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Episode #163

We can't control other people, but we can control our own work, attitudes, and approach. When a client is upset, team members have disagreements, or a vendor drops the ball: the way you react matters. Keep your cool this spring with Marty's best tips for handling adversity, because we all know even the best plans sometimes go sideways.

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Episode 100 with Rich Grunder

Key Learnings

You Can Only Control Three Things: Your attitude, your effort, and your response. That is it. Everything else is out of your hands. Strong leaders pause and ask what is actually in their control before reacting.

Ask the Right First Question: When something goes wrong, ask yourself what am I doing or not doing that is getting me the results I don't want. That is ownership. Reacting emotionally never solves the problem.

Leaders Stabilize, They Do Not Escalate: If a client yells and you yell back, the situation gets worse. Leaders bring calm, clarity, and direction. They reduce tension instead of adding to it.

A Growth Mindset Changes Everything: A fixed mindset says this should not be happening to me. A growth mindset says this is part of the process, what can we learn. Adversity is not the exception, it is the norm.

Slow It Down Before You Respond: Not everything needs an immediate reaction. Saying let me think about that can completely change the outcome. Separate the issue from the emotion.

Replace You Are Wrong with Help Me Understand: That one shift keeps disagreements productive instead of personal. It shows the other person you respect their perspective and want to work together.

Focus on Solutions, Not Blame: Blame looks backward. Leaders look forward. The question is not who caused this, it is what is the next best step.

Use Mistakes to Improve the System: Acknowledge the issue clearly. Take ownership where needed. Ask the team what we can do differently next time. Move forward quickly. Do not let mistakes linger or define the team.

Clarity Beats Chaos: Even if you do not have all the answers, give direction. Your team is looking at you. If you need time, say so, but follow through. Silence creates uncertainty.

Reflection Questions

1. The last time something went wrong in your business, did you react emotionally or pause and ask what was actually in your control?
2. When was the la...

• (00:00:00) - Start
• (00:01:02) - Shoutout to Rich Grunder (Episode 100)
• (00:02:04) - What To Do When Plans Go Sideways
• (00:03:25) - The Three Things You Can Control
• (00:05:08) - Why A Growth Mindset Changes Everything
• (00:06:03) - How to Handle Conflict Without Escalating
• (00:08:36) - Turning Mistakes Into Better Systems
• (00:10:06) - Staying Resilient When the Pressure Is On
• (00:12:14) - Final Takeaway - Please Share This Episode!

In this solo episode, Marty Grunder delivers a warning: a full spring schedule can lie to you. If April and May are booked but you have no work for July, August, or September, that is not a production issue. That is a sales issue. The best companies are always selling 60 to 90 days ahead, and the smartest ones are selling a year out. Marty walks through where to find work, how to fill holes without panicking, and why your schedule is not just a production tool but a sales scorecard.

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Key Learnings

A Full Spring Schedule Can Lie to You: Companies get busy, stop selling, and then panic in midsummer. A full spring does not equal a healthy business. You need to know what July, August, and September look like right now.

The Best Companies Sell 60 to 90 Days Ahead: If you do not like what you see 60 days out, that is not a production issue. That is a sales issue. The bigger your firm, the further out you should be looking.

Your Schedule Is a Sales Scorecard: Backlog is future revenue already sold. Gaps are future problems you can already see coming. You should be able to answer instantly what June, July, August, and September look like.

There Are Only Three Places to Find Work: Existing clients are the fastest and highest ROI. Unsold opportunities are leads you already have that nobody followed up on. New work should be targeted and fill specific holes.

Your Next Best Job Is Already on a Property You Service: Enhancements, add-ons, deferred work, plant replacements, outdoor living, safety issues. Walk the property with your phone and start taking pictures.

When You See a Hole, Do Not Panic: Do not discount. Do not take on bad work. See the problem 90 days out and mobilize sales immediately. Jump in yourself. Increase activity. Call your top 20 or 50 clients.

Enhancements Are Your Ultimate Shock Absorber: They fill gaps quickly, carry strong margins, and deepen relationships with clients. This is how great companies smooth out the year.

You Are Not Building a Schedule, You Are Engineering a Year: Match demand to capacity based on the season. Sell summer work in the spring. Sell next spring right now. Level out the revenue instead of riding the ups and downs.

Reflection Questions

1. What does your schedule look like 60 to 90 days from now? Do you have enough work for July, August, and September?
2. How many unsold opportunities are sitting in your pipeline right now that nobody has followed up on?
3. When was the last time you walked a property you already service and looked for enhancement work?

Resources:

BOBYARD

Proven Winners: Allium Serendipity

The best salespeople are not just lucky. They are diligent, organized, and manage their time well. In this episode, Marty is joined by Dawn Arnold, Director of Sales at Grunder Landscaping Company, to talk about what separates top performers from everyone else. Dawn shares how she coaches salespeople to boss their calendars, focus on leading indicators, and develop the habits that drive consistent results.

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Key Learnings

People First, Then Process: You can have all the processes in the world, but if you do not have the right people and someone leading them, the processes will not be followed.

One-on-Ones Save Time: If you do not give your team a dedicated weekly time with you, they have free reign to interrupt you whenever they want. A one-on-one creates a safe space and actually reduces the constant interruptions.

If You Cannot Sell Yourself in the Interview, You Cannot Sell to Strangers: Energy, connection, and the ability to build rapport in a short window are non-negotiables for sales hires. The interview is when they are at their best.

Top Performers Know What Needs Attention and When: The best salespeople understand low-hanging fruit, stay connected with clients, and have a sense of urgency. They do not wait for things to happen. They make them happen.

Leading Indicators Over Lagging Indicators: Sales numbers are lagging indicators. You cannot change a report. Focus on the activities that drive sales: proposals out, presentations delivered, pipeline managed.

Boss Your Calendar: If you do not have time blocked for proposals, client meetings, and follow-up, you are most likely not going to do it. Top performers are regimented with their calendars.

Do Not Hire Before You Are Ready to Lead: If you do not have processes, structure, and clear goals in place, a good salesperson will get frustrated and leave. Good salespeople want a system they can plug into.

Development Must Be Intentional: Do not assume everyone knows how to network. Teach them how to dress, how to start conversations, how to follow up. Pair newer people with stronger ones.

Family Members Do Not Get Special Treatment: If you let family get away with something, everyone will see it. Clear expectations, accountability, and no gray areas protect the culture.

Discipline Equals Freedom: Spring is intense. Leaning on good habits and structure all year means you do not have to turn it on during the busy season. You cannot build habits in a crisis.

Reflection Questions:

1. Are you tracking leading indicators like proposals and presentations, or just looking at lagging sales numbers?
2. If you hired a great salesperson tomorrow, do you have the structure in place to develop them, or would you be figuring it out as you go?

Resources:

BOBYARD

Proven Winners: Allium Serendipity

• (00:00:00) - Episode Intro
• (00:00:39) - Thank you to Bobyard
• (00:02:03) - Meet Dawn Arnold
• (00:03:32) - Building a Sales Team
• (00:04:33) - Grunder: Collaboration Culture
• (00:06:04) - One on Ones That Work
• (00:09:55) - Quoting Clinics for Your Team
• (00:12:22) - Dawn’s Initial Challenges
• (00:16:28) - Hiring Good Sales People
• (00:20:41) - Habits of Top Performers
• (00:22:09) - Activity Based Accountability
• (00:24:08) - Visibility and Competition
• (00:26:03) - To Grow, You Need Processes
• (00:29:15) - Home Shows & Sales Pairing
• (00:30:31) - Family Members in the Business
• (00:37:22) - Bobyard Free Trial
• (00:40:42) - Behaviors in Weekly Sales Meetings
• (00:43:00) - Building Trust on Your Team
• (00:45:23) - Sign Up for Virtual Sales Bootcamp!

Taking shortcuts is a good thing when it saves you time without sacrificing the experience your clients, team members, or the community has with your business. In this episode, Marty Grunder shares the shortcuts he takes to work more efficiently so he can get more done in a day. As AI is becoming more available, there are so many ways to save yourself time.

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Key Learnings

The Shortcut Filter: Before implementing any shortcut, ask three questions: Does it maintain or improve quality? Does it actually make us more efficient or just faster in the moment? Does it make our team better or just busier?

Good Shortcuts vs. Bad Shortcuts: A good shortcut saves you time and nobody notices. A bad shortcut saves you time, but your customer feels it, your team feels it, and you feel it in the wallet later. If your shortcut creates rework, it was not a shortcut.

Truck Positioning and Work Sequencing: Where you park the truck can cut walking distance in half. Every extra step gets multiplied hundreds of times a day. Installing trees before final grade or mulch before grading means reworking your work.

Boss Your Calendar: If your sales team is zigzagging across town, the day is gone. Group appointments geographically. Plan your day the night before. Drive the conversation and let clients accommodate you.

Prequalify Your Leads: If you screen your calls right, you can close most of them. A few simple questions upfront saves a lot of wasted trips.

AI Helps You Prepare, It Does Not Replace the Relationship: Use AI for drafting emails, organizing proposals, and researching prospects. But if your sales process starts to feel robotic, you have gone too far. AI should enable you to spend more time with clients and team, not run your whole life.

Visibility Reduces Phone Calls: Pictures on work orders, videos attached to tickets. The more visibility your team has, the fewer calls, emails, and site visits you need. Prepare every work ticket as if you are going on a cruise without cell service.

Reflection Questions:

1. What shortcut are you taking right now that is quietly costing you time, money, or quality later?
2. Are you bossing your calendar or is your calendar bossing you?
3. If you were unreachable on a cruise for a week, would your work tickets have enough detail for your team to execute without calling you?

Resources:

BOBYARD

• (00:02:20) - The Shortcut Filter: Three Questions to Ask
• (00:03:34) - Production Shortcuts: Truck Positioning, Sequencing, and Routing
• (00:06:58) - Sales Shortcuts: Bossing Your Calendar and Prequalifying Leads
• (00:09:14) - Using AI Without Losing the Relationship
• (00:10:48) - Administrative Shortcuts: Templates, Checklists, and Automation
• (00:12:37) - Visibility Systems and When Shortcuts Go Wrong
• (00:13:45) - Shortcuts Aren’t the Problem
• (00:14:34) - Please Like, Share and Subscribe!

In this solo episode, Marty Grunder shares his five-step crisis framework for handling angry clients, crew mistakes, and the constant firefighting that comes with spring. The real issue is never the crisis itself. It is your reaction to it. Marty walks through how to pause before responding, separate emotion from facts, own the outcome, solve in layers, and build systems that prevent repeat fires. Leadership is not about reacting better. It is about building a business that does not need constant reacting.

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Episode Chapters

00:30 - Welcome to the Grow Show

01:43 - Spring Pressure and Crises

02:53 - Why Leaders Lose Their Cool

03:43 - 1: Pause First

04:18 - 2: Get the Facts

05:16 - 3: Own the Resolution

06:07 - Handling Customer Complaints

06:54 - A Lesson from The Beginning

09:30 - 4: Solve in Layers

10:26 - Correct Mistakes WIthout Fear

11:43 - Systems Prevent Firefighting

13:15 - Marty’s Challenge

Key Learnings

It Is Not the Problem, It Is Your Reaction: Most of the time, the damage comes from how we respond, not from what happened.

Action: Pause before you lead. Count to four. Lower your voice. Ask what actually happened.

Separate Emotion from Facts: When a client says you destroyed their yard, that is emotion. Your job is to get the facts.

Action: Ask for a picture. Ask what assumptions you are making. Facts make it manageable.

Own the Outcome, Not the Blame: You do not have to admit fault immediately, but you do have to own the resolution.

Action: Say: "I am never going to let this get in the way of our relationship. I am going to make it right."

Ask What They Want: The most powerful question you can ask an upset client is: What would you like for us to do?

Action: Let them vent. Accept responsibility. Ask what they want. Respond with a clear plan.

Solve in Layers: Every issue has four layers: containment, client reassurance, internal correction, and process prevention.

Action: If you skip the prevention step, you guarantee repeat fires.

Correct the Behavior, Protect the Dignity: When a crew messes up, do not explode and do not ignore it. Both are leadership mistakes.

Action: Pull them aside privately. Ask what happened, what should have happened, and what we do differently next time.

Constant Firefighting Is a Systems Issue: If you feel like you are always in crisis mode, that is usually a sign your systems are weak.

Action: Install one prevention system this week. Strong systems reduce emotional leadership moments.

The Five-Step Crisis Framework

1. Pause before you lead
2. Separate emotion from facts
3. Own the outcome
4. Solve in layers (containment, reassurance, correction, prevention)
5. Build systems that prevent repeat fires

Reflection Questions

In this solo episode, Marty Grunder breaks down why growing companies struggle to stay consistent and what to do about it. Growth exposes every crack in your operation. Customers do not see departments or branches. They see one company. Marty walks through his consistency framework: clear standards plus trained leaders plus enforced systems. He covers the three areas where most companies break down: culture, quality, and client experience.

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Episode Chapters

00:30 - Welcome & Please Subscribe!

01:06 - Inspiration From Dan Pink

01:57 - Why Consistency Matters

03:51 - Three Consistency Pillars

06:08 - Non Negotiables at Grunder

06:45 - Leaders Model Culture

09:36 - Quality Standards System

10:28 - Visuals & Scorecards for Your Team

12:15 - Inspect and Coach Fast

13:26 - Client Journey Mapping

14:04 - One Voice Messaging

14:59 - Feedback and Snow Lessons

16:44 - Consistency Framework Recap

17:54 - Action Steps

18:39 - Please Subscribe and Share!

Key Learnings

Growth Exposes Inconsistency: What works at one crew breaks at five or ten. Customers see one company and expect consistent delivery.

Action: Identify where your span of control has broken down. Fix the handoffs.

Culture Is Behavior, Not Posters: You can post values on the wall, but culture is what your people actually do on job sites.

Action: Define what doing it your way looks like in observable terms. Role play it. Show real examples.

How You Treat Leaders Is How They Treat Clients: What goes downhill flows all the way to the customer.

Action: Ask yourself how problems get handled. Do you correct with respect or frustration?

Standardize the Non-Negotiables: Core behaviors should never change regardless of crew or location.

Action: Document one standard this week. Train to it. Inspect it.

Quality Requires Documentation: You cannot inspect what you have not defined. Photos of good, better, and best give your team a target.

Action: Build visual standards. Use photos. Make quality observable.

Inconsistency Lives in the Handoffs: Map the client journey from first call to final invoice. Transitions are where consistency breaks.

Action: Identify who touches the client and where the handoffs occur. Tighten those gaps.

Feedback Is a Control System: Reviews, surveys, and follow-ups catch patterns before they become problems.

Action: Secret shop your own company. Ask clients over lunch what they would do differently.

The Consistency Framework

Clear Standards + Trained Leaders + Enforced Systems = Consistency

Culture: Defined behaviors. It starts with you.

Quality: Documented processes. Pictures of good, better, best.

Experience: Standardized communication. Eliminate "that's not my job."

Reflection Questions

1. Where are you inconsistent right now? If you hired your own company, where woul...

In this episode, Marty is joined by Bob Marks, owner of EMI Landscape in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. Bob grew the company from $700K to over $13 million in revenue and has built one of the most impressive snow operations in the industry. A former Audi mechanic who returned to his family's business when his stepfather was injured, Bob shares the details of their fleet, how they manage large zero-downtime facilities, and how they keep 150+ employees motivated through long storm events.

BOBYARD is an AI-powered takeoff and estimating platform that automates the most time-consuming parts of bidding work. Contractors report up to 65% reduction in takeoff time and 3-5x more bids submitted per estimator.

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Episode Chapters

01:35 - Meet Bob Marks

02:23 - From DC to EMI

04:35 - Scaling EMI

06:21 - Working with Mack Trucks

07:45 - EMI’s Fleet

09:38 - Plows and Efficiency

11:04 - Snowfall and Forecasting

13:03 - Buy vs Leasing Strategy

16:09 - Maintenance and Options

20:08 - Zero Tolerance Clients

21:45 - Saying No to Grow

26:47 - Selling Snow Work

28:04 - Subcontractor Labor

29:24 - Fair Subcontractor Partnerships

30:51 - Accountability With Brokers

32:31 - Year Round Snow Planning

33:43 - Equipment Ordering Strategy

35:36 - Staffing & Training Bootcamp

38:07 - Projector Based Site Training

38:40 - Truck Brush Safety Costs

40:43 - The Storm Communication Playbook

43:35 - Motivation, Culture, and Bonus System

46:31 - Biggest Snow Challenges

50:09 - Pride in People First

52:49 - Please Like, Share and Subscribe!

Key Learnings

Make Sure the Client Wants What You Are Offering: If they do not want it, you will not make them happy. Getting expectations clear upfront saves everyone.

Action: Be clear on who you are, where you are going, and who you want to work for. Say no to work that does not fit.

Partner with Your Dealer: The biggest equipment mistake was not building a relationship with a local dealer who could advise on specs, options, and configurations.

Action: Go to lunch. Talk regularly. Learn what you do not know about quick couplers, transmissions, and winter packages before you buy.

The Implement Matters as Much as the Machine: A small plow on a $200,000 loader means you are not getting the efficiency out of that machine.

Action: Invest in hydraulic wing plows and proper attachments. EMI reduced their fleet by 15% and did the same amount of work.

Snow Never Turns Off: Planning is year-round. Equipment orders happen now. The SIMA Symposium in June kicks off the next winter season.

Action: Finalize equipment and personnel by September or October. Train regional managers before training everyone else.

The 48-24-12 Rule: Give your team 48 hours notice when snow is in the forecast, 24 hours to confirm availability and send referrals, and 6-12 hours for the final call.

Action: Communicate early so people show up prepared. No sneakers, no excuses, no last-minute surprises.

Treat Subcontractors Like Partners: Pay them faster than you get paid. Give them all the work on their site, not just the big storms. Treat them like human beings.

Action: Be picky...