Nothing you implement today will be perfect. Yeah. But if you just implement and do, and do and do keep going well, and it's gonna be Jake Malone: painful. That's what Yeah. People have to understand. Mm-hmm. Is it's gonna hurt, it's gonna suck. Like, you're gonna get knocked out more times than you succeed. Yeah. Like in baseball. Yeah. But you just gotta keep going [00:32:00] in that, those rare successes you do have feel so good. Yeah. So it's worth it. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Keep grinding. Never give up at the end of the day. One of my favorite quotes is progress over perfection. Yeah. And I love it. Just keep progressing and keep developing along the way and, and, you know. Good things will happen for consistency. Yeah. 1%. And Jake Malone: our, our quota of the year X kind of goes off that. Yeah. Okay. Our quota of the year for our whole company. Was the road to Extraordinary is paved by consistency. Oh. Which I think is perfect for what we were just talking about. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, good stuff. It's been a pleasure, Jake, my friend. Now don't tell Ryan, you're, you're amazing. Thank you. You're an awesome, thank you for taking time out of this. After the discovery event we're had. Glad to have you as a full-time member of our peer group program. I'm happy to be here. It's a pleasure. We'll stay in touch along the way. So thank you for all of this and thank you to the audience for listening, but very great episode and I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah, [00:33:00] I appreciate it. 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.