Ivan Katz started Great Lakes Landscape Design in 1989 with no job, no plan, and a few months of backpacking through Europe behind him. 37 years later he runs sixty employees as the Visionary of the organization.

Even during Covid, the company saw great growth, up until a slump last year.

Ivan didn't fix it by working harder…. He brought in EOS and started handing pieces of the business to people who could do them better than he could. And slowly, the company stopped needing him to run everything.

In this episode of The Freedom-First Pathway Podcast, they covered:

→ Starting a landscaping company with no experience and no money

→ Why 71% of the business comes from repeat clients

→ Learning to let go of sales after almost 40 years of owning it

→ Getting through a Michigan winter of Covid restrictions

Thanks to Ivan for making the time between job sites to sit down and talk through all of it.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:59 From backpacking through Europe to starting a landscape company

05:39 What actually sets Great Lakes apart from competitors

07:55 The brand promise: we make it right, no matter the cost

09:15 Becoming the visionary and learning he's a 30% guy

11:48 Letting go of sales and breaking the machine

14:20 Building a mission around transforming employees' lives

17:41 From cutting grass himself to building career paths for the team

20:28 Reading the market in 2026 after a rare downturn

24:18 Ten years out, Covid lessons, and protecting the reputation

~~~

This episode is powered by Freedom-First Pathway.

Ready to take back control of what you’ve built?

https://www.ffpathway.com