How a Culture Shift Transformed Matt Denyer's Landscaping Business

From episode: EP38 - The Power of Business Culture with Matt Denyer

We're talking about your path and how you got to where you were. So now it's been 12 years. How many people are working with you? About 15 right now. 15 guys. Okay. And then you divide them into how many crews? We've got three full -time in -house crews, two full -time project managers, and then a lot of subs depending on, you know, what the workflow is looking like. And then all your crews do the same thing or you have different crews set up for different things? So we've got, we've got, you know, hardscaping guys, we've got plant guys, we've got, you guys, and just as the business has grown, it's all, it's been about elevating each one of those crews, like making each one of those crews better so that the level of work and the level of craftsmanship we can put out in each one of those types of work is better. And that's just the field. That's not even talking about the backend, the office, the team, the leadership team. And culture has been like a huge thing that has really been, even just within the last, you know, few months has been majorly shifting. So what do you mean about culture? Talk to me about that. So as you grow a business, like you have things that you feel, you know, values that are instilled with you, that you feel like this is kind of how I want my business to look like. And I think sometimes I've sacrificed in the past culture, not values, but what I want my business to look like, and I've hired people based on their skill and let culture be like a secondary thing. And I've learned it, like it kills your business because the culture is the most important thing to be able to forward the vision that you've been given, even within the last few months. Like I was talking to my guy on the way down here, my sales guy, you know, we were like hanging up, he was driving, he works part -time as a firefighter, he was driving to work. And as we were hanging up, I was like, love your brother, you know, be safe today. And just to have a team where you can communicate to each other like that, I would have never done that, you know, even six months ago. And it's not that I've ever had bad people or, you know, and sometimes I'm the problem. It's just having people that align with your core values and who you are as a person, at least in your leadership team, is monumental because that's when you start taking a company and you take it from good to great