Confronting Brian's Lawn Maintenance

Brian's lawn maintenance. He puts a mower out once a week so he can get some good footage. And YouTube is where he makes money.

For all the haters that are like betting against me. Probably don't short that stock. The numbers speak for themselves. I'm not here to honestly play pitch and catch with some 14 year old that's on his Internet computer. What have you done to help grow the lawn care community? What have you done to help the next guy out? I'm coming at you with fire, brother. Like, we're just, I got, I got my energy drinks in me, we got a full day of mowing, I'm all ready to go.

Cool. Yeah, like, so we'll go ahead and just jumped in and then I'm recording and things. But I kind of wanted to do the interview in a little bit different way because I know a lot of content you made is really good for, you know, how to start, where's the good marketing equipment, etc? I don't want to just do another one of those because I feel like there's lots of that for both you and I on, on the Internet. I kind of wanted to jump more into, you know, how you're running the business now and really just what you've seen from your point of view because you see so many business owners, right. And I think that's the, the advantage that as creators we do get is be able to see hundreds of people talking to us, what's working, what's not working, and some of the trends in the industry. And so, you know, let's just jump into it. And what are you kind of seeing in 2022 for. Let's kind of break it down one, the solo operator kind of by themselves and then others have employees. What are you kind of seeing as the main struggles that people are kind of reaching out to you for?

Yeah, I mean, first off, thanks for having me on the show and thanks for having me just even as somebody to hopefully add value to your audience. So I guess to answer your question, it's kind of like ironic. It's, it's twofold, but it's really the same question or the same answer. And it's just employees and labor. I mean, so the end of the day, the larger guys, what do they need? They need warm bodies, they need talented people, skilled people, people that can help grow the companies and take care of all these jobs and responsibilities. Right. Like mowing, trimming, landscaping, just you name it. Right. The whole litany of the whole industry. So then the other question is, well, if you can't find those people, what do you do? You downsize. At least that's what I'm noticing. So I've seen a lot of companies go from whether it's a, you know, four crews and 12 guys down to niche down, niche down, cherry pick the best customers, get rid of the slack or trim the fat down to two crews or maybe one crew. Right. So I have a buddy just down the road, really great guy. His name is Tyler. Last year he had 12 guys and three or four rigs. This year, it's literally him and two of his best guys. He's like, I can't deal with it. The hassles, the headaches, all this mess. I need eight more guys. It's just not a thing. So he went from, you know, doing 7, 800,000 to maybe doing 3 or 400 probably this year. You know, realistically, hopefully hyper profitable. But that's just the trend I've noticed. So I think the, the conversation, whether you're the bigger guys or the smaller guys, is the labor pool. That whole. I think we've all beat a dead horse on that the last 18 months. It hasn't really changed. I don't really foresee it changing. So that's what I've noticed. Just with the folks that I'm talking to, seems like a lot of solo owner operators and a lot of folks with just kind of that one or two crew and just trimming the fat, you know.

Totally. And so for you personally with your business, Brian's Lawn Maintenance, how has that been? Because, like, I don't do a whole lot of filming of my crew and like asking them to talk or anything like that, fortunately. And I can only imagine how hard it would be to have not only find people that want to work out in the field, but then in pay and everything else that is going on, but then also that. That you're like, hey, by the way, occasionally I'm gonna show up and the camera's gonna be in your face and I'm gonna need you to interact. Like, how does that work for your interviewing process? Does it. Do you usually hire fans or is it a matter of, like, is a good thing or bad thing? Have you kind of found. Over the past little bit, to be.

Honest with you, it's different. There's no doubt about it. I don't have any silver bullet kind of an answer for you. So what I will say is, when we hire folks on the front end, the expectation is, my business is my YouTube channel. My YouTube channel is my business. Right. So they have to be comfortable saying, hey, I'm going to probably have you in the background on camera now. I'm not expecting you to talk or share or make any points or. Or say anything you don't want to say. Like, I. Nothing like that is ever scripted or orchestrated behind the scenes. It's nothing like that. I. Because here's the reality. I don't want to have those guys feel like, oh, I got to come to work today and shoot a video and be on the Internet. And. And whether, like, some people will say, well, you're like, YouTube famous. And then other people will be like, you don't even have a real YouTube channel yet. You're like, you're not Mr. Beast, right? So there's two aspects of that. Some people think they're going to jump on the crew and we're going to do YouTube videos all day. And. And I. And I. And I kind of chuckle like you did, and I'm like, no, bro, we're mowing like, 30 lawns today. We're slinging 30 yards of mulch. We're getting sweaty, greasy, nasty. Like, I don't know what you guys think this is, right? So there. It's kind of like that misconception, because to be totally honest with you, I've had dozens and dozens of people locally reach out, and they all want to a work for free or job shadow or just see how we do it. Like. Like we're some big fish. And I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm like, hey, dude, we're gonna be doing the same thing you're probably doing anyway. Cutting, trimming, blowing, edging, and a lot of it, all right? And so some folks maybe jump on and they're like, hey, dude, I live five minutes down the road and, you know, I want to mow grass with, like, a YouTuber. And I'm like, yeah, that's. That's not what we're hiring for. Like, we're not here to make YouTube videos. We're here to cut grass first.

Hey, get some free labor, you know, just have no. No employee costs whatsoever, dude.

You know, it's funny, I keep saying, like, we don't have a job shadow program. However.

I always joke with another buddy. I said, man, it'd be really interesting to, like, charge somebody 500 bucks, have them come work for us for three days, like you were saying, and then get $150 a day worth of free labor and make money. That's. That's pretty funny. I. I don't have anything like that ever right now. And here's the reality is that our schedule is crazy. Like between balancing a couple hundred thousand dollars, your business, a newborn baby, my wife, marriage, the YouTube channel, a podcast, a lot of spinning plates. So there are many days where I'm like, hey guys, I'm not going to be able to join you on the crew until 11am I got a couple conference calls in the morning or hey guys, I got to get done at 2 or 3 o'. Clock. I've got a Zoom meeting. I got to be on at 4 o'.

Clock.

And so there's times where like the schedule is just kind of jumpy. Other days, you know, we get rain days. I try to do all my like social media work on those days because we really do want to make sure that we're not taking away from the business. Because the reality is like, okay, I might have a conference call at 10am but my employees don't want to now work 11 to 7. Right. They want to live their life and be done 8 to 5. Right. So it's a balancing act. And that's why I've never really opened up to anybody, like, come join the crew. Ironically enough, we get stopped almost once a week all over the place. Like just the other day, we were doing a 43 yard mulch job on Saturday. Guy pulls up in this car dealership we were at this African American dude, younger guy, 20, 22 years old maybe, and his brother was in the car. And he goes, dude, holy crap. I watch you on YouTube. And I'm like, yeah. He's like, yeah, I got a small business on the east side, you know, of Detroit area. And I said, awesome, man. Like, comment on my next video. Like, hey, it's Matt from the dealership. I said, don't say the dealership, by the way, because I don't want my account to get poached. But at the same time, he's like seeing us in the field, not shooting YouTube videos, man. We're working. So a lot of that YouTube stuff and all that social media crap we do at the end of the day or two minutes here, two minutes there. A lot of times it's nights and weekends for me and I'll circle back to a customer or a property or even just at the rig and try to film a quick video. Cool.

I want to talk because you mentioned something there was cool. YouTube is the business and the lawn care business is the. It's all mixed together, right?

Yeah.

And so I wanted to ask you some questions that I See, commonly when people talk negatively about you because I think I know the answers and I think we've talked about together one on one on the phone. But I want to kind of put it publicly and kind of what your opinions on some things. So I don't have anything written down or notes or anything but like let's say someone says, and by the way, I was this person probably a few years ago, right, As I was kind of growing, getting started watching all of your videos, Keith's videos, everyone's videos. And then I got to the point where, you know, 10, 15 employees and started like, man, like there wasn't much to listen to, right? And so I think it's really, really a good thing like when you and I talked and I start to understand the social media side, understand the information side. And so let me, let me talk to the previous me like three or four years ago, right, like doubts about like why, what you're doing and all that sort of thing so you can explain and kind of give a more clear picture because I know we've talked about it off camera. So for example, like for someone that says, okay, Brian just shills products and is just trying to buy people, make them buy products and all that sort of thing, what would you say just off the cuff to someone that says that that's all your videos are now?

Well, to be honest with you, I don't know what videos they're watching because that's like maybe 1/5 or 1/8 of the videos that we put out. A lot of our videos are how tos mowing vlogs, just showing us working. I mean, that's quite honestly, that's the weirdest thing. Those are like the least fun videos for me to film because I'm like, wait a minute, people like mow grass for 10 hours a day, then they're going to come home at 8 o' clock at night and watch another dude mow grass. Like, but you know what, it's funny, like they get tons and tons of views and then to answer your question with the products or anything that we ever plug, here's the reality is that they're helpful products. So from a Cujo yardwear shoe to a Darwin's grip isotunes like the headphones or pick your product, pick your brand, whatever. I'm not here to plug anybody specifically, but at the end of the day, like I get, here's the thing, I get, I get asked tons and tons of questions because when we're mowing grass in those mowing vlogs people are going, hey, what hearing protection are you using? So as a, as a content creator, like, I want to balance helping somebody out. And then I just realized four or five years ago, hey, we could monetize the hobby. Because cameras aren't cheap. Editing takes time. Sometimes I'm taking time away from my actual business, right? Like we talked about earlier. And so here's the thing. Like, if, if it's not making you money, by definition, it's a hobby. And kayaking is a hobby. Fly fishing is a hobby. Skydiving is a hobby. Here's the thing, those things take a lot of money. So unless you make some money, look, right or wrong. And here's the thing, I'll tell anybody, go do something as a hobby. And for a year, six months, two years, three years, that's fun. It's cool. But eventually you're going to be like, you know what? This is expensive. Do I need to do this? I'm taking time away from my wife or my kids. So. So even the best guy with the best intentions who's fly fishing, you know what he's going to do? Hey, I use this reel and I, I'm, I'm. Whether he, he's even on social media or not, right? Let's just say he's just some local dude at the local watering hole. I, I don't fish. I don't know. But somebody's gonna go, hey, what reel is that? And he goes, oh, it's a, it's a Magellan. I don't even know. So what is he going to do? He's going to say, well, wait a minute, I just sold a reel for. From the local fish store of melan. Like, I did the work. Shouldn't I get five bucks or ten bucks or whatever? So it's so common sense. We've all been doing this for dozens and dozens of years, right? And so to me, the reality was somebody's gonna ask me, what hearing protection are we using? What shoes are we using? What mower brand are we using? Just, just by passively, like, have, like, I had a, I had a Milwaukee heated jacket or something on in the back seat once. I did this, like, video, and I'm like, hey, guys, what do you think about this? And 30 comments were, hey, dude, is that the new Milwaukee heated jacket? So it's, I didn't even, like, product place it. You know what I mean? If I was smarter, I probably would, hey, Milwaukee, pay me a thousand bucks, right? I, I'm not that good. So the reality is, like, People ask that stuff any which way. So here's, here's the real conversation I have. Here's. Here's my thought process. Nobody complains about Michael Jordan, LeBron James, or Tiger woods getting brand deals, endorsements, or sponsorships. Let's just be real for like a hot second. LeBron James or Tiger woods gets done playing baseball or basketball. Jesus, I don't even know Tiger woods gets done playing golf. And he's like, all right, guys, have a great day. I'm going to go get in my Buick, drives off the little greens and, like, into the parking lot and all this mess. Homie's getting paid $12 million to drive a Buick. We all know at the end of the day, he's not driving a Buick. He's in his Escalade or Lambo or whatever. Okay? Nobody has any problem with that guy, though, making $12 million because he entertains him with golf. So the end of the day, we're entertaining people with some escapism, some entertainment, some humor, some fun, some maybe help them with buying decisions. Literally, like, hey, buy this, not that. So we're adding value. And the best way people can reciprocate is to, you know, Support your favorite YouTuber, support your favorite whoever. So I've never really personally understood why some people don't have an issue with LeBron getting paid 15 million to drive a Kia. But then they're like, hey, man, these. These lawn care YouTubers, they're selling out by, you know, having a brand deal with Exmark or isotunes or, or whatever. So the reality is like, dude, I'm thankful. I'm thankful and I'm excited. And when. When Mike Andes gets a sponsor or, or somebody else gets a sponsor, and it's helping that person, like, keep their wife to be a stay at home wife or to buy their kids some toys for Christmas, like, after that person's added so much value to me from their podcast or YouTube that people arguably consume for free. The best thing you can do is reciprocate. Well, what's the best way to reciprocate? Yeah, hit the thumbs up on the video. You know, watch the videos. I'm sure they get paid all those YouTube millions from AdSense. Right? But at the end of the day, the affiliates or buying a training program, that's the best way to do it. And I'll tell you what, man, I've learned from Gary Vee. I love Gary Vee. I've been humbled by Gary Vee. He's one of the best out there. If you're talking about business and marketing and life. And his rule is 5149, Mike. And that means he adds 51% value to the 49% that he tries to take back or get or reciprocate. Me, I've always, always, literally I've always tried to be like 95. 5. Okay? So some people are like, well, he plugs a bunch of products or this or that. Yeah, but think about the reality of my content. It's95.5 and if it's anything less than that, I would personally feel dirty, I would feel gross. Because I don't want to get pitched something all day long either. Right. So I'm, I'm cognizant. But you know what, man? I love supporting people with codes. Whether it's Casey Neistat or the Peter McKinnon's or. Gosh, there's, there's other people that I watch like for YouTube video editing and have preset packs or YouTube editing packs. I buy that stuff all the time. Drone stuff, man. I bought a drone training program is 180 bucks so I can become a certified drone pilot. I didn't even think twice. I have to take a drone test. This guy's going to save me from having to take the test five times and it's 100 bucks every time. I can just take it once, ace it, and pay this guy 150 bucks and learn from his training programs, bro, sign me up.

So that's great. Great answer. So what would you say to someone that says someone like myself or you, who sells information.

Is, is essentially making money on that type of business and therefore our actual business. Like some people generally believe that Augusta Lawn Care is a front for me to sell courses.

Right.

Some people would say, you know, Brian's lawn maintenance, he puts a mower out once a week so he can, you know, get some good footage and YouTube is where he makes money in the courses, etc. What.

Should it be that someone that is watching our content, where we do make money off information and ancillary products because of the content, should they be following our business practices and, and what filter should they be using between what is content and what is good business?

It's a great question. I mean, I have to think about that for a quick second because here's what I've. I can't speak for everybody else, right? Number one, what I can say is, if you watch my content, we will teach you how to grow a successful lawn care landscaping business. One, I have arguably a successful lawn landscaping business. So, number one, the credibility is we're doing it. We're in the thick of it every single day. We're mowing grass, we're slinging mulch. Quite honestly, that's why I film so much of us working, is to dispel any myth that we're just making videos to sell stuff, right? So, number one, we're in the trenches, we're in the field, and we're doing the work that we're showing you guys how to do. So my goal is to always keep credibility with my audience, right? And always have integrity with the folks that I'm trying to talk about, whether it's products or services. Right now, to go to the other question you had about selling training programs or postcard designs, and you can buy these postcards and you have similar products, you're not really selling a digital product as much as you're selling time, right? So here's the reality of it, is that little mindset shift. Somebody's like, well, you're gonna sell a contract for $49. Yes. Here's the alternative. You can go get your own lawn care contract by hiring a lawyer. Spending $325 an hour. Probably have three to five hours into that. Your lawyer most likely is not going to take that out without a $5,000 retainer. I didn't have $5,000 when I was first getting started in my lawn care business, and I didn't know how good the contract was going to be. Was it proven? Does this guy mow grass? Does he have any idea about my industry or my field? Alternatively, you're a lawn care business owner. It's your first or second year. An HOA or a apartment complex calls up and says, hey, we need a quote, we need a bid. You're, like scrambling. You've never bid anything like that before. And now you're like, dude, I need a contract. I don't even know what that is. And then somebody says, hey, I've got a contract that can sell you. It's 49 bucks. Cost me two, three thousand dollars to get it made, but with the Internet, we can scale. You can get it for $49. My cost is your savings. But not only do you have a great, powerful resource that's going to help you earn tens of thousands of dollars in business right now. I've also saved you time and money. So I've saved you 10, 20 hours back and forth with a lawyer, and I've saved you 5, 10, 20x with the fees of a lawyer. So to me, it is a, it is a beautiful thing what you can do with the Internet. And quite honestly, that's the point. The community is growing together and we have thousands of people that have utilized that contract. So yes, we make 25 bucks or 50 bucks, which is ridiculously nominal. Right. Here's the reality is that, here's the question nobody's ever asking how much of those contracts secured in business for our community. My question back is, have you helped your fellow man, have you helped your fellow lawn care business owner secure 5, 10, 20, $50 million in business? That's the juxtaposition. That's my question back to that critic. Hey, what have you done to help grow the lawn care community? What have you done to help the next guy out?

Awesome. Good answer. All right, I think I have one more that at least I have in my head right now.

I'm coming at you with fire, bro. They're like, we're just, I got manage drinks, Amy. We got a full day of mowing. I'm all ready to go.

When it comes to equipment, obviously because of social media and because of YouTube etc.

Equipment is obviously an easy sponsorship. It is where a lot of the money is at in this industry.

When, when people see new equipment relatively frequently because we as creators are able to get it for discounts or for a season of time, whatever it might be, what do you think should be? And this isn't necessarily trying to defend your position or anything, but more matter of actually your opinion. When is it that someone should buy new equipment versus they should just make sure that they extend the lifetime of that and make more money from it? Where's that line? Do you feel it depends on the size of the business, where they're, what they're, where they're at in their business. Like what's, what do you feel is the right move? Because I think sometimes that can get blurred by social media. That obviously a brand new mower is going to get more views and more likes and more reshare, you know, shares if it's being striped, if it's striping along. Right. For example. So what's kind of your, your position on that?

Well, I mean, number one, again, I have to go full circle too. I can only say or suggest what we do for our business. I don't mind being lumped into a lawn care youtuber or a lawn care influencer. However, you'll never ever anywhere see me say influencer or youtuber. I think it's such a pathetic wordplay. I'm a long Care business owner. I have another side business is called my media company. Every single day I'm out cutting grass. And so here's the reality. The advice I give out is not only based on the last four or five years being on YouTube, but also the 17 seasons we've been doing this. We've done millions and millions of dollars in business. So I'm not here to convince anybody. I'm not here, like you said earlier, to justify I. I'm not here to honestly play pitch and catch with some 14 year old that's on his Internet computer saying, oh, Brian just likes Exmark because he gets sponsored by Exmark. Here's the reality. I bought almost probably eight to 10 machines of Exmark over the 17 seasons. I've spent my 50, $100,000 on my own equipment. Right now that's pennies compared to other larger companies for sure. But the reality is like we've bought all of our equipment before we ever got a free brand deal. Ironically enough, Mike, the joke was four or five years ago when we got sent a couple of things. I remember equipment Defender selling sending us some trailer racks and they were really nice and state of the art. And I had these like hanger on ones from like Lowe's and they were like raggedy as hell and I had my buddy like weld them back on. I was joking with my wife, I was like, look, where were these people five years ago when I really needed some brand deals and some sponsorships. So ironically enough, we get to a level where our long care company starts making some decent money. And if anybody doesn't know my story, my first 10 years was not very illustrious. I was the low ball guy, I was the bummy dude. My mindset was junk and I just had to dive into self help books. And today it would be podcasts and guys like Mike and other people putting out quality content on YouTube. We're kind of in like our fourth season, Mike. I'll call it of like this Brian's law maintenance, like 2.0 or 3.0. So our lawn care business is making money, it's established. Like we're out of debt. Like I'm really, really happy with what we've built. So I have to answer your question with not the last four or five years of us being on YouTube, but the last 17 years of us being in the industry. So to go full circle, to answer your question for me personally, when it's talking about new equipment, you can have conversations all day long about new versus used. For me, I'm A big fan of new equipment because I like warranty. Zero or less downtimes, the reliability, and of course, the latest and greatest technology, from engines to, you know, EFI to red tech to whatever, striping and all this other mess. Right. The alternative conversation is talking about used equipment. It's usually cheaper. You might have a thousand hours on it, 1500 hours on it. If you're mechanically inclined, it's a better way to go. However, I'm not mechanically inclined. I'm a businessman. I'm a business owner. I'm trying to grow the company and spin the dream. However, if you know how to wrench on things and you can save, you know, 2, 3, 4, 5 grand by buying something that's used with, you know, 500 to 1,000 hours on it, I think that's the way to go. Really quick, I got to say this to just answer your question with a little plus one here. I've taken my personal advice all the time. So here's the deal. 1500 hours to 2000 hours is usually when I trade in my own piece of equipment. For example, a lawnmower, for this instance, my laser Z right now that we have has 1300 hours on it. I'm right there eyeballing, like, do I keep it? Do I trade it in? How do we keep the hours off it? I want to prolong it. Look, we might get a free mower once in a while from some of the brands or maybe a demo. But the reality is, like, yo, I'm still counting hours just like you guys, so I want to keep my equipment efficient, the hours off them. Like, we want to be smart with all of the assets that we have to our name. So that mower has 1300 hours on it. My own personal advice is trade them in around 1500 hours. And I'm thinking to myself, do I get the new X Mark 37 Vanguard with the oil guard and all that mass? And. But then the business side of me says, well, that's 17 grand. I'm going to get five grand for my trade in. That's a stupid decision for 12 grand. Now, here's the deal. People would say, oh, well, you're just going to, you know, get these mowers and you just get them for the, for the views on YouTube. Well, if that's the case, I would have either A, like, suckered Vanguard into getting me a mower, B, begged Exmark to get me a new one, or C, traded it in and took a 12 grand hit to make more money on YouTube. Here's a tip. I make a no 12 grand back on YouTube views because I bought a different frickin mower, okay? You can make those YouTube millions. I maybe if you're Mr. Beast. We are making far less than what people imagine. So hence all the brand deals, hence all the affiliate links, and hence LaunchPreneur Academy, for example. One last thing, I'll say, Mike, with the trade in the little magic window there, not only do I take my personal experience, but I love, like, for example, on our podcast, getting other people on who are industry professionals and actually know what they're talking about, like degreed career. These are smart people. Like an Ed Wright. I had Ed Wright on our podcast, gosh, maybe three or four months ago. It was really early spring, first part of winter. And I asked him point blank, ed, you're an engineer. You go over to Japan and Taiwan and Hong Kong and Singapore. You talk to all the engine manufacturers, right? When is the best time to trade in a mower? And you know what he said, Brian? That's a great question. And long story short, after like 30 minutes of Ed Wright, because he's so smart, he's like an Elon Musk. He's very cerebral, he's very intelligent guy. I'm like, I'm like, ed, when's the perfect time to trade in a mower on this mess? He goes, yeah, well, I did this graph and these two lines meet between downtime and cost and all these metrics he had and all the data they had from selling tens of thousands of mowers over like 30 or 40 years. He goes, it's about at 1500 hours. And I'm like, hey, so like, so here's the deal. Like, we try to give you guys the credentialed. We try to give you guys the practical. Do we have all the answers? Lord knows we do not. Okay? I am the biggest failure you'll ever meet. For real. I've messed this thing up more ways than all the way to Sunday, okay? So I don't have it all figured out. What we try to showcase on YouTube is the stuff that is working because we spent the first 11 years, just as the saying goes, banging our head on a brick wall. And then somebody comes over and says, hey, you know there's a door here, right? Like you can. So I wish I had the Mike Andes and the podcasts and the, the Caleb Allmans, and of all the social media gurus that we have today, those are people putting out quality content. Jonathan from Florida Turf Pros, I know you know him really well, great guy, him. And I text literally, like, every week or two because he's building a home, and we're about to build a home. So these are friends. These are buddies of mine. So here's what I'll just say for my content, I give you guys the practical. The stuff that I know works. I'm not trying to sell you guys anything you don't want, you don't need. Like, Cujo yardwear, lawn care, shoes. People are like, are you just, you know, saying that because they're. They're paying you to say that? I'm like, number one, I don't get paid from anybody as a brand deal. I have one brand deal. That's Exmark. So just so I had somebody spread a rumor three years ago that I was getting paid $30,000 from Echo to promote Echo. I go, yo, number one, I would totally. Look, I'm human, okay? I got a wife, I got a baby. I got car payments. You know, back in the day, I'll take that brand deal all day long. Here's the reality that was not a real brand deal or a real conversation. Echo wasn't calling little Brian's Law Maintenance to see if they can sell another billion dollars with the trimmers through Home Depot, okay? That's just. It's just not the reality. I. I. Look, I. Maybe you guys are better than I am. You know, you guys might be like, no, I don't need the money, but for me, I would probably say yes to that. Here's the reality that just wasn't a real opportunity. So on my channel, we are 100%. What would you call it? My transparent. We. We always just level with folks. And. And by the way, there's other people that put out content. I would argue, like, put other people under the thumb, put on the other people under the microscope. Don't lump me in with everybody. That's not. That's not fair to me because I. I take what I do very, very serious. I know what it was like trying to buy a $600 backpack blower just five years ago. Liz and I. My wife Liz, amazing wife. Like, I owe everything to her. Liz and I would have serious conversations, like, hey, 600 bucks. Like, that's the difference between us. Like, having pancakes for dinner this whole month or eating chicken and steak and. And beans or rice. And it's not a story we make up to just sell people Cujo yardwear, shoes and shit. Like, that's not the conversation. So when somebody's like, we're just promoting stuff to Promote stuff. That's not what we do here. I know how important $600 is to that new guy starting in business, and I don't want him to a get bamboozled by some person who's got an ulterior motive on YouTube trying to sell them something they don't need or want. And then number two, I take the review videos that I do create pretty serious, to be honest with you. It's like a semi serious hobby. But I do take it really serious because when I was trying to buy a new backpack blower, I didn't know the right one. I bought three wrong backpack blowers before I landed on the one that I should have bought from the beginning. So I spent 1500 bucks where I should have only had to have spent 600. So that's why I'm making these videos. I call it Leaving Breadcrumbs for the Brian's law maintenance of 10 or 15 years ago. That's what gets me excited about it, brother. That's what keeps me passionate about it. And that's why we still do what we do, despite all the critics and all the people that would like to deter what we're doing. The numbers speak for themselves. We've been doing this pretty long term for five or six years. Liz and I live in a glass house. If we were going to get found out, I'm sure we would have been found out by now. Okay? So if we can ever do anything to help any of you guys grow, just let us know. I mean, we're. We're not perfect. We make mistakes. We're. We're two knuckleheads trying to take over the world just like you guys. So that's what I got for you, man. I don't think answers your question at all.

That's great. That's great. I want to wrap it up. I know we're coming across dinner time your time, so give you a break between your next call. But you mentioned your house. We're building a headquarters to price of that has gone through the roof the past year. Are you kind of experiencing the same thing? Because I know that you. You guys have kind of delayed building your project and is that still in the works?

Yeah, absolutely. We have a number that we're trying to hit. Right. The reality is that we're. We're building a nice home. Liz and I are home bodies. We want to make this our forever home. Everybody can do life the way they want to do it. You know, most people my age group are already in their first little starter home two, 300 grand, a little 1400 square footer and that's fine, that's cool until you start popping out kids and then you need like 3,4000 square feet. Right? Like that's, this is how life works. So Liz and I, what we've actually been doing is we've taken the last eight or so years. It's been a game plan, it's been by design. We wanted to get totally out of debt. Then we wanted to put a certain amount of money in the bank before we had kids. For us it was six figures. We're just very conservative people. Plus we're like a public figure. So I know just so many people can't wait to like watch us fall or to like crash onto our face. So I just for all the haters that are like betting against me, probably don't short that stock. So any which way. That's funny right there. So Liz and I, that we're just super chill. We're just patient with it. We were looking to break ground last fall, but it's going to be a pretty nice house. So like you just said, with COVID and Bidenflation and all this other mess, costs have went through the roof. The home ended up being 10% more money. It conservatively we didn't want to pull the trigger, just simple math. So we didn't want to get tapped out or over leveraged or anything like that. Quite honestly, we're still like watching the market like minute by minute. I mean, I know you're a very intelligent guy. I'm sure you have your thumb on the pulse of what's going on there in the global economy, not just what's happening in the US right between oil prices and corn prices and wheat prices. Everything is just ridiculous right now. So to answer your question, long story short, yes, we have a number in mind. We're hoping to break ground late this summer into fall. It is going to be a little bit nicer home. I'm not saying we're like stretching to get into it, but what I am saying is like we're spending the extra money now so we don't have to buy a second or third home later. Liz and I hope to, you know, die in this thing at the ripe old age of like 110, you know, and so, so that's going to be the goal to break out on this later this summer. So for anybody that does use the affiliate links and the contracts, that other.

Math in that perfect segue to go.

To.

You can keep making content, mowing the, the property so.

Well, it's funny because I told Liz, I said, our lawn care business has. First off, we had a great winter. We, we took on like eight or so more commercial sites. Our snow business was through the roof. We did six figures in snow work for us. Little Mickey Mouse outfit that was huge. We ordered a second truck. We just got that in the other day. We're gonna have two trucks out there plowing snow. And again, like, to the guys that have the, the 20 crews and the 40 employees and the $8 million, like, God bless. Like, like that is so cool. You guys inspire me for real. Like, I, I, I'm a good start, I'm a bad finish. I always say, like, if you're going all in and going big, go follow Mike. Go follow the people that I interview, the, the Corey Ballards and the Troy Clocks. I, here's the thing I always say too, the stuff that we teach isn't going to be in conflict five years later because you pick up on the bandwagon of Mike Andes. Okay, so a great start. We're a bad finish because some people want to grow the next 2, 5, $10 million company. That being said, our business is growing really well. We're, we're revenues up. I told my wife, I'm like, this year looks so good. We have so many more new commercial client accounts. We've moved a couple hundred yards of mulch already, which is wild for like a two to five man outfit, if you know what I'm saying. So I've never been happier with our business. I've never been happy with my work life balance. To be honest with you too, Mike, like every day from 5 to 9, it's family time. There's nothing more fun than getting home after an accomplished day spending time with Liz. We have a little routine about 7:45, 8:00', clock, we bath time with my baby Emmy. She's down by about 8, 45, 9 o'. Clock. And then literally, Liz and I catch up. We just get to, you know, be husband and wife. And then I work on all my social media stuff until about midnight and then I pass out. So I'm telling you what, like, life is, life is pretty, pretty cheeky right now, man. I'm very, very thankful, Very, very humbled. But I don't know if that answers your question again, but yes, the house is on, still on the radar and it should be just a couple months and we hope to break ground on that later this summer. Very cool.

Well, I appreciate you coming on. We're breaking into that five to nine, so we better let you go. But make sure everyone checks out. Your podcast. Fullerton Unfiltered and a great resource for everyone out there. Multiple episodes every single week. I really appreciate you coming on, Brian. Wish you all the best and I will have to have you on. Maybe another time.

All right, brother. Thanks again for the time, man. I super appreciate you. Super appreciate the time.

Thanks, brother. Take care. Bye.

Bye.