[{"_1":2,"_49":-5,"_50":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_48":-5},"routes/episodes.$id",{"_5":6,"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":12,"_13":14,"_15":-5,"_16":17,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":23,"_24":25,"_26":27,"_28":29,"_30":31,"_32":33,"_34":35,"_36":37,"_38":39},"id",427,"title","Fall in love with customer retention","subtitle","Listen to this leadership podcast with Kurt Kane, CEO of TruGreen, and discover how to shift your focus from customer transactions to customer relationships.","summary","

You’re hustling to land new customers … but what if the ones you already have are quietly slipping away?

Kurt Kane saw this problem on day one as CEO of TruGreen. And after years of driving transactional growth as CMO of Wendy’s, he saw the opportunity to grow TruGreen by leaning into long-term customer satisfaction and retention. Now, he’s revitalizing the brand and getting his team engaged in the mission, too.

This episode will help you see your customers (and their feedback) in a whole new light – and reveal just how important it is to fall in love with customer retention if you want to grow your business.

You’ll also learn:

Stealable marketing strategies from P&G, Wendy’s, Coors, and more
A practical way to get your entire team focused on the right work
One question to ask if you want to boost employee engagement
How to keep your culture informal without sacrificing results

","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.120\nHello everyone and welcome to another episode of How Leaders Lead with David\n\n2\n00:00:04.120 --> 00:00:05.200\nNovak. Today on the\n\n3\n00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:10.050\nshow, we have Kurt Kane. He's the CEO of TrueGreen, which is the largest long-\n\n4\n00:00:10.050 --> 00:00:11.440\ncare company in the\n\n5\n00:00:11.440 --> 00:00:16.720\nUnited States. And after years of driving growth as CMO of Wendy's, Kurt saw\n\n6\n00:00:16.720 --> 00:00:17.920\nthe opportunity to grow\n\n7\n00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:22.840\nTrueGreen by leaning into long-term customer satisfaction and retention. In\n\n8\n00:00:22.840 --> 00:00:23.520\nthis episode,\n\n9\n00:00:23.520 --> 00:00:27.520\nyou'll learn how to see your customers and their feedback in a whole new light\n\n10\n00:00:27.520 --> 00:00:28.560\nand reveal just how\n\n11\n00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:32.980\nimportant it is to fall in love with customer retention if you want to grow\n\n12\n00:00:32.980 --> 00:00:33.920\nyour business.\n\n13\n00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:36.560\nEnjoy this conversation and I'll see you at the debrief.\n\n14\n00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:47.920\nYou know, Kurt, I was literally just at the built-more estate in North Carolina\n\n15\n00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:49.200\n. And I found myself\n\n16\n00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:54.190\nwondering what runs through your mind when you walk those grounds knowing that\n\n17\n00:00:54.190 --> 00:00:54.960\nTrueGreen\n\n18\n00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:59.810\nis the team responsible for keeping it looking world-class and believing it is\n\n19\n00:00:59.810 --> 00:01:00.800\nworld-class.\n\n20\n00:01:00.800 --> 00:01:04.560\nAnd one of the things that we're really proud of is when people that have\n\n21\n00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:05.600\namazing estates like\n\n22\n00:01:05.600 --> 00:01:09.930\nthat or professional venues or anything along those lines, you know, choose\n\n23\n00:01:09.930 --> 00:01:10.720\nTrueGreen to take\n\n24\n00:01:10.720 --> 00:01:13.820\ncare of their property. So it's one that we're really proud of, takes a lot of\n\n25\n00:01:13.820 --> 00:01:15.200\nwork to get it right,\n\n26\n00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:18.580\nbut we think that the results really show just how much we care about it. So\n\n27\n00:01:18.580 --> 00:01:19.520\nyeah, really fortunate\n\n28\n00:01:19.520 --> 00:01:24.370\nto partner with them. You know, speaking in great lawns, I got to ask you, Kurt\n\n29\n00:01:24.370 --> 00:01:26.160\n, is your lawn better\n\n30\n00:01:26.160 --> 00:01:31.820\nthan your neighbors? Well, I probably get a little extra attention even without\n\n31\n00:01:31.820 --> 00:01:32.800\nasking for it,\n\n32\n00:01:32.800 --> 00:01:36.460\nbut I actually have a neighbor who is all in on his own yard care. So he's\n\n33\n00:01:36.460 --> 00:01:37.520\ntough to compete with,\n\n34\n00:01:37.520 --> 00:01:42.320\nbut we try to make sure that we represent the brand really well. And we've also\n\n35\n00:01:42.320 --> 00:01:45.640\npester all of our other neighbors to make sure they get on TrueGreen too. So we\n\n36\n00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:46.320\ncan all look good\n\n37\n00:01:46.320 --> 00:01:50.560\ntogether. Yeah, I've been on your block. You got 100% market share knowing you.\n\n38\n00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:53.920\nWe're trying to, but I also get a lot of attention, like I said, so sometimes\n\n39\n00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:54.800\nyou look up outside\n\n40\n00:01:54.800 --> 00:01:57.500\nand there's three TrueGreen trucks that have shown up at once, and that's not\n\n41\n00:01:57.500 --> 00:01:58.400\nnecessarily fair,\n\n42\n00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:03.810\nso we try and keep it fair for everybody. You know, for those who may not be\n\n43\n00:02:03.810 --> 00:02:04.560\nfamiliar,\n\n44\n00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:09.410\ngive us a high-level picture of TrueGreen and what kind of business you're\n\n45\n00:02:09.410 --> 00:02:10.320\nleading today.\n\n46\n00:02:10.320 --> 00:02:14.820\nYeah, TrueGreen is a really interesting business, and I joined as CEO going\n\n47\n00:02:14.820 --> 00:02:15.920\nback just over two years\n\n48\n00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:20.780\nago now, but we're effectively and primarily in the lawn treatment business. So\n\n49\n00:02:20.780 --> 00:02:21.520\nour jobs to make\n\n50\n00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:25.940\nsure that your grass looks great. We keep the weeds out. It grows healthily. It\n\n51\n00:02:25.940 --> 00:02:26.880\n's a nice thick,\n\n52\n00:02:26.880 --> 00:02:32.340\nlush lawn. We don't mow the lawn. We leave that to other people locally, and as\n\n53\n00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:33.120\na result,\n\n54\n00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:36.960\nwe're really focused in on the treatment of the lawn itself. We also have other\n\n55\n00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:37.760\nlines of business.\n\n56\n00:02:37.760 --> 00:02:42.560\nWe take care of tree and shrub and make sure that those are healthy. We've got\n\n57\n00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:43.040\na mosquito\n\n58\n00:02:43.040 --> 00:02:46.970\nprevention business and a perimeter pest business as well, so we really try and\n\n59\n00:02:46.970 --> 00:02:47.760\nbring together\n\n60\n00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:51.410\nthese different businesses that all work really well together to help people\n\n61\n00:02:51.410 --> 00:02:52.240\nlove their outdoor\n\n62\n00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:56.470\nspaces, have lawns and exteriors that are homes that they're really proud of,\n\n63\n00:02:56.470 --> 00:02:57.360\nand it all comes\n\n64\n00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:02.210\ntogether really well. You know, I asked the question about your neighbor's lawn\n\n65\n00:03:02.210 --> 00:03:02.720\nand your\n\n66\n00:03:02.720 --> 00:03:08.240\nyours being better in a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek fashion here, but you\n\n67\n00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:09.680\nknow, there's no question\n\n68\n00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:16.320\nthat people take a lot of pride in the lawns that they have, you know, and it's\n\n69\n00:03:16.320 --> 00:03:17.840\nreally real, this\n\n70\n00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:23.280\ncompetitiveness to have a great lawn. How do you tap into that mindset to\n\n71\n00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:24.160\nconnect emotionally\n\n72\n00:03:24.160 --> 00:03:27.510\nwith your customers? The heart of all of it is, you know, you got to think\n\n73\n00:03:27.510 --> 00:03:28.000\nabout, you know,\n\n74\n00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:32.100\nwhat perception do you want people to have of your home? How do you tap into\n\n75\n00:03:32.100 --> 00:03:32.880\npeople's kind of\n\n76\n00:03:32.880 --> 00:03:37.130\ndefining values? And like you said, you know, the home is somebody's biggest\n\n77\n00:03:37.130 --> 00:03:38.080\ninvestment under\n\n78\n00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:42.930\nalmost all circumstances. And so the pride that they can show in that really\n\n79\n00:03:42.930 --> 00:03:44.080\nmanifests itself in\n\n80\n00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:49.180\na lot of different ways. But for us, we've done a lot of work around this idea\n\n81\n00:03:49.180 --> 00:03:50.080\nthat we are the\n\n82\n00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:53.800\npros that pros trust, so you can have confidence that we're going to get it\n\n83\n00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:55.600\nright for you every time.\n\n84\n00:03:55.600 --> 00:04:00.640\nAnd where that was was born out of was we have a PGA Tour partnership and we're\n\n85\n00:04:00.640 --> 00:04:01.120\nthe official\n\n86\n00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:05.970\nlawn care treatment provider, the PGA Tour also have also have minor league\n\n87\n00:04:05.970 --> 00:04:06.400\nbaseball.\n\n88\n00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:10.960\nAnd so if folks like Jason Day and Ben Griffin feel like we can get it right,\n\n89\n00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:14.240\nwe think we can probably get it right for you as well. And so that's how we tap\n\n90\n00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:14.960\ninto that idea.\n\n91\n00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:19.580\nWe have a lot of fun with that in our communications and our advertising. And\n\n92\n00:04:19.580 --> 00:04:20.400\nwe've seen it really\n\n93\n00:04:20.400 --> 00:04:24.310\ndrive a lot of of improvement and brand health over the past couple of years\n\n94\n00:04:24.310 --> 00:04:25.280\nsince we got involved\n\n95\n00:04:25.280 --> 00:04:30.080\nwith those programs. How did that PGA sponsorship or partnership come about?\n\n96\n00:04:30.080 --> 00:04:34.080\nWe had a lot of discussions over time. We've been partnered with the PGA Tour\n\n97\n00:04:34.080 --> 00:04:34.720\nin a number of\n\n98\n00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:39.140\ndifferent ways for quite some time. But I think we've probably historically\n\n99\n00:04:39.140 --> 00:04:40.080\nweren't necessarily\n\n100\n00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:44.900\nusing it as effectively as we could. We're more focused on on site activation\n\n101\n00:04:44.900 --> 00:04:45.840\nat tournament sites\n\n102\n00:04:45.840 --> 00:04:50.280\nrather than really going out and building the idea that in most neighborhoods\n\n103\n00:04:50.280 --> 00:04:50.800\nand in most\n\n104\n00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:55.220\ncommunities, the golf course or golf courses that are there tend to be the best\n\n105\n00:04:55.220 --> 00:04:56.000\ngrass around.\n\n106\n00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:01.050\nAnd so that's where we started to leverage this PGA Tour idea to be able to\n\n107\n00:05:01.050 --> 00:05:02.240\nshowcase that we are\n\n108\n00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:06.360\nthrough the ones. Those folks trust to be able to get it right every day. So\n\n109\n00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:06.880\nfor us, it's been\n\n110\n00:05:06.880 --> 00:05:09.660\na really good partnership. We've activated it in a number of different ways\n\n111\n00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:10.560\nover the past couple\n\n112\n00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:14.800\nof years. Jason Day has been amazing. Ben Griffin had a breakout year for us\n\n113\n00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:15.440\nlast year\n\n114\n00:05:15.440 --> 00:05:19.600\non the tour and in the way he represented in our communications. So it's been a\n\n115\n00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:20.240\nreally good\n\n116\n00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:25.200\npartnership. That's great. And you know, when you look back and you obviously\n\n117\n00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:25.840\nhave lots of\n\n118\n00:05:25.840 --> 00:05:30.070\nopportunities or highly talented, you could run a lot of companies. What was\n\n119\n00:05:30.070 --> 00:05:31.280\nthe big opportunity you\n\n120\n00:05:31.280 --> 00:05:35.920\nsaw at True Green that really made you want to take the job? You know, for me,\n\n121\n00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:36.320\nI've spent the\n\n122\n00:05:36.320 --> 00:05:40.880\nlast, I've been at this 28 years now since getting out of graduate school after\n\n123\n00:05:40.880 --> 00:05:41.440\nthe army.\n\n124\n00:05:41.440 --> 00:05:47.490\nAnd I spent the last 28 years really helping transform mature brands that had\n\n125\n00:05:47.490 --> 00:05:48.480\neither plateaued\n\n126\n00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:52.020\nor gotten stuck and maybe gotten disconnected from the growth that they were\n\n127\n00:05:52.020 --> 00:05:53.840\nreally capable of driving.\n\n128\n00:05:53.840 --> 00:05:56.910\nAnd so when I learned about the opportunity at True Green and the fact that\n\n129\n00:05:56.910 --> 00:05:57.520\nthey were looking\n\n130\n00:05:57.520 --> 00:06:02.370\nfor a new leader to come in, what I saw was a brand that had a lot of awareness\n\n131\n00:06:02.370 --> 00:06:03.280\n. You know,\n\n132\n00:06:03.280 --> 00:06:08.130\npeople knew of it, but it wasn't necessarily growing at the rate that it could.\n\n133\n00:06:08.130 --> 00:06:08.720\nAnd so that's\n\n134\n00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:13.050\nthe kind of opportunity that I love to be involved with. And I was coming out\n\n135\n00:06:13.050 --> 00:06:14.160\nof spending almost nine\n\n136\n00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:20.450\nyears at Wendy's driving a meaningful operational and brand turnaround on that\n\n137\n00:06:20.450 --> 00:06:21.360\nbusiness before that,\n\n138\n00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:25.280\nspending time at young brands, as you know, and other places before that. But\n\n139\n00:06:25.280 --> 00:06:25.920\nit's just the kind\n\n140\n00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:30.150\nof work that I love to do. And I felt like the marketing background I had\n\n141\n00:06:30.150 --> 00:06:30.960\ncombined with the\n\n142\n00:06:30.960 --> 00:06:34.450\nfact that I'd worked in a lot of field driven operating environments was a\n\n143\n00:06:34.450 --> 00:06:35.840\nreally good connection.\n\n144\n00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:40.070\nAnd and so far, we've been having a lot of fun doing it. Yeah, what's something\n\n145\n00:06:40.070 --> 00:06:41.040\nabout, you know,\n\n146\n00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:46.200\nwhat's something people think is true about True Green that you wish they knew\n\n147\n00:06:46.200 --> 00:06:47.840\nthe real story behind?\n\n148\n00:06:47.840 --> 00:06:52.880\nI mean, how did it get to be true? True Green's grown a lot over over the years\n\n149\n00:06:52.880 --> 00:06:53.280\n. And you know,\n\n150\n00:06:53.280 --> 00:06:58.240\nit started out, you know, 50 some odd years ago, you know, out of the Midwest,\n\n151\n00:06:58.240 --> 00:06:58.720\ngrew up out of\n\n152\n00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:03.050\nMichigan and then expanded. And so I think a lot of people have a general\n\n153\n00:07:03.050 --> 00:07:04.560\nperception of the brand\n\n154\n00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:08.890\nas a big national brand. But what I wish more people knew was how local we\n\n155\n00:07:08.890 --> 00:07:10.000\nreally are. When you\n\n156\n00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:13.650\nthink about what we do every day, we've got, you know, multiple different agron\n\n157\n00:07:13.650 --> 00:07:14.400\nomists on staff,\n\n158\n00:07:14.400 --> 00:07:19.340\nmultiple PhDs, trying to make sure that whatever recipe of lawn care products\n\n159\n00:07:19.340 --> 00:07:20.800\nwe put on your lawn\n\n160\n00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:25.220\nis customized all the way down to the county level. And so it's not just a one\n\n161\n00:07:25.220 --> 00:07:26.000\nsize fits all\n\n162\n00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:30.230\nprogram like when you buy, you know, do it yourself products at a Home Depot or\n\n163\n00:07:30.230 --> 00:07:31.440\nLowe's. We really\n\n164\n00:07:31.440 --> 00:07:35.770\ncustomized what we're doing using the science behind it. So I wish more people\n\n165\n00:07:35.770 --> 00:07:36.480\nknew that. I\n\n166\n00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:40.250\nwish more people knew that we partner with a lot of local universities to be\n\n167\n00:07:40.250 --> 00:07:40.960\nable to, you know,\n\n168\n00:07:40.960 --> 00:07:44.610\nwork with their turfgrass programs to be able to make sure that we're getting\n\n169\n00:07:44.610 --> 00:07:45.840\nthis right every day.\n\n170\n00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:50.170\nSo I think more people need to know that we need to tell that story more loudly\n\n171\n00:07:50.170 --> 00:07:50.640\nthan we do.\n\n172\n00:07:50.640 --> 00:07:54.480\nBut I wish more people were aware of just how local we really are.\n\n173\n00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:58.480\nWell, that's that's the true facts about your business and the more you get\n\n174\n00:07:58.480 --> 00:07:59.200\nthem out, the better,\n\n175\n00:07:59.200 --> 00:08:03.360\nright? That's for sure. You know, you've had quite the career, you know,\n\n176\n00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:08.210\npackage goods at Procter & Gamble, food and beverage restaurants, and now lawn\n\n177\n00:08:08.210 --> 00:08:08.640\ncare.\n\n178\n00:08:08.640 --> 00:08:14.620\nWhat advice would you give people, Kurt, on who wonder whether their skills can\n\n179\n00:08:14.620 --> 00:08:15.360\nreally travel\n\n180\n00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:19.520\nacross industries? Yeah, I think it's been, yeah, I spent most of my career in\n\n181\n00:08:19.520 --> 00:08:20.400\nfood and beverage,\n\n182\n00:08:20.400 --> 00:08:23.780\nas you mentioned, but it's also been a lot of different spaces of food and\n\n183\n00:08:23.780 --> 00:08:24.480\nbeverage.\n\n184\n00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:27.760\nLike I said, package goods at Procter & Gamble, things like sunny delight,\n\n185\n00:08:27.760 --> 00:08:28.320\njuice drink,\n\n186\n00:08:28.320 --> 00:08:32.650\nyou know, then moles and cores in the beer business, totally different business\n\n187\n00:08:32.650 --> 00:08:33.120\n,\n\n188\n00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:37.970\nand then into PepsiCo, Frito-Lay, and on down the road. But I think to me, what\n\n189\n00:08:37.970 --> 00:08:38.720\nyou have to look at\n\n190\n00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:43.840\nis, you know, one of the things that are commonalities across the different\n\n191\n00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:44.960\nexperiences that you have,\n\n192\n00:08:45.520 --> 00:08:49.520\nand how do you draw from them? And I think to me, some of the commonalities\n\n193\n00:08:49.520 --> 00:08:50.640\nthat are there,\n\n194\n00:08:50.640 --> 00:08:55.490\nnot just for my career, but across all these different experiences, you know,\n\n195\n00:08:55.490 --> 00:08:56.400\ncan you simplify\n\n196\n00:08:56.400 --> 00:09:00.730\nto the things that matter most? Can you get people focused on, you know, where\n\n197\n00:09:00.730 --> 00:09:01.360\nthe upside\n\n198\n00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:04.900\nlives in the business? And really importantly, can you get them excited about\n\n199\n00:09:04.900 --> 00:09:05.760\nit? Can you be an\n\n200\n00:09:05.760 --> 00:09:09.960\noptimist and create a vision for growth? And if you can do those three things\n\n201\n00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:10.880\nreally well,\n\n202\n00:09:10.880 --> 00:09:14.260\nI think those skills travel across a lot of different categories, and that's\n\n203\n00:09:14.260 --> 00:09:14.720\nbeen the\n\n204\n00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:18.370\nexperience that I've had, and I've been fortunate to have success in carrying\n\n205\n00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:19.680\nthose things with me.\n\n206\n00:09:19.680 --> 00:09:24.720\nHow did you simplify what matters most at TrueGreen? What process did you use\n\n207\n00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:25.600\nand how did you boil it\n\n208\n00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:29.440\ndown? You know, when I first got here, it was amazing. The team had, you know,\n\n209\n00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:30.320\nprobably 50 different\n\n210\n00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:34.750\ninitiatives that they were working on, all with the spirit of getting it right\n\n211\n00:09:34.750 --> 00:09:36.000\nfor the customer,\n\n212\n00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:40.350\nbut it wasn't necessarily all tied together. And so I took our leadership team\n\n213\n00:09:40.350 --> 00:09:41.920\naway for a few days,\n\n214\n00:09:41.920 --> 00:09:45.600\nand we said, look, we're going to get this business down onto one page. We're\n\n215\n00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:46.160\ngoing to get down to\n\n216\n00:09:46.160 --> 00:09:49.640\nthe metrics that matter most, and we're really going to talk about, you know,\n\n217\n00:09:49.640 --> 00:09:50.960\nwhat it is that we do,\n\n218\n00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:55.840\nand make sure that everybody in the company can see how what they do every day\n\n219\n00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:56.800\nis tied directly\n\n220\n00:09:56.800 --> 00:10:01.650\nto the results that we get. And so we came up with a document that now hangs in\n\n221\n00:10:01.650 --> 00:10:02.400\nevery one of our\n\n222\n00:10:02.400 --> 00:10:06.450\nbranch locations. It's across all of our support centers that has our five\n\n223\n00:10:06.450 --> 00:10:08.160\nstrategic pillars. And\n\n224\n00:10:08.160 --> 00:10:11.810\nif we got it right, and hopefully we did, those five strategic pillars won't be\n\n225\n00:10:11.810 --> 00:10:13.280\nchanging anytime\n\n226\n00:10:13.280 --> 00:10:16.840\nin the future. But by getting it down to those five strategic pillars and the\n\n227\n00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:18.080\nmetrics that we use\n\n228\n00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:21.670\nto measure success against those pillars, now we've got everybody literally on\n\n229\n00:10:21.670 --> 00:10:22.960\nthe same page.\n\n230\n00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:27.380\nAnd to me, that's been a really powerful tool for us. A lot of executives, they\n\n231\n00:10:27.380 --> 00:10:28.080\nwork hard to get\n\n232\n00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:32.200\nthat one sheet of paper, and they get it framed and laminated, and it's up on\n\n233\n00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:32.960\nthe wall and\n\n234\n00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:36.780\nnever really goes anywhere. It's just like, it's something that the guys did in\n\n235\n00:10:36.780 --> 00:10:38.000\nthe corner office\n\n236\n00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:42.000\nthat makes them feel good, you know. What do you do to really drive that deep\n\n237\n00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:42.960\nin the organization?\n\n238\n00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.840\nSo people understand your five pillars, and you know, how you're going to\n\n239\n00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:46.640\nreally grow the hell out\n\n240\n00:10:46.640 --> 00:10:50.080\nof the business? Yeah, I think, and this is actually something I learned from\n\n241\n00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:51.120\nyou a long time ago.\n\n242\n00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:54.770\nYou may not remember, but I asked you a question in an off site that we were at\n\n243\n00:10:54.770 --> 00:10:55.600\ntogether about,\n\n244\n00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:59.930\nhow do you get people convicted around what you're trying to drive? And one\n\n245\n00:10:59.930 --> 00:11:00.640\nthing you shared was\n\n246\n00:11:00.640 --> 00:11:06.400\nthat your repetition is not a bad thing. Lean in and talk about what you want\n\n247\n00:11:06.400 --> 00:11:07.520\nthem to understand\n\n248\n00:11:07.520 --> 00:11:12.320\nas often as you can. And even if you get bored of it, you need to keep saying\n\n249\n00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:13.600\nit because everybody\n\n250\n00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:17.700\nneeds needs to hear it. I think the other thing is, you know, run the business\n\n251\n00:11:17.700 --> 00:11:18.800\naround the tool.\n\n252\n00:11:18.800 --> 00:11:22.560\nSo not only do we have, you know, that laminated piece of paper, but if you\n\n253\n00:11:22.560 --> 00:11:23.680\nlook at the score cards\n\n254\n00:11:23.680 --> 00:11:27.360\nthat we operate our leadership team meetings off of, if you look at how we\n\n255\n00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:28.640\nreport out our results,\n\n256\n00:11:29.280 --> 00:11:34.560\neverything is pegged directly to those five pillars. And so as a result, it's a\n\n257\n00:11:34.560 --> 00:11:35.200\nliving and\n\n258\n00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:39.260\nbreathing tool that we utilize all the time. And that's why everybody I think\n\n259\n00:11:39.260 --> 00:11:41.120\nfeels connected to it.\n\n260\n00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:45.470\nAnd I can tell you, when I first joined the organization, we were very, very\n\n261\n00:11:45.470 --> 00:11:46.320\nsiloed in the way\n\n262\n00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:50.120\nwe were approaching our work. Our marketing team wasn't necessarily connected\n\n263\n00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:50.960\nto our sales team,\n\n264\n00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:55.060\nto our operations and production team, as closely as they needed to be. So by\n\n265\n00:11:55.060 --> 00:11:56.640\nhaving that one page,\n\n266\n00:11:56.640 --> 00:12:00.290\nnow we have the opportunity for everybody to be connected. And it's been\n\n267\n00:12:00.290 --> 00:12:01.600\namazing to see the results\n\n268\n00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:06.450\nmove as a result of what everybody has been using as this living tool to drive\n\n269\n00:12:06.450 --> 00:12:07.760\ntheir behavior.\n\n270\n00:12:07.760 --> 00:12:11.420\nHow do you go about repeating that message over and over again? What do you do\n\n271\n00:12:11.420 --> 00:12:12.560\nas a CEO?\n\n272\n00:12:12.560 --> 00:12:17.600\nWhen I first joined, we had 14 operating regions. And I made it a point to get\n\n273\n00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:18.400\nout to every one\n\n274\n00:12:18.400 --> 00:12:22.180\nof those operating regions to be able to kick off that message, to be able to\n\n275\n00:12:22.180 --> 00:12:23.440\ntake them through.\n\n276\n00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:28.290\nFirst of all, introduce myself who I was, but to really drive a connection with\n\n277\n00:12:28.290 --> 00:12:28.640\nthem,\n\n278\n00:12:28.640 --> 00:12:32.840\nbecause as I mentioned at the outset, this is a very field, very local driven\n\n279\n00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:33.520\nbusiness,\n\n280\n00:12:33.520 --> 00:12:37.640\nsimilar to a Frito-Lay, similar to others that have a lot of route-based\n\n281\n00:12:37.640 --> 00:12:39.120\ndensity at the center\n\n282\n00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:42.950\nof what the business is. So for me, I think it's really about getting out, and\n\n283\n00:12:42.950 --> 00:12:43.600\nthat's how I kicked\n\n284\n00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:47.250\nit off, was to be able to connect with everybody at a local and regional level.\n\n285\n00:12:47.250 --> 00:12:49.920\nAnd now it's consistently\n\n286\n00:12:49.920 --> 00:12:54.080\nreinforcing and repeating this through all the conversations we have, whether\n\n287\n00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:54.640\nit's internal\n\n288\n00:12:54.640 --> 00:12:59.670\nvideos, town hall meetings, or just day-to-day meetings, consistently going\n\n289\n00:12:59.670 --> 00:13:00.880\nback to this document\n\n290\n00:13:00.880 --> 00:13:05.210\nas a powerful tool has really been effective for us. Now, as you look into the\n\n291\n00:13:05.210 --> 00:13:05.760\nfuture for\n\n292\n00:13:05.760 --> 00:13:13.090\nTrueGreen, what's the next big unlock you believe that could take the company\n\n293\n00:13:13.090 --> 00:13:14.320\nto an entirely different\n\n294\n00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:19.470\nlevel? For years, we focused on how do we grow our customer base by attracting\n\n295\n00:13:19.470 --> 00:13:20.720\nnew customers?\n\n296\n00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:25.520\nWhat we were probably not as focused on as we should have been was how do we\n\n297\n00:13:25.520 --> 00:13:25.680\nretain the\n\n298\n00:13:25.680 --> 00:13:29.790\nexisting customers that we do have? So we're very fortunate, as you mentioned,\n\n299\n00:13:29.790 --> 00:13:30.240\nto have over\n\n300\n00:13:30.240 --> 00:13:35.090\n2 million customers that rely on TrueGreen day in and day out. But for us,\n\n301\n00:13:35.090 --> 00:13:36.400\nretention needs to be\n\n302\n00:13:36.400 --> 00:13:39.760\nsomething that's at the very center of our business. We've got a subscription\n\n303\n00:13:39.760 --> 00:13:40.720\nbased model,\n\n304\n00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:45.050\nand we want to keep people in the business. And even the very first day I took\n\n305\n00:13:45.050 --> 00:13:45.920\nover as CEO,\n\n306\n00:13:45.920 --> 00:13:50.720\nwe had a company-wide video just to introduce myself because I was a stranger\n\n307\n00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:50.880\ncoming into\n\n308\n00:13:50.880 --> 00:13:54.430\nthe company at the time. And in that conversation, I said, \"Look, I want\n\n309\n00:13:54.430 --> 00:13:55.600\neverybody here to fall in\n\n310\n00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:59.930\nlove with one word above all other.\" And that word is retention. Let's fall\n\n311\n00:13:59.930 --> 00:14:00.640\nback in love with\n\n312\n00:14:00.640 --> 00:14:04.790\nthe customers we have today because the people we have in our business today as\n\n313\n00:14:04.790 --> 00:14:05.440\ncustomers\n\n314\n00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:09.440\nare the best customers we're ever going to get. They're already with us. So let\n\n315\n00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:10.160\n's really be\n\n316\n00:14:10.160 --> 00:14:14.260\nincredibly passionate and loyal to them and make sure that they're wildly\n\n317\n00:14:14.260 --> 00:14:15.520\nsatisfied. And\n\n318\n00:14:15.520 --> 00:14:20.320\nsince that time, we've seen our net promoter score go up by over 20 points, our\n\n319\n00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:20.800\nretention's up over\n\n320\n00:14:20.800 --> 00:14:25.220\n300 basis points, because we've been putting the customer first. And I think\n\n321\n00:14:25.220 --> 00:14:26.000\nthat to me is what's\n\n322\n00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:29.740\ngoing to allow us to really get to the next level overall. I want to really get\n\n323\n00:14:29.740 --> 00:14:30.400\ninto your\n\n324\n00:14:30.400 --> 00:14:33.680\nleadership journey and go deep on it. And I want to start by taking you back,\n\n325\n00:14:33.680 --> 00:14:35.040\nway back, okay?\n\n326\n00:14:35.040 --> 00:14:40.620\nWhat's the story from your childhood that shaped the kind of leader you are\n\n327\n00:14:40.620 --> 00:14:41.360\ntoday?\n\n328\n00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:45.040\nI'm very fortunate. I've got a super close family and I grew up originally in\n\n329\n00:14:45.040 --> 00:14:46.080\nthe South suburbs of\n\n330\n00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:50.980\nChicago and moved to Houston, Texas halfway through high school. Growing up, I\n\n331\n00:14:50.980 --> 00:14:52.160\nwas really blessed with\n\n332\n00:14:52.160 --> 00:14:58.230\na mom who was a teacher. And so she was always passionate about getting me to\n\n333\n00:14:58.230 --> 00:14:59.200\nsign up for things\n\n334\n00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:03.630\nand get involved with things. And so I was consistently thrown into experiences\n\n335\n00:15:03.630 --> 00:15:04.720\nwhere I had no reason\n\n336\n00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:09.140\nto be involved in that experience and felt like I was always a little bit over\n\n337\n00:15:09.140 --> 00:15:11.600\nmy head. And I think\n\n338\n00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:14.560\nbecause of that, because she was always curious and always wanted me to get\n\n339\n00:15:14.560 --> 00:15:15.280\ninvolved in a number\n\n340\n00:15:15.280 --> 00:15:20.600\nof different things, I've always been comfortable being uncomfortable and\n\n341\n00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:22.240\nputting myself out there.\n\n342\n00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:26.800\nAnd so I think that was incredibly important. My father was a big supporter as\n\n343\n00:15:26.800 --> 00:15:27.840\nwell. So he would\n\n344\n00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.870\nhelp me try and figure out once I got myself in over my head how I could\n\n345\n00:15:30.870 --> 00:15:32.000\nnavigate through it.\n\n346\n00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:36.230\nBut I think those kinds of experiences to me have been invaluable where you\n\n347\n00:15:36.230 --> 00:15:37.200\nfind yourself in corporate\n\n348\n00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:40.650\nleadership. And what you learn really quickly when you're thinking about how do\n\n349\n00:15:40.650 --> 00:15:41.600\nyou grow a business\n\n350\n00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:45.930\nis that growth only comes from change. And by default change makes people\n\n351\n00:15:45.930 --> 00:15:47.360\nuncomfortable. So you\n\n352\n00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:50.710\nhave to get comfortable being uncomfortable really quickly. And I've been\n\n353\n00:15:50.710 --> 00:15:51.760\nfortunate, even though I\n\n354\n00:15:51.760 --> 00:15:54.650\nprobably wouldn't have framed it that way when I was a kid, being put in\n\n355\n00:15:54.650 --> 00:15:56.400\nuncomfortable situations\n\n356\n00:15:56.400 --> 00:16:00.640\na lot that it paid off longer term. And you started your leadership journey in\n\n357\n00:16:00.640 --> 00:16:01.600\nthe United States Army\n\n358\n00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:06.020\nas a platoon leader. You know, what's a moment or lesson from that experience\n\n359\n00:16:06.020 --> 00:16:06.800\nthat you think about\n\n360\n00:16:06.800 --> 00:16:11.630\nregularly? Yeah, you know, I was fortunately graduated from from West Point\n\n361\n00:16:11.630 --> 00:16:12.800\nback in 1994 and\n\n362\n00:16:12.800 --> 00:16:18.130\nthen was pretty quickly deployed to Guantanamo Bay Cuba as my first assignment.\n\n363\n00:16:18.130 --> 00:16:19.520\nAnd that was not\n\n364\n00:16:19.520 --> 00:16:22.840\nsomething I was specifically trained for. I was actually an air defense\n\n365\n00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:24.080\nartillery officer. So my\n\n366\n00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:27.950\nofficial job was supposed to be shooting down airplanes if they were in the\n\n367\n00:16:27.950 --> 00:16:28.880\nwrong place at the\n\n368\n00:16:28.880 --> 00:16:33.760\nwrong time. But we were my unit was deployed to Guantanamo Bay to actually\n\n369\n00:16:33.760 --> 00:16:35.520\nbuild immigration camps\n\n370\n00:16:35.520 --> 00:16:40.720\nbecause of a migrant crisis or an immigration crisis that had was going on in\n\n371\n00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:41.680\nCuba at the time.\n\n372\n00:16:41.680 --> 00:16:47.040\nAnd so I was placed my platoon was one of the platoons in charge of running a\n\n373\n00:16:47.040 --> 00:16:48.240\ncamp in Guantanamo\n\n374\n00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:52.160\nBay helping people through the immigration process. And I think the thing that\n\n375\n00:16:52.160 --> 00:16:52.880\nstood out to me was\n\n376\n00:16:52.880 --> 00:16:57.730\nwe actually had our showers and latrines were were flooding and backing up in\n\n377\n00:16:57.730 --> 00:16:58.560\nthis new camp.\n\n378\n00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:02.280\nAnd, you know, I at the time, you know, grabbed a shovel and went out and\n\n379\n00:17:02.280 --> 00:17:03.280\nstarted to help dig\n\n380\n00:17:03.280 --> 00:17:07.700\nthe hole to be able to help get these things cleaned out. And all the residents\n\n381\n00:17:07.700 --> 00:17:08.400\nof the camp\n\n382\n00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:12.510\ncouldn't figure out why the camp leader was helping dig a hole that that was\n\n383\n00:17:12.510 --> 00:17:13.840\nvery foreign to them,\n\n384\n00:17:13.840 --> 00:17:16.830\nyou know, coming out of the environment that they were from. So to see a leader\n\n385\n00:17:16.830 --> 00:17:17.440\nroll up their\n\n386\n00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:21.950\nsleeves and literally dig in was something that they were mystified by. But to\n\n387\n00:17:21.950 --> 00:17:22.320\nme,\n\n388\n00:17:22.320 --> 00:17:25.250\nI just was exactly what you're supposed to do, right, which is you don't ask\n\n389\n00:17:25.250 --> 00:17:25.840\nanybody to do\n\n390\n00:17:25.840 --> 00:17:30.070\nanything you wouldn't do yourself, even if it's an unpleasant task. It's time\n\n391\n00:17:30.070 --> 00:17:30.640\nto literally roll\n\n392\n00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:34.820\nup your shovels and roll up your sleeves and grab a shovel and start digging.\n\n393\n00:17:34.820 --> 00:17:35.600\nIn fact, that's\n\n394\n00:17:35.600 --> 00:17:38.770\nprobably the most important time that you can dig in is when things are\n\n395\n00:17:38.770 --> 00:17:40.080\ndifficult. And so that's\n\n396\n00:17:40.080 --> 00:17:44.930\nprobably an experience that stood out for me is one that really taught me about\n\n397\n00:17:44.930 --> 00:17:45.600\nhow important it is\n\n398\n00:17:45.600 --> 00:17:48.960\nto be humble and grounded and connected to the work that needs to be done.\n\n399\n00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:54.070\nYou say don't I've heard you say this don't wear your rank. Wear your results.\n\n400\n00:17:54.070 --> 00:17:55.040\nSay more.\n\n401\n00:17:55.040 --> 00:17:59.890\nFirst of all, results matter. And you know, you want to say like, are you\n\n402\n00:17:59.890 --> 00:18:01.280\ncapable of delivering\n\n403\n00:18:01.280 --> 00:18:05.140\nwhat you promise? And you know, when you look in the military or you look in\n\n404\n00:18:05.140 --> 00:18:06.720\ncorporate life,\n\n405\n00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:11.570\nyou can always tell the leaders that people that resonate with people. And\n\n406\n00:18:11.570 --> 00:18:12.320\nthose are the people\n\n407\n00:18:12.320 --> 00:18:17.170\nthat just get it done. You know, it's not about the position. It's not about\n\n408\n00:18:17.170 --> 00:18:18.240\npositional authority.\n\n409\n00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:23.040\nThey're just motivating people because they're focused on the work and focused\n\n410\n00:18:23.040 --> 00:18:23.680\non the outcome.\n\n411\n00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:28.000\nAnd those are the kinds of people I've always loved working for. I've always\n\n412\n00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:29.440\nlearned a lot from\n\n413\n00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:33.770\nand have always been part of being able to drive really good results because of\n\n414\n00:18:33.770 --> 00:18:34.080\ntheir\n\n415\n00:18:34.080 --> 00:18:38.200\nleadership mindset. So I've tried to reflect that in my own career and try to\n\n416\n00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:39.120\nmodel that in my own\n\n417\n00:18:39.120 --> 00:18:43.340\nbehavior because it really is true that you can when you find the right kind of\n\n418\n00:18:43.340 --> 00:18:44.160\nleader that is\n\n419\n00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:48.390\nwilling to work shoulder to shoulder with you, it's incredibly inspiring and a\n\n420\n00:18:48.390 --> 00:18:49.200\nlot of fun.\n\n421\n00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:54.800\nYou know, you spent some time at Proctor & Gamble, which is renowned for its\n\n422\n00:18:54.800 --> 00:18:55.920\ncapability to build\n\n423\n00:18:55.920 --> 00:19:01.440\nworld-class brands. What did you learn there about satisfying customers that\n\n424\n00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:02.480\nyou carried with you?\n\n425\n00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:07.460\nYeah, P&G was a great foundational experience. Like you said, and kind of brand\n\n426\n00:19:07.460 --> 00:19:08.560\nmanagement 101\n\n427\n00:19:08.560 --> 00:19:13.610\nand customer perception. And you know, I think for me, during my time at Pro\n\n428\n00:19:13.610 --> 00:19:14.000\nctor,\n\n429\n00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:18.330\nprobably the most important lesson was to really recognize you have to not only\n\n430\n00:19:18.330 --> 00:19:18.960\nunderstand who\n\n431\n00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:23.810\nmakes a purchase, but who motivates a purchase. And the experience I would\n\n432\n00:19:23.810 --> 00:19:24.720\nshare was I was working\n\n433\n00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:29.150\non Sunny Delight juice drink, which had historically always advertised to moms\n\n434\n00:19:29.150 --> 00:19:30.080\nand tried to convince\n\n435\n00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:33.920\nthem to bring Sunny to your home to their kids, where kids at that time were\n\n436\n00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:35.040\nstarting to develop\n\n437\n00:19:35.040 --> 00:19:39.150\na lot more power in the home. We called it Pester Power. But you know, but P&G\n\n438\n00:19:39.150 --> 00:19:39.440\nhad never\n\n439\n00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:42.910\nworked. I love that one. Yeah, it's like they're going to bug mom to get what\n\n440\n00:19:42.910 --> 00:19:44.160\nthey want. And\n\n441\n00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:48.160\nkids are having a bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger voice. But at the time P&G\n\n442\n00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:48.880\nwasn't very good,\n\n443\n00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:52.880\nat advertising the kids, they hadn't done it. But I was fortunate I had leaders\n\n444\n00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:53.760\nthat gave me\n\n445\n00:19:53.760 --> 00:19:57.620\nthe empowerment to be able to go out and figure out a plan to really figure out\n\n446\n00:19:57.620 --> 00:19:58.800\nhow to connect\n\n447\n00:19:58.800 --> 00:20:02.450\nto what motivated kids. And you know, what made brands cool to them or\n\n448\n00:20:02.450 --> 00:20:03.680\ninteresting or\n\n449\n00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:07.650\nwhat could really get them excited about a brand. And I was able to build a\n\n450\n00:20:07.650 --> 00:20:08.720\ncase for that. And so\n\n451\n00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:12.960\nwe really retargeted the brand, rather than just talking to moms about how\n\n452\n00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:14.320\nSunny had certain\n\n453\n00:20:14.320 --> 00:20:18.380\nnutrition qualities that they might like. And it was really all about getting\n\n454\n00:20:18.380 --> 00:20:19.600\nkids to understand\n\n455\n00:20:19.600 --> 00:20:23.280\nthat Sunny D had the power of the sun in every bottle. And that was all about\n\n456\n00:20:23.280 --> 00:20:24.320\nkid empowerment.\n\n457\n00:20:24.320 --> 00:20:28.650\nAnd if you look at every movie that's out there that's popular with kids, it's\n\n458\n00:20:28.650 --> 00:20:29.440\nall about, you know,\n\n459\n00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:33.090\nkids coming out on top over the adults. And so there's a fundamental human\n\n460\n00:20:33.090 --> 00:20:34.320\ntruth about kids wanting\n\n461\n00:20:34.320 --> 00:20:39.170\nto be empowered that we were able to tap into and drive a lot of results. But\n\n462\n00:20:39.170 --> 00:20:39.360\nunderneath that it\n\n463\n00:20:39.360 --> 00:20:44.710\nwas P and G being perpetually curious about the customer and also being open to\n\n464\n00:20:44.710 --> 00:20:45.440\nsaying, do we\n\n465\n00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:48.890\nneed to redefine the customer to get a different result? And then you were the\n\n466\n00:20:48.890 --> 00:20:50.080\nmarketing director\n\n467\n00:20:50.080 --> 00:20:54.910\nat Coors. And, you know, I've heard you say from your experience there that you\n\n468\n00:20:54.910 --> 00:20:55.760\ncan't like the,\n\n469\n00:20:55.760 --> 00:20:59.810\nyou can't really act like the big guys if you want to compete, you know, talk a\n\n470\n00:20:59.810 --> 00:21:00.800\nlittle bit more\n\n471\n00:21:00.800 --> 00:21:04.960\nabout that. Yeah, well, I mean, when I was with with Molson Coors at the time,\n\n472\n00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:05.760\nit was I started,\n\n473\n00:21:05.760 --> 00:21:09.880\nit was a joint venture, a little standalone joint venture called Molson USA.\n\n474\n00:21:09.880 --> 00:21:11.120\nAnd, you know,\n\n475\n00:21:11.120 --> 00:21:15.970\nwe were trying to compete with a big presence in the Northeast and regionally.\n\n476\n00:21:15.970 --> 00:21:17.120\nBut we were trying\n\n477\n00:21:17.120 --> 00:21:22.080\nto compete with the brands like Budweiser and other giant players and act the\n\n478\n00:21:22.080 --> 00:21:23.440\nsame way that they did.\n\n479\n00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:27.090\nBut we were never going to win that fight, given the fact that they had a lot\n\n480\n00:21:27.090 --> 00:21:27.920\nbigger scale,\n\n481\n00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:32.030\nthey had a lot bigger dollars. And so for us, you know, we threw out a lot of\n\n482\n00:21:32.030 --> 00:21:32.640\nthe traditional\n\n483\n00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:36.880\nmarketing tools and got a lot more gorilla focused, a lot more aggressive in\n\n484\n00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:37.680\nwhat we were doing on\n\n485\n00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:41.580\npremise and in the bars. We stopped trying to buy media and started to try and\n\n486\n00:21:41.580 --> 00:21:42.480\ncreate media\n\n487\n00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:47.680\nthat, you know, that was very impactful. I'll give you a great example. We came\n\n488\n00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:48.000\nup with an\n\n489\n00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:53.360\ninitiative called Twin Label Technology. And the idea was to make our bottles a\n\n490\n00:21:53.360 --> 00:21:54.400\nconversation piece\n\n491\n00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:59.250\nin bars so that they stood out as a media vehicle. But then on top of that, we\n\n492\n00:21:59.250 --> 00:22:00.480\nwent into bar areas,\n\n493\n00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:05.180\nFanua Hall and Boston is a big area of bars. And we wanted to buy outdoor, but\n\n494\n00:22:05.180 --> 00:22:05.600\nBudweiser\n\n495\n00:22:05.600 --> 00:22:09.250\nowned all of them. So we went to the landlords of the buildings and asked if we\n\n496\n00:22:09.250 --> 00:22:09.760\ncould buy their\n\n497\n00:22:09.760 --> 00:22:14.350\nwindows instead. And so it wasn't a traditional media tool, but we were able to\n\n498\n00:22:14.350 --> 00:22:15.360\ngo out and use\n\n499\n00:22:15.360 --> 00:22:20.640\nsomething that had visibility in a very different way. And that ended up, we\n\n500\n00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:21.360\nwere very fortunate\n\n501\n00:22:21.360 --> 00:22:24.190\nwe ended up winning the first time I ever won a Cam Lion was because of that\n\n502\n00:22:24.190 --> 00:22:25.120\nmedia campaign.\n\n503\n00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:30.080\nBut really impactfully, we were able to drive a lot of growth in that business\n\n504\n00:22:30.080 --> 00:22:30.880\nbecause we were\n\n505\n00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:35.730\njust relentless about trying to find new ways to engage that the big players\n\n506\n00:22:35.730 --> 00:22:37.040\nwere maybe overlooking\n\n507\n00:22:37.040 --> 00:22:40.940\nbecause they were big. And that was really powerful for us. You say that a\n\n508\n00:22:40.940 --> 00:22:41.760\nbrand should\n\n509\n00:22:41.760 --> 00:22:47.920\nnever over commit. What do you mean by that? Well, I think it's, I think to me,\n\n510\n00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:48.640\nit's, I think\n\n511\n00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:52.850\nyou have to find what's central to who your brand is. And I find that the\n\n512\n00:22:52.850 --> 00:22:54.400\nbrands get off track when\n\n513\n00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:59.520\nthey forget who they are. And during my time at Frito-Lay, when I first joined\n\n514\n00:22:59.520 --> 00:22:59.920\nFrito-Lay,\n\n515\n00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:03.000\nI was on the Doritos brand. And I know you have a lot of experience on that\n\n516\n00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:03.680\nbusiness.\n\n517\n00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:07.850\nAnd when I joined the brand where the brand was over committing was actually in\n\n518\n00:23:07.850 --> 00:23:09.280\nthe wrong direction,\n\n519\n00:23:09.280 --> 00:23:14.160\nand that they were being very apologetic for Doritos being an indulgent snack.\n\n520\n00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:14.640\nThey were doing\n\n521\n00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:18.750\neverything but embracing that. They were doing reduced fat Doritos, baked Dorit\n\n522\n00:23:18.750 --> 00:23:20.080\nos, rolled Doritos,\n\n523\n00:23:20.080 --> 00:23:24.930\neverything but just being Doritos. And people want to just eat some really good\n\n524\n00:23:24.930 --> 00:23:25.200\nstuff.\n\n525\n00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:28.960\nThey just want some really great stuff. And so I still remember the brief we\n\n526\n00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:29.280\nwrote,\n\n527\n00:23:29.280 --> 00:23:33.380\nand it was based off of a lot of insight work. But the central brief we wrote\n\n528\n00:23:33.380 --> 00:23:34.480\nwas Doritos is\n\n529\n00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:39.330\nthe kick-ass snack that's second to none. Let's just be that. The agency came\n\n530\n00:23:39.330 --> 00:23:40.160\nback with the\n\n531\n00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:44.360\nlanguage of snacks strong. And then because we landed on that, we were able to\n\n532\n00:23:44.360 --> 00:23:45.120\nget so clear\n\n533\n00:23:45.120 --> 00:23:50.000\nabout it that we were able to have consumers take over our advertising. A\n\n534\n00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:51.200\nprogram came out of that\n\n535\n00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:54.740\ncalled Crash the Super Bowl, where we had a string of top 10 ads. And much of\n\n536\n00:23:54.740 --> 00:23:55.520\nthis was after I\n\n537\n00:23:55.520 --> 00:23:59.200\nmoved off the brand. But we'd gotten so focused on what the positioning was\n\n538\n00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:00.480\nthat I think the\n\n539\n00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:04.400\ncommitment to the right thing really paid off in very big dividends for the\n\n540\n00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:05.440\nbusiness as a whole.\n\n541\n00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:09.090\nAnd we had a lot of fun with it. But I think you have to get true to what your\n\n542\n00:24:09.090 --> 00:24:09.760\nbrand is at the\n\n543\n00:24:09.760 --> 00:24:13.410\ncenter before you can commit. Then you can go all in and then you can get over\n\n544\n00:24:13.410 --> 00:24:14.720\ncommitted to it.\n\n545\n00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:17.450\nAnd I think that can be good. But you got to make sure you're right before you\n\n546\n00:24:17.450 --> 00:24:17.920\ndo that.\n\n547\n00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:22.720\nI hope you're loving this conversation. Be sure to stay tuned to the very end\n\n548\n00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:23.360\nof the episode.\n\n549\n00:24:23.360 --> 00:24:26.640\nDavid and I are going to debrief some of the concepts that he talks about in\n\n550\n00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:27.360\nthis episode,\n\n551\n00:24:27.360 --> 00:24:31.280\nso that you can have some real practical takeaways to apply right away to your\n\n552\n00:24:31.280 --> 00:24:32.320\nleadership and to\n\n553\n00:24:32.320 --> 00:24:35.800\nyour life. Stay tuned to the very end of the episode, and I'll see you at the\n\n554\n00:24:35.800 --> 00:24:36.480\ndebrief.\n\n555\n00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:40.900\nYou know, I always talk about how people don't wake up every day wanting to be\n\n556\n00:24:40.900 --> 00:24:41.680\na part of something\n\n557\n00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:45.840\nmediocre. They want to be a part of something great. What's an example of how\n\n558\n00:24:45.840 --> 00:24:47.040\nyou inspire your\n\n559\n00:24:47.040 --> 00:24:51.890\nteam now to find a greater purpose in what they do? I talked about that\n\n560\n00:24:51.890 --> 00:24:53.280\nstrategic document,\n\n561\n00:24:53.280 --> 00:24:58.130\nand we came back and we said before we talked about the pillars, what's the\n\n562\n00:24:58.130 --> 00:24:59.040\nmission that we're on?\n\n563\n00:24:59.040 --> 00:25:02.960\nYou know, what are we part of? What's the vision and the mission? And sometimes\n\n564\n00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:04.240\nthose can just be\n\n565\n00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:09.090\ngeneric words that are out there. But the vision statement we aligned to was we\n\n566\n00:25:09.090 --> 00:25:09.680\n're going to be the\n\n567\n00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:15.040\nbest, fastest growing and most valuable lawn care company in the world, and the\n\n568\n00:25:15.040 --> 00:25:15.520\nmission that\n\n569\n00:25:15.520 --> 00:25:20.370\nwe're on to get there is to plant a true green flag in every lawn. So I think\n\n570\n00:25:20.370 --> 00:25:21.520\nby landing on that\n\n571\n00:25:21.520 --> 00:25:26.510\nlanguage, it gave us an opportunity to be able to really get people empowered\n\n572\n00:25:26.510 --> 00:25:27.760\nlocally. What does\n\n573\n00:25:27.760 --> 00:25:31.810\nit take to win in your neighborhood? What does it take to win in your local\n\n574\n00:25:31.810 --> 00:25:33.040\nbranch area? Whatever\n\n575\n00:25:33.040 --> 00:25:37.370\nyour piece of true green is, how can you help us on this mission? And I think\n\n576\n00:25:37.370 --> 00:25:38.480\nempowerment is one\n\n577\n00:25:38.480 --> 00:25:42.020\nof those things that that doesn't get talked about enough, because when you\n\n578\n00:25:42.020 --> 00:25:43.040\nfeel like you really\n\n579\n00:25:43.040 --> 00:25:47.720\ncan have an impact on how the work is getting done every day, you're a heck of\n\n580\n00:25:47.720 --> 00:25:48.960\na lot more motivated\n\n581\n00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:52.800\nto follow through and go the extra mile. And so I think that's an example of\n\n582\n00:25:52.800 --> 00:25:53.600\nhow I've been trying\n\n583\n00:25:53.600 --> 00:25:56.850\nto drive it and how we as a collective team have been focused on really\n\n584\n00:25:56.850 --> 00:25:58.160\nempowering people to be\n\n585\n00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:02.260\nsuccessful. At true green, you talked about one of the ways how you go from\n\n586\n00:26:02.260 --> 00:26:03.840\nindustry to industry is\n\n587\n00:26:03.840 --> 00:26:08.270\nthere's commonalities and approaches that you can use that are basically going\n\n588\n00:26:08.270 --> 00:26:08.720\nto work\n\n589\n00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:14.320\neverywhere you go. Being focused on the customer is one of those basic truths.\n\n590\n00:26:14.320 --> 00:26:20.410\nBut has there been anything that you've had to unlearn? You've been doing\n\n591\n00:26:20.410 --> 00:26:21.440\nthings one way\n\n592\n00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:26.800\nfor a long, long time, but has there been anything you had to unlearn as you\n\n593\n00:26:26.800 --> 00:26:28.400\nrun this true green\n\n594\n00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:32.820\nbusiness? I probably think I've had to unlearn it sometimes. And like coming\n\n595\n00:26:32.820 --> 00:26:34.320\nout of QSR background\n\n596\n00:26:34.320 --> 00:26:40.800\nwith Wendy's and Yum and Time at Pizza, that was 15 years of my career. And one\n\n597\n00:26:40.800 --> 00:26:41.040\nof the things\n\n598\n00:26:41.040 --> 00:26:45.870\nthat you learn there is if you get a promotion right and a message right, you\n\n599\n00:26:45.870 --> 00:26:46.560\ncan drive in a\n\n600\n00:26:46.560 --> 00:26:49.810\nmedia result. You launch something on Sunday, you know by Wednesday, if that\n\n601\n00:26:49.810 --> 00:26:51.200\nthing's working or not.\n\n602\n00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:54.010\nAnd you can influence the outcome very quickly, because you have the media\n\n603\n00:26:54.010 --> 00:26:55.120\ndollars and the tools\n\n604\n00:26:55.120 --> 00:26:59.220\nto be able to either drive a new message out or shift some of the things in the\n\n605\n00:26:59.220 --> 00:27:00.000\nprogram.\n\n606\n00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:05.230\nI think what I've had to unlearn a little bit is being too short term and start\n\n607\n00:27:05.230 --> 00:27:05.920\nto think more\n\n608\n00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:10.250\nlong term about the relationship with the customer, how important that\n\n609\n00:27:10.250 --> 00:27:11.360\nrelationship is,\n\n610\n00:27:11.360 --> 00:27:16.640\nhow important it is to be able to drive a trust and a partnership between a\n\n611\n00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:17.280\ncustomer\n\n612\n00:27:17.280 --> 00:27:22.130\nand who's servicing them. And that's building a relationship is very different\n\n613\n00:27:22.130 --> 00:27:22.800\nthan driving a\n\n614\n00:27:22.800 --> 00:27:27.130\ntransaction. So to me, I think I had to unlearn the habit of trying to drive\n\n615\n00:27:27.130 --> 00:27:28.880\nshort term transactions\n\n616\n00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:32.710\nand start to really embrace this idea of what long term relationships with a\n\n617\n00:27:32.710 --> 00:27:34.320\ncustomer are all about.\n\n618\n00:27:34.320 --> 00:27:38.740\nAnd that's a very different thing. When you look at the business and you look\n\n619\n00:27:38.740 --> 00:27:38.800\nat\n\n620\n00:27:38.800 --> 00:27:44.000\nthe experience you've had thus far, what's the biggest challenge that you face\n\n621\n00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:44.880\nthere? Tell us a\n\n622\n00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:49.700\nstory about that and what has taught you? Yeah, I think the biggest challenge\n\n623\n00:27:49.700 --> 00:27:50.880\nfor me has been,\n\n624\n00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:55.210\nas I mentioned, this idea of empowerment. I think for too many years, we got\n\n625\n00:27:55.210 --> 00:27:56.400\nfar too centralized\n\n626\n00:27:56.400 --> 00:28:01.250\nin our approach. And I think people felt disempowered at the local level. And\n\n627\n00:28:01.250 --> 00:28:02.080\nso I thought it was going\n\n628\n00:28:02.080 --> 00:28:07.140\nto be easier to drive this idea of empowerment and local accountability than it\n\n629\n00:28:07.140 --> 00:28:08.320\nhas proven to be.\n\n630\n00:28:08.320 --> 00:28:13.690\nNot because we don't have great people who very much want to get it right, but\n\n631\n00:28:13.690 --> 00:28:14.400\nI think if you're\n\n632\n00:28:14.400 --> 00:28:18.180\ntold time and time again that a decision is not yours to make, then you start\n\n633\n00:28:18.180 --> 00:28:19.600\nto believe people.\n\n634\n00:28:19.600 --> 00:28:23.360\nAnd so I've spent the last two years really driving hard against this idea of\n\n635\n00:28:23.360 --> 00:28:24.400\nempowerment and\n\n636\n00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:29.210\naccountability. You may see on the wall behind me three words, make your mark.\n\n637\n00:28:29.210 --> 00:28:29.840\nThat's a program\n\n638\n00:28:29.840 --> 00:28:34.690\nthat I brought with me. I first established it at Pizza Hut. I carried it on at\n\n639\n00:28:34.690 --> 00:28:35.600\nWendy's and then\n\n640\n00:28:35.600 --> 00:28:40.880\nI've now brought it with me to True Green. And that's all about the idea of\n\n641\n00:28:40.880 --> 00:28:41.440\nthink about the\n\n642\n00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:44.590\nlegacy that you want to leave on the business, no matter what your role is,\n\n643\n00:28:44.590 --> 00:28:45.680\nwhat position you have,\n\n644\n00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:49.650\nand then really get committed to the things that you need to do to be able to\n\n645\n00:28:49.650 --> 00:28:49.920\nmake\n\n646\n00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:53.460\nthat idea a reality. That's how you're going to make your mark. And that's how\n\n647\n00:28:53.460 --> 00:28:54.080\nover time you're\n\n648\n00:28:54.080 --> 00:28:59.600\ngoing to grow your career and grow the business. So that's me. It's been harder\n\n649\n00:28:59.600 --> 00:29:00.240\nto drive than I\n\n650\n00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:03.680\nthought it would be. I thought people immediately would spark to that within a\n\n651\n00:29:03.680 --> 00:29:04.800\ncouple weeks or a\n\n652\n00:29:04.800 --> 00:29:08.450\ncouple of months. It's now been two years of talking about that. What's\n\n653\n00:29:08.450 --> 00:29:09.760\nexciting is to see\n\n654\n00:29:09.760 --> 00:29:13.710\nhow much people are now embracing it and to see things like our employee\n\n655\n00:29:13.710 --> 00:29:14.880\nengagement scores\n\n656\n00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:19.110\ngo up by 20 points over two years versus where they were because people are\n\n657\n00:29:19.110 --> 00:29:19.920\nfeeling it and they're\n\n658\n00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:23.670\nmotivated by it. And now they're starting to behave the way they need to to get\n\n659\n00:29:23.670 --> 00:29:24.400\nthe outsized\n\n660\n00:29:24.400 --> 00:29:28.200\nresult that I know we're capable of. So it's been harder than I thought. So you\n\n661\n00:29:28.200 --> 00:29:29.200\n're obviously,\n\n662\n00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:33.310\nyou're making great progress with the culture to get that kind of engagement\n\n663\n00:29:33.310 --> 00:29:34.720\nthat you definitely\n\n664\n00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:39.570\nwould want to have. What's the number one thing you've learned about culture\n\n665\n00:29:39.570 --> 00:29:42.160\nthat you've carried\n\n666\n00:29:42.160 --> 00:29:48.640\ninto true green or you've learned it right where you're at?\n\n667\n00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:55.200\nYeah. I think this idea that I think about my experience in the military and\n\n668\n00:29:55.200 --> 00:29:55.840\none of the things\n\n669\n00:29:55.840 --> 00:29:59.490\nthat I learned really quickly there, and I've recently heard Simon Sinek talk\n\n670\n00:29:59.490 --> 00:30:00.240\nstart talking about\n\n671\n00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:05.090\nthis based on exposure to the Marine Corps, but this idea that leaders eat last\n\n672\n00:30:05.090 --> 00:30:07.840\n. And sometimes\n\n673\n00:30:07.840 --> 00:30:13.360\nit's easy to forget that as a leader, your number one job is to support your\n\n674\n00:30:13.360 --> 00:30:14.720\npeople and to support\n\n675\n00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:19.200\nyour team and set them up for success. And we're all fortunate in roles like\n\n676\n00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:20.320\nthis one and many\n\n677\n00:30:20.320 --> 00:30:25.170\nother leadership roles. You get a lot of accolades and people are interested in\n\n678\n00:30:25.170 --> 00:30:25.920\nyour perspective and\n\n679\n00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:29.950\nyour opinion and those types of things. But to me, I think the thing that's\n\n680\n00:30:29.950 --> 00:30:30.880\nmost important\n\n681\n00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:34.320\nis making sure that as a leader you're there to support your team and you're\n\n682\n00:30:34.320 --> 00:30:34.960\nthere to help\n\n683\n00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:38.610\npartly hold them accountable, but much more importantly, to be able to help set\n\n684\n00:30:38.610 --> 00:30:39.680\nthem up for success and\n\n685\n00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:44.030\nget barriers out of the way and champion them. And if you can do that, then it\n\n686\n00:30:44.030 --> 00:30:44.960\n's amazing what\n\n687\n00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:47.770\npeople will do to go to the extra mile. And I think that's a lesson that I\n\n688\n00:30:47.770 --> 00:30:49.040\nlearned a long time ago.\n\n689\n00:30:49.040 --> 00:30:53.890\nI've tried to carry it through my own career, but really hear a true green\n\n690\n00:30:53.890 --> 00:30:54.560\ngiven the work that we\n\n691\n00:30:54.560 --> 00:30:57.840\ndo and the nature of the work we do. I've found that it's more important than\n\n692\n00:30:57.840 --> 00:30:58.320\never.\n\n693\n00:30:58.320 --> 00:31:04.390\nSo this is your first CEO role. What's something that caught you by surprise,\n\n694\n00:31:04.390 --> 00:31:05.200\nsomething you didn't\n\n695\n00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:10.600\nexpect just being the CEO? Yeah, well, and this is a true story with the first\n\n696\n00:31:10.600 --> 00:31:12.560\ntwo weeks I was CEO\n\n697\n00:31:12.560 --> 00:31:17.820\nof a company. I was blown away at the fact that I wasn't getting any internal\n\n698\n00:31:17.820 --> 00:31:19.280\nemails. I actually\n\n699\n00:31:19.280 --> 00:31:23.410\nthought my computer system was broken because all the emails I were getting\n\n700\n00:31:23.410 --> 00:31:25.200\nwere from outside parties\n\n701\n00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:28.850\nsaying things like congrats on the new role, really excited for you. You're\n\n702\n00:31:28.850 --> 00:31:29.520\ngoing to do amazing\n\n703\n00:31:29.520 --> 00:31:33.770\nthings, all those kinds of nice things. But I wasn't getting a lot of internal\n\n704\n00:31:33.770 --> 00:31:34.320\ncommunication,\n\n705\n00:31:34.320 --> 00:31:39.170\nalmost none. And I seriously thought that I had a filter and it's because\n\n706\n00:31:39.170 --> 00:31:40.080\npeople were intimidated\n\n707\n00:31:40.080 --> 00:31:44.930\nto send a note to the CEO of the company. They weren't sure that they would get\n\n708\n00:31:44.930 --> 00:31:45.600\nthe response they\n\n709\n00:31:45.600 --> 00:31:49.820\nwere looking for or there are a million barriers why people hesitate to reach\n\n710\n00:31:49.820 --> 00:31:51.360\nout to you when you're\n\n711\n00:31:51.360 --> 00:31:56.330\nin this role. So what I found is I really had to be wildly proactive in\n\n712\n00:31:56.330 --> 00:31:58.000\nconnecting with people\n\n713\n00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:01.650\nand dropping those barriers. And what I like to think about with our culture\n\n714\n00:32:01.650 --> 00:32:02.560\nhere at TrueGreen,\n\n715\n00:32:02.560 --> 00:32:07.410\nthe way I try and lead it is incredibly informal but very disciplined at the\n\n716\n00:32:07.410 --> 00:32:08.080\nsame time.\n\n717\n00:32:08.080 --> 00:32:12.080\nLet's be disciplined about the results. Let's be laser focused on what we need\n\n718\n00:32:12.080 --> 00:32:12.960\nto achieve,\n\n719\n00:32:12.960 --> 00:32:16.210\nwhat's going on in the business. But that doesn't mean we can't have a lot of\n\n720\n00:32:16.210 --> 00:32:16.960\nfun along the way.\n\n721\n00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:20.220\nIt doesn't mean we can't laugh a lot along the way. Let's make it fun and energ\n\n722\n00:32:20.220 --> 00:32:21.200\nizing to go to work.\n\n723\n00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:26.050\nAnd let's drop the formality of what it means to be in any of these senior\n\n724\n00:32:26.050 --> 00:32:26.960\nleadership positions\n\n725\n00:32:26.960 --> 00:32:30.610\nso that people can really voice their opinion. And we've made a lot of progress\n\n726\n00:32:30.610 --> 00:32:31.440\non that. So I'm\n\n727\n00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:34.990\npleased to see and now my inbox is filled with ideas and suggestions, which is\n\n728\n00:32:34.990 --> 00:32:35.600\nexactly what I\n\n729\n00:32:35.600 --> 00:32:43.400\nwant to hope for. Kurt, I think one of the things that really strikes me is\n\n730\n00:32:43.400 --> 00:32:44.480\nthat common about\n\n731\n00:32:44.480 --> 00:32:56.720\nformal informal. How do you do that? That sounds nice. That's not easy to do.\n\n732\n00:32:56.720 --> 00:32:58.320\nHow do you balance\n\n733\n00:32:58.320 --> 00:33:01.880\nthose three things? Yeah, well, I think if you're constantly building\n\n734\n00:33:01.880 --> 00:33:03.360\nrelationships where you're\n\n735\n00:33:03.360 --> 00:33:07.110\nbuilding them together, we're talking about the work and you're talking about\n\n736\n00:33:07.110 --> 00:33:08.240\nwhat needs to happen.\n\n737\n00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:13.200\nI think the reality of what we all get to do every day, there are a lot of fun\n\n738\n00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:13.760\nthings that\n\n739\n00:33:13.760 --> 00:33:17.520\nhappen. And I think if you genuinely enjoy people and people know that you\n\n740\n00:33:17.520 --> 00:33:18.240\nenjoy people,\n\n741\n00:33:18.240 --> 00:33:23.200\nthen they naturally open up to you. And if you're receptive to that and you\n\n742\n00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:24.320\ngive back and you pour\n\n743\n00:33:24.320 --> 00:33:29.170\ninto those relationships, then you find that I find anyway that it comes to\n\n744\n00:33:29.170 --> 00:33:30.240\nlife pretty comfortably.\n\n745\n00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:35.090\nAnd so I think the risk is you become too informal and you're not focused\n\n746\n00:33:35.090 --> 00:33:35.920\nenough on the results or\n\n747\n00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:40.150\nyou're not in the business just to be everybody's best friend. But I think at\n\n748\n00:33:40.150 --> 00:33:41.040\nthe end of the day,\n\n749\n00:33:41.040 --> 00:33:44.750\nif people really do see that you genuinely care about them, you care about who\n\n750\n00:33:44.750 --> 00:33:45.120\nthey are,\n\n751\n00:33:45.120 --> 00:33:48.870\nyou care about their families, and you care about their success, people open up\n\n752\n00:33:48.870 --> 00:33:49.760\nvery comfortably.\n\n753\n00:33:49.760 --> 00:33:54.240\nAnd so I think that to me has been my experience along the way. And so I think\n\n754\n00:33:54.240 --> 00:33:58.240\nI've been able to balance it and keep it in balance. But at the same point, I\n\n755\n00:33:58.240 --> 00:33:59.680\nthink as long as you're\n\n756\n00:33:59.680 --> 00:34:03.220\nbringing people back to the result that we need to drive and the commitment to\n\n757\n00:34:03.220 --> 00:34:04.320\nthose results,\n\n758\n00:34:04.320 --> 00:34:07.040\nI feel like that's a balance that can be achieved pretty comfortably.\n\n759\n00:34:07.600 --> 00:34:12.320\nAnd when you talked earlier, you talked about these five pillars that you had.\n\n760\n00:34:12.320 --> 00:34:19.440\nNot every strategy is created equal. How did you get people focused on what\n\n761\n00:34:19.440 --> 00:34:20.320\nreally matters\n\n762\n00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:25.520\nmost in terms of driving your growth? Yeah, well, I think we set out with,\n\n763\n00:34:25.520 --> 00:34:29.520\nwhat's the goal? And if we talk about we're trying to retain customers today\n\n764\n00:34:29.520 --> 00:34:31.520\nand drive new ones in.\n\n765\n00:34:31.520 --> 00:34:35.470\nLike the beauty of our business is what we're trying to accomplish is actually\n\n766\n00:34:35.470 --> 00:34:36.080\nvery simple.\n\n767\n00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:41.070\nExecuting it takes a tremendous amount of work and it's hard. But if you say at\n\n768\n00:34:41.070 --> 00:34:41.680\nthe end of the day,\n\n769\n00:34:41.680 --> 00:34:45.220\nhow do you measure success? Are we growing customer accounts and do we have\n\n770\n00:34:45.220 --> 00:34:46.080\nmore customers in our\n\n771\n00:34:46.080 --> 00:34:51.680\nbusiness? Are we successfully delivering financial results? And are customers\n\n772\n00:34:51.680 --> 00:34:52.720\nmore satisfied each\n\n773\n00:34:52.720 --> 00:34:56.950\nyear than they were the year before? So I think we're able to simplify it down.\n\n774\n00:34:56.950 --> 00:34:58.080\nAnd the five pillars\n\n775\n00:34:58.080 --> 00:35:02.930\nthat we landed on were explode customer interest, which is all about driving\n\n776\n00:35:02.930 --> 00:35:04.160\ndifferentiation, brand\n\n777\n00:35:04.160 --> 00:35:08.080\nawareness, and what sets us apart. Owning the neighborhood, we have a big\n\n778\n00:35:08.080 --> 00:35:08.880\nneighborhood sales\n\n779\n00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:13.210\norganization in addition to an inside sales organization and call centers. But\n\n780\n00:35:13.210 --> 00:35:13.840\nhow do we really\n\n781\n00:35:13.840 --> 00:35:18.090\ndrive if we get into a neighborhood, how do we drive our presence all the way\n\n782\n00:35:18.090 --> 00:35:19.440\nthrough to completion?\n\n783\n00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:23.360\nThere's a lot of benefits to doing that with efficiencies. But there's also a\n\n784\n00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:24.560\ncompetitive idea\n\n785\n00:35:24.560 --> 00:35:28.400\nabout owning the neighborhood and taking pride in that. Nothing beats a true\n\n786\n00:35:28.400 --> 00:35:29.520\ngreen lawn is a\n\n787\n00:35:29.520 --> 00:35:34.370\nstrategy that's all about are we executing to the very best level possible? No\n\n788\n00:35:34.370 --> 00:35:35.440\ncustomer left behind\n\n789\n00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:38.530\nis all about retention. But then the fifth pillar is actually the most\n\n790\n00:35:38.530 --> 00:35:40.800\nimportant of all those pillars,\n\n791\n00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:45.130\nwhich is what we call our foundational pillar, which is one team together. And\n\n792\n00:35:45.130 --> 00:35:46.160\nso that is the\n\n793\n00:35:46.160 --> 00:35:51.010\nanchor of everything else we do, which is how do we work together as a team to\n\n794\n00:35:51.010 --> 00:35:51.680\nsupport each other\n\n795\n00:35:51.680 --> 00:35:55.330\nto deliver the other for. So for me, I was actually really pleased with how\n\n796\n00:35:55.330 --> 00:35:56.720\nquickly those pillars came\n\n797\n00:35:56.720 --> 00:36:01.190\ntogether and the thinking around those, because I think they were very anchored\n\n798\n00:36:01.190 --> 00:36:01.680\nin the truth\n\n799\n00:36:01.680 --> 00:36:04.850\nof the business. And if you stay focused on the truth of the business, then the\n\n800\n00:36:04.850 --> 00:36:05.600\nstrategies come\n\n801\n00:36:05.600 --> 00:36:09.140\nto life pretty quickly. Speaking of truth, what was the hardest truth you had\n\n802\n00:36:09.140 --> 00:36:10.640\nto tell the organization\n\n803\n00:36:10.640 --> 00:36:15.600\nand how do people react? I think the hardest truth at true green was we weren't\n\n804\n00:36:15.600 --> 00:36:16.560\nexecuting as well\n\n805\n00:36:16.560 --> 00:36:22.320\nas we needed to on the lawn, because customer satisfaction tells you everything\n\n806\n00:36:22.320 --> 00:36:23.680\nin our business.\n\n807\n00:36:23.680 --> 00:36:28.010\nAnd our customers were telling us that they weren't as satisfied as we as they\n\n808\n00:36:28.010 --> 00:36:29.440\nneeded to be. And\n\n809\n00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:32.690\nwe weren't delivering as well as we needed to. And we've got a lot of people\n\n810\n00:36:32.690 --> 00:36:33.440\nthat work really\n\n811\n00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:37.140\nhard to try and get get it right every day. But the perception was that we\n\n812\n00:36:37.140 --> 00:36:38.480\nweren't getting it right\n\n813\n00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:43.330\noften enough. And so I think facing up to that truth, having real conversations\n\n814\n00:36:43.330 --> 00:36:43.840\ninternally\n\n815\n00:36:43.840 --> 00:36:46.990\nabout what it meant to be able to deliver what our customers really needed us\n\n816\n00:36:46.990 --> 00:36:47.360\nto do,\n\n817\n00:36:47.360 --> 00:36:50.910\nwhat investments we needed to make back to be able to make sure that we could\n\n818\n00:36:50.910 --> 00:36:51.920\ndeliver for them.\n\n819\n00:36:52.640 --> 00:36:56.400\nI think those are some hard conversations up front to say, can we really\n\n820\n00:36:56.400 --> 00:36:57.120\ndeliver what our\n\n821\n00:36:57.120 --> 00:37:01.160\ncustomers need us to do? But I think by having those conversations and facing\n\n822\n00:37:01.160 --> 00:37:02.560\nup to that reality,\n\n823\n00:37:02.560 --> 00:37:06.990\nwe've been able to move customer perception very, very quickly. Because at the\n\n824\n00:37:06.990 --> 00:37:07.520\nend of the day,\n\n825\n00:37:07.520 --> 00:37:11.520\ncustomers were rooting for us to get it right for them. And so they could see\n\n826\n00:37:11.520 --> 00:37:12.160\nthe turn in the\n\n827\n00:37:12.160 --> 00:37:15.760\nbusiness, they could see what we were doing. And it's paid off and significant\n\n828\n00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:16.640\nretention growth.\n\n829\n00:37:16.640 --> 00:37:20.290\nIt's paid off and overall Google star ratings, all the things that you could\n\n830\n00:37:20.290 --> 00:37:21.040\nlook at that you want\n\n831\n00:37:21.040 --> 00:37:24.480\nto see if customers are seeing the difference. But we had to face that truth\n\n832\n00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:25.120\nand have some real\n\n833\n00:37:25.120 --> 00:37:29.690\nhard conversations up front to get there. How competitive is the category, Kurt\n\n834\n00:37:29.690 --> 00:37:30.880\n? And is there\n\n835\n00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:34.350\nanything that competition is doing that you particularly admire, whether you\n\n836\n00:37:34.350 --> 00:37:35.200\nadmit it publicly\n\n837\n00:37:35.200 --> 00:37:40.050\nor not? Well, this is about as public as it's going to get. So it's a very\n\n838\n00:37:40.050 --> 00:37:41.680\ncompetitive category.\n\n839\n00:37:41.680 --> 00:37:47.200\nAnd we're fortunate in the category, in our overall size and scale, we're four\n\n840\n00:37:47.200 --> 00:37:47.920\nto five times\n\n841\n00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:52.770\nlarger than the next largest competitor. But that said, that's because of our\n\n842\n00:37:52.770 --> 00:37:53.120\nnational scale.\n\n843\n00:37:53.120 --> 00:37:57.540\nAnd you have a number of local competitors in every one of our markets. There's\n\n844\n00:37:57.540 --> 00:37:58.480\nnot high barriers\n\n845\n00:37:58.480 --> 00:38:03.600\ncentury in our category. So for us, we can have a lot of local competitors. So\n\n846\n00:38:03.600 --> 00:38:04.640\nI think for us,\n\n847\n00:38:04.640 --> 00:38:09.490\nwhat I admire with our local competitors is that they are very good at building\n\n848\n00:38:09.490 --> 00:38:09.920\nrelationships\n\n849\n00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:14.770\nwith customers. They're very good at focusing in on what makes them unique and\n\n850\n00:38:14.770 --> 00:38:14.960\ndifferent,\n\n851\n00:38:14.960 --> 00:38:18.800\nor at least driving a perception that they are unique and different because of\n\n852\n00:38:18.800 --> 00:38:20.160\ntheir local nature.\n\n853\n00:38:20.160 --> 00:38:25.010\nSo I do admire that about our competitors. And everybody in this space works\n\n854\n00:38:25.010 --> 00:38:25.600\nreally hard to\n\n855\n00:38:25.600 --> 00:38:30.840\nget it right. They genuinely do. I think we have scale advantages that we need\n\n856\n00:38:30.840 --> 00:38:31.680\nto drive harder.\n\n857\n00:38:31.680 --> 00:38:36.890\nBut I think underneath that, as I mentioned before, we are as local as anybody\n\n858\n00:38:36.890 --> 00:38:37.520\nout there.\n\n859\n00:38:37.520 --> 00:38:41.750\nAnd I think building those local connections is incredibly important to be able\n\n860\n00:38:41.750 --> 00:38:42.640\nto reinforce.\n\n861\n00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:47.200\nAnd do you have a particular innovation that you're most excited about?\n\n862\n00:38:47.200 --> 00:38:52.050\nTo me, the power of our category is we work with a lot of suppliers that do a\n\n863\n00:38:52.050 --> 00:38:52.560\nnumber of things,\n\n864\n00:38:52.560 --> 00:38:57.840\nbut there's one of our suppliers that's an equipment supplier. And they are a\n\n865\n00:38:57.840 --> 00:38:58.480\nride on\n\n866\n00:38:58.480 --> 00:39:04.470\nequipment provider. And so instead of having to walk every lawn, they've got a\n\n867\n00:39:04.470 --> 00:39:05.040\ngreat piece of\n\n868\n00:39:05.040 --> 00:39:08.220\nequipment that allows you to be able to go out and actually use this ride on\n\n869\n00:39:08.220 --> 00:39:09.440\npiece of equipment,\n\n870\n00:39:09.440 --> 00:39:12.470\nall kinds of technology to make sure you get it right in terms of the amount of\n\n871\n00:39:12.470 --> 00:39:13.200\nproduct you put\n\n872\n00:39:13.200 --> 00:39:16.280\non every lawn. Because that's one of the biggest risks when you're out doing\n\n873\n00:39:16.280 --> 00:39:17.440\nwhat we do is you can\n\n874\n00:39:17.440 --> 00:39:21.620\nactually do more damage than good to a lawn if you don't apply the products in\n\n875\n00:39:21.620 --> 00:39:22.640\nthe right way.\n\n876\n00:39:22.640 --> 00:39:26.800\nSo I love this company called Stinger. It's actually a West Point class of mine\n\n877\n00:39:26.800 --> 00:39:27.680\nthat founded\n\n878\n00:39:27.680 --> 00:39:31.130\nthe company. We've had a lot of conversations along the way about how we use\n\n879\n00:39:31.130 --> 00:39:32.000\ntheir equipment\n\n880\n00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:36.850\nin a very advantage way, both for our customer, but also to uniquely set true\n\n881\n00:39:36.850 --> 00:39:37.600\ngreen apart for the\n\n882\n00:39:37.600 --> 00:39:41.080\nwork that we're doing. So I love the work that's going on with that. How's AI\n\n883\n00:39:41.080 --> 00:39:42.720\nchanging your business?\n\n884\n00:39:42.720 --> 00:39:47.600\nI'm really excited about AI because for us, we have a large sales organization\n\n885\n00:39:47.600 --> 00:39:48.160\nand we have a lot\n\n886\n00:39:48.160 --> 00:39:53.010\nof data. But for us, selling comes down to really making sure that we're\n\n887\n00:39:53.010 --> 00:39:53.920\nconnecting with what the\n\n888\n00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:57.820\ncustomer needs, but also getting connected with the right customers at the\n\n889\n00:39:57.820 --> 00:39:58.640\nright time.\n\n890\n00:39:58.640 --> 00:40:03.070\nSo we're using AI to be able to help bring together a lot of the data platforms\n\n891\n00:40:03.070 --> 00:40:04.160\nthat we have\n\n892\n00:40:04.160 --> 00:40:08.320\nto be able to fuel the right conversations with either potential new customers\n\n893\n00:40:08.320 --> 00:40:09.120\nor with existing\n\n894\n00:40:09.120 --> 00:40:12.880\ncustomers to help get them connected with some of our additional product lines.\n\n895\n00:40:12.880 --> 00:40:13.680\nWe've had a lot\n\n896\n00:40:13.680 --> 00:40:18.530\nof work going on within this within the AI space as a whole. But when I look at\n\n897\n00:40:18.530 --> 00:40:19.360\nthe upside from it,\n\n898\n00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:24.210\nit's immense. So I think for us being able to, in my mind, I think the best\n\n899\n00:40:24.210 --> 00:40:25.120\nopportunity is to help\n\n900\n00:40:25.120 --> 00:40:29.920\nevery one of our sales leaders think like our very best sales leader does today\n\n901\n00:40:29.920 --> 00:40:30.480\n. How do you help\n\n902\n00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:34.020\nautomate the questions that they think through? How do you help them analyze\n\n903\n00:40:34.020 --> 00:40:34.960\ntheir business?\n\n904\n00:40:34.960 --> 00:40:38.240\nHow do you help them get to the right outcomes in terms of the next action step\n\n905\n00:40:38.240 --> 00:40:39.520\nor next followup?\n\n906\n00:40:39.520 --> 00:40:43.280\nAI can help us a lot with that. And so far, I've been really encouraged with\n\n907\n00:40:43.280 --> 00:40:43.840\nthe progress that\n\n908\n00:40:43.840 --> 00:40:47.950\nwe've been making because of that. And how are you growing as a leader with AI?\n\n909\n00:40:47.950 --> 00:40:48.320\nWhat do you\n\n910\n00:40:48.320 --> 00:40:52.160\ndo to make sure that you can lead on that front? Maybe it's embarrassing to say\n\n911\n00:40:52.160 --> 00:40:52.640\nthis out loud,\n\n912\n00:40:52.640 --> 00:40:55.960\nbut one of the first things I did was I went into when I first went into to\n\n913\n00:40:55.960 --> 00:40:57.680\nchat GBT and some of the\n\n914\n00:40:57.680 --> 00:41:01.710\nother tools is I typed in, \"How could kurd cane be a better CEO for true green\n\n915\n00:41:01.710 --> 00:41:03.600\n?\" And it was amazing\n\n916\n00:41:03.600 --> 00:41:09.120\nthat it was within 30 seconds spot on with everything that I genuinely needed\n\n917\n00:41:09.120 --> 00:41:10.320\nus to be working on and\n\n918\n00:41:10.320 --> 00:41:14.220\nthat I thought I could be doing better. So to have that kind of insight very\n\n919\n00:41:14.220 --> 00:41:15.040\nquickly, and I'd\n\n920\n00:41:15.040 --> 00:41:18.300\nencourage anybody listening, go in and do that. Think about your business, ask\n\n921\n00:41:18.300 --> 00:41:19.040\na question just\n\n922\n00:41:19.040 --> 00:41:23.960\ndirectly about yourself as a leader or your business. It was amazing how fast\n\n923\n00:41:23.960 --> 00:41:24.880\nanswers started\n\n924\n00:41:24.880 --> 00:41:29.120\nto come back, you know, exactly around that. So I just, I personally use it as\n\n925\n00:41:29.120 --> 00:41:30.320\na tool to challenge\n\n926\n00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:35.170\nourselves, challenge accepted beliefs, and really try and gather up as much as\n\n927\n00:41:35.170 --> 00:41:36.240\nwe can in terms of\n\n928\n00:41:36.240 --> 00:41:39.780\ninsights related to consumer perception and how they feel about our business.\n\n929\n00:41:39.780 --> 00:41:40.560\nAI is a great\n\n930\n00:41:40.560 --> 00:41:43.880\ntool for all of that. So for me, I'm really excited about what it can bring to\n\n931\n00:41:43.880 --> 00:41:44.560\nthe table.\n\n932\n00:41:44.560 --> 00:41:47.590\nKurt, this has been so much fun catching up and I want to have some more with\n\n933\n00:41:47.590 --> 00:41:48.400\nmy lightning round\n\n934\n00:41:48.400 --> 00:41:51.880\nof questions. So are you ready for this? I'm ready. Fire away. The three words\n\n935\n00:41:51.880 --> 00:41:52.960\nthat best describe you.\n\n936\n00:41:53.520 --> 00:41:57.630\nTeam oriented, loyal and passionate. If you could be the one, if you could be\n\n937\n00:41:57.630 --> 00:41:58.720\none person for a day\n\n938\n00:41:58.720 --> 00:42:02.130\nbeside yourself, who would it be? Nate Bargetzi is a great comedian based in\n\n939\n00:42:02.130 --> 00:42:03.360\nNashville. We are,\n\n940\n00:42:03.360 --> 00:42:06.170\nI think he's hilarious and connects with people in some fun ways. I think that\n\n941\n00:42:06.170 --> 00:42:06.960\n'd be a lot of fun.\n\n942\n00:42:06.960 --> 00:42:12.940\nWhat's your biggest pet peeve? Lack of accountability. Who would play you in a\n\n943\n00:42:12.940 --> 00:42:13.440\nmovie?\n\n944\n00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:17.440\nI'd probably have to go with Tom Hanks on that one. If you could play center\n\n945\n00:42:17.440 --> 00:42:18.880\ncourt at any major\n\n946\n00:42:18.880 --> 00:42:23.110\nchampionship venue in tennis, where are you playing and who are you playing\n\n947\n00:42:23.110 --> 00:42:23.840\nagainst?\n\n948\n00:42:23.840 --> 00:42:27.090\nYeah, I would love to have the opportunity to get on the court at Wimbledon\n\n949\n00:42:27.090 --> 00:42:27.600\nagainst John\n\n950\n00:42:27.600 --> 00:42:31.540\nMack in road just one time. Do you play a lot of tennis now? I've hung in there\n\n951\n00:42:31.540 --> 00:42:32.160\n. I've played back\n\n952\n00:42:32.160 --> 00:42:35.910\nin college and have hung in there through the years and yeah, it's a lot of fun\n\n953\n00:42:35.910 --> 00:42:36.800\nto get out there\n\n954\n00:42:36.800 --> 00:42:40.670\nand chase the ball around. What's something you've been curious about lately\n\n955\n00:42:40.670 --> 00:42:42.080\nthat has absolutely\n\n956\n00:42:42.080 --> 00:42:45.330\nnothing to do with work? You know, for me, I've started to get a lot more\n\n957\n00:42:45.330 --> 00:42:46.800\ninterested in things\n\n958\n00:42:46.800 --> 00:42:51.650\nlike chemistry and the science behind it. My son's a chemistry major now in\n\n959\n00:42:51.650 --> 00:42:53.520\ncollege and he's totally\n\n960\n00:42:53.520 --> 00:42:56.670\ndifferent than me on what his interests are. So I've started to fall in love\n\n961\n00:42:56.670 --> 00:42:57.520\nwith a lot of his\n\n962\n00:42:57.520 --> 00:43:01.680\ninterests to learn more about them. What's the one thing you do just for you?\n\n963\n00:43:01.680 --> 00:43:02.160\nOne thing I do\n\n964\n00:43:02.160 --> 00:43:05.990\nfor me, he asked about tennis. That's really a thing that I get out there and I\n\n965\n00:43:05.990 --> 00:43:07.200\nlove to compete.\n\n966\n00:43:07.200 --> 00:43:10.320\nIt's a lot of fun to get out there. I can't play like I used to, but I try to\n\n967\n00:43:10.320 --> 00:43:10.960\nkeep up with it as\n\n968\n00:43:10.960 --> 00:43:15.440\nbest I can and it's a lot of fun to do so. Besides your family and friends,\n\n969\n00:43:15.440 --> 00:43:16.800\nwhat would be your most\n\n970\n00:43:16.800 --> 00:43:21.650\nprized possession? My most prized possession is actually my late father's watch\n\n971\n00:43:21.650 --> 00:43:22.720\n. He passed away\n\n972\n00:43:22.720 --> 00:43:28.080\nthis past year and we were incredibly close and he's a big, big part of my life\n\n973\n00:43:28.080 --> 00:43:28.640\nand so I'd say\n\n974\n00:43:28.640 --> 00:43:32.790\nthat's absolutely my most prized possession. If I turned on the radio in your\n\n975\n00:43:32.790 --> 00:43:34.480\ncar, what would I hear?\n\n976\n00:43:34.480 --> 00:43:38.400\nOutside of your podcast, you'd hear a lot of other podcasts. A lot of things\n\n977\n00:43:38.400 --> 00:43:39.520\nlike Joe Rogan\n\n978\n00:43:39.520 --> 00:43:43.170\nand others. I just think there's so much to learn that when I used to listen to\n\n979\n00:43:43.170 --> 00:43:44.080\nmusic in my car,\n\n980\n00:43:44.080 --> 00:43:46.880\nnow what I'm listening to all the time is different perspectives from different\n\n981\n00:43:46.880 --> 00:43:47.600\npeople.\n\n982\n00:43:47.600 --> 00:43:50.080\nWhat's something about you that few people would know?\n\n983\n00:43:50.080 --> 00:43:56.880\nI think just how much I care about people. I hope people know that, but just\n\n984\n00:43:56.880 --> 00:43:57.760\nhow deep and\n\n985\n00:43:57.760 --> 00:44:03.760\ncentral it is to who I am. I'm an incredibly loyal person. I love having great\n\n986\n00:44:03.760 --> 00:44:04.160\nand close\n\n987\n00:44:04.160 --> 00:44:09.600\nrelationships with people. Sometimes I think that I might come across as a\n\n988\n00:44:09.600 --> 00:44:10.960\nlittle intimidating or\n\n989\n00:44:10.960 --> 00:44:14.080\ntoo serious sometimes and I like to have a lot of fun, but I really like to\n\n990\n00:44:14.080 --> 00:44:15.120\nbuild close relationships\n\n991\n00:44:15.120 --> 00:44:20.010\nwith people. What's one of your daily rituals, something that you never ever\n\n992\n00:44:20.010 --> 00:44:20.640\nmiss?\n\n993\n00:44:20.640 --> 00:44:24.080\nI just try and get up and take, I think taking physical care of yourself is\n\n994\n00:44:24.080 --> 00:44:24.720\nimportant. So the\n\n995\n00:44:24.720 --> 00:44:29.050\nfirst thing I do every day is get up and go work out. Helps you clear my head,\n\n996\n00:44:29.050 --> 00:44:29.520\nhelps me get\n\n997\n00:44:29.520 --> 00:44:33.440\nfocused for the day. So that's a really important part of my life.\n\n998\n00:44:33.440 --> 00:44:37.870\nAll right. We're out of the lightning round. Great job. You mentioned something\n\n999\n00:44:37.870 --> 00:44:38.800\nthat I thought was\n\n1000\n00:44:38.800 --> 00:44:47.840\nyou could be intimidating. Just by the nature of the job being the CEO, you're\n\n1001\n00:44:47.840 --> 00:44:48.480\nintimidating.\n\n1002\n00:44:48.480 --> 00:44:54.600\nThe person you'd like to be is a comedian. It's like, and you've got a sense of\n\n1003\n00:44:54.600 --> 00:44:56.720\nhumor. How do you\n\n1004\n00:44:56.720 --> 00:45:03.200\nthink about humor and leadership and work? I think humor is really important. I\n\n1005\n00:45:03.200 --> 00:45:04.320\nhave a very dry sense\n\n1006\n00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:10.430\nof humor, but I find that humor can help disarm challenging situations. I'll\n\n1007\n00:45:10.430 --> 00:45:11.600\ngive you an example,\n\n1008\n00:45:11.600 --> 00:45:15.950\nwhich was when I was leading the Wendy's US business, I believe that Wendy\n\n1009\n00:45:15.950 --> 00:45:17.200\nshould get into the breakfast\n\n1010\n00:45:17.200 --> 00:45:22.700\nday part, which it had failed at a number of times. So I think being able to\n\n1011\n00:45:22.700 --> 00:45:24.080\nrally the franchisees\n\n1012\n00:45:24.080 --> 00:45:27.800\naround that opportunity, do the work to set the business up for success, to be\n\n1013\n00:45:27.800 --> 00:45:28.560\nable to get into\n\n1014\n00:45:28.560 --> 00:45:32.130\nthat day part. As you know, it's incredibly challenging to expand into new day\n\n1015\n00:45:32.130 --> 00:45:32.640\nparts.\n\n1016\n00:45:32.640 --> 00:45:38.410\nSo doing that, I think humor was a tool to be able to defang a lot of the\n\n1017\n00:45:38.410 --> 00:45:39.200\nobjections\n\n1018\n00:45:39.200 --> 00:45:44.050\nthat people had by being able to kind of just get into conversations with\n\n1019\n00:45:44.050 --> 00:45:44.560\npeople in a different\n\n1020\n00:45:44.560 --> 00:45:50.050\nway and to be able to not make light of past failures or past challenges, but\n\n1021\n00:45:50.050 --> 00:45:50.800\nto be able to\n\n1022\n00:45:51.920 --> 00:45:56.270\nrecognize that you understand them, but also to be able to say there's a way to\n\n1023\n00:45:56.270 --> 00:45:57.200\nwork around them.\n\n1024\n00:45:57.200 --> 00:46:01.520\nAnd so if you could keep conversations light and you could keep people laughing\n\n1025\n00:46:01.520 --> 00:46:01.520\n,\n\n1026\n00:46:01.520 --> 00:46:06.400\nsometimes they could forget the pain of past failures and open their minds to\n\n1027\n00:46:06.400 --> 00:46:07.200\nthe possibility\n\n1028\n00:46:07.200 --> 00:46:11.160\nof what could come. So I find humor is a really good connector of people. And\n\n1029\n00:46:11.160 --> 00:46:12.080\nat the end of the day,\n\n1030\n00:46:12.080 --> 00:46:16.930\nit can take serious topics that may be overwhelming and allow you to break them\n\n1031\n00:46:16.930 --> 00:46:17.840\ndown and not seem so\n\n1032\n00:46:17.840 --> 00:46:21.600\noverwhelming after all. So I think humor is a really important part of, I think\n\n1033\n00:46:21.600 --> 00:46:22.240\n, a leadership\n\n1034\n00:46:22.240 --> 00:46:25.370\npersona, and it doesn't mean you're always cracking jokes all the time, but I\n\n1035\n00:46:25.370 --> 00:46:26.240\ndo think if you can\n\n1036\n00:46:26.240 --> 00:46:30.070\nkeep people laughing or keep people finding the lighter side of a situation,\n\n1037\n00:46:30.070 --> 00:46:31.280\nthey're more motivated\n\n1038\n00:46:31.280 --> 00:46:35.120\nto try and find solutions when things are difficult. How do you lead at home,\n\n1039\n00:46:35.120 --> 00:46:35.680\nKurt?\n\n1040\n00:46:35.680 --> 00:46:41.320\nYeah, I think that team together ideas is really important. I think for me, it\n\n1041\n00:46:41.320 --> 00:46:41.440\n's\n\n1042\n00:46:41.440 --> 00:46:45.800\ntrying to champion our kids. I've got two great kids. My wife and I have been\n\n1043\n00:46:45.800 --> 00:46:46.720\nmarried since we met.\n\n1044\n00:46:46.720 --> 00:46:49.560\nWe actually met on the first day at graduate school, and we got married on\n\n1045\n00:46:49.560 --> 00:46:50.160\ngraduation\n\n1046\n00:46:50.160 --> 00:46:54.270\nday. We actually skipped graduation to go to our wedding instead. So we've been\n\n1047\n00:46:54.270 --> 00:46:55.040\nvery much at the\n\n1048\n00:46:55.040 --> 00:46:59.890\nteam together throughout our entire marriage. And my wife, Christine, is just\n\n1049\n00:46:59.890 --> 00:47:00.800\nabsolutely fantastic.\n\n1050\n00:47:00.800 --> 00:47:04.940\nShe challenges me. She pushes me a lot. But I think for our kids, it's all\n\n1051\n00:47:04.940 --> 00:47:06.000\nabout supporting\n\n1052\n00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:09.590\nthem and also challenging them to be the best that they can be. And so we're\n\n1053\n00:47:09.590 --> 00:47:10.560\nreally fortunate.\n\n1054\n00:47:10.560 --> 00:47:14.150\nWe've got two kids that are doing really well. We're incredibly proud of them,\n\n1055\n00:47:14.150 --> 00:47:15.440\nbut it's fun to\n\n1056\n00:47:15.440 --> 00:47:19.550\nwatch them grow into their own leaders as they go forward down the path. And\n\n1057\n00:47:19.550 --> 00:47:20.080\nthey take on\n\n1058\n00:47:20.080 --> 00:47:23.840\ndifferent leadership opportunities as they start their own careers and as my\n\n1059\n00:47:23.840 --> 00:47:25.600\nson finishes up college.\n\n1060\n00:47:25.600 --> 00:47:28.920\nBut for me, it's really about knowing them knowing what I had for my own\n\n1061\n00:47:28.920 --> 00:47:29.280\nparents,\n\n1062\n00:47:29.280 --> 00:47:33.440\nwhich is I was loved, I was supported, I was championed, and I was going to be\n\n1063\n00:47:33.440 --> 00:47:34.160\nchallenged.\n\n1064\n00:47:34.160 --> 00:47:37.700\nIf I had those things going for me, then I want to give those same things to my\n\n1065\n00:47:37.700 --> 00:47:38.160\nkids.\n\n1066\n00:47:38.160 --> 00:47:41.410\nAnd you said that your wife challenged you and helped you to get to a better\n\n1067\n00:47:41.410 --> 00:47:42.160\ndecision. Has there\n\n1068\n00:47:42.160 --> 00:47:46.960\never been something that she's done that's or advice she's given you that\n\n1069\n00:47:46.960 --> 00:47:47.680\nchanged your approach to\n\n1070\n00:47:47.680 --> 00:47:54.240\na decision? And if so, tell us the story. She's a great sounding board. And I\n\n1071\n00:47:54.240 --> 00:47:55.120\n've been fortunate\n\n1072\n00:47:55.120 --> 00:48:00.950\nto be able to share a lot of my work experiences with her. And I think years\n\n1073\n00:48:00.950 --> 00:48:02.320\nago, I think one of\n\n1074\n00:48:02.320 --> 00:48:05.250\nthe things I was excited about at Pizza Hut, we were launching a product they\n\n1075\n00:48:05.250 --> 00:48:05.840\nstill market\n\n1076\n00:48:05.840 --> 00:48:09.380\ntoday called the Big Dinner Box. And I thought this was going to be the\n\n1077\n00:48:09.380 --> 00:48:10.800\ngreatest idea in the world.\n\n1078\n00:48:10.800 --> 00:48:14.340\nAnd it's actually proven to stand the test of time. But the way I wanted to\n\n1079\n00:48:14.340 --> 00:48:15.200\nlaunch it was\n\n1080\n00:48:15.200 --> 00:48:19.120\nto run it for president. And so there are a lot of things around that idea. We\n\n1081\n00:48:19.120 --> 00:48:19.680\nput it into the\n\n1082\n00:48:19.680 --> 00:48:24.560\npolitical campaign back in the time when it was a heated political environment.\n\n1083\n00:48:24.560 --> 00:48:25.600\nBut as we pushed\n\n1084\n00:48:25.600 --> 00:48:28.680\nthat out, I wasn't necessarily listening to enough people who said, I don't\n\n1085\n00:48:28.680 --> 00:48:29.520\nknow that you want to\n\n1086\n00:48:29.520 --> 00:48:33.250\npush your brand into the middle of the political debate. It can get kind of\n\n1087\n00:48:33.250 --> 00:48:34.640\nheated. And I kept\n\n1088\n00:48:34.640 --> 00:48:37.190\npushing because I thought it was a great idea and we could get a lot of\n\n1089\n00:48:37.190 --> 00:48:37.840\nattention.\n\n1090\n00:48:37.840 --> 00:48:41.760\nEventually it started to go a little bit sideways. And I got a call. They\n\n1091\n00:48:41.760 --> 00:48:42.560\nwanted me to be on the\n\n1092\n00:48:42.560 --> 00:48:47.410\nToday Show to explain why I thought this was a good idea. And as a marketer, I\n\n1093\n00:48:47.410 --> 00:48:47.440\nthought,\n\n1094\n00:48:47.440 --> 00:48:50.470\nthis is a great idea. We'll go on the Today Show and we'll talk all about it.\n\n1095\n00:48:50.470 --> 00:48:51.200\nAnd I still\n\n1096\n00:48:51.200 --> 00:48:54.960\nremember her counsel saying that is not going to go well. So whatever you do,\n\n1097\n00:48:54.960 --> 00:48:55.920\ndo not take that\n\n1098\n00:48:55.920 --> 00:49:00.770\ninterview. And I think she was exactly right. So I think sometimes you got to\n\n1099\n00:49:00.770 --> 00:49:01.520\nlisten to your\n\n1100\n00:49:01.520 --> 00:49:05.430\ninner voice. And a lot of times she can be my inner voice to be able to keep\n\n1101\n00:49:05.430 --> 00:49:06.160\nmyself out of\n\n1102\n00:49:06.160 --> 00:49:09.440\ntrouble sometimes. But at the end of the day, she's been the best champion in\n\n1103\n00:49:09.440 --> 00:49:10.240\nthe world and has\n\n1104\n00:49:10.240 --> 00:49:13.510\nreally supported everything that we've been doing together as part of this\n\n1105\n00:49:13.510 --> 00:49:14.080\njourney.\n\n1106\n00:49:14.080 --> 00:49:17.910\nWhat's the most encouraging sign you're seeing right now, true green, that\n\n1107\n00:49:17.910 --> 00:49:19.520\ntells you that you're\n\n1108\n00:49:19.520 --> 00:49:23.850\nwaking up to your full potential as a company? I mentioned those employee\n\n1109\n00:49:23.850 --> 00:49:25.040\nengagement scores to\n\n1110\n00:49:25.040 --> 00:49:31.110\nsee those move as rapidly as they have tells me that our team is catching fire.\n\n1111\n00:49:31.110 --> 00:49:31.840\nAnd yeah,\n\n1112\n00:49:31.840 --> 00:49:34.650\nwe've got we've got really good financial results. We've got really good\n\n1113\n00:49:34.650 --> 00:49:35.680\nbusiness results. I'm\n\n1114\n00:49:35.680 --> 00:49:40.010\npleased to see all that moving in the right direction. And I think that's that\n\n1115\n00:49:40.010 --> 00:49:41.120\ntells you a lot. But\n\n1116\n00:49:41.120 --> 00:49:44.660\nunderneath it all, when you see employee engagement move as quickly as it has\n\n1117\n00:49:44.660 --> 00:49:45.600\nand as meaningfully as\n\n1118\n00:49:45.600 --> 00:49:51.470\nit has, that tells me that our our best chapter is very much ahead. We've got\n\n1119\n00:49:51.470 --> 00:49:52.240\ngreat people who\n\n1120\n00:49:52.240 --> 00:49:56.170\ncare a lot. They were looking to be unlocked. They were looking to be empowered\n\n1121\n00:49:56.170 --> 00:49:56.960\n. That to me is\n\n1122\n00:49:56.960 --> 00:50:01.380\nthe metric I look at that tells me that really good days are ahead. Great. And\n\n1123\n00:50:01.380 --> 00:50:02.320\nlast question here's\n\n1124\n00:50:02.320 --> 00:50:07.670\nKurt. What's one piece of advice you'd want to give to anyone who wants to be a\n\n1125\n00:50:07.670 --> 00:50:09.040\nbetter leader?\n\n1126\n00:50:09.040 --> 00:50:13.370\nOne thing, and maybe it's two pieces of advice. One would be believe in\n\n1127\n00:50:13.370 --> 00:50:13.920\nyourself.\n\n1128\n00:50:13.920 --> 00:50:18.960\nAnd I think you put yourself in a lot of different positions. These leadership\n\n1129\n00:50:18.960 --> 00:50:19.760\nroles are hard and\n\n1130\n00:50:19.760 --> 00:50:24.180\nthey're challenging. And sometimes they can be intimidating. But at the end of\n\n1131\n00:50:24.180 --> 00:50:25.680\nthe day, believe\n\n1132\n00:50:25.680 --> 00:50:29.050\nthat you got into the position because of the work that you've done and that\n\n1133\n00:50:29.050 --> 00:50:30.320\nyou've got the skills\n\n1134\n00:50:30.320 --> 00:50:34.650\nto be successful in the role, even when you're facing big challenges. The\n\n1135\n00:50:34.650 --> 00:50:35.360\nsecond thing I would\n\n1136\n00:50:35.360 --> 00:50:40.930\nsay is really embrace that idea of be comfortable being uncomfortable. Recogn\n\n1137\n00:50:40.930 --> 00:50:42.240\nize you're going to\n\n1138\n00:50:42.240 --> 00:50:45.490\nbe doing new things. You're going to be doing different things. You're going to\n\n1139\n00:50:45.490 --> 00:50:46.240\nbe stepping up\n\n1140\n00:50:46.240 --> 00:50:51.090\nin some some very big ways. So embrace that embrace the feeling of what that's\n\n1141\n00:50:51.090 --> 00:50:51.680\nall about.\n\n1142\n00:50:51.680 --> 00:50:55.620\nAnd if you do that, then you're going to make sure that you're on point. You're\n\n1143\n00:50:55.620 --> 00:50:56.240\nready to drive\n\n1144\n00:50:56.240 --> 00:50:59.490\nresults. And you're going to do the follow through work required to be\n\n1145\n00:50:59.490 --> 00:51:00.960\nsuccessful. So those would be\n\n1146\n00:51:00.960 --> 00:51:05.380\nthe two big pieces of advice I get people. Well, Kurt, I'm glad you're having\n\n1147\n00:51:05.380 --> 00:51:05.920\nfun and\n\n1148\n00:51:05.920 --> 00:51:10.060\nyou're in this role as CEO and taking true green to the next level. And I want\n\n1149\n00:51:10.060 --> 00:51:11.040\nto thank you so much\n\n1150\n00:51:11.040 --> 00:51:15.660\nfor taking the time to be on the show. Well, I appreciate it. And I'd be remiss\n\n1151\n00:51:15.660 --> 00:51:16.080\nif I didn't\n\n1152\n00:51:16.080 --> 00:51:19.110\nthank you for the coaching you gave me throughout the years. I can think of a\n\n1153\n00:51:19.110 --> 00:51:20.160\nnumber of one on one\n\n1154\n00:51:20.160 --> 00:51:23.940\ncoaching sessions where you took me through a three by five card exercise on\n\n1155\n00:51:23.940 --> 00:51:24.560\nthings I could\n\n1156\n00:51:24.560 --> 00:51:28.160\nwork on, things I could be better at. And without coaching sessions like that,\n\n1157\n00:51:28.160 --> 00:51:33.010\nthen I'd be nowhere close to in the role that I'm at today. So thank you for\n\n1158\n00:51:33.010 --> 00:51:33.280\nyour\n\n1159\n00:51:33.280 --> 00:51:36.640\nleadership example and the work you're continuing to do on this podcast and\n\n1160\n00:51:36.640 --> 00:51:37.360\nhelping everybody be\n\n1161\n00:51:37.360 --> 00:51:47.400\na better leader. It's really impactful. Well, it's clear that Kurt is a wildly\n\n1162\n00:51:47.400 --> 00:51:48.320\nsuccessful CEO.\n\n1163\n00:51:48.320 --> 00:51:52.480\nHe's worked in a number of different industries and he actually David worked\n\n1164\n00:51:52.480 --> 00:51:54.240\nfor you at Young Brands.\n\n1165\n00:51:54.240 --> 00:52:00.080\nYeah, he ran marketing for Pizza Hut and did a very good job there. And\n\n1166\n00:52:00.080 --> 00:52:04.930\nyou know, one of the things that gives me a lot of joy is just looking around\n\n1167\n00:52:04.930 --> 00:52:05.680\nthe business world\n\n1168\n00:52:05.680 --> 00:52:10.530\ntoday and seeing people who used to work at Young Brands and work with me. And\n\n1169\n00:52:10.530 --> 00:52:11.280\nthey end up being\n\n1170\n00:52:11.280 --> 00:52:19.440\nCEOs. And I think my CEO tree is close to close to 30 executives who are making\n\n1171\n00:52:19.440 --> 00:52:20.160\na difference around\n\n1172\n00:52:20.160 --> 00:52:25.280\nthe world. And all of them have really taken the approach to people first and\n\n1173\n00:52:25.280 --> 00:52:26.320\nrecognition\n\n1174\n00:52:26.320 --> 00:52:30.420\nthat really makes me feel good. Because, you know, I know they're creating work\n\n1175\n00:52:30.420 --> 00:52:30.960\nenvironments\n\n1176\n00:52:30.960 --> 00:52:36.000\nthat people want to go to work at and attacking what I think is one of the\n\n1177\n00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:37.440\nbiggest challenges\n\n1178\n00:52:37.440 --> 00:52:41.360\nin business today. And that's the toxic work environment that too many people\n\n1179\n00:52:41.360 --> 00:52:42.960\nhave to endure.\n\n1180\n00:52:42.960 --> 00:52:49.440\nSo it's great to see Kurt be successful and move on and all the other people\n\n1181\n00:52:49.440 --> 00:52:49.840\nthat I've had\n\n1182\n00:52:49.840 --> 00:52:53.380\nthe great privilege to work with and coach. David, it's clear listening to this\n\n1183\n00:52:53.380 --> 00:52:54.080\nepisode that Kurt\n\n1184\n00:52:54.080 --> 00:52:58.930\nis laser focused on retaining his current customers. And he sees that as the\n\n1185\n00:52:58.930 --> 00:53:00.480\nbiggest growth opportunity\n\n1186\n00:53:00.480 --> 00:53:05.330\nat TrueGreen. And I'm curious when you think about acquiring new customers\n\n1187\n00:53:05.330 --> 00:53:06.240\nversus retaining\n\n1188\n00:53:06.240 --> 00:53:10.040\nyour current customers, how do you know when you're focused too much on\n\n1189\n00:53:10.040 --> 00:53:11.120\nacquiring those new\n\n1190\n00:53:11.120 --> 00:53:14.870\ncustomers that you forget about retaining the ones that you have? Well, I think\n\n1191\n00:53:14.870 --> 00:53:16.480\nthat's the art and\n\n1192\n00:53:16.480 --> 00:53:22.570\nscience of marketing. But the one thing that I've learned in every category is\n\n1193\n00:53:22.570 --> 00:53:23.600\nyour existing\n\n1194\n00:53:23.600 --> 00:53:27.850\ncustomers, particularly a heavy user, is by far and away the most important\n\n1195\n00:53:27.850 --> 00:53:29.920\nsegment that you've\n\n1196\n00:53:29.920 --> 00:53:35.300\ngot to stay focused on. You know, I always call it the 80/20 rule, okay? You\n\n1197\n00:53:35.300 --> 00:53:36.720\nknow, you'd have 20%\n\n1198\n00:53:36.720 --> 00:53:41.570\nof your customers count for 80% of your volume. And, you know, that's really\n\n1199\n00:53:41.570 --> 00:53:42.960\nimportant for everybody\n\n1200\n00:53:42.960 --> 00:53:47.810\nto understand is that there's nothing like having a heavy user. And so many\n\n1201\n00:53:47.810 --> 00:53:49.920\ntimes, you know, marketers\n\n1202\n00:53:49.920 --> 00:53:53.570\ngo into a situation where they think they've really got to grow the business.\n\n1203\n00:53:53.570 --> 00:53:54.320\nAnd they think\n\n1204\n00:53:54.320 --> 00:53:59.140\nit's all about, you know, attracting new users and broadening your reach. When\n\n1205\n00:53:59.140 --> 00:54:00.000\nthe real fact is,\n\n1206\n00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:03.920\nyou've got to burden the hand. That burden the hand is your existing customer.\n\n1207\n00:54:03.920 --> 00:54:04.480\nAnd how do you\n\n1208\n00:54:04.480 --> 00:54:09.600\nget them to want to use you more often? The people who really understand that,\n\n1209\n00:54:09.600 --> 00:54:10.640\nyou know,\n\n1210\n00:54:10.640 --> 00:54:15.840\nstay focused on what really matters. You know, I remember KFC at one point in\n\n1211\n00:54:15.840 --> 00:54:16.880\ntime was really\n\n1212\n00:54:16.880 --> 00:54:22.400\ntrying to, you know, get more users into the business. And that was really hard\n\n1213\n00:54:22.400 --> 00:54:23.120\nto do because\n\n1214\n00:54:23.120 --> 00:54:27.240\nif people weren't interested in KFC, you know, how are you going to get them\n\n1215\n00:54:27.240 --> 00:54:28.640\nall of a sudden to come\n\n1216\n00:54:28.640 --> 00:54:33.060\nto KFC? But what we really uncovered was, you know, let's take the people who\n\n1217\n00:54:33.060 --> 00:54:34.320\nare already like KFC\n\n1218\n00:54:34.320 --> 00:54:39.170\nand love it and give them more reasons why they should come. That wasn't like\n\n1219\n00:54:39.170 --> 00:54:41.040\ncreating a non-fried\n\n1220\n00:54:41.040 --> 00:54:45.060\noption. It was more about creating more fried things that people loved in Dolce\n\n1221\n00:54:45.060 --> 00:54:46.400\n. And, you know,\n\n1222\n00:54:46.400 --> 00:54:53.280\nonce we became even more proud of what we make and why we make it and what it\n\n1223\n00:54:53.280 --> 00:54:54.480\nprovides to our\n\n1224\n00:54:54.480 --> 00:54:58.900\ncustomers, you know, we were able to get to our existing customers to come in\n\n1225\n00:54:58.900 --> 00:54:59.840\nmore often.\n\n1226\n00:54:59.840 --> 00:55:03.580\nAnd that was a lot easier than trying to get somebody to come in to KFC that\n\n1227\n00:55:03.580 --> 00:55:05.200\nhad no real plan\n\n1228\n00:55:05.200 --> 00:55:09.120\nto do it. It's so helpful, too, when you think about how to prioritize\n\n1229\n00:55:09.120 --> 00:55:10.400\ndifferent initiatives that\n\n1230\n00:55:10.400 --> 00:55:14.430\nyou want to pass because it becomes really clear what you need to focus on when\n\n1231\n00:55:14.430 --> 00:55:15.440\nyou realize that\n\n1232\n00:55:15.440 --> 00:55:20.320\nthe person that you're focusing on is someone who already loves your brand.\n\n1233\n00:55:20.320 --> 00:55:23.790\nYeah. And, you know, I think when if you listen to this podcast and the\n\n1234\n00:55:23.790 --> 00:55:25.120\nconversations we have with\n\n1235\n00:55:25.120 --> 00:55:29.250\ngreat marketers, they understand the importance of really focusing on their\n\n1236\n00:55:29.250 --> 00:55:30.000\ncore user.\n\n1237\n00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:35.200\nAnd when you do that, you know, you can usually grow your business and you get\n\n1238\n00:55:35.200 --> 00:55:36.240\na much higher payout\n\n1239\n00:55:36.240 --> 00:55:41.360\nfrom your marketing dollars and all the operational efforts that you bring to\n\n1240\n00:55:41.360 --> 00:55:42.000\nbear to make your\n\n1241\n00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:46.850\ncustomers happy. Another thing I was really struck by in this conversation with\n\n1242\n00:55:46.850 --> 00:55:48.480\nKurt is his way of\n\n1243\n00:55:48.480 --> 00:55:53.330\nboiling down what the strategic pillars are for TrueGreen. And he got their\n\n1244\n00:55:53.330 --> 00:55:54.320\nstrategic pillars down\n\n1245\n00:55:54.320 --> 00:55:59.680\nto five and they all live on one page and one document. And they tie everything\n\n1246\n00:55:59.680 --> 00:56:00.240\nback to that\n\n1247\n00:56:00.240 --> 00:56:03.640\ndocument. They tie meeting agendas back to that document. They tie reports back\n\n1248\n00:56:03.640 --> 00:56:04.960\nto that document.\n\n1249\n00:56:04.960 --> 00:56:09.160\nAnd I'm curious, David, hearing that, what would you say to leaders to help\n\n1250\n00:56:09.160 --> 00:56:10.720\nthem make sure a strategy\n\n1251\n00:56:10.720 --> 00:56:14.880\ndocument like this is actually one that takes root inside the business and\n\n1252\n00:56:14.880 --> 00:56:16.080\ndoesn't just live on\n\n1253\n00:56:16.080 --> 00:56:21.270\na wall and get ignored? Well, number one, I think Kurt drives home. One of the\n\n1254\n00:56:21.270 --> 00:56:21.840\nkey things\n\n1255\n00:56:21.840 --> 00:56:25.590\nyou've got to do is you've got to simplify what needs to be done so that\n\n1256\n00:56:25.590 --> 00:56:26.640\neverybody can really\n\n1257\n00:56:26.640 --> 00:56:32.280\nunderstand it. And that simplification is really key. And then you want to be\n\n1258\n00:56:32.280 --> 00:56:34.160\nable to, you know,\n\n1259\n00:56:34.160 --> 00:56:40.880\narticulate it in one page or a half a page is even better. It kind of reminds\n\n1260\n00:56:40.880 --> 00:56:41.360\nme of,\n\n1261\n00:56:41.360 --> 00:56:46.570\nso many people get attributed with this quote, but, you know, Abe Lincoln is\n\n1262\n00:56:46.570 --> 00:56:46.880\none,\n\n1263\n00:56:46.880 --> 00:56:51.730\nMark Twain's another. I think, you know, it's like, I would have written you a\n\n1264\n00:56:51.730 --> 00:56:52.400\nshorter letter\n\n1265\n00:56:52.400 --> 00:56:56.730\nif I had time, you know, because what that says is that you got to take the\n\n1266\n00:56:56.730 --> 00:56:58.160\ntime to boil down what\n\n1267\n00:56:58.160 --> 00:57:02.020\nyou want to say to make the letter shorter. You can ramble on and on and write\n\n1268\n00:57:02.020 --> 00:57:02.800\na long letter.\n\n1269\n00:57:02.800 --> 00:57:07.650\nBut to really make it concise, that takes effort. So I think, you know, as a\n\n1270\n00:57:07.650 --> 00:57:08.160\nleader,\n\n1271\n00:57:08.160 --> 00:57:13.520\nwhatever you plan on doing, you need to take the time to really articulate it\n\n1272\n00:57:13.520 --> 00:57:14.400\nin the simplest,\n\n1273\n00:57:14.400 --> 00:57:20.380\nshortest form possible. And then do it with powerful language. You know, I\n\n1274\n00:57:20.380 --> 00:57:21.280\nalways talk\n\n1275\n00:57:21.280 --> 00:57:25.120\nabout the importance of breaking through the clutter with your communication.\n\n1276\n00:57:25.120 --> 00:57:26.000\nAnd that takes\n\n1277\n00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:31.110\npowerful language, you know. And, you know, it's like, one of the things I\n\n1278\n00:57:31.110 --> 00:57:32.400\nalways talk about\n\n1279\n00:57:32.400 --> 00:57:39.280\nthere is I remember the old theme line for for raid, which was, you know, the\n\n1280\n00:57:39.280 --> 00:57:40.880\nfunction of raid,\n\n1281\n00:57:40.880 --> 00:57:46.290\nwhich is raid kills bugs, right? But they didn't just kill bugs, raid kills\n\n1282\n00:57:46.290 --> 00:57:47.920\nbugs dead, you know,\n\n1283\n00:57:47.920 --> 00:57:53.760\nadding that one more word really gave a lot more power and memorability to what\n\n1284\n00:57:53.760 --> 00:57:54.160\nyou're\n\n1285\n00:57:54.160 --> 00:57:59.010\nwhat you're about to say. You know, I remember one of our strategic pillars was\n\n1286\n00:57:59.010 --> 00:57:59.600\nto be obsessed\n\n1287\n00:57:59.600 --> 00:58:03.470\nwith the customer. So I came up with the notion that we wanted all of our\n\n1288\n00:58:03.470 --> 00:58:05.200\npeople to be customer\n\n1289\n00:58:05.200 --> 00:58:08.740\nmaniacs and everybody needed to be maniacal about understanding what our\n\n1290\n00:58:08.740 --> 00:58:09.680\ncustomers wanted\n\n1291\n00:58:09.680 --> 00:58:14.530\nand what they needed. You know, so, you know, saying that we were going to be\n\n1292\n00:58:14.530 --> 00:58:14.880\nfocused on\n\n1293\n00:58:14.880 --> 00:58:18.660\ncustomer mania, you know, people go, Well, you want me to be a maniac on\n\n1294\n00:58:18.660 --> 00:58:19.840\ncustomers? Yeah, I\n\n1295\n00:58:19.840 --> 00:58:23.490\nabsolutely go for it. You know, well, that broke through the clutter and it\n\n1296\n00:58:23.490 --> 00:58:24.480\ncommunicated one of\n\n1297\n00:58:24.480 --> 00:58:29.330\nthe things that we wanted to do strategically. So yeah, it's very, very\n\n1298\n00:58:29.330 --> 00:58:30.640\nimportant to really\n\n1299\n00:58:30.640 --> 00:58:34.750\narticulate what you want to do very simply. And then, you know, that old saying\n\n1300\n00:58:34.750 --> 00:58:35.440\ncommunicate,\n\n1301\n00:58:35.440 --> 00:58:39.120\ncommunicate, communicate, come back to it, come back to it, come back to it.\n\n1302\n00:58:39.120 --> 00:58:40.000\nDon't get bored.\n\n1303\n00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:45.270\nYou know, with what your your message is, just keep driving home that message.\n\n1304\n00:58:45.270 --> 00:58:45.920\nAnd, you know,\n\n1305\n00:58:45.920 --> 00:58:49.300\nI think that's what leaders do. And that's how you make things come alive. If\n\n1306\n00:58:49.300 --> 00:58:51.280\nit just gets laminated\n\n1307\n00:58:51.280 --> 00:58:55.120\nand put up in the wall and you don't go back to it, you just wasted your time.\n\n1308\n00:58:55.120 --> 00:58:56.320\nSo you got to drive\n\n1309\n00:58:56.320 --> 00:59:02.000\nit deep. And in every every meeting that you have, every forum that you have,\n\n1310\n00:59:02.000 --> 00:59:03.120\nyou know, you just\n\n1311\n00:59:03.120 --> 00:59:07.340\nkeep reinforcing everything you do. If you've got an internal communication\n\n1312\n00:59:07.340 --> 00:59:08.160\nthat you do,\n\n1313\n00:59:08.160 --> 00:59:11.810\nyou reinforce it, you tie it back to what you're really trying to get done and\n\n1314\n00:59:11.810 --> 00:59:12.800\nwhy. And I think\n\n1315\n00:59:12.800 --> 00:59:17.000\nthat that always works. David, we mentioned before, and you heard it in the\n\n1316\n00:59:17.000 --> 00:59:18.160\nepisode about all the\n\n1317\n00:59:18.160 --> 00:59:23.010\ndifferent industries that Kurt has worked in. And I love when you to talk about\n\n1318\n00:59:23.010 --> 00:59:23.840\nthe skills that\n\n1319\n00:59:23.840 --> 00:59:28.880\nreally transfer across industries. Kurt says, you know, skills like being able\n\n1320\n00:59:28.880 --> 00:59:29.840\nto simplify the\n\n1321\n00:59:29.840 --> 00:59:33.490\nbusiness down to what matters most is a skill that every great leader should\n\n1322\n00:59:33.490 --> 00:59:34.320\nhave. And one that is\n\n1323\n00:59:34.320 --> 00:59:38.520\nreally valuable, regardless of what industry you're working with them. For\n\n1324\n00:59:38.520 --> 00:59:39.920\nsomeone listening, David,\n\n1325\n00:59:39.920 --> 00:59:43.610\nwho might be thinking about making a jump into a different industry, what do\n\n1326\n00:59:43.610 --> 00:59:44.480\nyou really think\n\n1327\n00:59:44.480 --> 00:59:47.730\nthey should be focused on? And what skills should they be developing? Well,\n\n1328\n00:59:47.730 --> 00:59:48.400\nthat's interesting,\n\n1329\n00:59:48.400 --> 00:59:53.860\nbecause, you know, I mentioned earlier that when you asked me right after the\n\n1330\n00:59:53.860 --> 00:59:55.440\ninterview with Kurt\n\n1331\n00:59:55.440 --> 00:59:58.240\nabout him working for me, you know, I've had a lot of people work for me go on\n\n1332\n00:59:58.240 --> 00:59:58.960\nand run different\n\n1333\n00:59:58.960 --> 01:00:03.070\nbusinesses. Well, how do they how do they go to these different categories?\n\n1334\n01:00:03.070 --> 01:00:04.000\nWell, they go to\n\n1335\n01:00:04.000 --> 01:00:09.040\nthese different categories with the customer orientation. Like Brian Nickel,\n\n1336\n01:00:09.040 --> 01:00:09.520\nyou know, one of\n\n1337\n01:00:09.520 --> 01:00:13.170\nthe top CEOs in the country today, he went to Chipotle turned around Chipotle\n\n1338\n01:00:13.170 --> 01:00:14.240\nand really did a great\n\n1339\n01:00:14.240 --> 01:00:18.740\njob. Then he went to Starbucks. And, you know, and he worked for me. And when\n\n1340\n01:00:18.740 --> 01:00:19.760\nhe worked for me,\n\n1341\n01:00:19.760 --> 01:00:23.200\none of the things that made him such a great CEO at Taco Bell is he was so\n\n1342\n01:00:23.200 --> 01:00:24.240\ncustomer focused.\n\n1343\n01:00:24.240 --> 01:00:27.890\nHe never lost that you have to understand what your customers want. If you're\n\n1344\n01:00:27.890 --> 01:00:28.800\ngoing to be successful\n\n1345\n01:00:28.800 --> 01:00:32.720\nin any business, and that's the transferable skill that everyone has to have.\n\n1346\n01:00:32.720 --> 01:00:38.240\nIf you're really going to be successful, you got to be able to to to really\n\n1347\n01:00:38.240 --> 01:00:40.160\ntake your organization,\n\n1348\n01:00:40.160 --> 01:00:45.600\nunderstand what the customer wants, and then, you know, drive home the the the\n\n1349\n01:00:45.600 --> 01:00:46.640\nthe the initiatives\n\n1350\n01:00:46.640 --> 01:00:52.160\nthat that will make your customer happy. And so it's an incredible combination\n\n1351\n01:00:52.160 --> 01:00:52.880\nof just being\n\n1352\n01:00:52.880 --> 01:00:57.260\ncustomer focused and then being able to execute and drive home what really\n\n1353\n01:00:57.260 --> 01:00:58.560\nneeds to get done.\n\n1354\n01:00:58.560 --> 01:01:02.560\nBut I think those are, you know, two transferable skills that that everybody\n\n1355\n01:01:02.560 --> 01:01:03.360\nhas to have. And when\n\n1356\n01:01:03.360 --> 01:01:07.390\nI look at the people that that I've developed who've gone on into different\n\n1357\n01:01:07.390 --> 01:01:08.480\ncategories and been\n\n1358\n01:01:08.480 --> 01:01:13.290\nextremely successful, you know, they they have that capability. And that's why\n\n1359\n01:01:13.290 --> 01:01:14.240\nthey've been so\n\n1360\n01:01:14.240 --> 01:01:17.920\nsuch winners wherever they've been. One thing I've also noticed David about\n\n1361\n01:01:17.920 --> 01:01:19.120\nfolks that have come\n\n1362\n01:01:19.120 --> 01:01:22.130\nup at Young Brands, I think about Kevin Hoffman, who's the CEO of Brinker,\n\n1363\n01:01:22.130 --> 01:01:23.040\nwhich is the parent\n\n1364\n01:01:23.040 --> 01:01:28.360\ncompany of Chili's and Magiano's. And I love following Kevin Hoffman on\n\n1365\n01:01:28.360 --> 01:01:30.400\nLinkedIn, because every day\n\n1366\n01:01:30.400 --> 01:01:35.680\nhe's posting celebrating his employees and how great of a job they're doing.\n\n1367\n01:01:35.680 --> 01:01:37.040\nAnd so I also think,\n\n1368\n01:01:37.040 --> 01:01:42.160\nyou know, that customer mania piece is clearly of utmost importance. It's also\n\n1369\n01:01:42.160 --> 01:01:43.120\nthat skill of\n\n1370\n01:01:43.120 --> 01:01:46.600\ncreating a culture where everyone counts that I feel like the CEOs who came up\n\n1371\n01:01:46.600 --> 01:01:47.360\nat Young Brands\n\n1372\n01:01:47.360 --> 01:01:51.320\nhave done at their companies and and something that's allowing them to\n\n1373\n01:01:51.320 --> 01:01:52.960\nexperience a lot of success,\n\n1374\n01:01:52.960 --> 01:01:56.080\nKevin Hoffman is just he's a great marketer. And I think he came up at\n\n1375\n01:01:56.080 --> 01:01:56.960\nmarketing at Young Brands,\n\n1376\n01:01:56.960 --> 01:02:03.970\nbut he's running Brinker now and Chili's is having a moment. And I can see why\n\n1377\n01:02:03.970 --> 01:02:04.960\npeople love\n\n1378\n01:02:04.960 --> 01:02:08.090\nworking with Kevin because he celebrates the heck out of all the folks that\n\n1379\n01:02:08.090 --> 01:02:08.960\nworked for him.\n\n1380\n01:02:08.960 --> 01:02:13.130\nYeah, and let's take another guy who's an incredible leader. Let's take Andy J\n\n1381\n01:02:13.130 --> 01:02:13.520\nassy,\n\n1382\n01:02:13.520 --> 01:02:18.080\nwho we had a conversation with. He's a CEO of Amazon. If you haven't read it,\n\n1383\n01:02:18.080 --> 01:02:18.960\nyou got to read it.\n\n1384\n01:02:18.960 --> 01:02:24.480\nYou got to read Andy Andy's annual letter. And he talks about the culture that\n\n1385\n01:02:24.480 --> 01:02:25.360\nthey have to have\n\n1386\n01:02:25.360 --> 01:02:30.430\nto be able to embrace change and keep keep driving new initiatives. And he\n\n1387\n01:02:30.430 --> 01:02:30.960\ntalks about\n\n1388\n01:02:30.960 --> 01:02:36.140\ntheir strategic pillars that that are just so incredible, but it's it. You know\n\n1389\n01:02:36.140 --> 01:02:37.040\n, here's a guy\n\n1390\n01:02:37.040 --> 01:02:41.880\nwho understands the importance of simplifying. You know, even mentioned and I\n\n1391\n01:02:41.880 --> 01:02:42.640\nlove this is the\n\n1392\n01:02:43.200 --> 01:02:48.400\nis one of his favorite bands is the the best. Okay. And they have a song about\n\n1393\n01:02:48.400 --> 01:02:49.040\nhow things are\n\n1394\n01:02:49.040 --> 01:02:54.080\nnot always in the straight line. And that you got to be able to adjust the\n\n1395\n01:02:54.080 --> 01:02:55.200\nthings when the line\n\n1396\n01:02:55.200 --> 01:03:00.050\nchanges. And you know, he does a great job of using that as the theme for his\n\n1397\n01:03:00.050 --> 01:03:00.800\nannual report.\n\n1398\n01:03:00.800 --> 01:03:04.290\nA great example of what I'm talking about, you know, he makes his point in a\n\n1399\n01:03:04.290 --> 01:03:05.440\nway that you remember\n\n1400\n01:03:05.440 --> 01:03:10.650\nit. And he breaks through the clutter with his communication. And I think that\n\n1401\n01:03:10.650 --> 01:03:11.360\n's that's very\n\n1402\n01:03:11.360 --> 01:03:14.510\nimportant. But I can't believe I didn't say that you got to build a culture\n\n1403\n01:03:14.510 --> 01:03:15.440\nwhere everyone counts\n\n1404\n01:03:15.440 --> 01:03:20.280\nbecause that's job number one. And I didn't I didn't discover that myself. But\n\n1405\n01:03:20.280 --> 01:03:20.480\nyou know,\n\n1406\n01:03:20.480 --> 01:03:24.240\nby you know, that's not my my idea. I learned that by studying all the great\n\n1407\n01:03:24.240 --> 01:03:25.040\ncompanies.\n\n1408\n01:03:25.040 --> 01:03:28.400\nAnd all the great companies do create a culture where everyone counts and they\n\n1409\n01:03:28.400 --> 01:03:29.120\nrecognize their\n\n1410\n01:03:29.120 --> 01:03:33.350\npeople and their people feel valued. So so that's a transferable skill that any\n\n1411\n01:03:33.350 --> 01:03:34.080\nleader can take\n\n1412\n01:03:34.080 --> 01:03:38.140\ninto any business. So thanks for bringing that up. Cool. Absolutely. Well,\n\n1413\n01:03:38.140 --> 01:03:38.480\nDavid,\n\n1414\n01:03:38.480 --> 01:03:42.980\nafter this conversation, I am inspired to do a much better job at taking care\n\n1415\n01:03:42.980 --> 01:03:43.280\nof my\n\n1416\n01:03:43.280 --> 01:03:48.130\nyard because it looks very sad right now. But hopefully my neighborhood is a\n\n1417\n01:03:48.130 --> 01:03:48.560\ntrue green\n\n1418\n01:03:48.560 --> 01:03:53.440\nneighborhood very soon. And I will get all the people using true green. Yeah.\n\n1419\n01:03:53.440 --> 01:03:54.000\nAnd you know,\n\n1420\n01:03:54.000 --> 01:03:58.160\nI think while you're taking care of your yard, I think all of our listeners can\n\n1421\n01:03:58.160 --> 01:03:59.040\ncan remember the\n\n1422\n01:03:59.040 --> 01:04:02.340\nimportance of staying focused on their core customer and making sure that they\n\n1423\n01:04:02.340 --> 01:04:02.880\n're driving\n\n1424\n01:04:02.880 --> 01:04:07.100\nfrequency and retaining them and and making sure that you communicate your\n\n1425\n01:04:07.100 --> 01:04:08.400\nstrategy as simply as\n\n1426\n01:04:08.400 --> 01:04:13.600\npossible and go back to it time and time again. And then, you know, know that,\n\n1427\n01:04:13.600 --> 01:04:14.720\nyou know, if you\n\n1428\n01:04:14.720 --> 01:04:18.630\nwant to move across businesses, whatever, you know, you got to create that\n\n1429\n01:04:18.630 --> 01:04:19.760\nculture where everyone\n\n1430\n01:04:19.760 --> 01:04:24.610\ncounts and your team members need to want to come to work. And you have to be\n\n1431\n01:04:24.610 --> 01:04:25.760\nable to understand\n\n1432\n01:04:25.760 --> 01:04:30.610\nyour customers really well and then be able to drive the execution that will\n\n1433\n01:04:30.610 --> 01:04:31.360\nmake sure that your\n\n1434\n01:04:31.360 --> 01:04:36.400\nstrategies come to life. And I think those are all points that we're well made\n\n1435\n01:04:36.400 --> 01:04:37.360\nin this conversation\n\n1436\n01:04:37.360 --> 01:04:41.410\nwith Kurt. Well, thank you again, Kurt, for an excellent episode of How Leaders\n\n1437\n01:04:41.410 --> 01:04:42.240\nLead. And thank\n\n1438\n01:04:42.240 --> 01:04:46.350\nyou, David. And thank you to our listeners for tuning in to another episode of\n\n1439\n01:04:46.350 --> 01:04:47.520\nHow Leaders Lead.\n\n1440\n01:04:47.520 --> 01:04:49.200\nWe will see you next Thursday.\n","pretty_transcript","is_pinned",0,"mix_url","https://chtbl.com/track/DCB44F/traffic.megaphone.fm/DVL8220292237.mp3","dx_media_id",3638,"published_date","2026-04-30","itunes_episode_id",289,"youtube_id","llYUJQZJGac","leader_id",276,"dx_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/MonFuVg9dJ2fSlAcJ1oHPYojihG0FocrCiJsY6um.mp3","dx_mux_playback_id","QZQCde5Edg29Zh5dX6hWtGWU4xa8z8hptrIVPqIM318","dx_waveform_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/waveforms/3638.json","duration",3898688,"dx_media",{"_5":21,"_40":41,"_42":31,"_43":33,"_44":45,"_46":35,"_36":37,"_47":-5},"filename","MonFuVg9dJ2fSlAcJ1oHPYojihG0FocrCiJsY6um.mp3","url","mux_playback_id","mux_asset_id","Lb6WUGTo8jBKxH4PvYnygWKSySulq8WN65xqTxwgKxA","waveform_url","preview_media_id","root","actionData","errors"]