Biography - Your Future Landscaping

Landscaping will change your life as it did ME.

"Change brings opportunity"

1982

High School Fun & Failure

The first time I cut grass was my sophomore year of High School. I was working for a wealthy doctor that my mother had catered, and cleaned the house for. I would catch the bus or ride my bike (14 miles) to Shaker Heights once a week. I would walk his Siberian Husky and German Shepard before cutting the grass. I had his push mower with a catcher, an industrial broom, and a snow shovel as tools to complete the work. I made a decent amount of money cutting his one acre property. It took a full 2.5 hours to cut, dump the grass in garbage bags, and sweep up the sidewalks on his corner lot. I was paid $50.00 per cut, plus $10.00 for walking the dogs. This was great revenue. I also worked at Brandywine restaurant part-time. I was making money for the first time as society began desegregation in schools. I was one of the chosen to leave John Hay High school and enter West Technical High School. I was introduced to other races and ethnicities such as Asians, Latinos, Caucasians etc. My only interaction with other cultures prior to this was from the viewpoint that they were of a higher class. They were the people we worked for, not the other way around. The experiences my mother and I had were positive. They were kind and friendly people, but at the end of the day we were working for them. When I arrived at West Tech, the only thing we all had in common was that we “didn't like this”, and the majority of us were from low-income households. The best thing to come from this situation was our growth as individuals, and our new belief systems. Many of us entered this new environment with opinions of each other that were based on the belief system that our parents, neighbors and community held, which were cultivated by their experiences and their families experiences. We were coming from a place where the message being spread by our community had an “Us vs. Them” message, and to be fair, the message coming from outside our community was “You vs. Us”. To say it was a clash of different worlds, would be an understatement. We had our own “West Side Story” plot brewing. (Side note: West Side story is my all time favorite movie). Maybe my ability to appreciate the story is because of these experiences. Between participating in sports, and attending social activities hosted in these different communities, we all slowly began to realize that we had more in common than not. One example of this is the West Tech vs. John Hay basketball game. In that moment, we were all cheering for our school, not where we were from (where we lived). We won as a group, but don’t be mistaken, if we lost we found the individual that lost the game and blamed them as a group as well. The point is, these events brought us together more than it separated us. By graduation we no longer shared our parents' sometimes negative views about race, instead we all saw each other as equal and we became great friends. Unfortunately, before all of this could happen I had a conflict with one of my teachers. This conflict led to me failing the 12th grade. Making my own money had boosted my alpha-ego and led to me acting like I was “all that." I was in every lunch period talking to girls, cracking jokes, and hooping with friends instead of attending my English class. I did not attend English most of the time, except for during tests. I felt that I could pass this class regardless of my attendance. Nevertheless, I failed the 12th grade. I was embarrassed, hurt, afraid, and in disbelief. I would not be walking the stage with my fellow friends and classmates. I had ordered my cap and gown before knowing I had failed, and prom was set to go. I did not attend any of it. Telling my mom that I had failed was very difficult, she cried and it made me feel ashamed. I was trying to blame my English teacher; however, deep down inside I knew that making a little money had changed my character. It took awhile, but I eventually owned the fact that my failure was not my teacher’s fault, but my own. I talked to my mom about how having money gave me a good feeling, but it also made me feeI like I was better than others, even though the majority of us were poor. I needed an attitude adjustment and this felt like rock bottom. After many conversations, and some soul searching, my biggest embarrassment had finally arrived. The new school year was beginning, and I had to face my once younger 11th grade peers as they moved up a year later and became my 12th grade classmates. I decided not to return back to school right away in September. I wasn’t ready to face everyone. Instead, I prepared myself mentally and went back for the second semester in January. It was only for one class. I knew I was going to be laughed at, called “stupid”, “dummy”, told that I “knew better”, “we told you”, etc. Failing the 12th grade, owning my failure, and not giving up on myself by returning to school helped build my tenacious character and the confidence that I have to this day. I also learned that making your own money is great, but you need to constantly check yourself, and not lose sight of the fact that, “I earned the money, but the money doesn't make me!” I became humble and much more aware of my behavior.

*”Sponge that” (to absorb information & lessons)*: Own your failures, the sooner you do, the faster you can move on fixing them. *Money will change the things you can afford, but never let it change who you are to others- BE YOU!

1998

Starting off

I was working a fulltime job as a counselor. I worked with some of the most challenging adolescents in Cuyahoga & Medina county. These young people were in the county and juvenile court system. I was married with a wife and two boys to care for. My job was good, and my salary maintained our lifestyle. My career was very challenging and stressful, but also rewarding because I was able to see our youth become successful in life. Unfortunately, life has obstacles, and not paying bills on time led to our second car being repossessed. This was a wakeup call. Rather than try to get the car back, I decided to purchase a lawn mower. The lawn mower was my reintroduction to cutting lawns and a start to having my own business (something I hadn’t done since highschool). I definitely needed balance in my life, and a higher future income. I purchased a mower, trimmer, and push broom while using my SUV as a work truck to carry around my equipment. My first season I ended up with eleven clients within an eight mile radius of my home. I was making enough money monthly to pay my mortgage, car payment, insurance, and the car note of the repossessed car. I did all of this without any resources or landscaping classes. I was self taught by the books I checked out from the library, and the constant cycle of learning, failing, and learning some more.

*Sponge: In life things are going to constantly change. When things unexpectedly happen in our lives, our response to it will determine our future. Instead of waiting for changes to happen in my life, I’ve learned to plant seeds and cultivate my visions and goals in life daily.

2003

First Truck reminded me never to go backwards

The first truck I ever purchased was a blue Ford F-150, with an eight foot bed, and two gas tanks. It was my big investment for landscaping that spring. I bought it from a friend of a friend who did construction work. I then proceeded to buy a Bunton (brand of lawn mower) “walk behind 48 inch belt drive commercial mower”. I had started to make enough money to elevate my business, and cover more ground faster with production. This mower would help me do that. A month after having the truck it would no longer go into reverse. I thought to myself, “seriously, now?”. I didn’t have the time to put it in the shop and get it fixed. The mechanics said this could take three to four weeks, and I couldn’t wait that long. The thing about me though is that I always have a plan and a strategy. I like to think about life as a game of chess. The good thing about playing chess strategically is that you learn to plan your next move. This strategy helped me plan how I would still use my truck without having it fixed, and not being able to reverse. In order to do this I started to plan my parking at every house or apartment building that I serviced. On several occasions someone parked in front of me. This left me at the mercy of the person parked in front of me to come out and move their car so that I could leave. If I was in a hurry I leaned on my horn until they came out. Believe me, this was not favorable. I had to deescalate many irate people from yelling at me(customer service skills). I would explain to them that my truck didn’t have the option to reverse, but I was still met with frustration. I got called some unkind names; however, when I returned the following weeks no one blocked me in. My transparency of being honest although embarrassed kept my production high. For a while this inability to reverse was an inconvenience, especially when I was at the mercy of others. I would need to get creative and do things such as use the back bumper of someone’s car as a support to push the truck to get out of a spot. Over time I adapted to this impediment, and sometimes I would forget it was an obstacle at all. I also learned to bring a pylon traffic cone and leave it 5 to 6 feet in front of my truck when needed, this helped tremendously. I kept that truck for two more years, and would have kept it longer, but I received a great trade in value, and used that for an upgraded version of the same truck.

*Sponge: Obstacles create a feeling of failure. However, the way that one adapts from those obstacles decides his or her destiny. My truck reminded me to keep moving forward, no going back!

2004

My First Employees

My two sons who at the ages of 10(Mario) & 12(Gianni) would work with me on Saturdays for the entire day. One would trim and edge while the other would blow. We would eat big breakfasts, lunches, and dinners together in the truck. I never had to buy them video games, sneakers, etc. They each made over $200. 00- $350.00 a month at that age. They were productive and we worked great as a team, training every weekend on something new to make us more efficient. My sons played organized sports; however, they also looked forward to spending time with their father on the weekends, this included the weekends that their mom had them. We all benefited. The boys worked daily during summer break and had weekends off(sometimes). The years passed and the boys were now in high school. We were landscaping in cities 15-20 miles away. I had to accept a lot of big jobs from clients that were a great distance away. I did this because I wanted to continue growing my company (A Cut Above the Rest Landscaping Services LLC.) G (my eldest son) took on a major lead role during his junior year of high school. This leadership role put him in the position to handle all of the properties from a big contract in Florida. We worked with this company for over 3 years. G, was ready to handle the driving which was a wide range of North, East, South, and West during the week, and he was completing all of the lawn maintenance thoroughly. Rio his younger brother would go on the days that he didn’t have athletics after school. Allowing the opportunity for a junior in high school(G) to handle a huge responsibility of that contract (averaged $4,000.00-$5,000.00 a month) was scary to me, but I felt all the training he had, and the confidence that we would build from this experience was worth it. G took on additional contracts for the company. One contract that he took on was from a wealthy man we knew through associates that lived in Hudson, Ohio. He really liked G’s work ethic, and wanted to reward him for it. He was about to sell his house and he needed some mulching completed. This man owned a red BMW 325i that he wanted to give G if he mulched his entire estate. G was so excited that he did not hesitate and just said, “Yes, definitely!” The man paid for all of the bags of mulch at Home Depot, and G was responsible for picking them up and spreading them. The amount of mulch needed was around 27 yards and that was 2 inches thick. G had a 1995 Honda Odyssey minivan as his first car, and this was the vehicle that he was driving at this time. I would let him use the truck for mulch pick up in the evenings when I was not landscaping; however, seeing that van with all of the seats folded down and bags of mulch stuffed to the brim was a sight to see for anyone on the road. It took G about two weeks to complete the job, mainly because of school, homework, and his responsibility to maintain the Florida contracted properties. Home Depot was also running out of mulch bags, so he had to wait several days for them to restock. After G finished the job he had a couple of spots that were still bare due to heavy storms. G, bought several bags of mulch with his own money to fill in the gaps. His dedication received accolades from all of his family members. The house finally sold and the owner still needed his car at the time since he was moving out of state. G would settle for $1500.00 for that job instead. G, waited for over two months and never got paid. I stepped in and tried locating the man and could not. G, did not show his anger when I was around, but over time it appeared that he lost his trust in people with status. I felt so bad that I paid G out of my own pocket. He wouldn’t accept it until I told him that the man sent me as much money as he had. I told him that the man was losing everything: the house, and the car (my nose grew a little). We used that money to buy his first sports car, a 2002 Dodge Stratus R/T. This kept G moving forward in life as he entered college. Rio began to take over more of the landscaping and finances while in high school. He kept very busy as he was also playing sports for his school at the time. Rio and Marc (another staff member/ high school baseball player) exposed me to their stock purchases in high school. The reason I bring up stocks is because adults feel we know everything and do not want to try and learn from teens. I took their advice and did some research on the stocks that they were investing in, and the apps that they were using for this. All I can say is we all are VERY happy that we invested. Rio continues to manage all of the finances for the company, and I know everything he knows because I’m sponging and overseeing all of the financial matters. Rio also handles all of the taxes, unemployment, workers compensation, payroll for the company, and many other things. In addition, he is studying for his C.P.A and working for a corporate tax firm. My point is that an early start at landscaping has developed these boys into successful men.

*Sponge: Running a business with my sons made me realize that they could run this company by themselves at their age. This is a great opportunity for teens to jump start their own business. Obstacles are struggles that define us no matter what age!

2006

Taking Chances with court.

My day job was working with incarcerated challenging adolescence, who most were a product of their environment. We had teens from all races, gender, and social classes.
I counseled Chemically Dependent, Gang Adjudicated, Sex Offenders, with PTSD, Developmental Disabilities, Depression, and High Risk Suicidal adolescents.
My ability to train staff to work with these youth was at times challenging because developing relationships was important to build trust. However, maintaining clear boundaries that staff could not deviate from while working with these adolescents were the most challenging.
Next was to help create independent program options for when these adolescences return back home to their community.
Because of my creativity & supervisory role, I was permitted to train some of the adolescent clients who were upon being successfully discharged. I was permitted to take them off grounds on weekends when their parents/guardian was not visiting. They would actually work in the community with me landscaping for 4 hours and be paid minimal wage. The best transition was me training them for weeks prior on various jobs from restaurants, grocery stores, and landscaping. The guys who went out with me did a good job and was pretty proud of themselves for making their own money. I made sure they were paid the same day, so they could spend their money that evening on food, etc. I was so fortunate to have a Director (T.W) who was a true leader. Allowing me to me exercise my talents by taking court teens out to work in the community. This started a trend with other agencies adopting this suppose guided risk opportunity. These opportunities were very helpful in guiding our court teens to feel comfortable seeking job opportunities when they were discharged successfully.

Sponge - Reform with adolescences was not my focus- opportunity and showing them there is more to life outside your circle.

2007

Second house in a competitive area

In 2007 my success continued and I was blessed enough to purchase my second home in an upper middle class area. Moving in all I saw was ¾ acre properties surrounding me. Only two of the properties on my street were at a level that you knew they were professional kept. Moving in during the beginning of spring gave me the chance to showcase my landscaping skills on my home. I was making it look like the best on the street and after that second week of cutting I was noticed. I started passing out flyers to the mailbox at a good starting rate. Anyone who had a landscaper already I did not put anything in their mailbox or offer service. I always respected my fellow landscaper and there were tens of thousands of homes that needed landscapers so never do I disrespect another company(knowingly). I was able to land 5 houses around me, we call that double-monopoly. This not only was perfect for the clients to have a landscaper near them, but to know their lawn would look just as good as mine weekly. One thing I made sure I did every week when cutting their lawn- I would always cut mine last!!! I ended up securing 2 more houses on my street over time. As my business was growing and expanding, the competition seemed very intimidating. These companies had high end equipment with very nice trucks and trailers. To my knowledge I was the only Black landscaper in the three suburbs that surrounded me. I asked myself, “What are the chances of me landing a celebrity, pro athlete, CEO, million dollar home? Am I ready? Will I be accepted?”. The fear of failing started to worry me again. This is when I pushed myself to meet people. I met a neighbor down the street who was a landscaper. His sons and my sons knew each other from middle school. What are the chances of us talking business and sharing information? I took the first steps by sharing some things that I knew, and from that point forward we became resourceful to one another. I continued to say hello to other landscapers, and people in general. Greeting anyone and everyone is something that my parents who were from Virginia did all of the time. When driving, walking, or just sitting on the porch, it was the most comfortable way to break the ice, forget any stereotypes, and absorb a smile with a greeting. My sons and I waved at everyone when in the truck, cutting grass, or at the gas station. We only received about 30% of our waves back. The biggest takeaway I had from other landscapers not waving back was that I was not competing against THEM, they saw ME as their competition. This helped me to no longer look at the nice trucks with fancy names and extravagant equipment. These people had earned their way, and had a lot of expenses. I had a truck, two walk behind mowers, ramps, a trimmer, a blower, gas, and string. I had very few expenses, and no overhead. I found that my competition was ME! If I wanted to get business I would no longer look at the other landscapers as competition. Sometimes on days that I failed to close a potential client, or times that I was fired from a client I would look at myself in the mirror and feel defeated, but then there were also many days that I would look in the same mirror and also say "I GOT THIS!". Those positive days kept me on a high that nothing could negatively affect. I remember how it felt when I was doing good, and I would always utilize that positive energy to help get me through my failures. Trying to become friends with all of the landscapers was challenging. I wanted us to share tips with one another so that we could all grow to be more successful. A lot of them were not friendly, they were in fact lonely. I know this because I forced my greetings on several stubborn landscapers. One would even drive past my house from a street over and never wave back. As these situations go, the moment came when this person’s mower was in a ditch, and he had nobody to help him get it out. I happened to be passing by and pulled over to help him. He thanked me, and was very friendly towards me afterwards. I saw the house he was cutting was a little over an acre and I said, “that's a nice yard”. He replied, “I have been cutting this yard for years and they don't want me to raise the price past $34.00”. In my head I was thinking, “This should be $34.00 for the backyard, and $30.00 for the front”. At that moment I understood something. I understood that the same landscapers that had appeared to be angry and confident actually had no resources to talk business with. These people didn’t have the courage to lose a property, even if they were being paid unfairly. This person and I didn't become friends, just associates, but I learned from his situation. I wanted to tell him to charge more or quit, but at that time in my life I thought to myself, “who am I besides this new black dude with a truck and two mowers?”. I didn’t realize that my advice and opinion actually held merit. Those past, and upcoming years I learned so much about myself. I realized that it was not about the opinions of others, but about me. I am responsible for what I do, the things I say, and how I carry myself at all times.

*Sponge: Practice customer service all the times, even with your competition. Always be kind to others as you never know their situation. You are your only competition!

2010

Learning on my own - ADVERSITY

By 2010 I had mentally left my career of counseling adolescents and focusing on landscaping full time, while still working a fulltime job. Being an African American in an upper middle class neighborhood you learn some things quickly. You learn that if you go to see a property for an estimate there may be problems. You learn that when walking into a potential client’s backyard to see how much cutting and trimming is needed that you might be met by the police on your way back to the front yard. My hands went up quickly, and the questions began. This happened many times over the years, but the most memorable was the time that I was with my children and we were about to cut a lawn. By this I mean that our lawn equipment was on full display. The woman who we were about to provide lawn service for, and the same woman that had confirmed the appointment was the person that had called the police on us. The police arrived and she said that she “did not know us". I conveyed to the officer that I had talked to her and her husband twice on the phone during the week since they needed their grass cut right away. I told them to look at how long her grass was compared to her neighbors. The officers would not let me go near the woman as she stood in the front door talking to one of the officers. Another police car pulled up. I told my sons to go wait in the truck. Once again, the police officers were respectful and totally felt my dismay. My customer service personality on full display maintained that relationship with the officers at this time. One officer actually said “man I’m sorry.” In his eyes I could tell that he knew she had contacted us for services. The problem was that who she thought was going to service her lawn was not the same skin tone as my sons and I. I was angry. I knew this was going to happen, but not in front of my sons. I played it off calmly so that they would not view the situation negatively at the moment. This situation would continue to happen over time. I did not allow myself to play victim or say that this was “wrong”. I justified in my head that the police were doing their job. Somebody called them, and they showed up to inspect. The person who called them was possibly not used to seeing my race in their neighborhood. I was raised in an urban area where we had "block watch” signs in the windows of our neighborhood. The neighbors calling the police on me had assumed I was breaking and entering, or a threat. If I did not look at it any other way I would have quit working in these areas, and I don't quit! I wanted those customers to see what my company could do even more now. This continued to happen on occasion, and to be honest the police were actually cool about it. I continued to get calls from these upper class neighborhoods and began to meet some great clients. We started working for an awesome couple that even treated my sons and I like friends. After this it seemed like the word got around, and I was getting jobs that were paying well. I also learned that these well kept homes came with tighter expectations. We needed to be thorough and check each other for missed areas before leaving. I had a lot of call backs at this time, and that was the best learning experience. Those clients could have fired me; however, they knew I was learning and I would be back the same day or next to fix anything we had missed. It was diverse in this upper class area. The majority of these clients were honestly the BEST. Some of them would talk to my sons as they entered high school and college. They shared life lessons and even job opportunities in their companies. I still have 80% of these clients to this day, and they are like family.

*Sponge: Our societal changes are real, how we manage them is in our own mirror. You have to fight through some bad days in order to earn the best days of your life. Once again my high school beginning and how it ended was on full display. What started off as rough in this higher class community became the best experience of my life.

2016

The trimmer vs $11,000.00 subpoena

In 2016 a client that we no longer serviced reached out to tell me that she had small cracks in the 25 year old vinyl siding of her garage. She stated that this happened when my staff was trimming around the garage. “Why didn’t we take pictures of damaged areas we saw before we started?” I thought to myself. Now, I know we used a heavy .095 string on our Stihl trimmer. I had no choice but to say I would have someone repair it. The person sent to fix it covered the area with vinyl and repaired the 5 holes. He sent me pictures and the woman was pleased. I ended service with her at the conclusion of the 2014 season. In November of 2016, I received a certified letter to appear in court as the defendant for property destruction and repairs totaling $11,000.00, as well as court costs. I ended up appearing in court without a lawyer. I decided to represent myself to the majistrate. I was advised to obtain a lawyer at that court hearing. My company’s insurance covers $2,000,000.00. This coverage includes my equipment, my employees, me, etc. for $127.00 a month. I called the insurance company and sent over all of the information pertaining to this case. They ended up settling outside of court for $8,000.00, and my deductible for this entire situation was only $250.00. If I did not have insurance I would’ve had to pay for this out of pocket. Good thing I decided to get insurance earlier on. This was the first and only time I ever had to use it.

*Sponge: We all have health, auto, home/rental insurance. When you own a business get business insurance, because accidents happen. Cover yourself before someone takes advantage of you, or takes your business and assets.

2017

Solar Eclipse & Workers Comp

Solar Eclipse & Workers Comp: It was August 17, 2017 the start of the first solar eclipse. That morning my staff of recent High School graduates had been training on mowers for over four weeks, and they were working on one of the neighbor's lawns. I was two houses down doing paperwork before we were to head out together for some more lawn cutting. The cloud coverage was minimal, and we could see that the eclipse would be happening momentarily. As I continued to work in my house I heard someone yelling my name. It was one of my staff members hopping towards me apologizing. "H”, (my nickname) “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry H, please forgive me" he was saying. As he hopped closer I saw his boot was torn half way off from the front toe area. His toes were GONE! I called EMS and tried to find ice, and something to stop the bleeding. How nervous was I? I grabbed my frozen french toast from off of the counter, and told him to hold it on the injured area with a towel. In seconds I grabbed ice to replace this. Other neighbors came by to help. The ambulance arrived and I notified his parents of the incident as we made our way to the hospital . When we got to the hospital the medical staff asked a list of questions, the big one being, "Did you injure yourself at work?" I told the nurse I would pay for everything while simultaneously shaking in my boots. I had to give a great deal of information, and I didn’t have a clue if my business insurance would cover this. He went into surgery and lost the majority of his first and second toes. This was not good for a scholarship basketball player that was just starting his college career. My employee and I talked later and he admitted that he was not wearing the steel toe boots that he was supposed to, in fact his boots were not steel toe at all. He was also not standing on the appropriate side of the mower. I’ve always taught safety to my staff, but in his attempt to open a fence without taking precautions he unfortunately injured himself. I rewrote all of my training that evening so that none of my staff would circumvent safety first in the future. My son Mario who was in college at the time was the one who handled a lot of the business finances etc. I turned this work over to him since he was in college for finance, and getting his CPA license. I remember at the start of the 2013 season Mario told me to pay the Bureau of Worker Compensation’s invoice. I am thankful for this reminder because I was covered as a business for this young man’s injury, and his hospital bills were covered. I was feeling a little better and knew that having all of the necessary business coverages would benefit me as my business grew. As for the student, he healed fast and still played basketball a year later. He worked with us a few times afterwards, but pursued his real dream of owning a barber shop. He is presently cutting hair for athletes, and professionals while attending cosmetology school .

*Sponge: Business Insurance is available for your benefit, and the safety of your business.

2018

Contracts & Negative $4k

Contracts & Negative $4k Make sure when you send an estimate that you have a contract signed before you start any of the work. This goes for relatives, friends, friends of relatives, etc. It helps both parties understand the exact work in detail and cost. This is a long story, but I will do my best to make it short. Friends of my mother and father in-law needed a lot of landscaping done. Some of this work included laying 21 yards of mulch, trees being trimmed, trees being cut up and removed, plant beds edged, etc. I had sent one of my staff members out to apply weed control on the lawn a year prior, and my in-laws covered the cost at that time. Now that the year had passed it was time for the big job, which was a complete property landscape makeover. I understood the necessity of the makeover, the work was needed, but the client also recently had a 2.5 million dollar home built up next door, and they wanted their home to look its best beside their new neighbors. I did a walk through with him before starting the landscaping in order to get his details. I then sent out an estimate to him a week before starting the work. He confirmed the estimate with a phone call and asked when we could begin. Five days after that phone call my team of five staff members spent ten hours on that job. His wife called me twice during the service to tell me that the staff was taking a break and that they were not getting all of the bushes trimmed on the new neighbor’s side of the house. I explained to her that her husband did not request that particular service, and my staff did not know that this service was an expectation. She attempted to say he should have and she had talked to him and he said he mentioned it. This was my first lesson to do a walk through with BOTH spouses. I explained to my team what the new expectation was and they adhered accordingly. It was a hot day, and she wanted my staff moving faster on her two acre property. The team did great work and finished the job by 7:30pm. I received a call two days later stating that we missed some of the bushes while trimming, and that there was mulch on some of the window sills. I came back out personally, and using all of my customer service skills I completed whatever they felt wasn't finished in front of both of them in 12 minutes flat. The last thing the man said to me was, " I told you to use my extended chain saw to cut the 12 foot branch, why did you not do like I said?” I apologized first, in order to gather my composure. Then I said, "I definitely stated when you requested for me to use your tools that we are not allowed to use our clients' tools. Also, the highest we cut is 10 feet. We are not arborists. Once again I apologize if I did not communicate that effectively." That was the end of the conversation. Two weeks later he was sent the invoice in which I gave them family discounts. This brought the price to a little under $4000.00. Three days later I received an email explaining that he felt I only completed $2500.00 worth of work and that this would be all he was willing to pay. It took me some time to calm down from the situation. I felt like I was being robbed. My practice when I'm this upset is to stay mute until I am no longer upset with the situation. I waited a day and a half to respond. Long story short, because he was a close family friend I told him to either pay the $3700.00 as requested with the applied $400 discount, or do not pay me at all. I still paid my crew for all of the mulch and dumping. His lawyer contacted me and demanded that I take the check for $2500.00 and sign off that I would not go to any social media to defame his character. I declined all of it, including the money. Till this day I live with the fact I gave this person over $4000.00 in free landscaping services. This really humbled me, and extended my awareness on making sure that I have a contract signed before I start the work. I remained professional and even went as far as sending him a Christmas card that year. I made a decision to take the high road and do not look at money the same anymore. After that negative situation, I was actually inspired to do something positive. I now do pro bono work for single moms. I gave a family who was well off $4000.00 in free work. I made the decision to multiply that and now every year I give over $1000.00 in free work to single moms who need it. I named the award after my mother who also was a hard working mom doing her best to provide for her family. It feels great to see the happy faces of these mothers once I tell them the work is no cost, and hand them the award. This person putting me in a negative situation ended up helping me to find my humanity. I also learned the important lesson of making sure that all contracts are signed before the services begin.

*Sponge: Take a negative and create multiple positives. Money can ruin a budget, but never let it ruin your character! Make sure the client signs the contract before beginning any work. Add a description here.

2020

COVID & POOLS

We all know what happened in March of 2020 when Covid hit. The deadliest and most societal changing virus of my era had arrived. I was starting ACATR (A Cut Above The Rest) spring cleanup during the middle of March, and my crew was getting pre-emergent/fertilizer on our client’s properties. However, the world was shutting down, and we had no clue what was next. “Stay home and wash your hands” was a constant phrase. My crew was worrying about whether we would even work this season or year. I had landscapers, equipment shop owners, fertilizing businesses, and nurseries all around communicating with me daily. Everyone thought I might know something different than they did, but all that I really knew was I was as worried for my family and my business as they were for theirs. It was actually great to have all of these different businesses structure themselves off of what I was doing. It was humbling to see these men who were no different than I was see the reality of what could become of their hard work and dedication. They would voice their fears of the unknown, and I realized that like 9/11 we were all in this together. I had their back’s 100% . As I continued to get information from different business owners, my crew grew confident that we were a necessity. I was on top of my game as I continued to write letters to our local and state politicians. These letters would state that "if senior citizens homes stayed unkempt it could lead to their homes becoming easy prey for breaking and entering, vandalism, property values would decline, and crime would rise substantially in all areas. Keeping parts of normalcy would show that the government was still managing accordingly. Copy-Paste Send, Copy-Paste Send, Copy-Paste- Send. This was my first time writing letters to mayors and other policy makers. It was empowering because I was doing it not just for me, but for all of the business owners everywhere. I learned this when I worked in crisis management with adolescence, “keeping yourself and others safe is first, and keeping routines going as scheduled is second”. In late April of 2020, we were made essential. We were working anyway, but it felt good to know. We had one of our best years as a business. Our clients were home more often due to the quarantine, and they needed us more than ever. Our clientele increased substantially. We took covid precautions such as riding in separate trucks, and sanitizing in between shifts to make sure everyone was safe. The year went on with a plethora of political and racial struggles. Signs were in our clients yards supporting who they were voting for. Political conversations were being had across the nation, and as a business we needed to stay neutral. The conversations we never have with customers are politics and religion. Our clients attempted the conversations, and we all knew how to listen and nod, without engaging further. I think our patrons respected us because we were positive, user friendly, and did an excellent job of landscaping. Our rule of customer service was to smile, wave at everyone, and stay positive. During this time many of our clients spent more time talking to us during their lawn services because they were home. We had great conversations from a distance. My crew was great with customer service because they were trained on this for years. My guys are professionals at this. They know how to go the extra mile, from returning garbage cans neatly to the side of the house on trash day, to always waving hello and engaging in a positive conversation. This attentive customer service slows their production down, but customer service is more significant than production. We put our customer service first and foremost. In November of 2020, we were finishing up a great season, and had finished the landscape design for a client’s pool area. I was able to witness the pool company put in a 20x40 pool in their backyard. I was intrigued by the building, and the results. It honestly looked fun, and the results were so gratifying. I got the same feeling that I have when we cut a lawn and make it look fresh. I called a pool contractor that was booked up until late 2022 to request an estimate for my home. He came out a week later and was a nice person. He priced us for a 32 x 18 inground pool in my backyard for around $70,000.00. That price was for the pool only, not the landscape. There was no way we were paying for that. I told my wife I had to figure out some things. In December of 2020 I began looking at all of the YouTube pool designs, and installations for vinyl pools. I studied all of the winter and spring pools. In August of 2021, I ordered a 32x16 pool as a business owner. I was going to install my own inground pool. A lot of people said, “you are crazy, it takes professionals to do that, you are not qualified.” My only response was, “when I started landscaping I was not a pro, and not qualified by your standards, so why not me?”. I broke ground in September of 2021. As of late October the hole has been dug out, and the building department has approved the grading. The pool is up, and I’m just waiting for the concrete collar to be poured in.

Sponge: Just remember you can do whatever you want, don't let anyone hold you back! Believe in Yourself!

2021

Why Train

Since 2011 friends, associates, and people I don’t know will text, email, and call me about starting their landscaping business. They ask me things such as how to price a property, or what chemicals they should use on certain weeds. They come to me with problems like, “the grass is high everytime we come out to cut”, “I'm not making money”, “help”. These people wanted instant feedback and assistance. I became the resource to them that I never had when I was getting started. It felt good to give others who were struggling in this field the support, feedback, and direction to elevate them in this fast growing business. By 2018, I became a regular help to everyone that had heard of me by giving support and advice regarding landscaping. At times I checked my voicemail and the messages would be from another landscaper that I didn’t know, a young teen inquiring on what height we can cut lawns when they are wet, a guy asking me my preference between Scag, or Wright mowers, then two voicemails from new potential clients, etc. I was starting to give shorter responses with inquiries regarding landscaping services. I had to do this because my voicemail would fill up twice a day. This still goes on, except now I have everyone signed up for my training starting January 2022, March 2022, May 2022, Sept 2022, and Nov 2022. I have sponged (learned valuable information) everyone’s questions over the years to make the training as elevating to each and everyone's level of growth. I have added the future of landscaping on how we use robotics to elevate our production and growth. I’m training teens and young adults who want to work for a landscaping company and learn the skills that are beneficial to be offered a higher starting wage, plus a “landscaping training certificate” after completion. This training is for all teens and adults 14 and up, whether you are male, female, experienced, or special needs. I am mainly doing private training with clients from the states of Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.