Experience, Leadership & Community: The Winning Trifecta

OVERVIEW

In this episode of SYNKD On Air, Naylor Taliaferro from LCR Media joins Angelique to discuss the importance of experience, leadership skills, and community in running a successful business. They highlight the value of diverse experiences and collaboration among professionals in the landscaping industry. The role of social media in fostering connections and the positive impact of in-person community events on growth and learning are also emphasized.

Transcript

Angelique
Welcome to SYNKD On Air, I'm your host Angelique. And I have Naylor. Let me see if I can not mess up your last name. Taliaferro?

Naylor
Very good. Thumbs up.

Angelique
Notice that I had to stop for a minute and then spell it out in my head. I haven't known you for very long. But we're getting to know each other a bit better lately because you were at our SYNKD Live event in Atlanta. Thanks so much for coming to that.

Naylor
Oh, thank you for reaching out to me way back at the in the Equip days back in October. It's coming fast and furious again. But yeah, you reached out to me on LinkedIn. And I hadn't, you know, been on LinkedIn and forever for some reason. And I think I liked it didn't even have the app on my newest phone or whatever. So I had no idea until I guess you had reached or Paul had responded to you, I guess Paul James who the green podcast so we were talking and all that. So eventually, we all got hooked back up and went back on LinkedIn and signed back into the app. And I saw a message for like months prior. I was like, oh, no, like from Equip were actually messaged.

Angelique
Yeah, it was after the Influencer Live? Yeah, no, that was a great event. And, you know, all these people up on stage and the room was packed. And yeah, a lot of good stuff. It was really good.

Naylor
And you took our picture. I don't even know who you were, what was going on? People taking pictures. So I'm like, All right.

Angelique
Well, it's actually Anne Marie that took your picture. But yeah, Naylor I mean yeah it from SYNKD. Because then you you, like tagged us? And I was like, Who is this? Oh, yeah, that was our official unofficial first meeting. Yes. So we eventually got hooked back up and wanted to SYNKD Live. And we're building on that. So yeah.

Angelique
Well, tell us a little bit about I mean, so when I look at your LinkedIn profile

Naylor
I made sure I updated it recently to like, Man, I need to get this. Like, once I got back on it, you know, I was like, Maybe I should refresh this a little bit, you know, like Jay worth, you know, good old Jay. Yeah. He was like, you know, tagging me in all kinds of stuff. Because I was on his podcast, I was like, Man, I guess I gotta get back on LinkedIn. You know, I'm so used to YouTube and Instagram, and, you know, Snapchat and Tiktok, and all the traditional social media platforms where all the cool kids are. But I forget that all the, you know, CEOs and VPs are on LinkedIn. And you know that those are my people, too. So I need to I need to be back on LinkedIn.

Angelique
You've started but you have a business. You're not just an influencer? Right? You have your own business that's been running for 10 years. So tell us a little bit. I mean, how did you get into the industry? You know?

Naylor
It was it was kind of a necessity. But I was always like the homeowner that I mean, always, like, ever since I got my first house a long time ago, probably 20 years ago, maybe if I just guess without thinking backwards, but probably I mean, I've been doing Lawn Care professionally for 10 years. I would say close to 20 years ago was my first house. And you know, I'm a lot older than I appear and sound most likely people you know, think but I'm turning 45 in July. So most people think that yeah. I have a daughter graduating college and a couple of weeks. My son's graduating high school next week. So it's craziness. Wow, no.

Yeah. See, we had kids later in life. So I feel younger, because I've littler kids. Yeah. Early. Yeah. Right. So we had kids early, but so far, our first house was 20 years ago, and our kids are real little you know, our son was just born, he's going to turn 18 So alright, so there you go. So 18 years ago, 18 years ago, that's a good night now I can remember by by my son's age 18 years ago when we got construction our first house so anyway, I like didn't know anything about lawn care or landscaping or anything because up until that point, you know, growing up as a kid, I grew up you know, in apartments and apartment complexes and all that and you know, that stuff was always taken care of already I didn't have like the you know, the mom or the grandma or whatever that made me like get out and mow the lawn so I never had that experience at all.

And then when I met my wife and and you know, we want to build a life together and and get our first house I was just like, I don't know what to do. I just tried to figure it out. You know, going to Lowe's and Home Depot and all the little you know, Pleasance hardware, Ace Hardware or whatever and looking at all the little trinkets and tools and gadgets and gizmos and you know, all the different things to help you grow that, that There's like books, there's like little books and magazines on like lawn care and landscaping because the internet was not what it was like. At 18 years ago, the Internet was like Facebook. And that was it, you know, you could Google stuff and there was really not there. Obviously, there was Google, but there wasn't a whole lot of information out there. Landscaping lawn care, there was no YouTube videos, there was no LinkedIn, there was nothing like that there was Facebook, you know, with a bunch of moms and housewives playing Farmville, and that was about it, you know, like, there really wasn't a whole lot of information out there, you know, back 18 years ago, so I just had to get but there was books at stores, I was thumbing through them and learning about different grass types and how to take care of them. And so a lot of trial and error, but I kind of fell in love with it. And I eventually became that homeowner that was the envy of the of the entire you know, HOA. I had like a really nice lawn. I mean, we started with a house on a on a dirt property. No, they didn't even start with sod, or seed or anything, just nothing. front yard nothing.

So we're, every day every night, you know, my wife and I would go out after work and we'd take turns, or not take turns, we would just together like for an hour to rake rocks, you know, that time break up all the rocks, chuck them in the woods, because we had a bunch of woods around our property that was technically our property. So we just be raking rocks and sticks and junk and just work our way around the fading room. Yeah, we were just getting all that because you're trying to make it a nice, you know, smooth area rather than bring in dirt and everything. We're just trying to like, get the dirt going and, and then putting seed down and this and that. And so it was just a whole lot of trial and error. But so also just saying that we start from literally the bare bones of rocks and dirt, I guess you would say and this was up north I'm I'm in central Virginia right now, but We're originally from the state of New York. So you know, different kinds of soil than down here in Virginia, it's clay soil, which is a whole nother thing I had to learn about but so it was a lot easier, the dirt was good, the soil was better up there. So you just we just had to clear it out and get all the junk out.

And eventually I had the envy of the neighborhood. So I kind of got my green thumb that way as a homeowner and I enjoyed doing that striping my lawn multiple different directions in my 21 inch, you know, Auto pace, self paced mower and just having a good old time and then when we moved down to Central Virginia, I brought that stuff with me, you know, my 21 inch mower, my hand blower my hand and my trimmer. All gas, you know, they're I don't think battery was as popular at 18 years ago. But yeah, so I brought all that down here with me, you know, just because it was my it was you know, near and dear to my heart. And we my wife was like, Why are you bringing that we're moving into a townhouse and like, Well, eventually we're gonna get a house, you know, once we get our foot, you know, our bearings down here. So I'm just gonna keep those are these are my babies. You know, this is my mower, you know, my son nicknamed it Mow-y because he was like, five, you know, he's like, you know, like, at that time, so, you know, it was near and dear to my heart. But a few years prior to that, you know, when we were still up north, someone had asked me I think it was my mother in law had asked me because one day they were going to the pool or something on our on a hot Saturday, in the summer, and I was like, I'll meet you guys there. I gotta mow the lawn.

So you know, I'm just gonna about to start, you know, I'm getting all geared up and getting ready to go out and have a good time. My mother in law's like, they're all saying bye. And she's like, this must be so terrible, you know, something like she just thought it was like, like, the most awful thing in the world. Like, you know, like, it's, I feel so bad for you that you have to mow, mow the lawn. You know, while we're going to the pool on your day off. And I'm like, I've had they get this great actually. She's like, really? I'm like, Yeah, I enjoy it. And she's like, Oh, wow, would you do it if someone paid you? And I was like, absolutely. But I don't think that's the thing. Like 18 years ago, that was not a thing. You didn't have guys driving around in trucks and trailers, just mowing, cutting grass. That was not a thing. There was landscape companies. And you had to like, at least in north where I was from, it was big landscape companies. And you had to have the entire thing. You know, you just you had the whole service. They did everything. They didn't just come mow your lawn. They took care of the landscaping, the fertilizing, trimming your bushes, you know, all that stuff. Yeah, it was kind of frowned down upon you were like, you know, you were like, rich and famous. If you had a landscape company, you know, like, Oh, you have a landscape company. Oh my gosh, you can't mow your own lawn. Like it was really, it's crazy. 18 years ago, how much has changed?

And now it's a complete opposite, complete. 180 people are like, Why don't you have someone mowing? Why are you wasting your time doing that? There's so many better things that you can do with your time. Yeah, just budgeted in you know, so it's really it's really a full circle but back then that wasn't a thing and I was really intimidated by I actually we actually had a friend you know, like the housewife you know, all the wives would get together and and then a husband we'd have like, you know, like get people's houses and we'd get together so the all the husbands would get together and the husbands would be in outside or something and the wives would be inside and you know, we'd all be doing our thing so we get to know each other and one of those husband wife Duo's had their own landscape company in the area like right right down the street and we had gone there one time to like, get some rocks and stuff for our for our property. And it was very impressive but intimidating. Hit a massive property, you know, out there in Nowhere Land, you know, and you there's just like piles of rocks and mulch and dirt. And you know, it's like what you would think a traditional yard, you know, and they plants and nurseries and all that. And eventually you just go all the way up the mountain. And there's this big beautiful house up there. And, you know, in the process, there's trucks and trailers everywhere. And it was just super intimidating. I was like, There's no way in the world I can build something like that. I don't even know if I want to build something like that. And, you know, and no one knows is probably, but also I was in retail management this whole time.

So that's where that's where I started. my working career was in retail. Okay, yeah. So I was, you know, I got my green thumb. Yeah, I got my green thumb as a homeowner. But the whole time I was in retail, managing stores, I managed a couple of different, I was in a couple of different big, large, big box companies. You know, I started in college as part time, and then I worked my way up through the ranks. And that's, you know, I've always, I guess, I've been told I always have those leadership qualities And it's like project management, right. And leadership. Yeah. So all these things have all kind of like, helped each other, you know, along the way, it's all kind of, you know, there's always been a fit for it. But so that whole time I was in retail management and it wasn't really the most enjoyable for me as my life and my family went one way and they were growing going one way retail manager was going another way you know, Amazon was taking over the E commerce and all the big box stores were really struggling trying to figure out how to keep up with that, you know, people were just coming in and window shopping like, oh, this fits, Oh, I like this TV. I'm just gonna go order on Amazon you know, so like people were like not making any more money they had to cut their staffing and stores were closing and they're trying to compete with online so there was all this like, order your TV you know, Best Buy order your TV or you know, Toys R Us order your toys online and pick it up at the store and which put a huge pressure of all the store employees management had to one of the companies I worked at was Toys R Us back in the day, when they were still doing great before they went out of business. And you know, like, but that put a huge burden on the management and then the employees to learn a whole new process, you know, we had these new scanners and we'd have to we get these alerts that now we have to go pick this we have to go look for this item half the times it wasn't there because their inventory wasn't correct and as this whole big process but if we had it we you know, picked it scanned it whatever. I had to go in the back print out a late we had a whole section that we had to set up label printers, boxes, tape, and we we became Amazon like E commerce prime.

Meanwhile, the register lines are getting backed up managers getting paged employee, you know, we need a backup cashier, somebody needs help in aisle blank with this thing or that thing. And everyone's all stressed out, customers are angry, and the person just sitting at home waiting for their package to be processed so they can come pick it up. Or we can, you know, add it to our cart of stuff for UPS to pick it up the next day. And it was really stressful and frantic. And so things were going sideways for retail, my life was going totally opposite direction and my quality of life was just going downhill fast. So, you know, those two things kind of merge together eventually, ya know, like I just saw, like, back to what I was saying I didn't realize I didn't think I could do make have this big company, I didn't really think I was cut out for that. I was always best managing smaller stores like smaller volume and size or vice versa. Like they don't always go hand in hand. Small stores can be super busy in a popular area. Typically the big big stores are really busy as well. That's why they're big because they're in a busy area but just in general the busyness the volume like when it's just busy all the time and I never have time to like stop and think and you know like plan for stuff and I'm working I have to work extra hours or stay stay laters just like you know be away from everything and lock myself in the office and finish the schedule or this or that like I didn't excel in that environment. I'm not that kind of personality I don't I don't have that temperament like like my wife for example gets bored if it's too slow you know like she's got to always be like Black Friday was like her peak like she loved it she loved just bang bang bang bang bang she loves just bringing like a crazy person running around helping everybody knowing everything you know getting changed you know overriding prices for people like she she was yeah supervisor that's that's how we met in retail we we eventually worked at like opposite stores but still for the same company and stuff but but yeah but so she was all about that where I would get stressed out and I couldn't deal with with I can only deal with that so much like I was good yeah with that.

But I couldn't sustain that it was too much it was it was it depleted me like I need to be able to to like take time now. Yeah, recharge you know, I'm a very introverted person in that way where I need to recharge I can't I'm not I don't feed off of that. Like the extroverted folks feed off of that energy they need. Like my wife can't stand being alone for very long she like it's all stressed out and and sad. She needs to be always like around tons of people.

Angelique
That's why they always say opposites attract. You do have to have that balance.

Naylor
She never gets you out the door more than you. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, she, she definitely motivates me, you know, to get a lot done and do a lot of things and all that stuff. But you know, I have that within me too. But you know, I have to do things in certain certain ways, pace myself, take breaks, all that kind of stuff. But so I knew all that about myself. So I'm like, if I can't run bid, if I'm better at running smaller, like less busy stores and be at the top of the company, like literally, I ran two stores in the same year, like I got promoted, and went to one store, ship that you know, shape that store up real quick, in less than a year and then transferred to my old original store where I wasn't the store manager, but went back as a store manager knew exactly what I had to change and fix because I was the assistant manager prior.

And I was frustrated that things weren't going the way they were. And I was running that store prior to the as an assistant manager, which is why I got promoted in the first place. And I whipped that store in a shape. So within 12 months, both stores just started double digit. And once we got to like last year's numbers, it was like double digit percentage increases, because I was doing all these things that they needed that they weren't doing, and fixing the store up and cleaning it up and getting the right staff in the right place. And both stores were not you know, one store was busier than the other. But they weren't like out of control busy. So they were both my in my wheelhouse. And I was able to just knock it out the park and I got recognized there were two stores in the top 10 of the entire company that I worked at, which was like 130 Something stores but still to add it as a top 10

Where My store is in the same year. So yeah, so but but but I just say all that to say that I learned what I what I'm good at and what I can and can't do what's my wheelhouse, stay in my lane, all that. So when I when I thought about lawn care and landscaping and all that, I just wanted to stick with what, you know, what, what, what makes sense, you know, like having this massive landscape company that is like running a big, heavy volume store, like I'll get stressed out and I won't be as successful.

So how, you know, so I just kind of put that on the back burner, you know, and I never really applied myself, but that the wheel is kind of returning in the background. You know, like I was like, that'd be really cool if I if I did do that, but that seems so far fetched. So you fast forward, you know, maybe 10 years after that, which was 10 years ago, you know, I was I was we were we had moved down here to Central Virginia. And I was just obviously even worse and retail just super burned out. And you know, think Black Friday went from like, Black Thursday, you know, went to like Thanksgiving, you know, like, like, like it just kept creeping back a little. We're open up an opening up on midnight on Friday, which is kind of tightly Thursday, then it was 10pm on Thursday, then 8pm on Thursday, then the year before or the year that I quit. Literally the year that I left retail and went full time into lawn care. We had to go I worked for JC Penney at that point. And we opened at 6pm on Thursday, and we had to get their hours prior so they had everything ready. Yeah, so they had this grand idea of you know you're missing Thanksgiving. Yeah. And but they gave us all a budget all the stores got a budget to create our own Thanksgiving dinner. We just had it all catered turkeys food, make everyone come in extra early. You know, pay them extra give them Thanksgiving dinner, it's keep taking them away from their families, have a good old time have a big powwow team rally. Alright, here's everyone's roles, here's your cards, here's your positions. Let's go over everything again. One more time. All right, let's go get on.

Meanwhile, the lines of people are just building up around the store like Insanity. You know, we go out there open the doors at six o'clock. And it's just pandemonium and I was like, this is not I am not about this. This is not my life. Like it's someone's life. I mean, clearly we have to buy our stuff somewhere. You know, there has to be at least one place to buy our clothes one place to buy our, our food, you know what I mean? Like we're we're not we don't live on farms, or we can be self sustained. You know, we have to get our stuff some from somewhere. So we might as well be the people that enjoy it. Doing that working there. But that wasn't me. So I was also conflicts with you know, when your kids are off school, right? Weekends, I'm sure you're working weekends. It just starts casual was everywhere. Yeah, work in those kinds of schedules. It's it's hard to have a yeah, nice life, for sure. For sure. I mean, there were times when my kids were babies, that I didn't see them for 48 hours a week, because I would leave in the morning before they went to before they woke up I would leave in the morning for my morning shift.

And I would get back so late that you know there are babies so they'd be very, you know, toddlers they'd be sleeping and then I would have to leave again the next day for my morning shift again before they woke up again. And then if I was lucky enough I would come back in enough time to like say goodnight to them and I would see that so almost 48 hours or complete 48 hours before or even got to see them. You know, I mean, I would be getting like, you know, terrible video quality back then, you know, of my daughter walking or my son walking. I think I saw my daughter's first steps. Yeah, I did because we were somewhere together, but my son was doing all types of stuff without me that was when it was really bad because that was 18 years ago, he was born and you know, a couple years after that, like things are just getting worse and worse and retail, all the stuff I told you about, yeah, commerce and all that stuff. And she'd be telling me oh, Caden walked, you know, today, or, or this or that, or whatever. And I was just missing everything. And it was just terrible. So I was really depressed, I was in a really bad place. I, you know, I eventually all the way down to the bitter end, I, I used to say to people, maybe to myself that you know, if I think people told me that I was always so calm and collected and such a good leader. And no matter what happened, I always like I never just flipped flipped out on people, customers or employees and ever took anything out.

Anybody always, you know, came up with a plan. Okay, we can get through this. I was just that guy, you know, like that leader. And people would always say to me, man, if you lose your mind, like, if you lose it, if you freak out, like the world's coming to an end, because you can't handle a lot of stuff. Like, you're just always like, super chill and got everything under control, no matter how crazy it is. You know, I mean, there's been there was days at JC Penney, where the escalator stopped working and somebody was, you know, like, on it was trapped, someone was trapped in the elevator, you know, there's no lines at the registers, there's, you know, someone got caught stealing security from the mall, it's got literally all at one time, all in one day, you know, you know, someone needs to be upstairs, someone needs to be downstairs, and I'm the only one and I'm like, you've got to be kidding me like, and like meanwhile, I will just be like, you know, on on the walkie just delegating all these things, rearranging things on the fly, look at the schedule, hold on, give me two seconds. You know, bang, just doing all this stuff.

And everyone just like always, like, man, if that skill set is perfect for running long gear. But I didn't want it but it's not sustainable. So like, I had to make sure that I that I did it properly. Towards the end, there really started I did start to lose my mind. And I did start to become a different person I couldn't, I didn't really recognize myself. And I was like, I gotta get out of retail. And fortunately, I had just started Lawn Care part time, because, you know, 10 years ago, it started to become a thing where people were just mowing lawns, like they were doing some certain things. It was more specialized. There's fertilization, only companies, there was you know, mow blow and go guys, there was a combination of the two, there was landscaping, you know, 1, 2, 3 crew, landscaping companies have these big massive companies that only do commercial properties now and all that like so there was a whole lot of diversity opening up in our industry 10 years ago, and that's what really made it come back into my head again.

And somebody on Facebook had asked in our in our the HOA that we moved into down here in central Virginia, they had asked, I guess, for if anyone had recommendations for someone mowing the lawn or something like that. And my wife knew that I still had my stuff. And she knew that I had fantasized about the idea. 10 years or eight years, seven years, whatever it was prior to that, yeah. When my son was a couple years old, and my mother in law, I guess, had said that to me, like so she knew all of that. And she was like, Do you want me to give him your name? And I was in such a bad place that I just reluctantly said, sure. Like, but had I not said that? And I just said no, or I'm good or whatever. If I would just all let my grumbling Enos get to me and just not accept that you and I wouldn't be here talking today. Yeah, that one decision changed my the whole trajectory of my life. Like I said, Sure, whatever. Like, it wasn't even in a nice way. I was just in such a bad place. My wife was really, you know, trying to figure out how to help me and our relationship was obviously being challenged at that point. I barely saw my kids it was a mess. So I said sure. And then the rest is history.

I went and I, you know, mowed this guy's lawn. And you know, he recommended me to a couple of his other friends and you know, that that year I had like six people just kind of all over town like friends of friends and neighbors and all that stuff. And I have my a 21 inch mower trimmer and my blower and I put him in the back of my Jeep Compass. Sometimes I would go to work with a change of clothes and I would like rushing or change in my office and sneak down the back door and jump in my jeep and try and get one yard done before dark. So then I might want other one day off because typically I work six days a week. So um, you know, here I am working 50-60 hours a week 55-60 hours a time. Yeah, I'm trying to mow these you know, six yards that are all over town. You know, which I didn't have the right equipment. So it took me longer, like an hour and 45 minutes to mow like a 10,000 square foot yard with a 21 inch mower like I was just homeowner status, you know, anything commercial, so I was just doing whatever but that that first year part time made me realize like when I was doing it when I was in that moment mowing those lawns on those properties. I was like, living my best life. Like it was like something I had never experienced. Yeah, I was like, wow, this is amazing. Like, I'm my own boss, I'm doing my own thing. I'm like, I could totally do this.

Like, I mean, I got six customers like, what if I actually went all in full time and, and put a lot of effort, I think I can make this happen. So that's what I did I, I quit, I put in my two weeks notice, like right after Christmas. And then I just went all in, like I spent January and February, which is, you know, pretty much the whole country is winter time, there's not a whole lot of landscaping and lawn care going on, maybe down south are still kind of doing some things, just not as much. But for Central Virginia. There's there's nothing, nothing's growing. We don't get a lot of snow, but it's cold enough that nothing's growing, everything's dormant and all that. So it's more pruning and cleanups and things like that, but there really wasn't anything. And I was just spent that time researching and doing whatever I could to figure out you know, find a business name a logo, you know, uniform shirts, how am I going to mark it, you know, postcards, flyers, like just really trying to figure that, you know, utilizing all of whatever experience I had from managing other businesses in retail, which there's a lot of direct correlations, there's a lot of stuff that transfers over. But of course, there's still a learning curve of the actual work itself of landscaping lawn care, but I was also a homeowner, so I did a lot of that stuff and figure things out on my own. But then I'm like, okay, how am I going to make this a professional service? What do I do? How do I price you know, is there some sort of invoicing software because I'm not going to an office supply store and getting those carbon copy things like, I need to be organized, I was always a tech savvy person, I always had, like, soon as smartphones came out, I had one soon as tablets came out, I had one and that's how I kept my stuff organized, you know, I wouldn't have before all that I had like a paper planner, you know, like a Franklin Covey planner, and I'd have my car Angelique I had one of those too Naylor all my appointments and everything and I had all my stuff, okay, get through these, these employees reviews, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, you know, doing this with with my family or whatever, try and keep organized.

So I was always that kind of mindset person. So when I went and started my lawn care business, I, you know, applied all those things and figured out what I could and you know, just really dove all in and because I never had time to take vacation in retail, because there's all these other managers and supervisors fighting for vacation time, and every other weekend was a made up holiday where we couldn't, you know, we had to work because there's some crazy new purple sail, you know, it's purple weekend. So it's like an amazing, you know, sale that only one person can take off, you know, everyone else, it's all hands on deck. And so I was always fighting for time off, you know, who can get their get their name on the calendar first. 

So you would accrue all this time off, but you could never you couldn't take it was like, it was like, you know, it was it was just false advertising. You had all this vacation time, but you can. Yeah, but fortunately, this company, some companies, you have to use it or you lose it. So we always knew when when, like, you know, when Suzanne was going to quit, because all sudden she's taken all our personnel days, and all our vacation, and we're like, Ah, she's gonna quit. You know, but um, but this company that I worked for JC Penney, at that time, they just cashed out whatever time you accrued. So I had so much vacation time that it was two months worth of my salary. So it was like, I was still working for two months. So I skipped a beat financially. And fortunately, my wife had a full time job at that time as well. So but but she heard her salary wasn't nearly it was like half of mine. So she couldn't, you know, pay the bills by herself. Hers was kind of like extra my salary at the time retail paid all of our bills. And hers was like saving up and vacations and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And then and then when I quit, she was kind of like, oh, no, like she, you know, she was like, What the heck, we were, we were living the dream. And I was like, financially, but I was about to like, yeah, I was, I was checked out, like, that's not I was on the verge of of a mental breakdown. So I had to make that transition. But because she had a full time job, it allowed me to really focus on you know, those two months of my salary allowed me to focus on whatever I could do by the spring to just hit the ground running. And I started with like 35 weekly accounts, mowing accounts and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff and quickly started to supplement the income so what I was making plus what she was making was enough to get us through and of course year after year, I you know, I grew from there and and I kind of you know, learn this learn that I always had a goal five year plans, you know, and what I wanted to do and five, the first five years this second five years that just chip away at all that throughout and figure out what services I really wanted to stick with.

I always knew that I wanted to stick with turf maintenance, lawn maintenance, I love grass that that was my thing as a homeowner, so that's what I wanted to continue. I dabbled in some landscaping by Really like it as much like the designing and the building and all that I was never really into that hardscape definitely not I love how that stuff looks. But it just was so foreign to me and I had no interest in learning it just Yeah, I already knew the lawn care aspect, it seems so natural, so enjoyable, I love coming to a terrible looking lawn, you know, you know, getting it under control with the you know, cutting it, getting it cleaned up, treating it properly, aerating and seeding it if necessary, just getting it and then you know, a year later, the lawn looks phenomenal. And you're, you know, striping it making it look like a baseball field, dark green, and everything, just fantastic that that satisfying for me. And I like to have full control over a lot and, and make it look good and keep it looking good. So that's where I really, really focus in and that that was easily scalable for me as well, I could teach anyone how to do that. And, and so that's kind of what the direction of my business has been, you know, this whole time.

And I've always been around one to two crews, my goal is only like two to three crews. But as you probably know, through COVID, things got a little crazy. And people didn't want to work and all that. So a lot of people got hit hard with that. So I never really got to that stable second crew. So I'm always always just kind of at one good crew. But you know, so that's always a work in progress. But that's that's pretty much how, where I how I started how I got to kind of like what my business is like right now.

Angelique
So yeah, well, I think it's fantastic to hear how your experience in a totally different industry can be applied to what what you're doing now and your career, your own business in a totally different industry. And I think that, you know, probably, you know, everything that you've learned, it might have been harder to learn it any other way, you know, or, you know, some people work their way up into business owner,

Naylor
Right.

Angelique
You don't know how to maybe manage people and do that leadership role where you're doing the leadership role in a whole other industry, but it's very applicable to what what you're doing now.

Naylor
Yeah, I agree. And I say that to people, I mean, because I'm all over social media now. And I feel like that's one of my strengths in helping the community, you know, within our industry, because a lot of folks like you had mentioned or alluded to, you know, they're like, great, they're great operators, but they're not great owners, right? Like, they're really good at whatever.

Angelique
It's a whole different skill set.

Naylor
Yeah, and then they get into it thinking it's gonna be fine and dandy, and then they get overwhelmed or whatever, because they're not, they don't have the owner experience or the owner mentality. Not everyone is built to be an owner, you know, like,

Angelique
That's true, too.

Naylor
Yeah. And they wonder why they're losing people that can't keep people and, you know, maybe they're just not, they don't have the right leadership skills, not necessarily by you know, their fault, they just don't have that experience or, or they're just not built for it. Not everyone is a natural born leader and stuff like that. So, but I came from that whole environment, I had a ton of management training over those 15 years, like every company had their own version of training managers, a lot of it became redundant to me after a while, but I mean, you know, I went, I went from, you know, a cashier, a fitting room attendant at the gap in college, all the way up to store manager, you know, various different companies, you know, and, and everything in between, obviously, that I had to work my way up to that point.

So I had a lot of training for a lot of things, I already naturally, you know, have people skills, you know, like, I've always just been good at talking with people and a good listener, patient, things like that. I definitely do, like I said, have that natural tendency to want to be able to take a time out and recharge my battery. So I'm not like always trying to be the life of the party and be in large crowds all the time, you know, but I can do those things when I need to in retail, I had to put my manager cap on, and lead and do that, you know, when I was at work, and then when I was off, I would just chill, you know, just like, oh, man, I need a timeout. You need a break and I was very calm and, and quiet.

And you know, when people saw me outside of work, I was like, a different person. Like literally people would ask my wife when we all would start to know each other. They'd be like, this he liked this at home is easy. Totally different. She's like, he's, he's pretty different when he saw me. He's like, he like literally must put like his manager like put a hat on her an invisible hand. She's like, Yeah, I guess you know, but because I would just it was like, I was a performer like I was on like, as soon as I got to work I had to be bam you know, Mr. Manager, Mr. Leader, you know, again, I have those those natural skills like in my family, we're at Disney World, some catastrophe is about to happen. I just take control of everything. You know, like, hold on, hold on. That's what we're gonna do. That's okay.

My wife's having a nervous breakdown because her plan didn't come to that didn't work out perfectly. And I'm like, It's okay, honey. It's okay, that A B and C didn't work. I'm way down here Plan F I got you I got you girl like I'm, I'm fly by the seat of the pants. Go with the flow. King right here. You know, I can make it work.

Angelique
And I was gonna say and that. That brings me to one of my questions for you. Because you do interact with a large part of the industry, you know, from what you're doing now. And you have a lot of events yourself, you know, just, you're out there a lot. What do from your viewpoint? Do you see, that could improve the industry? And, you know, I don't want this to be. I know, you talked to Jay, just recently on his podcast about efficiencies and stuff like that. And I was like, Oh, I hope I'm not, don't want to copy what you're saying. But, you know, from, from a holistic point of view, I think you probably have a better...you come from a different viewpoint than people that have been in the industry for all their career. So you can maybe compare that to what you've seen in other industries. And, you know, what are some of the bigger topics are or a topic that you think could help our industry? Yeah, I have my own opinions. But I want to get other people's opinions for ones.

Naylor
Yeah. Well, the biggest thing for me, literally, I mean, I mean, we could, there's all kinds of things. But the biggest thing for me, and what I've been focusing on all this time is community. And personally, I think there's a connection for me with community, but also professionally, like, deep down inside, personally, there's my own thing. But I think through that, through my own personal mission, and emotional attachment to all of that, I have found that that's what we're lacking as an industry, we have so much tunnel vision, so much shade being thrown at each other, like we're all competitors, there's so much grass, there's so much landscaping out there, there's plenty of work that there's not one single company that could I mean, I mean, there could be companies come, there could be a new company started every day. And there would still, I mean, they're building houses left and right by me, like it just never ends, it never ends.

So I don't know why I still to this day, don't know why people have that hate mentality and throwing shade at everybody, instead of just saying, hey, and, and social media connects the right people social media, the people that wave nod, say, hey, or stop and chat about your setup at the gas station, are the same people that are following me on social media, and they don't know it, or they do and they're like, Hey, do you I saw you on YouTube, you know, or, or they're just on social media in general. And maybe you haven't stumbled upon me or whoever, but they're just on social media. And they're interacting, and they're having a good caring, they're sharing and learning, it's a give and take. And that's what this industry is missing for. I'm sure there's other industries missing that too.

But there are other industries that are way ahead of that and are doing much better than we are. But we're somewhere in the middle. I know a few folks from other industries. I've also worked with some other brands that that overlap industries, and they say that the green industry actually has a really good community connection. But that's only since I had like, I found the community in its infancy, I just happen to stumble upon it. 10, nine, 9-10 years ago, when I first started diving into research, and of course, the Google stuff, if there's a video, they're going to, they're going to promote that. And I would find these random YouTube videos with like Spencer Lawncare, and some of these folks that are still really that are really big now and still putting out content, but they were like, that was their first or second year doing it. And I was like, Oh, this is cool. These people are because you know, back then people would just post a random YouTube video and you'd never hear from them again, you know, and they're just putting it out there. Just to put it out there how to fix this on my Ford, you know, engine or, or, or how to trim this bush or you know what I mean? Like, it wasn't like a channel they weren't like trying to create content regularly or, or anything like that. I don't even know what what made them even put the video in the first place.

But you would see this video that was like five years old, and you're like, oh, man, and like they would never respond to comments. They probably don't even go on that email anymore. But I found Spencer lawn care and a few of the OGS as we call them, that were creating regular content. And I was like, Oh, this is awesome. So I started connecting with them and all that but and then I started making my own content. And that's that's where the community really started. That was the very beginning of it 9-10 years ago, so before that there was no real community that was connected like this. People were out there, but they were just kind of doing their own thing around. They didn't realize that there was any no one was really being connected yet. So 9-10 years goes and it really started and it's built from there. Angelique And it can really speed up getting you know, companies up to speed on the newest ways of doing things and newest equipment newest, you know, products new, you know how to be more efficient.

Angelique
Similar to what you talked about on your podcast with Jay. You know, I think that we can learn so much from each other, especially because a lot of lawn care and landscape companies start up with one or two people and because you do that it is harder to learn from other companies because your competition you don't know who's going to want to share and I do think, you know, we can all make the industry better, the more we have friends and colleagues and work together, yeah,

Naylor
Together, we can make each other grow, you know, like a rising tide raises all ships, you know, there's so many expressions out there floating around the community, I don't want to bite off everybody's stuff. No, that's that's, that's a that's just there's a lot of great analogies that we're all helping each other. And, of course, there's so so my analogy with equip because well, actually my analogy with OPI, which is the massive organization that runs our industry, you know, from from, or an organization Association, you know, working with the government and everything else standpoint, and they they put on Equip the biggest trade show in our industry. So I've gotten to know them over the years, many years ago, because they're in Alexandria, Virginia, which is only two hours north of me. So we connected at one point at GIE when it was called that and we developed relationship. You know, I went up there and had had spent the day with them. You met Chris Kaiser, the President, we all hung out and became good friends and all that. And they invited me to speak at their annual meeting. And I basically had answered your question that was my whole 45 minute speech to all the VPs and CEOs in our entire industry, like Toro, Echo everybody, all everyone who's who's a part of the OPI organization was there, they had this annual meeting, and it was in Utah, this particular year, but so I, you know, I spoke about community and how important it is, and how that's going to improve our industry and how every brand should really focus on creating their own community within their brand, you know, whether that's partnering with content creators, doing other things, you know, within their company, their brand, all that stuff.

So, I just really spelled it all out, utilizing all of my experience, up to that point in the community, all the different events, they've done all the things and, and, you know, I'll say this to you is how I ended my speech, I said that previous year, GIE, a lot of times, you know, us content creators, you know, we all get together at it now called Equip and everyone that's that can go that's following all of us, you know, that's, that's watching our content, everything listening to our podcast, they all go to, because of us, and maybe they knew about it beforehand, too, but they want to come they want to see it, they want to meet us. And so we have a ton of meetups and, and that's where all comes the live events, that's where all comes together. That's why so many people come to these live events. And they're more and more people will come to the newer ones and so on because they want to connect in person, they want to add SYNKD Live, I met several people for the first time that came because we talked about it on our podcast and on social media to promote it, you know, and Instagram a ton and stuff and, and those people came, and they all thanked me for the content that I create.

And they all had specific examples of something that I said or did, or they asked me that helped them, or they asked me about my setup, and they wondered maybe potentially have something a part of their setup. And you know, how's that working out? What about this? What about that, we have this really we have these really good engaging business and sometimes life conversations, because I share a lot about my personal life a lot of us do as well, like our ups and downs, because we're all human. And we want everyone to understand that they're not isolated alone. And they're not the only ones going through all these things. Yeah, soyou know, that's where the live events really, really show how important community is and how it's helping us all grow.

But going back to the end of my speech was, you know, the, what I think was the last day of the GIE at that time, at that year, a lot of us sometimes are trying to sneak in and out back ways and stuff. Because there's a lot of people sometimes that are they want to like talk to us and hang out. And if we have places to go, or be we have to like find backdoors to get to a specific, you know, to make our meeting or whatever. And you know, so sometimes we're just sneaking in and out and doing things like that so we can quickly get to the next because otherwise we will never get to where we have to go like if we have a meet up at a specific booth or we're supposed to do this or that if we start on one end of the trade room floor we will never get to the other end ever. Because all the way to meet people along the way. And we don't want to be rude and disrespectful. We want to meet people we want to you know, take pictures and shoot video clips and all this stuff. And it's like so that's why we have more and more meetups so that people know where to congregate to see certain people and they can just they know that that that that's time for them to do that. So that are not you know, and then that then that way they can also enjoy the show themselves in between all that right.

So just kind of keeps it all organized, but on the way sneaking in sneaking in, you know, to the back way, you know, which I have my own special spots right now but I won't give that away. But you know, I was sneaking in. And while I was, Speaker 1 I guess there's a couple of different escalator spots. So I'll just say that, you know, won't totally give away my spot. But I was going up the escalator and I had my camera in my hand. And there was a guy with a younger guy with an older guy, a young gentleman with an older gentleman, I like a couple of steps, you know, below me or above me or whatever, I think they're below me. And they just kept looking at me and looking at my camera. And that happens often. And it's two things, either one, they know who you are, and they're just kind of like, uneasy about like, outing you or saying something, you know, they just feel a little nervous about it. Or two. They're just wondering, What the heck are you doing with this, you know, with a camera, right? You know, so I'm just like, Ah, I don't know which one this is. But I'm just like, whatever. I'm just, you know, eventually he's I as I was thinking about it, eventually, he said, there's a lot of you got to see you have a camera. There must be a lot of cool stuff to film here. And I was like, Yeah, this this place is amazing. It's like being a kid, a kid in a candy store. Naylor And he's like, Yeah, I live in Louisville, Kentucky, which is where equip is. He's like, I live in Louisville. And I never even knew this existed if it wasn't for you guys on YouTube. So I took my dad here who's been doing it his whole life. And we decided to come this year.

Angelique
Oh, how cool.

Naylor
Yeah. And that's, and that's, that's how I dropped the mic. And, you know, like, in front of like, 200 Something executives in the entire industry. That's how I ended it. And they were just like, they're just they had the exact same expression and reaction. It's huge. And they all just started clapping and cheering it's, you know, standing ovation. They're like, Oh, my God, you know, but that was a true story. I mean, that's actually I ended I said, you know, I stopped and everyone's just like, like you. And then I said, that's the power of social media. And then bam, that was it. So there you go. So that's, that's the power of social media and community, social media brings the community together, and it's only bringing the people that need to that want to. Yeah, so basically, what I've been doing, that's what I was gonna say, a long time ago, when I talked to OPI, you know, over the years, I said, my goal is to continue helping foster growth within the online community to grow the industry from the inside out, right? As the if you think of the circle, that community is the inner circle of the industry, we're growing, and we're pushing the outliers out. Out of all, they're all retiring all the old folks that started this industry on their backs. I love them, I appreciate them. I'm grateful for them. But they don't care about Facebook, or social media, or anything like that. They're just all grumbly and their backs hurt and they're just [noise] and I get it, they're retiring. They're not the future of the industry, the future of the industry is the inner circle, the 13 year olds, the 23 year olds, the 45 year olds, all in between that, that have lost their job or lost their minds and needed to start something new.

Angelique
Or just were inspired by hey, we've all lost our mind, oh, no, no.

Naylor
These are the categories now. You know, like the people like me, who lost their mind and wanted to change transition had depressed the Hard Reset button, and which and what got into this industry, or they lost their job. And they felt like this is a good industry to come into, or they grew up in this industry. Since you know, 10-12 years old, their their family was in was in the business and they kind of inherited the business, or they watched the content creators and they thought it was really cool. And they were quickly able to go from the neighborhood kid cutting lawns, to running their own crews, and they're the next million dollar companies in our industry. So that's the future of our industry. You see all the technology, you see all the you know, all that stuff is coming from the younger generations that are that are things industry things Yeah, from inside out. So that's why we're we're really leading on and that's why OPEI is leaning on that that's why there's so much transition so much change so much newness so much, you know, technology so yeah, that's that's really what it's all about. That's my goal.

Angelique
That is fantastic. Well, keep on keepin on.

Naylor
That's my plan.

Angelique
And I think yeah, I do it does feel like the industry is is evolving. And I think that that is a great place to be makes the industry even better.

Naylor
So I agree.

Angelique
So yeah, great. Have you on the show are very new show that. Yeah,

Naylor
yeah. Congratulations. It's exciting.

Angelique
Thank you. Well, I just hope people listen.

Naylor
There ya go. All you need is one listener to make it worth it right.

Angelique
Well, exactly, exactly. So, this was a lot of fun. Good to see you Naylor and look forward to working with you as we get closer to SYNKD Live 2024.

Naylor
Absolutely i'm excited.

Angelique
Thanks and see you soon. We'll learn a thing or two so yeah, yeah. But um, you know, same as what you're saying building a community so if people listen, we will continue to podcast