That Time We Talked About Landscaping

All right, let's do this.

This is episode number 9 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. Kevin, don't think you're getting off easy on this one, bud.

I don't even know what you're talking about right now.

You were a no-show last week. And you left me hanging in the wind.

Well, what do you expect? I had to wash—

I don't think that's a real saying.

I had to wash my hair, man.

Wash your hair?

Yeah. According to, um, who was it? Someone online said I was washing my hair.

Did you wash it all off the top?

It's completely gone. It's completely gone. You ever heard of Nair?

Nair?

It's not shampoo.

It's not shampoo?

No. It makes your hair fall right out.

Need to fix that thing on your face then.

Yeah.

I'm not gonna do much about that.

It's November.

I don't buy that. What's—

Well, um, okay, so in all honesty, there was a civil rights rally. Yeah, and I was stopping a fight in a parking lot.

That sounds likely for the current election cycle.

Well, yeah, there was an Obama fashion show.

An Obama fashion show?

Yeah, it was weird, dude. At this fashion show, I got trapped in an oil painting and I got a colonoscopy. Oh no.

What— which party was this for? It was—

well, it was weird because, uh, I had explosive diarrhea while I was doing that, and, uh, it was pretty bad. I'm just saying.

That's disgusting.

Yeah, I'm telling you.

No one wants to hear about your, your bowel movements.

Oh well, it is what it is. Um, but yeah, and then, and then kind of the last thing, the weird— the probably the weirdest thing is I had to go out of town for a little while, and, um, I had an uncle who was repairing his car and I had to hold a flashlight so he could repair his car.

You had to hold the flashlight for your uncle to repair his car?

Out of town? Well, of course. I don't have an uncle in town.

That would be weird. I don't think you have any family member that likes you enough to ask you to hold a flashlight for them.

They live a long way away. I'm just saying.

All of my family members— Distant relatives? I mean, it's like another continent or something?

Yeah, it's a long way away.

They don't even speak the same language?

No.

Okay, yeah, I don't buy that either.

Well, um, I'm, I'm pretty much out of excuses at this point. These are all the ones that, um, you know, I think—

so that was that. So we've got Lee Moore and Jeff Polk.

Yeah, they're in there.

Uh, let's see, Ashley Clark, Steph Hagen. These are all really— an honorable mention by, uh, by Jessica Leegan here, abducted by aliens.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. I don't believe you were abducted. I think you came from aliens.

I'm not sure that I'm really existing right now.

And I think one of my personal favorites was David Lowery here said, I don't work there anymore.

I'm gone.

Yeah, we appreciate everybody writing into the show and giving us, Kevin, some terrible excuses.

They were bad.

They were— to be fair, they were way better than anything you were going to come up with.

Oh, the real reason wasn't that good.

Let's just be honest. So welcome to The Homeowner's Show. We are glad you guys could join us. If you have not hit that subscription button yet there on iTunes, go ahead and do that, or the notification bell subscription button on YouTube. You can also follow us on Stitcher. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and at homeownersshow.com where you can find all of the latest and greatest homeowners information. Uh, and we have a great show for you today. Uh, we're going to be talking about landscaping and everything that surrounds that. But before that, we wanted to go ahead and recognize the time of the year. We just got— I mean, by the time this comes out, Election Tuesday will have been a week behind us. But we just went

through a pretty crazy election cycle.

Yeah.

It was kind of fun.

Well, there's a lot of things said about it.

I tell you, it was fun for me Because it's really, it's really neat going down the road because people have become really outspoken about, about their views. And so like you have like neighbors like side-eyeing each other and you can just like kind of sit in the street and just watch them. And like one person puts out a sign and then this guy, he doesn't agree with him, so he puts out his sign. So this guy puts out 2 more signs like that make— that's gonna change his mind.

Yeah.

That, that made the difference. It flipped him.

Yeah, and I can't tell you how many friends that I had, you know, post on Facebook, someone stole my sign again. Well, stop putting it back up.

Yeah, and like, you know, in here in Texas, on the Senate race, we made history this year, right?

Yeah, congratulations us.

Congratulations us. What was that, $109?

$109 raised. for these 2 campaigns.

Well, I think it was more than dollars.

What'd I say? $109 million.

$109 million spent on the Senate race in Texas. So congratulations to us. We all lost.

We all lost a lot of money.

No matter, no matter who won, we all lost. It was $109 million. They could have gone someplace else. So frustrating. But today we have our good friend Samir in studio to talk about his company, Greenscape Innovations.

Yes, sir.

Welcome, thank you for being here, man.

Oh, no problem.

Glad you could be here. So tell us, just to get us started, how did you get started in your business?

Well, it happened a long time ago.

By the way, I'm eyeing that polo you're wearing right there.

Really?

I don't know if they can see that on the camera.

Can you show them?

I mean, give them like a little—

Make sure we can see it. There they go. It's over there. No, um, I grew up, uh, in a house where my dad had his own business.

Mm-hmm.

So I realized the value of being self-employed, being an entrepreneur. Um, he had a landscape and maintenance company for himself, and I, you know, followed the tracks. You know, I followed that path with him. He, he taught me gosh, pretty much everything that I needed to know to get going.

Hmm.

Um, right out of high school, I, uh, started doing irrigation systems. I got my irrigator's license.

Yeah.

I started doing that with him. A few months into it, you know, I realized I wanted to do it on my own. And I, you know, I, I came up to him. I was like, hey, Dad, you know, I think I want to start doing this on my own. And instead of being negative and confronting me about it, he was like, okay, great, you know, and that was that. And the first 2 or 3 jobs that I ended up doing were because of him.

Yeah.

Jobs that he bid and jobs that, you know, he landed and told me— he pretty much told me, hey, I've got this job here. It's this work, you're charging this amount, you just need to go do it.

Yeah.

You know, and that, that just opened up the door for me to start doing my business.

Yeah.

Um, did that feel natural for you? I mean, like, I mean—

Yeah, no, I mean, I, I've loved working outdoors. I don't, you know, now 17 years into it, I don't have a hands-on approach on it anymore, but Um, that's the reason I started, because I loved working with my hands.

Yeah.

You know, I love being outdoors and not— because I got it during high school. I got— I had a taste of working for someone.

Yeah.

You know, and having my set hours and having somebody tell me what I needed to do and how I needed to do it, and it just, it just wasn't for me.

Yeah.

You know, um, uh, working for— working for yourself, I mean, it's hard. It's hard, but it has so many, uh—

The upside is great.

Yes. Yeah, you know, the upside is awesome. Um, when it's good, it's amazing. When it's bad, you know, it's bad because, you know, you're the one that has to respond for all the— and answer to all the negative.

Yeah, and we— and I think we've had several conversations with guys who have like owned their own business or been sort of entrepreneurial, and I was, I was kind of curious. I think you're the first one we've talked to that's kind of been kind of like a dynasty kind of person where like had a parent that also did that, and that's why I was kind of like, is that kind of natural? I mean, did it seem like— I don't really— not that you didn't have any other option, but like, well, that's just kind of the thing that you go do is you go start your own business and build your own thing and And then you're running it.

Well, it's not necessarily that. I mean, because it could have turned out where I took over his business.

Right, yeah.

But it wasn't like that. I wanted to do my own thing. And it's just, I've never wanted to be in a position where somebody told me you have that because of me.

Right.

You know, you know, I, I, I wanted to be a self-made, you know, you know, I have what I have because of me and because of God.

Yeah.

You know, and I understand. I mean, God has been there the whole way.

Yeah.

You know, uh, because there's a lot of times where I've gotten things that I shouldn't have gotten, and it's not because of me, it's because of man— it's because of God.

Yeah.

Um, and I mean, it's, it's, it's been up and down from when I started. You know, now I'm in a better position where I have, um, a lot better structure, and, and it's— I have more knowledge. I have more knowledge on my business, and I know how to run it, and I know what I need to do to sustain it. and to maintain it where it needs to stay to be profitable and to maintain my employees and everything, you know.

Yeah.

And I'm at a point where, um, it— I don't know, it's just, you just learn a lot of things over time, you know. You, you, you learn by trial and error.

Yeah.

And, um, um, but, but, but my dad did— I mean, I grew up working. Like when my friends would come back, we'd come back to school, they'd tell me about the awesome places that they went. We went this, we went here for our summer vacation. And what did you do? Well, I worked. I worked all summer long.

Yeah.

But once I got older and It got to the point where, you know, like, yeah, you went here, but, you know, I worked and I have money, you know. Hey, and I had friends were like, hey, do you, do you want to go out to the movies? I was like, no, I kind of don't have money. It was like, well, I, I got you this time, you know. You know, I, I worked this summer and I have a few dollars I can spare.

Yeah.

Um, it's just, you know, there's nothing like being an entrepreneur. You know, that's, that's something that, uh, that, that I wish more people would get on board with.

Yeah.

You know, because—

Or could at least experience.

Right.

No, no.

Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, um, gosh, well, with our country, when it first started, there was more entrepreneurs. You know, that, that was the thing to do. Go out—

Nothing but entrepreneurs.

Yes. You know, and, and those were the greater times. Now, you know, we've been sold a lie that, you know, you go to school and you get a good job and hopefully you don't get fired.

Yeah.

You know, but, uh, being an entrepreneur, you know, it's, it's a lot of work, but the upside on it is so much greater.

Yeah, you're singing my song, man. So you initially started doing Irrigation, right? So, and so how has it evolved?

Well, to now, well, uh, originally, you know, uh, right out of high school I went and got my irrigator's license to start doing irrigation. Um, and I started doing irrigation, well, with my, with my dad. And then after that, you know, once I was doing it on my own, I was doing irrigation, but, um, there wasn't enough work for me to stay busy just with irrigation. So, I mean, I started doing a little bit of drainage, a little bit of landscaping, and once I started doing the landscaping, uh, customers that we did landscaping for asked us if we would do maintenance, which I was against because I grew up doing maintenance. I hated maintenance.

Yeah.

You know, it's just, it's just hard to, um, keep somebody pleased over and over and over. You know, if you stare any at anything long enough, you're gonna find something wrong with it.

Yeah.

You know, whereas where you go in with a single one-time job, you know, you go in, you do it right, and you're done.

Mm-hmm.

You know, um, but I caved in, uh, to so many customers asking me, and we started doing maintenance. And now we offer maintenance, but it's not something that I, uh, that I lean to. Um, I'm, I'm hoping to hand that off to, you know, one of my employees and have them manage it to where they can handle it and, you know, just run with it and make sure that everything's done the way it should be.

Yeah.

But from there, you know, we just started, gosh, now we do patios, fencing. We're a turnkey operation now, you know. We do everything from clearing your lot to the final landscape installation after your house is built. We do outdoor lighting, we do outdoor living areas. I mean, you want a koi pond, we can do it. Fountains, pretty much anything outdoors except install your pool.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's a bunch of stuff.

Yeah, I mean, it's just too many things to name. If, uh, if you need it done outdoors, we can probably do it for you.

Yeah. So do you come in, um, so you mentioned whenever, whenever a house was being built, and that's, um, something that y'all do, but I assume you do this for homeowners that have a, have a house that's already been built as well. And a lot of those guys, um, you know, they, they are in their home, they own their home, and at some point they decide You know, maybe I don't like the way my house looks from the outside. I just want someone to come in here and tell me what to do because for me personally, I know I want my house to look better, but I don't necessarily know what that is. If I, if I were to call you,

what, what would you be able to do for me?

Well, I mean, you'd be surprised how often I come into a job and people tell me, oh, they hate these plants, they don't like them, um, they never have. And then I'll come in here and I'll, you know, move them around using some of their landscaping that they already have, but bringing in additional plants and just changing the way they're arranged. And you'd be surprised how often, like, they, they end up loving it. And, and they don't realize that you know, 50, 60% of the plants that I use are plants that they already had.

Hmm.

You know, um, what I've come to understand is that you can make any landscaping look good with almost any plants. It's just a matter of where you place the plants and the staging them, making sure that you, uh, making sure that you take into account how they're going to grow, you know, what they're going to— whether they're going to need, uh, lights, uh, shade, or, you know, how much water. Um, just, just what's gonna— what, what it's gonna take for them to actually prosper and actually be at their full potential. Yeah, there's been plenty of times where people tell me that they hate a certain plant, and I end up using those plants in their landscape, and they don't realize it. Um, and then they're like, oh man, we love it. And then

when we get— sit down to it and we start giving them a list of the plants that we used and how to take care of them, they're dumbfounded that I ended up using the plants that they hated.

Right.

You'd be surprised how often that happens.

But you're able to come in and basically tell me, you ought to consider doing this. This is something we can do for you. I know one of the things that we deal with a lot here in the area that we live in is elevation issues. And, you know, maybe water doesn't run off as well as it should. And so, you know, maybe it's French drains or maybe it's, you know, just a certain way we do certain landscaping. I assume that's all stuff that you can help me know as a homeowner.

Right.

No, and whenever we do landscaping, we take into consideration where your, your, uh, runoff is gonna go.

Okay.

You know, I'm gonna take into consideration where the water from your roof is gonna go, where the water that's just raining gonna go, um, and, and, and I try to make sure that all that's taken, uh, into account when your landscape is being designed.

Right.

Um, because, you know, a lot of times you get these landscapes that are They look great and awesome, but the first time it rains, you know, the awesome landscape, the awesome flower beds that were built are actually a dam, and they end up, you know, creating a drainage issue, you know, either backing up the water back into your property or even into your home. But I ensure that I take all of that into consideration. You know, drip lines, path of the water that's going to be flowing. And that's you know one of the things that that I love to do. I love to come in and solve people's issues and problems that other people haven't been able to figure out. I love it. I like that.

That's one of my favorite things where I or you know they've had multiple people come in. And try their situations, or not situation, but try their approach at it, and they haven't been able to solve it. And then I come in and I'm like, all right, we're gonna do it like this and like this and like that. And they're like, well, man, why does it cost so much? And I'm like, well, you know, if it doesn't work, I will be back and make sure that it— I will, I will do whatever it takes to correct it, you know. And Um, and, and that's one of the reasons that I, I'm not—

I, I—

if you're looking for a cheap deal, it's not me. It's not me. You know, I'm not the most expensive, but I'm not the cheapest either.

Yeah.

Um, but we stand behind everything that we do.

I was, I was gonna say, is there, is there a particular instance that comes top of mind that you can think of that, that would be like a problem that you solved? Oh yeah, recently.

Not recently, but I remember a year or so ago I had a customer out in Willis who was on the lake on Loch Ness Drive. Loch— I think it's Loch Ness Drive.

Don't give their address or anything. We don't name these people.

No, yeah, he's a doctor. His name— you want his social? No, no. Um, uh, he— they had this lake house where they were at the bottom of the hill, and all— with their luck Every, um, every single time that it rained, it came off the street and would go into their driveway, and from their driveway it would go into their house.

Mm-hmm.

And the way they found that out was the, you know, one of the first few times that they spent the night at their lake house, um, they had a storm and they decided to go out the front door or open the front door while it was raining.

Mm-hmm.

They opened the door, the water just flooded in.

Goodness.

The way that I solved that issue was I created a concrete channel at the end of their driveway with a galvanized metal grate that dropped into a 10-inch pipe that ran to the lake.

It was an expensive project, But it's probably cheaper than flooding the house with water.

Yeah. Oh yeah, no. And, and, and, and on that situation, I like— we had one of those major floods, um, we had a major flood that like, I like, like they didn't live there. I drove out there during the flood through the high water to check it out for myself because, because I wanted to make sure that it worked. And you know, like it was on Calvary Road. I'm driving down Calvary Road during this flood, and there's a low section on the road where like the there was a the there was a fire engine, you know, just escorting people out. And I'm driving through, and I you know I'm like I feel my truck being pushed because there's a little low line area. But I got

past it, you know. And once I got there, you know, there was no more issues. And I got to the house, and once I saw that the drainage that we had installed worked like a charm, you know, it just, uh, like, it was well worth it, man. I, I don't know how to explain that feeling because, you know, deep down, like, you know, this is my design, this is my—

Yeah.

Name on the line, pretty much. And, you know, and it worked.

And they're probably singing your praises.

Yeah, no, like, I was patting my own back.

I didn't need them.

You know, because, uh, because, you know, this, uh, you know, the, the way we engineered it— I mean, we engineered it for the— we, you know, we gave it a foot, uh, of space with that galvanized grate over it for, for it to catch any water that was coming from that driveway. Because, I mean, gosh, they had like a 6-foot drop. from the street to where the driveway ended.

Wow.

I mean, I mean, it was, it was a long driveway and it was, um, I don't know, I don't know how to explain it, but it just, you know, just, just the, the— when I saw that no water and, you know, the dirt line on their foundation was like half an inch, 2 inches. So if it would have skipped over and, you know, and got onto it Onto the grass area and on the house. I mean, it would have flooded their house in a matter of seconds.

Yeah.

But, you know, the drainage system that we installed handled it. You know, it, it, it took it to the lake and no issues, no issues at all. And it's probably been 2, 3 years now, and, and we've had plenty of rains to prove—

We had a couple of floods since then.

To test it, you know. And I, I stand behind all of my work.

Yeah.

You know, uh, that's one thing that I've learned, you know. Um, if you're gonna do something, you gotta stand behind it.

Yeah.

You know, and no matter what. And, and that's one thing that I do. I will stand behind anything that we install without, without any exception, you know. I, I will stand behind it. Um, there's been, you know, I haven't gotten it right all the time.

Yeah.

But I've made it right. You know, I've gone back and repaired any issues that, that weren't resolved. You know, now— well, this is in the past. Now, man, I've gotten— I'm, I'm, I'm pretty good at it now.

Yeah.

You know, now if I set up a design and it's gonna— that's what it's gonna take, that's what it's gonna take, and it's— it'll, it'll handle it. I haven't had an issue where we had to go back to repair something in years.

That's awesome.

So, so tell me this, um, help me understand again, you know, our, our show is, is definitely geared towards how can, um, people who own their home own their home better, right? Right. So tell me, how does, uh, you know, a certain amount of landscaping or maybe a new patio or you know, an outdoor kitchen or something like that. Um, how does that increase the value of my home? I, I think for me it increases my own, um, ability to like the home that I live in, right?

Right.

Personal enjoyment. Yeah, personal enjoyment for sure. But am I increasing the value of my home, or am I just spending a lot of money for my own personal enjoyment?

Well, it depends. Um, because I get people that call me all the time that they're gonna sell and they want us to come in there and revamp it and change it. And, you know, more often than not, I discourage them against that. You know, you'd be surprised how many off— how many times, um, they come in and they're asking me to re-landscape it because they want to give it more curb appeal. Or they want to be something that's going to attract buyers.

Sure.

But more often than not, I talk people out of it and I tell them to offer up a landscape budget instead. Because I've had situations where people have spent $9,000, $10,000 on landscaping and then they sell their house. 6, 8 months down the road. Well, I actually had a situation where about 7 or 8 months down the road, the new homeowners that we landscaped for the house that we landscaped call me to come in and tear out everything that we did because they want to go with a different theme.

Oh.

You know, yeah, I had a situation like that where, um, you know, this lady spent about $10,000 on re-landscaping her, her entire house. Um, and probably 8 months down the road, the new homeowners called us for a bid to do it.

Yeah, yeah, which is, which is interesting because it does tell me on some level that certain jobs are definitely for your own personal enjoyment. For example, I mean, I would assume that You know, for me, I, I would love an outdoor kitchen in my house because I enjoy being outside. I enjoy grilling outside. I enjoy having people over to my house, and we're gonna spend time around that outdoor kitchen. But maybe someone else, you know, interested in buying my house, I've spent, you know, thousands of dollars on this outdoor space, and they don't really care to be outside.

Right. No, that's very true. Um, I, I've had the situations where we go in and we take out outdoor kitchens.

Wow.

Because they just don't use it and they want the space for the patio. Sure, those heathens.

I don't know what's wrong with them, but whatever.

No, I mean, an outdoor kitchen is expensive. Sure they are. And there's, there's been, uh, 3 times that we've gone in to remove outdoor kitchens and just add more patio space.

Okay.

Um, It's just, I, I like to treat people the way that I would want to be treated. You know, I'm not going to sell you something that you don't need. So when I offer people, you know, when I tell them, hey, maybe you should offer up a landscape budget, you know, instead of spending $2,000, $3,000 with me, why don't you put those $2,000, $3,000 into a landscape budget for the new homeowner?

Sure.

You know, that's, that's gonna be more of an incentive for them to buy.

Just make sure I'm leaving my card.

No, no, and I mean, gosh, we do plenty of work.

Sure, yeah.

I'm not at a point where I need to get your work to survive. I would love your work, but we don't need it to continue. We have quite a wide range of customers from all walks of life that we service. You know, um, but, you know, and I treat them all the same. You know, if you're gonna do a couple hundred dollar job or a $100,000 job, I'm gonna treat you the same.

Yeah.

You know, I'm gonna give you the same courtesy. Uh, it doesn't matter how much you spent with us, you know. Um, um.

So with your, with your customers then, what, what do you find is like the biggest gap in their knowledge as far as like being prepared to hire you? Like, what are they least prepared for as far as what they know and what they're ready for?

A lot of the times, if they've never had professional landscaping done, they're taken aback by the cost. You know, and I've had people that try to compare, you know, landscaping to what it would cost them to go do it. But, you know, they're not taking into account, you know, the, the cost of running a business, um, employees, everything, you know.

Yeah.

Um, and, and, and one thing that does— well, I feel that does a little bit of damage to the industry is all of these, you know, HGTV shows.

Sure.

Where they're like, oh yeah, we did it in 2 days and we only spent Yeah, $500. But in reality, you know, that $500 job was maybe a $3,000 job. You know, it just—

When you account for people's time.

Yeah, yeah, when you count for people's time and, um, and the actual cost of getting it installed, you know.

Um, when I say that, more than— more often than not, that, that you have to value what you value. And so if you value going in and spending the time and doing the job and, and, you know, you know, that's one of the things we even say in our intro. If you're DIY, hey, by all means, let's, let's figure out how to do that. And let us help you, you know, think through how to do that better.

Right.

And that's great if you wanna do that. But for most of us, we've got jobs.

Right.

We've got families and we've got, you know, leisure activities that we wanna do. And maybe we don't wanna spend the time Doing this, so we're gonna have to pay someone to do it. But the thing that I really heard you say, um, and that we hear often is, um, we're gonna guarantee this. We're gonna back it up. So, so maybe I wind up doing some work and I'm still having drainage issues.

Oh yeah.

And so I'm gonna have to call you anyway. Yeah.

You know?

No, yeah, and, and you'd be surprised how often, um, we don't get a job because, uh, somebody else is cheaper. and 6, 8 months, a year down the road, they call us back to come and repair the issues that were— I mean, that, that all happens quite often.

Yeah.

Um, especially with irrigation, irrigation and drainage. Um, that happens quite often. And, and I always hear the stories, um, when we come in for a landscape job where The homeowner has tried this plant, that plant, and this plant, and nothing worked. You know, but the thing is, they're not into— they're not taking into consideration, um, you know, the area the plant's being installed. You know, they're, they're not, they're, they're not taking into consideration, well, gosh, you know, you really don't have that much sun. It's shaded most of the time, or it's sunny all day. you know, and they're, they're trying to install plants that need a lot of shade in areas that have sun all day.

Um, it's getting burned up.

Oh yeah, no, yeah, you'd be surprised how often I come in and, um, you know, customers call us because they're just tired, you know, they're on their 3rd, 4th time of replacing plants and they keep on dying. But, you know, they're not checking Whether the sprinkler system's covering the area, whether it's draining properly, or whether they're using the plants that will be right for the area that they're installing. That has a lot to do, you know, and us as a company, we take all of that into consideration. And a lot of companies do that.

Sure.

And, you know, I try to be at a point where, you know, if you don't need something, also, I'm not gonna— you know, I'll let you know if you need it or not.

Mm-hmm.

You know, I'm not gonna sell you something you don't need. Um, there's been plenty of, plenty of times where people get dumbfounded when I come in for an issue that they think they have, and I'm like, you don't need that.

Mm-hmm.

You know, you really just need to do this, you know, which costs you nothing to do. Um, and, you know, and, and they're, they're grateful. And then they do have something they need and they call us back.

Yeah.

They call us back. You know, there's been plenty of times, you know, yeah, there is cuss— there's plenty of times where, you know, I give people advice and that's the last I hear of them. But you know, there's, uh, more often than not I give somebody advice, it, it fixes their issue, but then they call us back on something else that they weren't able to solve or something that they really needed done.

Yeah.

You know, um, it just, I don't know, it just goes back to treating people how you would want to be treated as a customer. Yeah.

Well, so like with, with customers then, I mean, because I know you said that, I mean, like one of your favorite things is to solve problems.

Yes.

So like, what, what do you, what do you think is probably like the biggest or the most common problem that DIY people make that you come in and fix?

Um, drainage.

Drainage?

Yeah.

I mean, do you have people that have tried to put in French drains by themselves, or like, what do you mean by drainage?

Oh yeah, no, I've had, uh, in situations where people have tried to fix their own drainage and it's just done wrong. You know, um, they had the right plan, but they— the way, the way they implemented their plan was just, you know, they didn't take, uh, several factors in the area into consideration. Um, because a lot of times, you know, what's written down on paper is not going to work. Yeah, out on the field.

I mean, and is that something that these guys are going to figure out by watching a YouTube video, or is this something you've just sort of gleaned from experience and mistakes?

From experience.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, it's going to be from experience. Um, because I, I, I, I would say that what I— a lot of the knowledge that I have now is from things that I've learned out in the field, you know. Um, especially with like irrigation. I remember when, when I, uh, when I went and got my irrigator's license, and you know, the way you do things on paper, the way you figure out the hydraulics and the way the placement of the heads. Um, it's clean and cut on paper.

Yeah.

But once you get to the job site—

It's a whole different ball game.

Oh yeah, you, you might, you know, that you might have trees, you might have obstructions that aren't on the paper, you know. So you have to accommodate the layout or, or the way things are going to be set up for that, you know. Because there's just so many situations where the only thing that's going to solve it is just field experience, just from learning on the job site.

Mm-hmm.

Learning from your mistakes. And that's honestly the best way to learn. You know, there's no wrong mistake unless you don't learn from the mistake that you made.

Yeah.

You know, I've made plenty of mistakes, but I've taken advantage of every single mistake that I've made and learned from it to make sure that I don't do that same thing again.

Yeah.

You know, if X didn't work here, You know, I make sure that I don't try that again on another job site because, you know, it didn't work. You know, but 17 years down the road, you know, we're at a point where we know— I, I know what works and what doesn't.

Yeah.

You know, um, rarely, very rarely do we need to go back to resolve issues.

Cool.

Yeah, well, and I know Kevin's kind of foaming at the mouth over here. He's really, he's really wanting that, that outdoor kitchen. So like, so what are some of the strongest trends that you're seeing in that? 'Cause I know you guys do a lot of those.

Well, the outdoor kitchens, I mean, it just, gosh, I mean, one of the major products that we sell are Bull grills.

Okay.

Bull grills.

You know, we probably sell more outdoor kitchens that are just the grill itself than, you know, the whole setup where it's the grill, the refrigerator, the sink, and everything. And more often than not, people that we've sold the sink and, you know, the whole setup, they really don't end up using all of that. They end up using Yeah. You know, because they'll just cook it outdoors, but they eat it inside.

Yeah. You know, um, yeah, I've seen them now where like you have like multiple units.

Oh yeah.

Going in these things where you've got like, you got your egg and then you got your smoker and then you got your gas grill and—

Yeah, yeah, no, and, and a lot of those come in little modular systems where, um, you They're set up with different cabinets, but then you veneer them with, you know, with either, you know, Coronado stone or whatever.

Yeah.

To make it look like it's custom made.

Sure.

Well, it is custom made, you know, um, but it's, it's more of a modular approach to it versus, you know, completely starting off from scratch. Um, but, but yeah, I mean, um, It's, it's amazing what you can do now. I mean, we've installed, uh, pizza ovens.

Oh, that's awesome.

Outdoor pizza ovens for, um, for people.

Like the brick ones, like the wood fire?

Yep.

Uh, I love me some pizza.

Yeah, you know, um, the one that we've installed quite a bit is the Belgard. Belgard has a, has a, a nifty, um, pizza oven. You know, it's, it's It's, it's fire, it's wood burning.

Yeah.

Um, and, and it's neat, you know.

Is it kind of like a plug-and-play kind of a deal, or is it something you actually have to like put together?

No, you have to put it together.

Okay.

Yeah, no, it, it's a kit that comes in, but, uh, but you have to assemble it, you know. And, and it's not, you know, like 2 or 3 pieces. I mean, it's, it's a project.

It's involved.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I mean, so like say I call you, we get a— I mean, I'm just in averages here obviously, but like we're doing an outdoor kitchen, how long does it take you guys to put one in?

It's gonna range anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

Yeah, depending on the size and what all's involved.

Oh yeah, um, you know, we've done outdoor kitchens where we put them together in 2 days, and then we've done outdoor kitchens where it takes us 2 weeks because not only are we installing the outdoor kitchen, but then we have to run plumbing, electrical, gas, you know, all these other utilities to it. And, uh, and sometimes we just have to wait on material or, or products to get here to finish the installation. Um, and, and also just the, the time frame that it takes to construct it.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, because it's some— I mean, I have seen these where they're like home additions.

Oh yeah, no, I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's not hard for an outdoor kitchen to be $10,000, $20,000 for an, uh, an outdoor kitchen.

Sure.

You know, just a, uh, and then just an area for you to go grill.

Yeah.

You know, uh, and some of these areas, you know, will turn into living areas, you know, where you have a roof, you have an outdoor TV, you have, you know, living room pretty much outdoors.

Hmm.

Which, you know, it's awesome because that's been more of a trend nowadays where people are wanting to spend more time outside. And then, you know, we don't install the misting systems, but, you know, then Mosquito misting systems come in, you know, to keep the mosquitoes away while you're enjoying the time outdoors.

Yeah, yeah, those are cool too because you can put them on remote control and, you know, go to town, have that yard clear and ready for family time.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, so we're running up on an hour here, and I know, you know, some of the stuff that you guys do is sort of seasonal, so we'll probably want to have you coming back in when, uh, yeah, when it starts warming up again and talk about some other stuff. But I know you got some specials that you're running right now you wanted to talk about.

Yeah, we're actually, um, we're actually— I'm actually offering, uh, 20% off on new, uh, landscape lighting since it's getting dark early, right? Yeah, um, way too early.

Stinking Ben Franklin.

Right. And, and, you know, and the thing is with landscape lighting, it not only serves, you know, as an accent to your property, but it's also security, you know?

Yeah.

You know, especially if you live in an area where you don't have streetlights or your property is not illuminated as much as you would want it to be, you can come, you know, it not only adds, you know, beauty to it but security, you know.

Yeah.

It illuminates areas that will make you feel more secure and you'll be, you know, you're actually able to see your property, you know, without it being just a flood of light over everything.

Well, that is security too. In the— we've talked a lot about security, uh, some, some other episodes of, you know, when your house is well lit, people who are trying to invade your home don't like going to your home, right? So that's a, that's a plus there as well.

Oh yeah. And the thing is, but it not only, you know, uh, lights up your home, but it, it, you know, it does it does an awesome job of accent on, you know, certain parts of your home.

Yeah.

Or certain parts of your landscape, you know. Um, you know, a landscape job with the, with the right placement of light fixtures is, you know, I mean, it just, it's not, it's a night and day difference, right? You know, so right now we're offering 20% on new jobs that, uh, will get that are approved in the month of November.

Yeah.

And we're also running a contest right now for people that we've done work for in the past to review us. If you will review us on Google, Angie's List, or Facebook.

Facebook, yeah.

We're actually gonna be giving away a 200-gallon Live Oak. You know, that it's a huge tree.

I was gonna say, that's, that's a massive tree.

Oh yeah, I mean, it's, it's a mature tree, you know, and, um, it, uh, it's a 200-gallon live oak, um, that's gonna be completely free with the installation. Yeah, it's not like, not like I'm giving you this massive tree and you need to figure out what you're gonna do. Go dig a hole. Yeah, no, we will install it and tell you how to take care of it. And we will be raffling that in the new year.

Okay.

I'll have to— I don't remember if it's the first or actually the second or the third day of 2019.

Okay.

I'll have to check on that. But yeah, and all you have to do is just submit a review and then send us an email that you submitted the review so we have that, and that email will be entered into your, uh, into the raffle.

Okay.

And we will do a raffle, uh, in the new year, and whoever wins it will have a new tree.

That's fantastic.

Cool.

I think you told me it's like almost a $3,000 value right there, right?

$2,750. Yeah, yeah, $2,750.

Man. Um, so by the time this airs, uh, you'll, you'll basically have a little less than a month and a half Right. To, to get your review in and, and contact these guys to get your free tree.

Yes.

It's got to be within like, you know, the area of the company. We're not—

Yes.

We're not going to take this thing to like Ohio or—

Right, right. It's, uh, we will do it up to a 50-mile radius.

Okay.

Of The Woodlands.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Cool.

That's a great contest, man.

Yep.

Yeah.

Uh, yeah, somebody threw it my way and I was like, you know what, let's do it.

It's awesome. Cool.

Well, um, we got one more thing that we do with all of our, our guests on our show. Um, so we want to go ahead and move to the Final Four.

The Final Four.

Yeah, so I don't think we even warned you about this.

No, he didn't.

So, uh, we ask 4 questions to all of our guests.

Uh, the same 4 questions.

Same 4 questions, just to kind of, you know, get an understanding of of a few things, some common things here. So the first question is this: what's the must-have tool that you won't leave the house without? So if you're going to a job, you know, what's the one thing that you will not leave the house without?

Man, it's probably 2 things.

Okay.

That's cheating.

For me, it's probably my iPad. and my measuring wheel.

Okay.

Um, because a lot— and not a measuring tape, measuring wheel.

There's a difference.

Yeah, because a lot of the jobs that I measure are more than 30 feet.

Sure.

Across, you know. So it's, it's a measuring wheel. And, you know, if you've had me out there, you know that I go out to your property and I take pictures of the areas that we're gonna address. And from there, I take my notes on my iPad. So it'd be those 2 things.

Have you tried out the new Measure app from Apple?

Yes, I have. And I find that it's not as accurate as I'd like it to be.

Yeah?

Yeah. And my measure wheel is not accurate to the inch, but it's accurate enough to where I can gauge it. You know, bid your job accordingly.

Mm-hmm.

All right, good.

Uh, well, the second question is this, uh, what's a job that you've walked away from? Now, this could be something with, um, with your business, uh, maybe something that you just said, you know what, uh, well, you're either— if you're asking me, I'm not interested in doing it, or maybe it's just something around your house that you're going, I'm, I'm not trying to tackle that.

No, there's plenty of jobs that I turn away.

Okay.

You know, because I'm— we're at a point where if you're not willing to pay me what I think the job is worth, then I'd rather not do it.

Yeah.

You know, because if I do a job for you where I don't make any money, if an issue arises, I'm not going to want to go back to a job where I had to make money.

Right.

So, you know, I've learned over the years that if they're not willing to pay what you think the job is worth, walk away. Yeah, walk away, you know.

So what's, what's one recently that happened then?

I haven't had one.

Haven't had one?

Not really.

Uh, has there been a really big one you've ever walked away from? Been like, nope, just not gonna do it?

No, I've actually had jobs where, uh, where I thought I was bidding a little high, which I ended up getting, you know. Um, No, but there's been— and you know what? One thing that does end up biting me in the butt a lot is jobs where I'm trying to help people out.

Yeah.

Jobs where maybe it was—

You feel like you're doing the right thing, the good guy thing.

Right. And jobs that are— it might be a $1,000 job or $1,500 job and I'm doing it for $400. My cost or or less, and then this happens or that happens, you know, and, and, you know, it just—

You should have walked away.

Yes, I, I, I, I should have been like, you know what, I, I just can't do it for you, right? You know, and there's plenty of jobs where, um, with that, that I have walked away from, you know, where people, uh, gosh, where they have offered me so much more work after I do their job I was like, no, it's just not worth it to me. I mean, I know where my margins need to be for me to pay my employees what I pay them and pay my advertisement, pay my insurance, pay my daily expenses, just my daily overhead.

Sure.

And if your job's not gonna cover that, there's no point in me doing that. People are in business to make money, you know. So we have to maintain a certain margin.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, post a certain margin. Otherwise, you're not worth it. Yeah. Otherwise, no. It's not only not worth it, but you're not going to be around very long. Right. You know, in the seventeen years that my business has been around, I've seen them come and go. And the thing is, I've seen small businesses fail and I've seen large businesses fail, you know, it, um, and, and it's all in the, the jobs that you're willing to take.

Sure.

There's only so many jobs that you can take where you don't make money, right? You know, there you, you, you just can't continue like that.

Yeah. You know, it's, it's, it'd be great to be able to do that, but you're not going to be around a long Yeah, and I think that kind of leads us naturally into the next question, talking just about how much margin you're putting in your life. So the next question is, how do you wind down at the end of a long day? I think that it's important for all of us to recognize that if we don't release stress in our lives, then we're going to wind up exploding someday. So at the end of a long day, how do you typically wind down?

Well, normally, um, uh, during my busy season, I will go home, I will have dinner with my family, you know, uh, homework, um, and, you know, put the kids to bed, and then I'll be back in my office working on bids. But, uh, you know, when it's, you know, normal, then, you know, we get home, I, I do the dad thing, you know, we, uh, we have dinner. We, we We always have dinner together. I didn't grow up having dinner with my family. In my household, when I was growing up, you ate when you got home.

Hmm.

You know, um, if I got home and nobody was home, I would go ahead and have dinner by myself, um, and whoever just kept coming in, it would just— and my wife is the one that actually implemented that we sit down as a family and eat.

Yeah.

You know, and it was hard to adjust to that at first, coming from, you know, from a family where, you know, you come and go as— and eat as, as, you know, as you come in and you're done with your day. Um, but now, I mean, that's something that, that I value and that I need, you know, because we, you know, I, I get home and we sit down with the kids and, you know, we talk about the day.

Yeah.

You know, what happened, what didn't happen, you know, how the day's been going, um, and just share, you know, and just commune with each other pretty much.

Sure.

Um, then from there, we, you know, we put the kids to bed. And recently, you know, uh, with my wife, after, after we put the kids to bed, uh, then her and I will end up going to the gym and work out. You know, our kids are older, you know, so they, they can stay home by themselves. Um, but we'll go to the gym for an hour or so and then come back home and then, you know, go to bed.

Yeah.

Um, and then repeat.

Yeah.

You know, next day.

Yep.

All right, uh, last question. What's one of the best pieces of advice or wisdom that you ever have received?

Best, man.

Oh, just treat people the way you would want to be treated. You know, treat your customers the way that you would want to be treated as a customer. That's, uh, that is one of the things that, that I stand by.

Yeah.

You know, because I myself as, as a customer have been burned multiple times.

Mm-hmm.

You know, gosh, the beginning of this year alone, I, you know, I had issues with contractors, you know. Um, um, so I wouldn't wanna put customers into a situation that I wouldn't wanna be in, you know. So I try to be upfront and, and just, you know, make sure that We're all on the same page from the get-go. That way there's no surprises at the end.

Hmm.

Well, listen, uh, Samir, we, we really appreciate you being here and, uh, taking the time to, uh, to talk with us. And, um, you know, we, um, we try every, every episode to, to give our, our listeners some, some good information and advice, and I think that you've really helped us with that. We're going to link up to the show notes for anyone who's listening, ways to get a hold of Greenscape Innovations. And if you have any questions, send him some information. You can always contact us at info@homeowners.com as well. And, you know, go ahead and make sure that you like us and leave us a review. That would really help us as well. And, uh, from

here we just hope everyone has a great week. We'll see you later.

See ya.