Vince Torchia shares insights from over 250 members across 19 ACE peer groups about what's top of mind heading into spring 2026. From creating more leaders without micromanaging to understanding the difference between owner math and financial knowledge, to the red-yellow-green client rating system, Vince breaks down the three critical areas landscape business owners are focused on right now.

ACE Peer Groups

Register for ACE Discovery - March 25-27th

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Episode Timestamps

00:51 - Key Topics for Spring 2026

01:02 - Leadership In Your Organization

05:24 - Enhancing Financial Knowledge

08:52 - Defining Your Company’s Vision

12:40 - ACE Discovery 2026

Key Learnings

Leadership: Create Leaders Who Can Make Decisions Without Permission – What do I do to get more leaders at my organization? What kind of environment do we need to create where somebody can make a decision for a customer, make a decision for our team, invest time or money without having to come ask me as the owner? We've set up an organization where people can go take action and have some autonomy.

The Nick Saban Coaching Tree Analogy – All four coaches that made it through the college football playoffs were coaches under Nick Saban at one time or another. His ability to be a great coach was also an ability to create other leaders, not just people that did whatever Nick Saban wanted them to do. The more people that we have at our organization that are leaders, the better that we will do.

Soft Skills Are the Real Skills – It's really not about the technical side of landscaping or maintenance or irrigation or snow. It's all about the soft skills. How do you have a tough conversation? How do you coach? How do you lead? How do you give corrective behavior tools and still have them appreciate and respect what you're doing?

10 Years Ago It Was Just Me, Now It's Eight Leaders – Marty talks about it a lot. 10 years ago, he felt like it was him, maybe one other individual from Grunder who thought like an owner. Now there's eight of us on the leadership team, and many managers feel the same way about having the ability to make a decision, the ability to run the ball.

Owner Math vs. Financial Knowledge – A lot of ACE members are great at owner math or napkin math. We know how many trucks are going out, we can tell by morning activity what we're at from a capacity standpoint. But my cash isn't matching my P&L. I have no strategy around debt servicing or liquidity. People are paying slower now. My AR days are higher than usual.

Profitability and Cash Flow Are Not the Same Thing – The profitability moves from your P&L to your balance sheet. It's an accounting equation. The more we understand those levers, the better we can operate, the better we can have conversations with our banker, our lawyer, our insurance agent, our vendors.

Red, Yellow, Green Client Rating System – Green means we love working with them, it's sustainable, profitable, enjoyable. Yellow, I don't know about these people, we might need to value engineer. Red, we're not making money, we're never making them happy, they're not referring us. Honor your contracts this year, but rate them and make a plan.

Spring Is When You Ask the Hard Questions – Every spring, we go back out on clients' properties and the question enters our mind: should we be doing this work for this client? When we're at our most stressed is when we really start to ask the...

The busy season is around the corner and will expose the cracks in your systems. Prepare for the spring rush now with these tips from Marty Grunder on organizing your calendar, setting and focusing on priorities, planning ahead, and more to calm the chaos of spring.

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Episode Timestamps

00:55 - Proven Winners and Marketing Ideas

01:52 - The Busy Season is Coming

03:31 - Use Your Calendar as a Leadership Tool

04:02 - Sales Leaders: Proactive Client Communication

05:17 - Operation Leaders: Planning and Coordination

07:02 - Owners and Senior Leaders: Strategic Thinking

10:08 - Look Ahead & Reduce Surprises

12:03 - Doing Tomorrow’s Work Today

15:27 - Habits for Handling Pressure

18:48 - Prepare Now or Pay Later

20:29 - Please Share & Subscribe!

Key Learnings

The busy season doesn't create problems, it reveals them. If things feel chaotic in April, they were probably disorganized in February.

Your calendar is a statement of priorities. If something is not on your calendar, it's optional, and optional things don't survive a busy season.

The people who win the spring are the people who prepare in the winter. Things never slow down, they just change shape.

Sales leaders need three daily habits: prospect, nurture, close. Every day I prospect, every day I nurture, every day I close.

Without planning, you're not leading, you're chasing your tail. Operations leaders need time blocked for planning, crew coordination, equipment readiness, and problem prevention.

Somebody has to be thinking about tomorrow, next month, next year. If your calendar doesn't have any time for thinking as an owner, is that really where you want to be?

When pressure goes up, memory goes down. Write things down and capture commitments, or you'll forget customer requests while driving.

Your brain is for thinking, not storage. Clear your head daily before you go home so you can lead.

Simple beats fancy every time. One program with a couple bolt-ons at most, not 16 different programs on your iPad.

Prepare now or pay later. You can either prepare now and lead calmly, or react later with a raging river and out-of-control mess.

What to Calendar Right Now

SALES LEADERS:

• Proactive client communication
• Proposal review time
• Relationship building
• Daily: Prospect, Nurture, Close

OPERATIONS LEADERS:

• Planning time (spring cleanups, construction, leaf season)
• Crew coordination (who's on what crew, where)
• Equipment readiness
• Problem prevention (review last year's issues)

OWNERS & SENIOR LEADERS:

• Time for thinking (staring out the window counts)
• Reviewing the business
• Talent development conversations
• Planning for tomorrow, next month, next year

Resources:

ACE Peer Groups

Virtual Sales Bootcamp

Grunder La...

This episode's a little different: we're bringing you Marty's keynote address that opened GROW! 2025 as we're onsite in Dallas, TX for GROW! 2026. Listen to hear Marty's take on growing a landscaping business. He shares the hurdles that stood in the way of growing Grunder Landscaping Co., how they overcame them, and what's ahead for businesses that are excited for the future.

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Episode Timestamps

01:53 - Keynote Intro

04:34 - The Importance of Growth and Community

07:53 - Personal Stories & Lessons Learned

13:48 - Early Business Challenges & Successes

20:42 - The Birth of a Speaking Career

21:40 - Financial Struggles & Family Values

23:03 - Lessons Learned Through Growth

27:33 - The Importance of Team and Client Relationships

29:40 - Creating a Positive Company Culture

38:40 - Please Like & Subscribe!

Key Learnings

Growth Isn't Linear – In my 41 years of business, I've found that growth isn't linear. It's not a straight line. It doesn't happen that way. And it's not easy. I'm a 40 year overnight success story.

Training Is an Investment, Not an Expense – The best way that you can grow a team is by making an investment in them. Sending them to something like this is way more than training. This is an experience. This is what can happen when you get around other risk-taking peers and let your hair down.

The Christmas Party I Threw for Myself – I spent a lot of money on a nice party at a fancy restaurant. An employee pulled me aside: "We had to buy nice clothes. Our pallets aren't as sophisticated as yours. Pizza and bowling would've been fine. Give us a cash bonus." Who'd I throw the party for? Myself. I made that party about myself.

Our New Mission Statement Puts Team First – Creating opportunities for our team to grow and succeed by enhancing the beauty and value of every client's property. The first sentence there, creating opportunities for our team to grow and succeed, that is our focus. Not about Seth, not about Marty, it's about the team.

Business Is Like Golf – You grab that club real hard and swing harder and the ball doesn't go anywhere. You hold the club like a bird and swing it real easy and it's amazing how far the ball goes. I'm hitting my five iron 30 yards longer. Business is the same way. When we try too hard, when we push, when we make it about ourselves, we lose.

$2.1 Billion in Combined Revenue in This Room – The combined revenue of all the landscape companies in this room right now is $2.1 billion. If we all leave here with our head on straight, with new ideas, making it about the team, not about ourselves, a rising tide raises all boats.

Don't Go to Dinner by Yourself – The only way you're gonna get in trouble with me here today is if you go to dinner by yourself. This is a warm, caring community that wants to help you. I don't care how big or small your business is.

Learn From the Little Guys Too – I got a buddy in a peer group with all these huge companies. Third year he quit. They were talking about captives, vacation houses, investments. He said, "I want to talk about where are you parking the truck and how are you maximizing that? How are you keeping those hourly workers?" There's secrets in those day-to-day struggles.

Stress Is Caused Because You're Out of Control – Look for ideas so you and your team can work together with less stress. Doesn't that sound fun? Stress is caused because you're out of control and you don't know what...

In this episode, Marty Grunder and executive coach Chris Psencik explore how small, consistent actions compound into extraordinary results. Drawing from Captain Michael Abrashoff's leadership principles in "It's Your Ship," they break down practical applications across the Four P Framework: Platform, People, Process, and Profits. The conversation emphasizes that success in the landscape industry comes from mastering the details that most people overlook.

Marty's Desk Pad

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Episode Timestamps

01:58 - Introducing Chris Psencik

03:50 - The Importance of Little Things in Business

05:00 - Book Discussion: Creating Owners & Leaders

08:37 - The Four P Framework

10:00 - Platform: Speed and Execution

14:49 - People: Training and One-on-Ones

18:01 - Process: Systems and Efficiency

18:54 - Proactive Client Engagement

20:02 - Analyzing and Improving Proposals

21:16 - Maximizing Software Utilization

22:19 - Bite-Sized Profit Strategies

23:22 - Overcoming Sales Challenges

25:17 - The Importance of Peer Groups

30:28 - Success Through Attention to Detail

33:40 - Sign Up for GROW 2026!

Key Learnings

Speed Kills (In a Good Way): When a customer is ready to buy, they have Google, ChatGPT, and a list of competitors at their fingertips. The companies that respond fastest win. Chris shared how many businesses complain about needing more sales when the real problem is response time. The calls are coming in. The return speed is the bottleneck.

Marty's Take: "Good things come to those who wait, but only the things left behind by those who didn't. Seize the day. What are you waiting for?"

Create Owners, Not Employees: Captain Abrashoff's transformation of the USS Benfold offers a blueprint for landscape companies. He turned a failing ship into one of the Navy's most productive by pushing decision-making down, creating clarity, and building relationships at every level. The key insight: you cannot scale by micromanaging. You scale by creating people who think and act like owners.

Chris's Perspective: "So many people think they can just white-knuckle those companies and grab their bootstraps and get their hands dirty. But once a company reaches a certain size, it takes successful people to really do that."

Leverage the Wins: Recognition does not require elaborate systems. A shout-out with a Payday candy bar. Acknowledging someone in a team meeting who embodied a core value. These small moments reinforce culture more than any policy manual. The mistake most companies make is not capitalizing on things going well.

Example from Marty: When a crew member spotted a drainage issue, reported it, and helped close a $3,800 sale, that story became a teaching moment about what "speed kills" means in practice.

Train When You Have Time, Execute When You Don't: Chris highlighted how Curtis Atkinson uses the winter months strategically. Instead of viewing slow seasons as downtime, he treats them as preparation time. His team enters spring ready to execute rather than scrambling to figure things out when revenue opportunities are highest.

The Principle: "Think with the end in mind. Where do we need to get? We need revenue. When do we want it? First an...

In this episode, Kevin Keim shares what he's learned in his career, the mistakes he's made, and the tips he has for landscape pros to create great SOPs and manage change in their organization. He shares tips for ensuring smoother transitions when you make a change and for documenting SOPs with low-cost (or free) tools.

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Episode Timestamps

00:30 - Introduction & Welcome

02:40 - Megan’s Background and Connection to Landscaping

04:52 - The Importance of Accountability

10:01 - Skill and Will in Leadership

11:56 - Practical Tools for Accountability

16:47 - Advice for Landscaping Business Owners

22:33 - What to Expect at Grow 2026

My $40,000 Mistake: I Implemented Change Too Fast – I knew this from Dow, I just never did anything with it. It landed very differently after I made my first bungle, which cost about $40,000 in mistakes. That's just what I could calculate. I'm sure there was a lot more residual impact outside of that. The first thing I did when I came in was realize we needed to change our scheduling software. I rolled it out in three weeks. Big mistake.

The Five Steps of Change Management – First, create awareness. Why are we doing this? Second, desire. What's in it for me? Third, knowledge. How do I do this? Fourth, ability. Can I actually do this? Fifth, reinforcement. How do we make sure this sticks? Most people skip straight to knowledge without building awareness and desire first. That's where I went wrong.

Don't Stare at a Blank Screen, Just Start With Something – Whether it's change recipes or SOPs, just start with something. Starting is how you go do anything. We started on paper, flip charts literally, moved to a digital format, and then towards the end we took all of our SOPs and put them in ChatGPT and they could prompt and ask questions. Baby steps are okay as long as you've got that consistent change and you're communicating the vision.

Use ChatGPT to Build Your SOPs for Free – You can go into ChatGPT and say, "I'm the president of a $5 million landscaping company. I'm struggling with how to implement change and get SOPs and get more of my team on the same page. What would you suggest I do?" You will be amazed at the fire starters that come out of that conversation. You can upload documents, ask it to rewrite things in simpler language, create step-by-step guides.

An Employee Who Doesn't Know How to Do Their Job Leads to Burnout – An employee who doesn't know how to do their job leads to frustration, which leads to burnout, which leads to turnover, which is extremely costly. Not having an SOP, a documented one especially when you go to onboarding, is not an option. The biggest freeing moment we had was realizing that holding onto bad employees because you don't have a good onboarding process is what was holding us back.

Paint the Vision of What's In It For Them – You gotta paint the vision of what's in it for them. You gotta get them to understand how it can make it easier on them. People at your company don't want to show up and have you hand them a pack of papers with drawings and phone numbers in a three ring binder. It's all on their phone now. It's so much easier. But if you're used to using paper, it does take a while to get there.

Change Happens in Baby Steps With Consistent Communication – We started with flip charts, moved to digital, then to ChatGPT. Each step made sense for where we were. You don...

In this episode, Marty Grunder is joined by executive coach Megan Parker whose coaching has been instrumental in many landscaping companies' success and whose sessions at past GROW sessions have helped managers become the leaders their teams need. They talk about accountability as leaders and how to encourage accountability among their teams.

ACE Peer Groups
StrengthsFinder 2.0

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Episode Timestamps

00:30 - Introduction & Welcome

02:40 - Megan’s Background and Connection to Landscaping

04:52 - The Importance of Accountability

10:01 - Skill and Will in Leadership

11:56 - Practical Tools for Accountability

16:47 - Advice for Landscaping Business Owners

22:33 - What to Expect at Grow 2026

Key Learnings

Accountability Is a $10 Word That Gets a Bad Rap – Accountability is one of those $10 words. It's a great word, but a lot of times I find that people don't really know what accountability means or how to do it. When you think of accountability, what word or feeling comes to mind? My guess is your reaction might not have been a positive one.

The Three Key Ingredients of Accountability – First, you have to have clear expectations. If we are not on the same page about how to plant a tree, then you can't hold me accountable for the way the tree was planted. Second, we need to have resources. I have to have the ability to do my job. Third, those consequences. If you and I are not clear on what happens as a result of a failure to meet those expectations, then you can't truly hold me accountable.

Skill and Will: Why Accountability Is So Hard – When I think about why it is so hard, I think about two things: skill and will. Does the person have the skill to do it? And do they have the will to hold someone accountable? Skill means do I know how to hold people accountable? Do I literally know how to have a conversation without flying off the handle? Will is, am I willing to hold people accountable, to be the bad guy, to worry about what people will think of me?

Flying Off the Handle Sends People Into Fight, Flight, or Freeze – You're gonna send people into fight, flight, or freeze mode. Everyone will have one of those three reactions. When you go into that mode without the skill to have that conversation, you're gonna send people into fight, flight, or freeze mode, and nothing productive is gonna come from that. That's why the skill part is really important.

A-Players Don't Want to Work With People Who Aren't A-Players – Do you want to work for someone who will not hold you accountable? The answer is typically no. The biggest issue with people who aren't pulling their weight is that other A-players do not want to work with people who are not A-players. Your best employees, your A-players, they want to be held to a high standard. They want to be held accountable, and they want others on the team to be held to that same standard.

The Pilot Never Says "Let Me Call My Supervisor" – Your expectation for the pilot is that they need to get a plane full of people to the destination safely. If you're flying through a storm, you can adjust altitude or fly around it. Never once have you ever heard the pilot say, "I need to reroute, but I need to call my supervisor and ask him." You don't want your clients feeling like the perso...

In this episode of The Grow Show, Vince Torchia and Emily Lindley detail the planning that has gone into GROW! 2026, what will be different about this year's event, and how landscape pros can get the most out of this learning experience - whether they attend or not.

Sign up for Grow 2026!

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Episode Timestamps

00:50 - Introduction to Grow 2026

02:04 - Insights from the Peer Groups

03:45 - Event Space and Logistics

04:50 - Changes to the Tour Schedule and Innovations

08:20 - Networking and Dining Rounds

10:27 - Maximizing Your Event Experience

14:18 - Ways to Follow Grow 2026

Key Learnings

We're Expecting About 1,000 More People Than 10 Years Ago – Complete Land Sculpture hosted this event 10 years ago in 2016. We had about 225 people. We might have a thousand more people than that for 2026. Gene and Chris have been to every Grow since 2016, so they have awesome ideas and know how they want their tour to run.

More Space Than Last Year—No Crowded Escalators – Last year we had an awesome event in Columbus hosted by Hidden Creek. We had a lot of late signups, which we loved, but there were some tight breakout rooms, tight space with sponsors at happy hours. Other than escalators working in Dallas, I am excited that we have larger space this year—more space in our main stage room, breakout rooms, and general function area.

The Tour Is Reinvented: Fewer Stations, More Time – Gene and Chris put together a really good tour schedule that involves less stations that are longer. So we have more time in stations, less movement of people, some more movement of presenters, and finally an actual formal walking tour of the facility. We've also taken some of those tour stations and brought them back to the hotel.

Divide and Conquer Breakout Sessions as a Team – I would set up a meeting two weeks before the event with all the people from your team who are attending. Look at the agenda, pick out which breakout sessions everybody's going to. What I would recommend is that teams divide and conquer. Don't all go to the same breakout session. Take your notes and come back together to share knowledge from all the different sessions.

Set a Pre-Event and Post-Event Team Meeting – During that pre-event meeting, talk about dine arounds, dinner reservations, what you want to get out of it as a team. Is there a specific challenge you're facing that you really want to find an answer to at Grow? After the event, do a debrief. Talk about breakout sessions, notes, takeaways, action items. Narrow down everything to five things you're gonna implement over the next year.

Think: Today, 30 Days, 60-90 Days – Think about what's one thing you're gonna get done today, what's low hanging fruit you can get done right away when you get back home. What's something you're gonna get done in the next 30 days? And then what's something you're gonna get done in the next 60 or 90 days? Make it a manageable to-do list so it doesn't just live in a notebook.

We Listen to 210+ Companies to Build the Agenda – We're always listening to not only what we're experiencing at Grunder Landscaping Company, but also taking a deep dive into the over 210 companies that we have in our ACE peer groups. We take into account all those meetings, conversations, accountability calls, and naturally things just bubble up to the top. We'll have more breakout sessions than we've ever had this year.

Resources:

In this episode, Vince Torchia shares how he sees landscaping companies set their year up for success early with planning, refining messaging, defining the wins, and communicating all of this with teams. He shares the themes that have driven Grunder Landscaping's growth and messaging, and how to evaluate where your focus should be for 2026.

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Episode Timestamps

01:32 Setting Up for Success: The Importance of a Yearly Theme

05:05 Recognizing and Appreciating Your Team

09:45 Effective Communication Strategies for 2026

13:54 Conclusion and Upcoming Events

Resources:

Virtual Sales Bootcamp

Grunder Landscaping Field Trips

The Grow Group

Grunder Landscaping

Marty Grunder LinkedIn

Stihl

Key Learnings

1. PICK YOUR THEME

• What is your theme for 2026?
• Is it a culture year? A sales year? An operational efficiency year?
• There are no right or wrong themes
• Think about 2025, think about what needs to happen in 2026
• Kick it around with managers, leaders, salespeople
• Examples: "Back to Basics," "Grow Maintenance," "Be the Buffalo"
• How will you communicate it? End meetings with it? Recognize people for living it?

2. RECOGNIZE THE UNDERAPPRECIATED

Team Members: Who needs to feel the love? Thank you notes, praising in public, opportunities for advancement

• Clients: Who never complains, always pays on time, refers business, but we take for granted?
• Vendors/Subs: Who springs into action when we need them? Who's making things happen for our business? Host a luncheon, be top of mind for referrals, bring them a meal, recognize their team

3. CREATE YOUR COMMUNICATION PLAN

Put communication on your calendar for what's happening in the business

• At Grunder: Monthly "Grow Meeting" - state of the union, all hands on deck, same message at the same time
• Do you have monthly meetings? Scoreboards? Written communication in English and Spanish?
• Chart the course so no team member ever has to ask: How are we doing? Where are we trending? What's the update?

Reflection Questions

1. If you asked your entire team right now "What's our theme for 2026?"—would they all say the same thing, or would you get blank stares?
2. Who are the three most underappreciated people in your business (team members, clients, or vendors) who deserve recognition but never get it b...