Ep 050 – Playing the long game: 40 Years of with Gene Freeman

Gene Freeman 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: Okay. You ready? Rolling. Alright, everything good? Go for it. Alright, let's go. Hey, welcome. This is Tommy with Root Success Podcast and I've got an awesome guest, gene Freeman big Gene. It's, it's about time that we have finally got together, but we're in the same location and so this is just gonna be an awesome sort of episode. Gene. Tell us about where you're at, what you do. Dallas, Texas, everything. Complete land sculpture. Tell us more about it. Gene Freeman: Yeah. Thanks for having Tommy. Yeah. Complete land sculpture. We're in Dallas, Texas as our headquarters. We have an office also in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. And this will be our 40th year. So my business partner, Chris Pec, founder of Complete Land Sculpture, yeah. Founded it 39 years ago, so we're entering into our 40th year. Tommy Cole: Lots of, [00:01:00] lots of things. Lots of changes, lots of growth. Unbelievable. Gene Freeman: Yeah. We were forever a design build mm-hmm. Landscape firm. Mm-hmm. You know, for probably the first 20 plus years. Mainenance Growth at Complete Landsculpture Gene Freeman: Yeah. And the last 20, I would say we really started to focus in on a little more diversity focusing our number one goal at Clean Land Sculpture is grow maintenance. Maintenance. Tommy Cole: All right. So this is, this is the, this is the stage. Yeah. Construction. I'm with you. Like I love construction. It's the coolest part. Yep. It's the most challenging at that time. But you, back in the day when I was running a landscape company with all of our, with all our partners. The thing called recession hit in oh oh 7, 0 8. And you're, you experienced that? We did wholeheartedly. Right. But did it change at that point, like more maintenance or was it further down the road a little bit? Maintenance Gene Freeman: was always the kind of the, the add on at the end, the back end. It wasn't the back end of it. So it wasn't a forward thought, you know, mindset to it. But you know, once we kinda, once we kinda really. Saw how [00:02:00] good maintenance was with the recurring revenue and kind of stabilizing things. It's nice to go into the year with a, you know, $13 million backlog of annual maintenance contracts, and then all the enhancements that come on top of that, you know, trying to achieve 50%. Enhancement value and dollars on top of that maintenance contract. Yeah. It really started to set us up and, and start to be able to build and grow. We can still do the $20 million in design build every year, but as long as our maintenance continues to grow, we're gonna continue to grow beyond that as well. Tommy Cole: So, Jean, talk about some couple of tactical things for our audience. If you're looking to grow more in maintenance, which we all encourage, especially across our peer groups and of our network. The reoccurring nuity, the consistency. What were some tactical things that you guys had to change within your group to say, this is how we get more maintenance? Gene Freeman: Well, we had to stop treating it like you know, the stepchild, you know? Yeah. We really had to treat it as, you know, an awesome division in itself and, and championing it, you know, [00:03:00] because with the maintenance becomes. All the tree work and all the irrigation repairs and all the reciprocal and maybe a phase two renovation out there on their property and things. So it was a mind focus, you know, change the, a mindset of, did the mindset changed and, and it started with you and Chris? It was, it was, it was us, you know, for sure. And, and once we saw that. The team, they bought into it and they really understand it. And if you walk through our office, doesn't matter which, which team member you ask, they're gonna say, what's the number one goal at Complete Land sculpture? And they're gonna say, grow maintenance. Yeah. Which, you know hindsight, you know, we should have had that mindset at the beginning of the business and, and continue to do that. But we, we we, we, we might not be fast learners, but we definitely aren't dumb. So we learn and, and it's been a great, great addition. Yeah. So Tommy Cole: it's changing the mindset, you know, you and Chris have to say, look, this is what we're gonna focus on right now, and it's gonna change the, we gotta change the mindset of, not us, but it's the team. It starts with us as the ownership and it kind of goes throughout the leadership team everywhere else. [00:04:00] What are some, what are some tactical things about. Did someone focus on business development or relationships, or did you, were you able to sort of drop some low hanging fruit of some install work that you were already doing that can transfer into maintenance? We Gene Freeman: did, you know, we really kind of put that at the forefront when we're talking to individual clients about the initial meetings on design and build and you wanna do this pool and you wanna this beautiful backyard and these elaborate gardens and maybe boxwoods and parters and yeah, you know, sheared hedges and things. You know, this is, this is also gonna impact your maintenance costs. On the backside. So making sure that you want to do that, by the way, this is what we do, and so we'll go ahead and take care of the maintenance afterwards, and you should expect that this is gonna be X dollars per month. Mm-hmm. Going forward with this type of a garden setup, you know? Yeah. And so getting the buy-in from the people and really kind of educating 'em on the front side so that it wasn't a, an afterthought. It was really kind of sold at the beginning of the deal. That was, that was a, that was a shift. And then yeah, we went to, you know, relationships and, [00:05:00] and you know, it's one of our three core values. Relationships matter at all levels and for us it was. Going back to our clients and asking them, you know, letting 'em know this is a service that we've, we've always had, but we never really, and they may not even know. Yeah, right. We, we didn't market it, we didn't champion it, and so they didn't know. And then we really had to look at our team and our team's done, you know, amazing job with it. They've taken this thing and, and it's, it's really their, their, they're, they're driving the force behind this now from our maintenance business development team out there in, in the marketplace. And getting on the RFP lists. Yeah. And getting bids and doing all the commercial and HOA and, and, and shopping centers, hospitals, those kind of properties. And then you know what we call a TLC program transitioning from landscape to the care program. Of, you know, making that a, a mindset and a focus for our team to have those conversations. And, you know, we know we may just done a general cleanup for you or a tree work for you, but we also do the maintenance. If we're here, we can see this stuff, you know, 52 weeks a year. Tommy Cole: Yeah. You hit, you said some really interesting deal. We talk about this, [00:06:00] the, the enhancement value on maintenance properties. I think back in our days it was about a one-to-one ratio when I mean one-to-one ratio. One, you know, for every dollar of contracted value. The value of Enhancments in Maintenance Tommy Cole: Right. Right. That you service as a dollar versus enhancements in the commercial world, it's different, right? Yes. And you mentioned it's 50% of the contract, but how did you get to learn that and what, what is that a goal of complete that you have learned and get? It's, it's, it's, it might be easy for you to understand, but like the whole team has to understand, right. In order to set those goals to go after. Right. Gene Freeman: So we call 'em the KPIs, you know? Yeah. And so. Different divisions need different measurements, different, you know, different targets to hit. And so we know in our commercial estimating, we're gonna bid about $50 million worth of work to go ahead and get about $8 million. Tommy Cole: Yeah. Gene Freeman: You know, so we're gonna be at that, at that kind of a 18%, you know, success rate on just bid stuff. Mm-hmm. And then our design build stuff, we're gonna be north of 50%, you know, so we're gonna win about 50% of that work. And so of that we're going to, we're gonna bid probably around 30 [00:07:00] million, so we're gonna get close to fif 15 million on that. On the enhancements residentially, it's, it's one to one, you know? Yeah. So if they're gonna be a thousand bucks a month account, it's $12,000 a year, they're gonna spend more than 12,000 with their sprinkler repairs, their modifications, the tree work, the mulching, the flowers, the additional shrub replacements and things they do. Mm-hmm. Those are great clients. Yeah. And then commercially. It's really about, you know, focusing on budgeting. Okay. You know, we do a great job with our leadership team. We have a gentleman there, Scott Fries. He and I worked together when I was 19 years old, actually at another firm. And he's on our team and we work together and he's really doing a great job with mentoring and coaching up our account managers and to. Go ahead and create the budget for your clients for what they're gonna need for the next 12 months. And we're doing that work in July. Wow. Very Tommy Cole: proactive. July and August, Gene Freeman: we're doing that. 'cause they're doing their budgets mm-hmm. September, october typically. Mm-hmm. For turning that into [00:08:00] their, you know, their corporate or their budgeting purposes. And then that is blessed, you know, by, before January one. So we can go ahead and let 'em know, Hey, we had this budgeted you, you've got it done, you're got it. Approve. Everything's good. But we let you know your mulch is gonna be X your, your three color changes are gonna happen in these months, in this timeframe. Yeah. Your tree work, your irrigation repairs. You know, you spent x thousands of dollars last year. If we prorate that out over 12 months, you've got $800 a month in in irrigation repairs. Yeah. You know, these are things that we can help them with the budget. It makes it so much easier when they get it into their budget ahead of time. I. Versus having to go and try scramble and try and find the money. Right. And just say, well, we're gonna put that off. We're not gonna do it. Yeah. Tommy Cole: It's a partnership. It is. Right? And, and you're the professional in this industry, right? So you suggest these things so they become more equipped, right. With their building and their finances. I mean, they've got 80 other things working on, right? Yeah. The build, all kinds of other things, right? If you can align yourself with the, with a strategic [00:09:00] partnership, say, we're here for you. Yeah. This is how you understand it. Best, best case scenario that is gonna be win you over on everything. 'cause they're gonna trust you as a partner and then. Sounds good, gene, sign me up for it. Boom, boom, boom. Gene Freeman: Well, and that's it. You know, people buy from who they know, like, and trust. Yeah. And if you don't build that relationship and they don't get to know you, it's hard for them to like you. Mm-hmm. And then if you can perform and do what you say you're gonna do, they're gonna trust you. You know? And so, you know, a lot of our team members, they've got the relationships to the point now that, you know, they send out an irrigation inspection and they send it out and say, Hey, these are your. These are your, your needs. These are, you know, your should dos and these are coming down the line that we kind of gotta work on this. So you need to do this much. Yeah. And they're like, okay, you think I need to do that? And they're like, yes, let's do, it's, you know, so it's just they're not going out there looking to see the valve and see every head that we're talking about and things. They built the trust and so they know that which is great. Trust is most important. Tommy Cole: And, and when they trust, it's not about a numbers game on a price, they just get it done right. But it it, it's gonna take time. It does whatever you say [00:10:00] you're gonna do, you gotta do it right. Like if you don't perform, then there's the breaking the trust so you couldn't sell anything. What does a leadership team look like? Tommy Cole: Right. Yeah. I love that. We're gonna switch gears, just this on this one leadership team. Yeah, man. I get this question a lot, especially for young companies or smaller companies that are like. What does a leadership team look like? I mean, that is a whole, whole different scenario, like going from owner operator things. You've, you've been through the battles for all these years with complete, but now you've developed this team. Like, take us back a little bit. Like how you developed it, it finding people, is it more divisional roles to, and and it's not like managing landscape now you're managing people. Tell us about that Gene Freeman: process. Yeah, it's the human capital of our business, you know, which is, which as owners, it's really one of your most important thing. If you take care of your team, the team will take care of the, the work, you know, and, and do that. And so for us, it happened. You know, it was, it was actually 11 years ago when it kind of clicked for us and, and was from, you know, working with with Jim and, and Jason and, and these guys [00:11:00] coming in and just kind of pointing out that Chris and I can't do it all. Yeah. You were involved in everything. Yeah. And you can't be, you know, and, and, and, you know, you also wanna, you also wanna. Develop talent. Mm-hmm. And we realized that we have some really talented people and we didn't want to bottleneck or, or put constraints on our, on our operation. And we also wanted to grow our team. And so you know, initially it, it made sense for those that were, I. At a level of participation to add value. You know, in those conversations, in those meetings, who could move the di, who could move the needle, who could make a difference? Mm-hmm. And how can they take the message and take it and push it out to their teams and their, their people? So. Yeah, we've got we've got 10 on our team now. 10 on the team. Yep. So, and, Tommy Cole: and, and talk about some of their, their job titles and Gene Freeman: roles. Sure. So we've got everything from you know, office positions. Okay. We've got director of maintenance director of landscape operations. We've got a general manager in Oklahoma that runs the construction up there. He is, been [00:12:00] up there for 25 years. Day one hire, first hire up there in that office. Wow. So they zoom in into the meeting. And then we've got another gentleman up there in Oklahoma. That he was a foreman, you know, when he came on with us and then account manager. Wow. Now he runs Wow story, now he runs the maintenance business development and account managers up there and runs, runs that team. And they're very successful and doing well. So it's good to have their input and it's good to get all the branches so it's not just. Hey, this is what we do in Texas, so we're doing it that way everywhere. Mm-hmm. You know, actually even in Texas, you know, we, we we came up in Oklahoma, we went up there and we were gonna gonna do the same thing and do design build residential and commercial. And we quickly learned that if we're not gonna add the support staff that it takes to support the residential factor and hire architects and turn stuff around and have, you know, more elements that it takes to do the residential. And we shouldn't be doing it. Mm-hmm. And so we don't, we just do all commercial in our Oklahoma city and Tulsa branches. But we're able to do that with four [00:13:00] managers. Wow. Four managers manage 50 guys between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. 55 guys this year. And everything else is supported from Dallas on the backside mm-hmm. For, you know, payroll and finance and those kind of things. But they're able to, you know, operate really lean and mean and, and it works really well for us up there. Yeah. And then in Dallas too, we've also got other team members that are maybe business development. Yeah. Maybe sales manager hr, you know, has a big component in there and then some others in our finance team. So it's a well-rounded team. That kind of covers all of our parts because sometimes you start talking about, you know, Hey, we wanna make this investment in. You know, a certain division and this other division, we didn't even think about how does that impact them? Yeah. You know, is that a good thing? Is that a net positive thing for the whole company, or is it just too myopic too, too tunnel vision of this one thing and we don't realize the ripple effect it may have over here. Yeah. And so getting their input into it really helps us a lot. How to run a leadership team? Tommy Cole: Yeah. [00:14:00] This is the, this is a good question. So talk about. Like how do you run a leadership team? I think that, that's the hard part. It, I feel like there's got, there's one-on-one meetings, right. With some direct reports. Sure. But you gotta get everybody in the room. You gotta have this thing called a meeting. Right. Right. And And it could last for hours. Yeah. Could have no agenda. You could get complacent. You could. That's a big deal. So talk about getting people in the room. What do you review in a leadership team? Then how does that deployed out? How often do you meet Sure. Help our audience understand from your background. Gene Freeman: Yeah. So for us, I mean, it it's some trial and error initially. Yeah. It was clunky. It was like you said, you know, yeah, we, we, we thought we had this information and we'd start on this and, you know, so, and we'd, we'd meet and we'd be in this room and next thing you know, you look up and it's like six hours. And we hadn't even got to 50% of the content yet. And we're like, oh my gosh, my head spin. So we gotta do better. So we did. So we, we, you know, we created agenda. We follow that agenda. We actually send the agenda out prior a day or two ahead of time. And everyone kind of [00:15:00] sees what's on there. They know that, hey, this is my 30 minutes and I'm gonna speak to everything, maintenance. And they're just given bullet points. It's not even a question, period. We don't even ask 'em questions during there. This is what we got. Here's our numbers. We were 12% above target. And these are my issues I have going on in my department right now. These are our wins. This is. You know, what we see coming down the, down the pipe and the next month we kind of forecast this is where we think we're gonna land and be. And so they share all that. Yeah. And then we move on to the next division and then we move on to the HR and they give us the updates on our staffing, on any injuries or people outta work or anything that we have to deal with, you know, at that time. And then there's a, there's a section in there. It's just called IDS. So it's it's for, you know issues that we've gotta solve or be discussed upon. Ooh. So people will send those in ahead of time the day before, like hot topics, like we need answers or direction. So then those are up there and there might be, yeah. You know, someone might not send any [00:16:00] that month or they might have five, you know? Mm-hmm. And so we get 'em up there, we look at 'em, and then we all rank 'em together. So, we'll, we'll tackle 'em, you know, what, what's most important, what does the group think's most important? This is one. You know, we got seasonal color coming up, so we gotta go ahead and make sure our suppliers ready to go and. You know, if our H two B, you know, where we at with getting our pro our, our forms turned in mm-hmm. And, and getting all that back and, you know, how's that gonna impact us and what timeline are we gonna shoot for, and how many do we need next year with our growth plan and what we're doing? And so those things will come up and then we'll just, we'll sit there and we'll tackle those. And those are typically, some of them are just, you know, as quick as two to five minutes. Yeah. Some of 'em might be 15 minutes, but we have an agenda to that and that fits in that agenda. And then we have our rocks, you know. Okay. So we'll, we'll go ahead and we'll tackle those projects. Mm-hmm. We know they're gonna be bigger. We know they're gonna be they're gonna take a little more time. Yeah. Improvement projects and they may be something that's gonna be over the course of. The whole second quarter for us to get it done. Yeah. You know, and you know, updates, [00:17:00] timelines towards the deadline and where we're at. If we're doing something with, you know, software innovation or something like that. And so it goes well, we meet once a month. Okay. It's always the last Wednesday of the month. We, we start at, what's the reason the last Wednesday of the month. It just works for us because we're trying to get our financial from the previous month. So the previous month we're getting that closed out. We're trying to get that information. Ideally, we have that financial sent out also two days ahead of time. Yeah, so everyone can kind of review it and poke holes in it and if they have questions, they can shoot those questions back to maintenance. Hey, I see here. You had this large expense in small tools, you know? Yeah. And that really kind of threw your budget off this common common little bucket. Yeah. Right. So we can go ahead and ask what that is ahead of time, and they'll come to that meeting with that answer versus we're in the meeting, well, I'm not sure. Let me get back to you. They already have the answer. Yeah. You know, and so trying to streamline it and make it make it effective. It's an expensive meeting. Obviously. We got, you know, 10 of our, 10 of our our top leaders Yeah. In the, in the [00:18:00] company. Stopping down, getting together. For, you know, collectively, you know, once a month. And so we start at eight and we typically get done about one 30. Yeah. You know we bring in lunch and we kinda, you know Yeah. Make that format work and, and follow for us. Yeah. It also go, it also lets us, it put something out there on the target that everyone knows that's where we're going. People are traveling, you know, on Mondays and Fridays or maybe a Thursday or something. So Wednesday kinda works for us. Mm-hmm. It's middle of the week. Yeah. You can go if you're gonna, you know, someone says, Hey, can you do this trip? Or can you do this or do that? We know, I I, I got, I got this one meeting. I really need to be at this one meeting on this Wednesday. Yeah. And so it works well for us. Tommy Cole: Yeah. You, if you didn't develop the leadership team, you wouldn't be here. Oh, absolutely. There's, there's no way that you and Chris could have done that. No. Also if you don't develop the leadership team. Then you're potentially gonna lose some really key players in the organization. Yeah. Like they're gonna go elsewhere and go, I'm gonna do my own thing. I got somewhere else. To be, as you grow, you have to elevate a hundred percent other [00:19:00] team members. Now that's not everybody, right? People are comfortable with some type, but the A ones that really want to advance their career. Yeah, you gotta provide a seat and that's the seat to elevate those teams and empower them to. Own it and move on. Gene Freeman: Yeah. I mean, we're here at Grow right now. Yeah. You know, in Columbus, Ohio. And we've got six new timers, first timers coming to grow. Yeah. And it's, it's amazing to do that and see. You know, our industry, you know, it's not just their task or their desk or their sales, or they're our production manager. They manage the maintenance irrigation department. They get to see, you know, this big green industry mm-hmm. That we're all part of and develop these relationships that you and I both have and we cherish and, and you know, it's a great resource and a great tool for us to lean upon our peer groups. Yeah. Those kind of things. We can pick up the phone and reach out to, you know, one of 12 people and get an answer back with some honest feedback. Yeah. Without having to go through the trial and error and maybe the investment and the loss of time or Yeah. How, how did you handle this? Or do you anyone in our have an experience share on this that might be helpful? An insight for us to take and, and make that decision, but [00:20:00] having some of those team members here, you know, we have two of em that were in the field in production, you know, we're hourly, you know, labor mm-hmm. Type employees. Yeah. You know, just a year ago. And they're doing amazing in the last 12 months in their new roles. And it's funny because. You know, we have 280 team members at the busy peak part of the time in three cities, and we don't know everybody. Mm-hmm. You, you, you don't physically know or get to see the whites of their eyes, you know, every single day like. Other people, other team members do. And so if we can push that, that message and that culture down on what they're looking for, and then we also show a career path. Yeah. Visually, you know, in our, in our offices, in the, in the warehouses and the banners and things where it has, you know a lead man, you make x. Or a labor, you make XA lead man, a foreman, a yeah. You know, supervisor, all the different things up, you know, to the wall and what the pay is and how they get there and things. That was really good. We picked that up at Grow, you know, down at Summit, you know? Yeah. [00:21:00] And, and we championed it and, you know, it's best form of flattery is is copying somebody that's doing something really well. Yeah. So, yeah. But they, they find the people. Mm-hmm. You know, they say, this person's ready. And I'm like, really? That person? You think that one think Really? And I'm like. If they say yes, I mean, they're right. Nine out 10 times. Mm-hmm. You know? Mm-hmm. And so, you know, we back 'em and support 'em and, and it's great because they're, they're actually training these team members and they're, they're mentoring and coaching them too, so that they don't just. You know, stay in irrigation tech and you know, I can make another dollar an hour. I'm gonna go over to this company and we lose all the time and training and knowledge we had on the 65 properties that took three years to learn, you know? Yeah. And so we keep them on and they have a chance to move up. It's great. Tommy Cole: Yeah. This is Grow is an amazing opportunity to bring your team. Yeah. I mean, we can sit here and talk about it as leaders and take it to our team, but when you get out of the facility, you gotta that, that four walls in a roof that you're so accustomed to seeing every day. Yeah. And you get to see it. Something else. Network with other people in the same, I'm a [00:22:00] project manager. Oh, you're a project manager. How do you do things? It's, it's life changing to go to these events for people like that are middle management, field staff, et cetera. It's, it's a great place to be. Profit sharing program Tommy Cole: Another topic I wanna talk about is profit sharing programs. You didn't have this years ago. Yeah. And now you do, which is. Probably a game changer. It, it, you probably have messed it up and learned some things of we have what not to do, but Gene Freeman: it's a good and bad thing, you know? Yeah. Because, you know, with that, you're, you're on the hook for transparency. Yeah. You know, but Well, you gotta have the Tommy Cole: metrics behind it in a leadership team to understand like, this is what we're gonna do. Sure. Mm-hmm. Gene Freeman: And, and, you know, sharing that information, good or bad, it's, it's, it's, it's. Ultimately it's the final scorecard, right? Yeah. And so if you have a, if you have a great, if you have a great, you know, quarter and, and you make profit and stuff, you can go ahead and pay that out. So we we actually pay 20, we share 20% of the profits with the entire team. So you have to be there for 90 days and then you're eligible for the next, next quarter that's profitable. [00:23:00] And we do that, you know. Yeah. So there's been some periods where we've hit, you know, three out of four quarters we're profitable and they've got a check. Mm-hmm. You know, each of those quarters and stuff, we kind of did it that way versus. Waiting for it to all build up at the end of the year and getting one checks. Well, that's Tommy Cole: 12 months of waiting and Right. Gene Freeman: How you're doing. But if you've got some little wins along the way Yeah. It's nice. And, you know, those, some of those things are, you know, it's another paycheck for a field level person. I mean, it's, it's a major deal Yeah. For them and, and, and trying to, you know, showcase and, and do that. And then, you know, when we don't hit goals, you know 2024 was not a record banner year for, for most people in our, in our industry. Yeah. You know, construction being down, down, and, and so. Fortunately, another reason to grow maintenance, right? Mm-hmm. To, to, you know, still be able to keep everybody and do everything you need to do, but with construction down, you know, not having the profits and sharing that information. Yeah. It, it, it comes better than, Hey, it's Christmas time. I guess I get a [00:24:00] Christmas bonus. Mm-hmm. We don't do Christmas bonuses. We do profit sharing bonuses. Mm-hmm. And so we report that and, and do. The other thing I was gonna say too is that, you know, the leadership team and stuff coming to grow these, these six team members that are here with me, this at this, this one. We're going to collaborate and we'll sit down and we'll do everything and kind of pull it together and what nuggets and what, which sessions they went to and what they got from that. We'll compile all that and I'm not going back and sharing it with the team. Yeah. They're each gonna go back and share their part with the team. Team. What's their take, what do they learn? You know, and they're gonna present that, you know, so. While they're here, the team members are back home, you know, taking care of the crews and production, doing things. They anticipating coming back with some and they're, they're, they're picking up the extra slack and these guys are gonna bring back and help, you know, make our team stronger and raise the bar. Yeah. Tommy Cole: Yeah. That's your ROI there, I mean. Yes. You know, it's a lot of money to go to places. Sure. But then you go back, you sort of digress. You got a few takeaways, let's implement it. Let's put a timeline. Right. Let's put a deadline on it. Yeah. Otherwise, if we did nothing when we got back, then. You've done nothing. Yeah. What [00:25:00] was this for? Waste. You know, it's just Gene Freeman: a, it's self self-fulfilling, you know, self, and it doesn't really help the whole team. And, you know things that, and things that we learn here sometimes will help our Oklahoma branch. Yeah. You know, because it's a, it's a secondary branch. There's better ways to, you know, do inventory or controls or things of that nature where they can do it, streamline easier and get that information back to Dallas versus. Maybe hard counting and doing these kind of things and stuff. So we learn a lot, you know, and, and it's great. Yeah, it's good. Hosting GROW 2026 Gene Freeman: So Gene, we Tommy Cole: got a huge announcement here. We do a very big announcement. This is, this is sort of hot off the press, but grow 2026 is coming. It's we're exactly one year away. Gene, take it away. Where are we headed? Yeah, we're we're, we're super excited. Gene Freeman: We're gonna be at home next year. Yeah. Are we home? Yes. We had never come to to a grow event, but 2026 we'll be at Complete Land Sculpture in Dallas, Texas, and we'll have over a thousand landscapers. Are you sure? Are you ready for this gene?[00:26:00] We are. We know you Tommy Cole: signed the dotted line. We are ready. Yes. We Gene Freeman: we are excited. Yep. You know, they say if you wanna get stuff done, go ahead and schedule a party. I mean, you know, it's, you're gonna, you're gonna adjust everything. You're gonna fix everything. Yeah. You're gonna do those kind of things and really tighten up. You know, some of your operations and things. And we actually we, we had never been to grow and we, we we hosted in 20 16, 10 years ago we were, so we were 13 and a half million company. So a 10 year anniversary. 10 year anniversary. Wow. And we're super proud of what we've done, and that was 10 years. And, and the team's come a long way and they'll be very prepared for it. Yeah, we're excited to share that with them. Show what a better way it off. Tommy Cole: This is a great thing. I, you're gonna be the only one that's ever hosted twice. Sweet. This is gonna be great. 10 years down the road, they're gonna see some progress. They're gonna see something. They're also gonna see some things that we screwed up. Yeah. It just did not work. Yeah. But tell me what you, why did you want to do this? Like, like this is a huge [00:27:00] effort. It's a 12 month. Sort of get ready, prep, get ready and fall. But I feel like you just want to improve. Yeah. Right. And you've got new people we do that haven't been there in 10 years, that, you know, they don't have an understanding what it's like. What Complete hopes to get out of hosting GROW 2026 Tommy Cole: So what are you hoping to get out of this? You Gene Freeman: know, I remember when we did it the first time, it was a lot of work and we didn't know what to expect. Yeah. And, and the team really came together and galvanized over it. They set metrics in place for themselves and for us, and they had so many great ideas mm-hmm. For improvement and things. And then from that, you know, getting our, our start stop and keeps, you know, and those kind of things. We took all those nuggets so. Basically we get a thousand consultants into our office that are doing the same thing we're doing on various levels and things to come in and, and look through our underwear drawers as Marty says. Yeah. And you know, make us better. You know, I think we wanna, we wanna, you know, we wanna get better. We work hard to do that, but we also wanna [00:28:00] give back, you know? Yeah. We wanna share with our community and we've been so blessed and Yeah. And you know, the relationships that we have, the, the the vendors, the subcontractors are, are. Counterparts all over the country that are landscaping and doing the things that we do, we want to give back and help out, you know, in that arena as well. So yeah, we're excited. Yeah, Tommy Cole: it's, it's super exciting. Our, our town Dallas. Yes. You know, we do things big in Texas. Easy to get to. The weather should be pretty decent, you know, you know, what are some things that name one thing about the place or something that's different from 10 years ago. Gene Freeman: Yeah, so we've we've, we've maximized all, all of our office space and we have, you know, we're, we're really we'd have to build another building on property and things to do it, but, you know, our, our efficiencies have, have really come a long way from our PM crew that we operate. You know that's something that we can definitely share. Yeah, that's great. And, and deal with, and, and, and it works great for us. It minimizes overtime, it keeps our team fresh. Yeah. You know, our [00:29:00] team overall, the metrics that they're measuring and what they're performing against. Yeah. I think our product has really developed in terms of our design and what we're doing, the, the maintenance care team and, and just the way that they're so good and so fast about communication. Yeah. They're able to go ahead and turn in an instant service request while they're on the field taking a picture of, a branch that needs to be trimmed properly. Mm-hmm. With a proper hand saw when the crew's out there, they can take a picture, they can send that hot service request in. There's a, there's a system and a process for it. It comes in, it's automatically printed off, and it's on that screw that crew schedule sheet when they go out there next time. And then the crew can take that snapshot showing where it was done. And it goes in, back in and there's a record of it being completed. So we can send that on to the prop, the homeowner, the management company, whoever it is, that these are the things that we actually achieved on your property here this week or this month. Those kind of things. Great. Tommy Cole: Yeah, man. I'm super stoked. Yeah. To host. I don't have to go very far [00:30:00] from Frisco. Right. You, you're literally like throw a rock at the, at your place. So we'll be there one year from now. Next February, 2026. Go see Gene Chris and his entire. Complete land sculpture team. It's gonna be fascinating. This is hot off the press. Like super, super gonna go back to the back to the team and go, man, guess what we get to do? The team doesn't even know. Team doesn't even know. So today they're gonna Gene Freeman: find out when everyone else finds out in here. Yeah, that's gonna be great. Whoa, whoa, whoa. So yeah, we're looking forward to the energy and, and stepping up to the challenge, you know? Yeah. Well, Tommy Cole: gene, it's a pleasure. You're just an awesome. Individual you mean a lot to, to me personally in the entire industry. To see you grow and develop and share all your knowledge. I mean, you don't have to be doing this, you don't have to be sitting here, but this is for our audience to learn more about you and the team and get a little more nuggets. Sure. Like, as you mentioned along the way to make you guys better at whatever stage you are in your business, ownership to [00:31:00] field. Come listen to us, put it on in the pickup truck, driving the jobs, and get a few nuggets and learn and, and we make this industry better by sitting here and taking time to do this. Gene Freeman: Couldn't say any better. Chris and I are humbled and we're we're, we're honored to be asked to do it. Cool. Thank you for your time, bud. Thank you man. Tommy Cole: Yep. Appreciate you. Yep. Gene Freeman: Nice one take. Nice Tommy Cole: job. John: Ready to take the next step? 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