From Cutting Grass to $2.5 Million: How Walker Rose Built Turf Chief Into Louisville’s Dominant Lawn Care Brand
Table of Contents
This Turf Chief success story proves that scaling a lawn care company is possible with the right systems.
I recently sat down with Walker Rose, founder and president of Turf Chief out of Louisville, Kentucky, and his story is a great example of what happens when you stay patient, stay hungry, and keep grinding even when the early years feel like they’re going nowhere. Walker started in landscaping right out of college, built his way up to over $2.5 million a year across his companies, and along the way learned some hard lessons about marketing, acquisitions, and what it actually takes to build something lasting. He’s been in the program for a while now, and the results speak for themselves.
Dropping Out to Cut Grass
Walker was studying civil engineering in college when he realized it wasn’t for him. He’d been doing landscape work during summers and actually enjoyed it. He started watching YouTube videos from Jonathan Pototschnik, one of the big names in the lawn care space, and something clicked. Jonathan showed him that real money could be made in this industry, and that you didn’t have to settle for small thinking.
When Walker told his dad he wanted to drop out and start a lawn care business, his dad’s take was pretty reasonable. If you can just do $100,000 a year, you’d probably be in a pretty good spot. Walker’s response? “No, I want to do a million.”
His dad thought that was a stretch. But Walker had already started absorbing everything he could about running a business, and he wasn’t going to let anyone talk him out of it. He left school, started working for a buddy whose dad owned a landscape company, and launched his own operation at the same time.
The Grind of Year One
The first year was tight. Walker worked four days a week for the other company and one day on his own, plus weekends. He did about $60,000 in revenue that first year and paid himself around $13,000. He got married that same year. It wasn’t glamorous, but it worked.
His first hire was his brother, who is still with him today. From there, Walker just kept pushing. He didn’t have mentors pointing him in the right direction. In fact, the people he knew in business actually tried to talk him out of it. “They told me it’s too competitive, you can’t make money in it,” Walker told me. He ignored them and kept going anyway.
It took about six years to hit his first million. Then he sat right around that number for a few years before breaking through. That’s when things started to get interesting.
Splitting Into Two Brands
Walker’s original company, Local Lawns, was built around landscape maintenance, mostly in the commercial space. But he started getting drawn to the fertilizer and weed control side of the industry. The scalability was what caught his attention. You can generate way more revenue per employee doing fert and weed control than you can mowing grass. So about three years ago, he launched Turf Chief as a separate brand focused on lawn fertilization, weed control, and mosquito management.
Right now the split is about $2.1 million on the landscape side and around $400,000 on Turf Chief. Walker wants to see that even out as quickly as possible, and the way things are trending, it’s going to happen.
He’s also shifted his focus toward residential customers. Commercial is steady and low maintenance once you land it, but residential has a much bigger client base and customers there value the relationship more. “It’s not just a pure dollar driving their decision,” Walker said. Commercial clients will drop you the second someone undercuts you on price. Residential customers stick around because they trust you.
Burning $100K on Marketing Agencies
Before Walker figured out what actually works for marketing, he spent well over $100,000 with marketing companies and got almost nothing back. One agency took $40,000 from him and landed exactly one job. That’s it.
The leads he was getting were mostly garbage. He’d call them and get someone from a different state who had no idea who he was. The agencies always had an excuse. Let’s test this. Give it another week. Walker tracked the ROI and it was almost nothing.
Looking back, the problem was pretty clear. The ads had a cookie cutter feel. Same images, same copy you’d see from a thousand other lawn care companies. Nothing attention grabbing. And on top of that, the agencies wanted to focus on brand awareness campaigns, which sounded nice but didn’t bring in any actual customers.
Walker also learned a hard lesson about control. If you’re paying an agency and you don’t have access to your own ad account, you don’t actually know how much is going to ads versus how much is going to their pocket. That’s a huge red flag, and it’s the first thing he’d watch out for now.
How the Program Changed Everything
Walker joined Pest Control Millionaires and started working closely with Jake on Facebook ads. Jake showed him how to actually create ads that work, walked him through what stops people from scrolling, and taught him from his own track record what gets results.
The difference was night and day. “I had spent well over $100,000 with marketing companies with almost zero return,” Walker told me. Then he learned how to run the ads himself and started making money. “I’m just a guy that can cut grass and treat lawns, but I can run these ads and make money. That’s silly, right?”
Now Walker runs all the marketing himself. It doesn’t take a ton of time, and he actually knows what’s happening with every dollar he spends. He said it’s the best money he’s ever spent on marketing, and he means that compared to everything he tried before.
The other big benefit is that now if Walker ever does decide to hire someone or bring in an outside agency down the road, he knows exactly what good looks like. He can vet them, ask the right questions, and call out bad work immediately. That knowledge alone is worth more than the leads.
Getting Known in Louisville
Walker’s approach to building the Turf Chief brand locally is smart and sustainable. He’s not trying to go national or expand into new markets right now. He’s focused on owning his immediate area first.
One of the best things they do is work with youth sports. Turf Chief donates lawn care services to youth athletic fields in the area. It doesn’t cost them much to do it, and the community benefit is real. There’s not a lot of funding out there for turf grass management on kids’ fields, so Walker fills that gap. In return, they get banners up on the fields and shout outs on the teams’ Facebook pages. There’s a youth football field near them with 500 to 600 families showing up on weekends. The fields look great, the Turf Chief name is everywhere, and the word spreads naturally.
Walker also turns down work when it doesn’t make sense for the customer. If someone calls and the service they need isn’t actually right for their situation, Turf Chief will steer them in the right direction instead of just closing the sale. “We turn down work all the time because it’s not what’s good for the client,” Walker said. That kind of honesty builds a reputation that no amount of ad spend can buy.
Five Acquisitions and Counting
One of the most impressive parts of Walker’s journey is that Turf Chief isn’t the only company he’s built. He’s acquired five companies total, including Dale Cove, a landscape company he picked up this spring. That one was the biggest acquisition he’s done, and it’s where Jonas really came in handy.
Jonas helped Walker think through the deal creatively. The numbers looked good on paper, but Walker kept feeling like something was off. Jonas would go back and forth with him, challenge his thinking, and help him work through it until they landed on a structure that made sense.
The deal itself was creative. Walker did no money down, used a holdback with the seller to satisfy the equity requirements for an SBA loan, and negotiated the equipment purchase separately to keep the numbers comfortable. “The sky’s the limit really with how you structure it,” Walker told me. He doesn’t come from money and doesn’t have millions backed behind him, so he’s had to get creative every single time.
For future acquisitions, Walker likes the sweet spot around the million dollar mark, but he’s especially drawn to one-man operations in the fert and weed space. A guy cranking out 300 to 500 clients who’s looking to retire doesn’t always need a big chunk of change up front. Those deals have the most room for creative structuring. The bigger you go, the less flexible the other side tends to be because they have lawyers and they know what their business is worth.
As for how he finds these deals, Walker has never actually gone looking for them. They just show up. Being active in the community, going to supplier events, talking to other contractors, building a good reputation. When someone is ready to sell, they want to hand their business to someone they trust. Walker has spent years building that trust, and it pays off.
Hiring and Culture
Walker has had his share of bad hires, but he’s learned to trust his gut. When he’s interviewing someone, he’s not looking at their resume first. He’s looking at their integrity, their honesty, and their attitude. “Most of the skills you can train,” Walker told me. But if someone has a bad attitude or doesn’t fit the team, no amount of skill is going to save it. One bad seed drags everybody down.
Building culture at Turf Chief comes down to treating people like people. Walker makes a point to have conversations with his employees that go beyond work. Ask them about their kids, their hobbies, what’s going on in their lives. It takes five minutes, but it shows them they’re more than just a number. “If you treat people right, I find the majority of the time they treat you right,” Walker said. His brother has been with him since day one, and that kind of loyalty doesn’t come from nowhere.
Staying Hungry
Walker talked about something that a lot of business owners don’t want to admit. Last year, he felt like he got a little complacent. The business was doing well, things were stable, and the drive to push harder started to fade a little bit.
He caught it and course corrected, but it was a good reminder. “Don’t get complacent,” Walker told me. He’s a guy who needs a goal to chase. Without one, he starts to drift. The fix for him was getting back to basics. Taking care of his mental health, making sure he’s physically in good shape, and setting clear goals to go after. When your body and mind are right, the motivation follows.
Key Takeaways
Walker’s story spans over a decade of building service businesses from the ground up, and there’s a lot to learn from it. For the other side of the lawn care coin, Kirk Slack built a $3M lawn care company over 14 years and then sold it to start over in pest control. First, think big from the start. Walker told his dad he wanted to do a million when most people in his world would have been happy with $100,000. That mindset set the tone for everything that followed.
Second, don’t trust marketing agencies blindly. Walker burned through over $100,000 with agencies that delivered almost nothing. The best move was learning how to do it himself, even if it meant starting from scratch. Now he knows exactly what good marketing looks like and can spot bad work immediately.
Third, get creative with acquisitions. Walker has bought five companies and not one of them was a straightforward deal. No money down, holdbacks, creative financing. When you don’t have a ton of cash behind you, creativity is your biggest asset.
Fourth, own your local market before you think about expanding. Walker isn’t trying to go nationwide or jump into new cities. He’s focused on becoming the trusted name in Louisville first. Youth sports sponsorships, community involvement, turning down work that isn’t right for customers. All of it builds a reputation that compounds over time.
And finally, hire for character, not just skills. The best employees Walker has are the ones who fit the culture and treat people right. Skills can be taught. Attitude and integrity can’t.
From dropping out of college to cut grass to running a $2.5 million operation with multiple brands and five acquisitions under his belt, Walker’s story is proof that patience, persistence, and a willingness to keep grinding will get you where you want to go. He’s not done yet, not even close.
Want to connect with Walker? You can find Turf Chief on Facebook and Instagram. You can also find Local Lawns there as well. And if you’re looking for the kind of hands on guidance that helped Walker finally crack the marketing code after burning through $100K with agencies, that’s exactly what Pest Control Millionaires is built to do.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Turf Chief build a successful lawn care business?
Walker launched Turf Chief as a separate brand for fertilizer, weed control and mosquito work about three years ago, because fert and weed brings in far more revenue per employee than mowing. He learned to run his own Facebook ads with Jake after spending well over $100,000 on agencies for almost nothing, and he builds the name locally by donating lawn care to youth athletic fields.
What operational strategies did Turf Chief use?
The interview was more about people than routes. Walker hires for integrity, honesty and attitude over resumes, since most skills can be trained, and builds culture by talking with his team about their lives outside work. He also turns down work that isn’t right for the client and is shifting toward residential customers, who value the relationship more than commercial clients do.
What can pest control startups learn from Turf Chief?
Think big from the start, the way Walker told his dad he wanted to do a million when $100,000 sounded good. Don’t trust marketing agencies blindly (and always keep access to your own ad account), get creative when you buy companies, own your local market before you expand, and hire for character over skills.
Full transcript
Read every word of the interview
00:00Dan Leibrandt
Hey there, my name is Dan Leibrandt and welcome back to Pest Control Success Stories. Today I'm joined by Walker Rose, the founder and president of Turf Chief, a fast growing lawn care company serving homeowners throughout the Louisville, Kentucky area doing, and they're doing over $2.5 million a year. Walker built Turf Chief out of his landscaping roots with Local Lawns and has since turned it into a specialized service brand focused on lawn fertilization, weed control, and mosquito management. All backed by local personalized touch that's earned them a following. In this episode, we're going to unpack how Walker got started, the lessons he's learned building a service business from the ground up, and how he's positioned Turf Chief to stand out in a competitive market. Now without further ado, Walker, welcome to the show.
00:44Walker Rose
Yeah, thanks for having me.
00:45Dan Leibrandt
Of course, man. So I wanna dive into your background. I believe you told me that you got into the lawn care space just out of college. Tell me about that time and how specifically you got into it.
00:56Walker Rose
Yes, so I was in school for civil engineering at the time and the further I got in that program, the least I liked it. And the more I realized it wasn't quite a good fit for me. I had worked during the summers doing some landscape work and enjoyed it. And I really kind of started to dive into the business side of what that looks like. Jonathan Pototschnik is a name that comes up a lot, So that was the early days with him. Spoke with him and know watched all of his videos and those things and decided to make the leap. So from there I left school after that semester and started working for a buddy of mine, his dad owned a landscape company. So I started working with him and started my own deal at the same time and just kind of ran with it from there.
01:44Dan Leibrandt
That's awesome. Yeah, no, I know Jonathan Pototschnik is Pototschnik is a huge name in the space. Jonas talks about him a lot. He's a big mentor of Jonas's. What have you learned from Jonathan? What's like what inspired you to from him?
01:59Walker Rose
Yeah, so I think really just the knowledge base that he put out there, it was so accessible and related into real life. Something that you can actually achieve and to have big goals, right? Know, the whole Lawn Care Millionaire space, he was in there for a while, right? You know, set some lofty goals early and not just trying to be.
02:20Dan Leibrandt
Okay. So he made you kind of taught you to think big. And did you, were you just watching his podcasts or, you know, joining his program?
02:28Walker Rose
Yeah, so at that time it was all YouTube videos, right? So I was watching the YouTube videos and at that time I had emailed back and forth with him a couple times and he sent me like a little ebook that he had built up on starting a business and running one. What resonates with me when I told my dad, hey, I want to drop out of college and start this is like, if you could just do 100,000 a year, you'd probably be in a pretty good spot. And I was like, no, I want to do a million. He kind of thought that was outlandish, but probably not so much now.
02:57Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, no, right. It's, I mean, a big part of it is just of what you think is possible. A lot of people come from these small towns in the US and you just, you've never seen real wealth. You've never seen any people doing crazy numbers. But even when you listen to someone like Jonathan, it's like, dang dude, you're doing like 20, 30, know, 50 mil. I mean, like, why can't I do that, right?
03:19Walker Rose
Yeah, no, it's all what you're after, what you want, right? Do you want a lifestyle business or do you want something that can create that more like generational wealth and what I consider like a true business, right? Something that isn't dependent upon you.
03:33Dan Leibrandt
Yeah. So tell me about starting the business. And I think you were you're working at another company at the time. What was like the transition from starting it and kind of doing part time to then going full time?
03:44Walker Rose
Yeah, so first year I worked for that company four days a week and then did one day on my own. And I worked weekends too then. So I made it through the first year like that and then transitioned into doing three days a week with them for a couple months in the spring and then it went full blown. So I took that leap pretty early. You know, I got married that same year. Did not pay myself a whole lot of money. I think we did like... Say like $60,000 in revenue that year. I got paid myself like 12 grand, right? Like I just kept it as lean as I could. Yes, fortunate that things were little different then, right? Like cost of living wasn't so high and we were able make it work. So yeah, we started there, hired my brother as my first employee. He's still with me today. And then we just kind of just kept grinding out and kept going for it. We kept wanting more.
04:35Dan Leibrandt
What was one of the biggest struggles early on in those first few years?
04:39Walker Rose
I would say lack of knowledge in the business space. I come from a pretty blue collar family, kind of like corporate white collar business space I wasn't too familiar with. So dealing with some of those clientele, having those business relationships was a little bit difficult. And just not knowing where to go for insurance, where to go for a CPA, things like that. And I had to kind of start from zero. Didn't have any... Background relationships there already kind of preset so that took some time to get over those hurdles, but We're there now...
05:17Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah. Did you have a mentor? Do you just kind of figure out everything on your own?
05:21Walker Rose
I kind of just grew everything on my own. Actually the people who I knew in business steered me away from it. Steered me away from the space as far as landscaping or the green industry. They told me, know, it's too competitive, you can't make money in it. So now I never really had a true mentor in a way.
05:40Dan Leibrandt
Dang, wow. Yeah. Okay, so you guys are at about $2.5 million now. You started about 11 years ago. How long did it take you to hit your first million?
05:53Walker Rose
We hit our first million, I think it was year, I say it year six, year seven, we hit our first million. We spent a couple years hanging right around that number. And that's before Turf Chief was a thing, right? Turf Chief itself is only three years old. So in the landscape space, yeah, I think it was year six, we hit a million. We stayed there for I think three-ish years before we kind of broke through that. So,...
06:23Dan Leibrandt
Explain that more so you Turf Chief was started three years ago. Was it a different company before that?
06:28Walker Rose
Yeah, so Local Lawns is my original company. That's where landscape maintenance is primarily in the commercial space. And I got really intrigued by the fert and weed industry and later on the pest industry, which we're still really intrigued by. I was really drawn to the scalability of it and kind of the numbers you can put up.
06:31Dan Leibrandt
Mmm, okay, that's right.
06:51Walker Rose
With employees, right? That's a big problem with a lot of people is what your employee base is and finding good employees. You can do a lot more revenue with one employee doing fertilizer and weed control than you can mowing grass. So that's what kind of brought me into that.
07:08Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, nice. Okay, so you were mostly commercial before, but now you've kind of switched to residential or what was the split now?
07:16Walker Rose
Yeah, yeah, so on the fert and weed control side, we're about a 50-50 split commercial residential. Tourism landscaping, we're more about an 80 % commercial. So yeah, that flip has been interesting. We're just used to dealing with a lot different client in the commercial space than we are residentially. They're not quite as needy. You know, the call volume is way less in the commercial space. So that's been, it's has challenges, right? Making that switch, but yeah, residential is our target right now for sure.
07:52Dan Leibrandt
Why is that? Explain more like the difference between residential and commercial and why you're targeting residential now.
07:58Walker Rose
Yeah, well, for one, think the client base is so much larger in the residential space, right? There's way more fish out there to be caught. You know, it's a little more forgiving than the commercial space. Commercial space is pretty cutthroat, as a lot of guys are used to. You know, you're taken to bed every opportunity you can. So we feel more comfortable with the residentials. They value the relationship a little bit more. It's not just a pure dollar driving their decision. So that's probably the biggest things that we notice.
08:36Dan Leibrandt
Okay, cool. You're saying, or at least it sounded like you like residential more.
08:41Walker Rose
I know if I say I'd like it more. I think it is business-wise the easier route to take and has the most scalability to it. I like commercial in that it's pretty low input on our end as far as maintaining that client. But it has more risk, I think.
09:07Dan Leibrandt
Hmm, got it. I definitely want to jump into marketing. Obviously, you guys are big or your multimillion dollar. When you were just starting out, like maybe I don't know the first three to five years of business, what were you doing for marketing and what was working initially?
09:21Walker Rose
I was kind of like old school with it. And you know, when I first started out, I walked around neighborhoods with flyers, knocked on doors and just handed flyers, right? Like your typical like paper boy kind of style. And you know, like that worked a little bit. It didn't do much. And then I really kind of stalled my marketing efforts in the sense of, you know, using any type of ad work or anything like that. We didn't do flyers, we didn't do postcards. I would essentially find a property that I wanted, figure out who owned it, figure out who managed it, and then we would just go after them. We would stay on top of them. We would cold call them. We would buy their office lunch. We would do anything we could just get that opportunity to bid. To where as now that's totally changed, right? We still do that, but we're focused more on the digital marketing. Side of things and getting in front of that residential client.
10:20Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah. Okay, so it was, it started out pretty much purely traditional, you've kind of shifted to digital, maybe you're still doing some traditional. Okay, so what are you doing for digital marketing?
10:31Walker Rose
Right now we're just doing Facebook ads. That's all we're doing. We're not doing paid ads anywhere else.
10:38Dan Leibrandt
Okay, cool. Yeah, you mentioned to me before the call that the program and Jake and Jonas, especially Jake, you said you've been on a lot of one on ones with him. He's been super helpful with the Facebook ads. Can you explain like what you learned from him and the program and kind of what happened from there?
10:55Walker Rose
Yeah, yeah. So my background is not super tech by any means. I'm like that awkward age. I'm 35. So like, I'm not quite young enough to be like super good with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all those things. You know, I was graduating high school and that stuff kind of got popular. So I'm a little ignorant in that sense. So Jake was able to bring me up to speed and get me comfortable creating those ads, showing me what works. Through his history, how to create them, how so that was a huge, huge help. I had spent well over $100,000 with marketing companies with almost zero return. I mean, it was, I was mind blown. Was like, why doesn't this work? I'm spending the money on the company. I'm spending the money on the ads, but we're not getting any kind of traction. And then I did this and it worked. And I'm like, that's silly, right? Like,...
11:49Dan Leibrandt
That's... Hahaha...
11:56Walker Rose
I'm just a guy that can cut grass and treat lawns, but I can run these ads and make money. So no, was, like I told you before, it's the best money I've spent on marketing by far.
12:08Dan Leibrandt
Wow, no, that's, I mean, I'd to hear that, dude. That's like the exact, I mean, what you just said there, that's like exactly what we wanna hear. So that's awesome. And I wanted to dive a little bit into the flip side of that is, I mean, what was it like with all those marketing agencies that didn't really work out what happened with those?
12:28Walker Rose
Yeah, so it just seemed like there was always an excuse for why the ads weren't working. It was always, well, let's test this. And then we do that for a week or two and we'd still have no return. A lot of the leads that we would get would be what I thought were almost like a robot lead, right? You would get the contact information, you'd go to call them. They wouldn't answer. It would be someone from a different state that they're like, I have no idea who you're calling for. You have the wrong number. It just never went anywhere. Mean, when we track the ROI, it was almost nothing. I think with one company, we spent like $40,000 and we landed one job.
13:14Dan Leibrandt
What? How's that possible?
13:15Walker Rose
Yes, exactly. It doesn't make sense. I don't know if we're in a weird market or what, but there's people who have been suggested to us from other people in the industry and it just did not work here with us.
13:30Dan Leibrandt
And specifically what kinds of marketing strategies were you trying?
13:35Walker Rose
So that was almost all Facebook and Instagram stuff. So the same thing we're doing now, but I did feel like the ad copy and the images gave a big cookie cutter feel, right? It's the same thing that you see a thousand times. Was nothing attention grabbing. They all wanted to focus on brand a lot and brand is great, but brand doesn't make you money. Brand awareness campaigns. At least we didn't think it did.
14:08Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Now that's something I usually, especially starting out if you're under a million or two, it usually doesn't make sense to invest in brand. It's just, know, get leads as fast as possible, all about ROI. Once you start getting bigger, then it usually makes sense. So then I wanted to ask you, what are like some red flags you'd say are for... Red flags of marketing agencies. If someone came to you or if you're talking with marketing agencies in the future, what's like an immediate turn off that you've learned from some of these agencies that you...
14:41Walker Rose
An immediate one for me is a company that is, you're paying for their services plus the ad spend. You don't have your own ad account if you can't control that and see that and what you're spending. That's a big red flag for me because you feel like you never really know how much you're spending on ads. I would vet anybody as much as possible. I mean, really, really dive into who their clients and see what's actually happening. I wish we would have done that more before we spent that money, because that money's just gone. Yeah, that's a big one for me. I like I've gone through lists of these with like what red flags there are and that's the one that's coming to mind the most right now.
15:27Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, cool. And then I wanted to ask you, so are you guys all in house right now? Are you working with an agency?
15:34Walker Rose
That we're...
15:36Dan Leibrandt
Okay, so what does that look like? Do you have like a designated marketing person? Are you the marketing person?
15:41Walker Rose
No, I'm the marketing person. It's really just a one man show around here. So that's what drew me to the Pest Control Millionaires stuff was like, I figured I'm confident in my own ability, right? That I can figure things out. So I figured if I can figure it out, can we actually make money with it? And then that gives me so much more knowledge going into if we do decide to go out of house with it. We know what questions to ask, we know what works. So yeah, it's all just done by me. It doesn't really take that much time.
16:12Dan Leibrandt
Wow, okay. Yeah, I know that that's something we usually recommend too is at the very least you should be somewhat familiar with all the fields. Like you should know a little bit about Facebook ads. You should know a little bit about Google ads and SEO and all the other kinds of stuff. So then when you're talking to agencies, you can know whether they're BSing you or not. Because like you said, a lot of them are scams. A lot of them will just spend like $40,000 of your money and that there's no return. So now, I think if you hired a Facebook ads agency now, which I'm not saying you should, it seems like things are going good, but if you were to now, I'm sure you'd be able to vet them immediately and be like, no, look, your ads are literally worse than the ones I'm running. I need someone that's doing it better than me.
16:55Walker Rose
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, would much rather, if we were looking to outsource, we would just hire somebody in-house to handle it versus going towards a company at this point.
17:05Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So what does the future look like for your company, Turf Chief? What's kind of the plan for the next few years?
17:15Walker Rose
So we want to just go as big as we can at this point. Scale is kind of the name of the game. I feel like this year has been a good building year with some systems and getting things in place to do that. I would really like the brand specifically, Turf Chief, to really expand and grow. I'd like to be the largest and best company in my service area. I think we can achieve that and beat our competition pretty easily there. I don't feel like our competition is really doing anything special. So that's what we want to be the foremost name here.
17:49Dan Leibrandt
Awesome, so just grow as much as possible. And also explain the split between Local Lawns and Turf Chief. What is like the balance there? You're running both of them, right?
18:00Walker Rose
Yep, so we actually have a third landscape company, Dale Cove, that we acquired this spring. We're going to leave it alone as its own entity. But as far as a revenue split, we're doing 2.1 on the landscape side and about 400,000 on the Turf Chief side. We'd really like to see that even out as quickly as possible.
18:24Dan Leibrandt
Hmm. Okay, interesting. All right. So it's actually mostly the Local Lawns side. Okay, cool. Or I guess Daleco is part of that too. Okay.
18:34Walker Rose
Yeah, yeah, but they're essentially the same service, right? It's just a different name.
18:40Dan Leibrandt
Okay, cool. Yeah, but before the call, you also mentioned to me that you acquired Dale co fairly recently. And you said Jonas kind of helped you through that. Talk to me about the process of acquiring a company because I feel like this is almost the dream of a lot of guys, you know, you finally maybe you're doing a million dollars a year. So you can look into acquiring companies. What was that process like for you? And how did it go?
19:06Walker Rose
Yeah, so this is the fifth company that I've bought. It's the biggest part that we've done. All the other ones were smaller, know, one guy operations that we picked up over the years. I've learned something from each one we've done. This one I felt the most confident in. And yeah, Jonas and I spitballed this one quite a bit, trying to get creative with it. That's the interesting thing about business acquisitions is they're never the same and you can get really creative with how you structure things and make that as advantageous to you as possible. You know, the numbers side of it's one thing, right? Like the health of the company and what that looks like. If you're solid there, you can get really creative with the financing and all that. So this one went pretty smoothly. We struggled a little bit. You know, we went through an SBA loan on it to close the deal. And if you talk to people who do that, it's kind of a nightmare sometimes dealing with the SBA. But aside from that, it was a pretty smooth transition. No, Jonas was a huge help in getting creative and kind of making me feel at ease with the deal. Always think like, what's, what am I missing? Right? Cause this one, the numbers, and I kept feeling like something's off. So yeah, he spitballed it and spitballed it and we went back and forth and finally made it happen this spring.
20:33Dan Leibrandt
That's awesome. Yeah, talk to me more about you're saying like getting creative with it. You don't have to give me exact numbers, but what are some of the things you're kind of some of the numbers you're playing with?
20:43Walker Rose
Yeah, so as far as like the you can play with the terms, right? So, you know, as far as money down. So this deal, we did no money down. We did a hold back with the seller and that satisfied our equity needs with the SBA. Also that hold back, we got creative with that being paid out. Get creative with retention. Know the equipment we purchased equipment with this company too so we were able to get that dialed down to a really comfortable the sky's the limit really with how you structure it, in my opinion. I always like to try and find ways to make it work when you don't have the funds, right? I don't come from money. I don't have millions of dollars backed behind me. So I have to get creative. The space we operate out of, own. I made a really creative deal with the owner on that one and made it work when I didn't.
21:37Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Okay, that makes sense. Okay, so now looking forward and also just to give some advice to other people, you've acquired five companies. This recent one was the biggest, it was a little bit less than a million dollars. Now for you, the companies that you're gonna acquire moving forward, what is kind of the range you're looking for, the size that you wanna acquire?
22:01Walker Rose
I do think that there's something to be said for a company of decent size around that million mark or so. It has some established systems and a good client base that can also be a negative if they're not good. I also really like the one-man operations, right? Especially in the fert and weed space. You can get a guy that's cranking out, you know, three, four, 500 clients and maybe he's just looking to retire. And doesn't need a big chunk of change up front. Think those you can get creative with. When you're getting those really big dollar marks, I think your creativity gets less. Because prior dealing with someone who, not that you want to take advantage of people, right? But they have some more knowledge behind them. They probably have some lawyers advising them, and they're looking for something that works for them. They're not flexible.
22:55Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, definitely. And these companies that you've acquired and are going to acquire in the future, how are you finding them and reaching out to them?
23:05Walker Rose
You know, really, we've never pursued these. All of them that we've done, we're kind of just putting our lap, you know, being active in your community and being active with other contractors in your area, I think does that. So that's being a part of organizations or going to, you know, suppliers. You know, they have get togethers, just talking with guys, if you're a familiar face and a familiar name, and also have a good reputation, people will bring them to you when they're ready. It's been my experience. Yeah, they also, they want to be comfortable with the deal. Like most people, they want their clients to be taken care of. They want to feel comfortable with who they're handing off.
23:42Dan Leibrandt
Hmm, dang, that's awesome. Yeah, talk to me more about.
23:55Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, no, that makes sense. There has to be a level of trust, especially with that size of like, I'm literally gonna give you my business. I wanna make sure that's in good hands and my clients are in good hands. So cool, that makes sense. And just be clear on that. You said that you're active in the community and you mentioned a little bit on that, but what specifically does that mean? And what can people do to get active in their communities?
24:19Walker Rose
I mean, I think anything you can do to get in front of people. So whether you have, you know, small town parades, right for, you know, for here, it's a county parade. We do a lot with youth sports. We donate a lot of work to youth sports fields. It doesn't cost us a whole lot of money to do that. I think it does a good thing for the community, good thing for the kids. There's not a lot of funding out there for turf grass management on. Youth athletic fields. So we're able to offer that service and get in, you know, we obviously benefit, right? We're in front of all those families. But yeah, that's a big one for us is youth sports.
25:01Dan Leibrandt
Hmm, youth sports, okay. Yeah, no, and so then are you getting like your company name on the back of their jerseys or something like that?
25:10Walker Rose
Yeah, usually kind of the deal will strike with people is like, hey, we'll take care of your field. We just want banners up. You put banners up on your fields and you give us some shout outs on Facebook. We're willing to make that deal. Yeah, there's a youth football field not far from here that we take care of on the weekends. There's five, 600 families there. So the fields look good. Our names out there. We're getting the shout outs. It goes a long way.
25:40Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, something that I've talked to Jonas about a lot is like you almost want to become a local celebrity. It doesn't matter. You don't have to like branch out to all these other areas and get crazy with it. And now you're driving super far, but literally just conquer your immediate area. Just like you said, plastering banners, having people do Facebook posts, just own your area, right? It seems like that's what you guys are doing.
26:05Walker Rose
Yeah, for sure. Think that's a big focus for us is becoming that like trusted authority on the service. You know, whether that's being your answering phone calls that lead to zero sales, where you're just giving people advice or steering them in the right direction. We turn down work all the time. Yeah, because it's not what's good for the client. We're not just trying to close a sale. If it doesn't fit for them, I think that respect goes a long way for people.
26:33Dan Leibrandt
Mm, yeah, awesome. And talk to me about hiring. What has hiring been like for you guys? Maybe some bad hires or good hires, what have you learned?
26:41Walker Rose
Yeah, we definitely had our share of bad hires. You know, I think if you go with your gut on the hire and you feel really good about the person and you're hiring the person, not necessarily their skills, I think that goes a long way. Most of the skills you can train. But if you're looking at things like integrity and honesty and how someone carries themselves and their attitude, that goes a long way. Especially because, as I'm sure you all know and everybody knows, the team environment is very important, the culture you have is very important. If you have that bad seed in your team, will drag everybody down. You need some team players on board.
27:24Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, talk to me more about building your culture. What has that been like?
27:29Walker Rose
Yeah, so that's something that we try and focus more and more on. I think having a relationship with your employees that's not so business focused, it's a fine line to walk, but generally caring about them, about their life personally, not just at work. Whether you just take five minutes out of your day to have some conversations with them, ask them how their kids are, ask them... Know, about hobbies and try and really connect with them. I think that goes a long way. If you treat people right, I find the majority of the time they treat you right.
28:06Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, I've been hearing that from a lot of people in the space. And I mean, it's just the small things that count. I don't know, maybe some people don't think about them, but it's just, like you said, just giving them a text or giving them a compliment or, you know, kind of talking about personal things, like you said, of like, know, hey, I saw you have a baby on the way. That's so exciting, whatever. Like, essentially be a human, be a person, right? With all the AI stuff going on. I think it's more important than ever.
28:36Walker Rose
Yeah, no, spot on for sure.
28:39Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, cool. And also, I wanted to ask you, as we kind of wrap up the show here, you guys, it seems like you've just about conquered your area, I'm sure there's more room to grow. Are you looking into expanding into other areas? And what would that look like?
28:55Walker Rose
Yeah, that's not really on our radar currently. Out from there. The market's decent sized. We definitely have a lot of room to grow here. I don't want to get distracted by another market just yet. I struggle enough getting distracted with stuff. I don't need that. Yeah, I'm not a Jonas going nationwide right now. We're going to hunker down here right now and try it out. Think we have a lot of...
29:22Dan Leibrandt
Yeah, no, that makes sense. You're in Louisville, Or Lou-ville? How do you pronounce it? Louisville.
29:25Walker Rose
Yeah. Yeah, no, you're, yeah. Lul. You just don't pronounce anything in it and you'll get it right.
29:34Dan Leibrandt
That's hilarious. Every single person I talk to from Louisville, probably still getting it wrong, says it like that. Yeah, no, there's, I mean, there's a pretty good population there, right? Maybe a million or more people.
29:46Walker Rose
Yeah, I think we're in the city of Louisville, we're like 1.3 and our surrounding counties are expanding every single day as far as suburbs and putting housing up. We have three solid counties that surround the city with a lot of opportunity as well.
30:04Dan Leibrandt
Okay, okay, awesome. All right, I've got two more questions for you Walker. One is, just generally, you can take this wherever you want. What is one of the biggest lessons you've learned recently?
30:14Walker Rose
Hmm visit day is less than I learned recently I always staying hungry and staying motivated. We saw that a little bit last year where I felt like I got a little off track. In being hungry in the business. You get that complacency, right? I'm very much a person that likes to have a goal and chase the rabbit. So always staying after it. Don't get complacent.
30:46Dan Leibrandt
How do you train that? Because you said last year you're kind of falling out of it. How do you get back into it?
30:50Walker Rose
I think it's just really taking care of your mental health and your mental space. That's also physically as well, right? If you have your body right, your mind will be. Yeah, taking the time to make sure that you're focusing, truly focusing in setting a goal and...
31:05Dan Leibrandt
Awesome. Love that. And then final question for you, again, pretty broad. And this might even tie to what you just said there, but what would your message be to other pest control slash lawn owners? What do you want to tell them? What do think they need to know?
31:19Walker Rose
Think the biggest thing if you're looking for growth is believe in your own ability. Don't listen to the naysayers, right? If you believe in yourself, you can get anything done. You just gotta put your head down and grind it. It might not seem like it's gonna happen tomorrow or next month or next year, but you look back five years ago and you're like, wow, I was doing that and look right.
31:46Dan Leibrandt
Amen, so believe in yourself and put down your head and grind it. Love that. I think it's been a great show Walker. Thank you so much for coming on. Where can people find you and connect with you on social media?
31:59Walker Rose
Yeah, so you can find us either on Facebook or Instagram, Turf Chief there. We also have the Local Lawns and we're working on getting Dale Co. Up to speed on the social realm. But yeah, you can find me there.
32:11Dan Leibrandt
Awesome. And are you there, are you active yourself? Can people connect with you, be friends with you?
32:16Walker Rose
You can, yeah, I'm not super active personally on social media. Working on that. Just sat through a conference this weekend, you working on the personal side of getting that brand out there and promoting it. But yeah, you can find me there as well.
32:29Dan Leibrandt
Awesome. Cool. Yes. All those links will be in the description and anything else you'd like to plug or promote.
32:34Walker Rose
Yeah, I guess that'll wrap for us.
32:37Dan Leibrandt
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on, man. I appreciate your time and I think this was great.
32:41Walker Rose
Yeah, awesome. Thanks for having me.
32:43Dan Leibrandt
Of course.
