On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White gets personal after what he calls the most rewarding, stressful, and change-filled two weeks of his career. Coming back from a three month sabbatical, he saw K&D with fresh eyes and realized how far the company had drifted from its vision.

So he made a drastic call: he abolished the leadership team that had been in place since 2015.

In this update:

Why Justin dissolved the leadership team K&D has run since 2015 The broken trust behind the reset, and the warning he gives before you try it The perspective exercise that reframes your final 70 days of 2026 A first look at Monday's emergency robotics as a service live stream

Justin breaks down why decentralizing decisions can speed a company up and where it can quietly go wrong, plus the Brad Jacobs lessons on systems, pivots, and building a company brain that are shaping K&D's 2027.

If you are heading into the end of the year carrying both pride and frustration, this reflective update will help you take back control and finish the year strong.

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Weekly Updates are powered by Kress! https://www.jwhitegroup.com/kress

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with Peter Murphy Lewis, founder of Strategic Pete and one of the most creative storytellers working in marketing today. Peter went from Kansas to Boston, then to Chile on a diplomatic scholarship, built a travel company that hosted Beyonce and Paul McCartney, and eventually landed his own Chilean version of Dirty Jobs where he worked 100 different jobs on camera (including boxing a 120 pound national champion who beat him in three rounds).

He now runs Strategic Pete, coaches 200-plus CEOs on storytelling, and does documentaries for private equity turnarounds, misunderstood industries, and companies preparing for exit. Justin brings him inside the K&D story to build a real content playbook live on air.

In this episode:

• You do not have a content problem, you have a proof problem: why authenticity beats polish, and why the documentary format outperforms every other content type at changing minds
• The Elephant in the Room framework: find the biggest gap between what people think about your industry and what is actually true, then confront it head on
• Who should tell your story, and why it usually is not the CEO: raving fans, frontline crew, and kids/elderly as unexpected content vehicles
• The Landscape Ninjas concept: how K&D's all electric fleet became a story about noise, peace, and quiet homes, and Peter's exact experiment design for turning that into a viral series
• Storytelling as a PE tool: how the right video asset added a third bidder in a healthcare SaaS exit and materially increased the multiple

Peter's trade secret is one you can start using today. Everyone is good at telling stories, but they struggle to tell their own. Start with a person who impacted your life. Tell their story. You will learn how to tell yours in the process.

If you are a trades operator sitting on a K&D-sized content opportunity you have never unlocked, a founder preparing for an exit and wondering what actually moves the multiple, or a CEO who has been publishing content without a clear goal, this one is the wake up call and the playbook in the same hour.

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo Peter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermurphylewis/ Strategic Pete: https://strategicpete.com/ K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/

On this Weekly Update of Trades Talk, Justin White is back solo with the podcast board loading up fast. Fresh off interviews with David Meltzer, Ryan Hawk, Ellen Rohr, Al Levi, Robert Underwood of AAA Landscape, and Nathan Dirksen of 7Ds, Justin digs into a pattern he keeps seeing: incredible companies built by founders and by second, third, and fourth generation leaders who started at the bottom and climbed their way up. Then he gets into what is really on his mind this week, the AI S-curve, the reason The Disruptors is going contractor only, and what four weeks away from K&D has taught him.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why Justin believes we are hitting the top of the AI S-curve, and why the real value is shifting from vibe coded apps to skills, including his new CEO Coach built on Bill Campbell and The Trillion Dollar Coach.
• The first gear problem: most people are driving a Ferrari in first gear and blaming the car. Second gear is automated workflows, third is agents, fourth is agents overseeing agents. Come learn to shift at the contractor only AI Roundtable on Monday, August 10 at 11 AM PST.
• The decision to make The Disruptors a contractor only community, moving from about 105 members to 95, and the philosophy behind it: traditional values, new ideas, and massive action.
• Four weeks into stepping back as CEO, and what it taught Justin about identity, purpose, and finding fuel outside the work, plus why consistency beats intensity when you look at your KPIs.
• What is next at K&D: a new Innovation Specialist role to deploy more AI and robotics, the goal to reinvest 25 percent of profits into innovation, and fall events including NALP Elevate November 8 to 12 and an AI experience for landscape executives on November 8 with Justin and Sean.

Justin's core message this week is simple. Most operators are stuck in first gear with AI and deciding the technology is overrated, when the real problem is that no one ever showed them how to shift. The owners who win will treat AI as a tool to master, not a fad to dismiss.

Trade secret: stop obsessing over outcomes and constantly changing your inputs. Nail the right activities, then give them enough time to work. Consistency beats intensity every single time.

If you are a trades owner, an operator making the jump from doing the work to leading the team, or a leader trying to actually put AI to work, this one is the playbook.

Weekly Updates are powered by Kress! https://www.jwhitegroup.com/kress

JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-white-%E2%98%85-35b7a210b/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/