346 - How Listening and Values Alignment Drive Success in the Artificial Turf Franchise World with Waterloo Turf's Tim Lovett

Welcome to Listening with Leaders. I'm Doug Noll, lawyer turned peacemaker. I teach executive leaders how to listen to emotions rather than words so that they can become the leaders everyone wants to follow. And I teach those same leaders how to be authentically present, available, and connected to their families despite being insanely busy. I have learned that we are 98% emotional and only 2% rational. Learning how to listen to emotions is, in my experience, the foundational skill of life. Stick around to the end of the show, and I'll reveal how you can be on our next guest in 15 to 20 minutes. So let's get started. Tim Lovett, welcome to Listening with Leaders. You are the CEO and one of the founders of a company called Waterloo Turf. You're based in Austin, Texas. And you guys are at the cutting edge, the bleeding edge of franchising artificial turf. Fascinating topic. Tell us a little bit about how you got into this.

Yeah, thanks, Doug. Great to be here. Appreciate you inviting me on and getting to talk a little bit through it. Before I got into artificial turf, I was in a corporate sales role, and so I was with a large multinational corporation. I actually helped develop the product and the sales team for that product. And we created a subscription product and grew it from $0 to $120 million in 15 months.

Wow.

And it was a really great experience, really great leadership experience and learning experience for me. That was really my first time being a part of something from zero to one, even though it was within an existing company with lots of resources. When you're starting something from scratch, you still just have to find ways to get things done and find ways to get people on your team. To help you. And what ended up happening with that company is as we grew our product line, we ended up getting shifted within the organization. And within that shift, as many corporations have, you get reorganized. And my role actually got demoted to the smallest ladder you could get on the rung within the company. And so I took that as a friendly way of, hey, this should be your goodbye within the company. So I put in my resignation. And from there I found myself in franchising. I was a part of a home services franchise platform where I was the operations executive. But at this point I had really had a taste in my mouth to where I knew what it was like to build something for somebody else. And I wanted to go build something for myself. I wanted to find something that I could have ownership in. So while I was at this home services franchisor, I was leading all franchise operations. So our corporate locations that we owned and that we were running. The coaching teams, the training teams, the launching teams. But in the background, I was also looking for an artificial turf brand to franchise. There's not another national brand in artificial turf. It's a huge industry. It's growing extremely quickly. And so I spent about a year looking for different turf companies to franchise, and eventually I got connected with Waterloo Turf. The founder, Lance, is a friend of mine. He was interested in franchising, and we ended up putting together a partnership where I acquired the brand in partnership with Lance to go franchise it. So that we could give other people ownership opportunity as well, especially those coming out of corporate or just wanting to be their own boss.

So how, so you are having these franchisees come in and they're the ones that are out there on the ground selling the product, or did they sub-franchise or how's the system work?

Yep. So Waterloo Turf started in Austin, Texas in 2021. And really it was built by Lance, who's spent a decade in the artificial turf industry. And what I always like to tell people is that artificial turf, at least from a residential landscaping perspective, it's really only been around for about 15 years or so. Doug, you just mentioned you're in California, right? It's California and Las Vegas. It's been around for a while, but if you go outside of those two areas, you just can't find anybody who has the amount of experience that Lance has in artificial turf. So He took some of his experience, started Waterloo Turf in 2021, built it really trying to figure out what was the best way to install artificial turf. And it took him about a decade of experience to figure out what exactly creates a quality install. He then took his systems and processes of a high-quality artificial turf install and started Waterloo Turf San Antonio. And for us, really, that's our validation market. And so we— Lance figured out that this process could be replicated by somebody else who was not him in a different market using the same brand and the same systems and processes. And so that's about the time when Lance and I got connected. We put together the partnership and what we do is we have people come to us who are interested in owning their own business. Sometimes they're in the corporate world, they're executives, like high-performing salespeople, similar to the position that I was in. And they're looking for a brand and a concept that they can just go run the play with. They may not have the idea or they may not have the trade knowledge inherent to them, but they do know that they can go execute at a really high level and bring other people into their vision. So we have people come to us to be local business owners and franchisees of Waterloo Turf in markets such as Boise, Fort Collins, Dallas, Orlando. We have franchisees across the country. They run their own businesses using the processes that Lance spent about a decade refining.

Wow. And how long have you been with WaterlooTurf now as the CEO?

Yep. So we completed our partnership and officially started franchising in December of 2024. So we are coming up on year number 1.

Wow. So what gets you really excited and gets you up in the morning and motivated to do this work?

Yeah, I think so. One of the things that stood out to me when Lance and I were discussing a potential partnership to go franchise Waterloo Turf is that we are extremely values-aligned. And again, I spent about a year looking at artificial turf companies to go franchise. Every business wanted to partner to go franchise their company. There's all sorts of benefits that you can have as a franchisor and What I found typically is that other companies that I had spoke with were digital marketing agencies and a turf wrapper. They didn't really know much about turf. They just knew a lot about digital marketing, or they were more private equity type folks who were just looking for the best exit for themselves. But when Lance and I spoke, we were extremely values aligned around the fact that we wanted Waterloo Turf to be about franchise owner profitability. And so how we've set up over here is to help franchisees really have the lifestyle that my business partner and I experience, where you've got time freedom, financial freedom. And so that's what motivates me is we're bringing people in. A lot of people are leaving really high-paying jobs. This is not a last-ditch situation for them. This is really something to where they want to go bet it on themselves and bet it on the artificial turf industry with a national brand backing them to go make a legacy business for their family. And honestly, that's what excites me is we've got the opportunity to work with some really cool people who are all building their own businesses while we get to build a national brand that can support them as well.

It sounds like it's not only exciting, but it's keeping you really busy.

Oh yeah, we're busy over here.

So how do the franchisees find you? Potential franchisees?

Yeah, so there, there's quite a few different ways for anybody who's new. To franchising or isn't extremely familiar with it, there is a network of franchise consultants out there similar to a real estate agent, a buyer's agent, to where they will help you evaluate different franchise options to go with. So we work with quite a few franchise consultants who have individuals that they're working with, whether they're sales executives, law enforcement, former military, or transitioning to military who want to be a business owner.

Yeah. I know David Busker who writes on LinkedIn a lot about his journeys helping people to decide on what business they want to get involved in. It sounds really interesting stuff.

And I think it's a good— especially if you're, you know, this is your first crack looking into franchising, I think it's tremendously helpful to have somebody who is extremely familiar with the different industries and the brands within franchising. So that's one way. The other way is we publish quite a bit of content, and so a lot of people just find us on social media, whether it be LinkedIn Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and we'll reach out.

Why would somebody be interested in artificial turf as a business as opposed to something else? There's so many different franchise opportunities out there. What makes your business model attractive?

Yeah, I think everybody's got their own reasons. I'll tell you why I got excited about artificial turf. I wasn't— I didn't grow up in the industry like Lance did. I chose artificial turf. And so there's a few reasons why I really liked it. Number one, it's a ginormous industry. I've seen estimates by 2028, the artificial turf industry globally will be worth over $100 billion.

Wow.

It's also growing extremely quickly. Depending on where you're finding your research, you'll see anywhere from a 6% annual growth rate to over a 12% annual growth rate. This is a home services industry that is in its very infancy, and I think it's got a lot of runway to go because we have legislative tailwinds behind us through water conservation, as well as consumer preferences. The reality is with artificial turf, most of the time we're selling to a homeowner who is tired of paying their water bill because water is expensive, or their local governments have come in and said, you no longer can water your yard, you need to go get zero-scape hardscape turf so that doesn't require water, or they no longer want to put chemicals and other fertilizers in their yard because they've got kids and pets rolling around in it. And so our tagline at Waterloo Turf is get your Saturdays back. And so we're certainly trying to play into those tailwinds of people just putting the mower down, not spending their time outside working on the weekend, but inviting their friends over for a barbecue, teaching their kid how to sink a roll-up putt in the backyard. So that's at least why I got so excited about it.

I remember in the early days, artificial turf, at least for the homeowner, was crappy. I take it that it's the quality of the product that you can acquire now has improved dramatically. Tell us about that.

Yeah, I remember, and I think a lot of people have scarring memories of the Astrodome on TV, and it was just this lime green that just blinded you for days if you ever watched a game in the Astrodome. Yet the reality is that turf has come a long way since AstroTurf and what that turf looked like, at least at that point. The R&D and the research and innovations that they've actually made into the product have made turf a great option for homeowners and facility owners. If you ever see turf at this point, a lot of the new product actually has thatching in it and it resembles natural grass. You can pretty much purchase any type of turf to resemble any type of natural grass. And it looks extremely, depending on what you want it to look like, it can look extremely, um, natural, meaning that there is brown in it. It can look a little bit dead if that's what you want. Not only that, Turf is also really great for drainage as well. And it used to be back in the day that you would just roll out, um, just lime green carpet and call it turf and it wouldn't drain very well. Today, turf drains extremely well and actually it drains better than natural grass in a lot of areas. And so a lot of homeowners who do have drainage issues or areas that have runoff issues will go with turf because it's like installing a giant French drain in your backyard.

How fire resistant is this stuff? I ask that because I live in fire land in California. Fires are a big problem here.

I, yeah, it's actually really interesting. So this has been something that I've learned about recently. Artificial turf is flame retardant. And from what I've heard from some of the areas that have experienced wild wildfires is many of the houses that had artificial turf actually seem to fare a little bit better. And so. I don't think that this is in effect yet, but at least just some rumors that I've heard is that some insurance companies might be looking at does the house have artificial turf when they're thinking about adjusting it and setting the premiums.

Wow. So this is really fascinating. So it sounds like you're on the back of a bull here. What is it about yourself that you think has made you so successful in doing all of this?

Yeah, I don't know if I would call us successful. I still wake up every day with just a drive and an excitement for what we're doing. Really, our goal at Waterloo Turf is we want to be the national name brand in artificial turf, and we want to do that through franchising and partnering with really great owners who can dominate their local markets. We want to create an iconic brand behind Waterloo Turf. We want to enhance and streamline our operational systems with a focus on franchise owner profitability. So we've, we've certainly had some pretty early successes since launching in December. We've brought on 11 franchise owners with 38 territories between them. And so the growth has been exciting, but we're still a very long way away from our goals. So it's typically when I think about somebody successful, they're waking up and thinking about legacy and what's next. And for us, I think we're very early innings, just not only within the industry but also within Waterloo Turf.

Got that. I'm curious about what it is about you personally that is making all this work. What do you bring to the table as an individual and as a leader and a CEO?

Yeah, I think it's really interesting. We've got a good culture at Waterloo Turf, and many of the things that I've seen makes are franchise owners successful are the things that I try to emulate as well. And so I do think that there are a few things that at least I try to focus on, and I do think brings results in at least my role leading the brand. The first thing that we like to talk about at Waterloo Turf is Groundhog Day. And have you ever seen that movie?

Oh yeah.

You know what I'm talking about?

Yep. And so you gotta go, you gotta do it every day until you get it right.

That's right. That's right. And so we talk about every day should look like Groundhog's Day at WaterlooTurf. And so in many service companies, or I think just many business owners in general, you wake up every day and there's some fires that came up overnight that you've got to put out. And then there's fires that come up during the day that you got to put out. And you look much more like a firefighter than somebody that's living Groundhog's Day over and over. Every day is either something new that that you're trying to put out, or you found a shiny object that you're going to chase and it's completely unrelated to the existing business. We want to do the same things over and over for a very long period of time. And we know that's a boring sales pitch, but we think that's actually what leads to results. And so many of the Waterloo Turf franchise owners have an athletic background, played football, baseball, basketball in college. I played football in college. And we like that. We think that somebody who is used to just doing the same fundamentals every single day for years at a time, working on that first step is what leads to success in our business. So for us, especially in the field, it's going out and it's doing business development. It's shaking hands with the pool construction company. It is talking to the landscape architect. It's making sure that you're known in your town and you're doing that every single day, no matter what that day looks like. It's following up on estimates., and it's going to make sure that you're getting 5-star reviews and doing quality work. And yeah, I think for me, we've tried to emulate that as well as what are the things that I can do every single day that actually move the business forward. For us, it's talking with and trying to see who could be a really great franchise owner for us at Waterloo Turf and who wants to go build a brand up really alongside of us. Number 2, let's go recruit and actually poach the very best turf operators to coach our franchisees. So we spend a lot of time bringing people in. And then thirdly, it's about refining systems. So we're always looking at better ways to go out and do it. And in a franchise brand, there's all sorts of things that come up. There's all sorts of fires, but at the end of the day, we have to live every day like it's Groundhog's Day. Otherwise it just never goes anywhere.

This, this show's called Listening with Leaders, partly because I teach people how to, I teach leaders how to listen. And surprisingly enough, I'm curious, how important is listening in, in your business?

It's everything in a franchise business. It is truly everything. So we, we have a corporate staff, at least on the brand side, of about 10 or so employees, and then we've got 11 franchisees. And so one of the things that I tell our team on the brand side is that if you are not selling or installing turf, you better be supporting somebody that is. At the end of the day, the franchise owners are the ones selling and installing turf. We're over here supporting them. Them through our systems and processes and building a brand. But the franchise owners are really the ones talking to the customers every single day, multiple times a day. And so they are the closest to the work that's actually being done that's important to Waterloo Turf. And so we can come up with ideas over here, we can say, hey, this is great and we should do this, but at the end of the day, the people that are closest to the work being done are the ones who have the ideas. And without listening, you'll never know what actually needs to happen within the business.

And I would imagine that your franchisees have to know how to deal with the occasional unhappy person. It's a human business. Like you said, it's a home service business, so you're gonna have upset people. And how do you manage that? How are they, how do they deal with the upset that goes with the territory?

Yeah, of course. We certainly wanna control everything that we can control, but some things are just out of our control.

That's right.

And from time to time, we will have missed expectations with a customer or even missed expectations with a crew that we're using. And so I think it's really important to us to make sure that the customer's having a really high-level premium experience. And so if anything's ever not up to par with the communication there, we want to do everything we can to make sure that every customer has a 5-star experience with us. And artificial turf is a high, it's a high-ticket item. You'll find that the average install residentially within the US is $10,000.

Wow.

And many people spend more than that. And so this is an investment for people. And so they're not just looking for the cheapest provider. They really want somebody who's gonna go right by them. Many of our customers do know that things come up as we're digging up dirt or messing around. We might find some things that just weren't planned for and accounted for in the beginning, but We always teach our franchise owners and really want to embody this ourselves is that we have a high amount of communication and a high amount of integrity and know enough about what we're actually doing to be able to proactively problem solve on the fly to make sure that everybody does have a 5-star experience. Wow.

You got me. I'm so curious about this. How many are— for the typical franchisee, how many typical employees do they typically have?

There's a few different ways you can start. And so most of our owners will start as an owner-operator. As an owner-operator, you can be the sole employee of the business. We utilize subcontracted labor on the install side. We like the subcontracting model because it reduces the risk on our operating expenses. We're not paying for labor on days that jobs are not going off. However, don't think about this as a revolving door of subcontractors. Really, our model is finding the right crew, and we're actually okay with potentially overpaying, if you will, for the right crew because we know that ultimately they're going to give the customer the best experience. And once you find that crew, keep them busy 5 days a week and retain them for as long as you can. Treat them well, keep them busy, pay them every single week, and they'll do really well for the customers. As a franchise owner grows, they can bring on salespeople. We call them Turf Pros. They do the sales plus project management. And then as you grow further, you can bring on a general manager to actually run the business for you. We do have some franchise owners that are in very high-paid positions or are existing business owners. And we have a different model where you can start with the GM from day one. The way that looks like is really the GM is the owner-operator from day one.

Wow. Interesting. This has been a fascinating conversation, Tim. Oh, I'm gonna leave you with one more question. What's one thing about yourself that we would never know about unless you revealed it to us?

Yeah, I think one thing about— actually, I'll tell you a story. And I grew up on a horse farm in Ohio. It was about 30 acres. And I actually spent a lot of my time mowing grass. And I think I've got some scars from it now that I'm in the artificial turf industry. I would spend every Saturday just on a riding mower, mowing a pasture. When you grow up in a small town and you think about sales and sales experience, it just sounds like the used car salesman who was in our neighborhood and nobody really liked that guy. And when I went to college, I met a girl there and I figured out that I was supposed to be in sales through meeting her. And I'll tell you why. I was talking with her and I wanted to go on a date with her. And I actually, I actually had to ask her out 17 times before she said yes. And so I got rejection after rejection. And finally she said yes. Later she agreed to marry me. She's now my wife. We have 4 kids together, all of which are under 4.

Oh, geez.

And we've got a really great family. But actually I was, I think I was in my senior year of college and I was telling somebody about this story and they said, "You should go into sales." And I think that's how I started my sales experience and really have just been able to have the opportunity to grow some leadership there and grow some teams. And now it's been great to grow a brand. But yeah, most people don't know that about me.

That's great. Sam, thank you so much for your time today. I've really enjoyed the conversation. I know that all our listeners have too. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Doug.

Doug Noll here. Thank you so much for listening to Listening with Leaders. If you are a successful executive leader who would like to be on this program, please visit podcast.dougnull.com/podcast. If you got something out of this interview, would you please please share this episode on social media. Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend or post it on the socials. If you know someone that would be a great guest, tag them on the social media to let them know about the show and include the hashtag #ListeningWithLeaders. I love seeing your posts and guest suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content. To make sure you don't miss any episodes, go ahead and subscribe Your thumbs up ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show and mean a lot to me and my team. Want to know more? Go to my website, DougNoll.com, or follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. That's @DouglasEnoll. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on the next show.