NALP Experience

THE NALP EXPERIENCE Meet NALP’s Newest Trailblazers

Chase Mullin of Mullin

CHASE MULLIN HAS ALWAYS KNOWN THE VALUE—AND REWARD— of hard work. He grew up working construction jobs within the residential home building field for a family friend. When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Mullin was enrolled at University of New Orleans and immediately jumped into action helping local families to rebuild by installing projects designed by a local landscape architect. During that time, he started to rethink whether his pursuit of a degree in exercise physiology was truly where he wanted his future to take him. Around the same time, he was given the opportunity to work full-time for a landscape contractor. Then the true path of his future really began to take hold. ou d t landscape c

“Working for him led me to the decision that this is what I wanted to do,” Mullin recalls. “When I told him I was going off on my own, he smiled, because he’d always known. It was as though he had wanted someone to impart his wisdom onto, so he’d taken me under his wing.”

Today, things have come full circle. Mullin, who is now president and CEO of Mullin in St. Rose, Louisiana, is looking forward to the opportunity to be a mentor through the Trailblazers. We reached out to find out more about him.

WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT IN BUSINESS? There have been many, but the construction of our new facility in 2017 was a proud moment that stands out. About a year into business I visited Grunder Landscaping. Prior to that I didn’t realize the height of what a landscaping company could achieve. To see a really well-set-up facility was inspiring. That shaped my early vision for what I wanted this company to be. The design and construction of our facility has helped us achieve that vision. It gives our people a better environment to work in, and that’s something that we’re proud of.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST BUSINESS CHALLENGE? Like others in the industry, labor is one of the biggest challenges. But another is the fact that there is no road map on how to set up a business or how to build an organization that works for everyone. So many of the decisions we have to make are based on gut or intuition. For example, when do you hire your first non-billable person? How do you know you have the need to keep them employed? Not having a clear roadmap to follow in these decisions is a challenge.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU ON A MONDAY MORNING? Working toward achieving the vision we set forth for our company is my motivation. I set out to support my family, our people, and to develop an environment that would continue to allow us to offer more opportunities for our team. Knowing the role I play is beneficial to that desired outcome is very motivating to me.

WHO IS YOUR BUSINESS MENTOR OR IDOL? I’ve learned a lot from a number of people over the years. My current mentor is Ken Thomas. He’s helped us better define the structure of who we are and where we’re going as a company. I truly appreciate the work that Ken does. He helps people like me improve their businesses, which results in better lives for us, our team members and our families.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BUSINESS BOOK? I read a lot of books but the best book I read recently is “Traction” by Gino Wickman. I’ve read quite a few books that illustrate business operating systems. But this one seems to be the easiest to implement and the most relevant to the landscape industry.

12 The Landscape Professional //January/February 2020 WHAT LED YOU TO BECOME AN NALP TRAILBLAZER? My entire life, I’ve had a keen interest in helping people through my experiences. That’s what led me to become a Trailblazer—just the ability to give back and help others the way people have helped me. It means a lot to me to be able to help other people. I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way but I’ve also done a few things right. To be able to help others through sharing my experience is important to me.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO OFFER THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE? I’m looking forward to developing new friendships and giving back to the industry that’s given so much to me.

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOUR BUSINESS IN FIVE YEARS? I see Mullin continuing to grow. This will continue to raise the ceiling for our people to achieve more with us. As we move into the future, I look forward to being able to create opportunities for new team members. I also want to create opportunities for existing team members to continue to grow within the company.

CHRISTOPHER BROWN’S START IN THE INDUSTRY BEGAN AS A summer job working on a golf course. He loved being outdoors in the fresh air. That and his fascination with grass maintenance science lead him to pursue a turfgrass science degree from Penn State. Though he imagined he’d wind up back in the golf course industry after school, some of the aspects of being a golf course superintendent did not appeal to him. He ultimately decided that starting a lawn care business would be his best path forward. In 1995, Brown met Peter Teed, who had been working at a local lawn care company. The two started GrassRoots Lawn Care Inc. that year, which became Teed & Brown Lawn Care in 2004. Since then, the business has grown tremendously. Today it has location in Connecticut and New York.

Brown recently became one of NALP’s newest Trailblazers and we reached out to find out more about him. o ece NALP’s newe reached out t

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT IN BUSINESS? There have been a lot of moments, but one stands out. One summer my business partner and I neglected to coordinate with one another. We both scheduled a two-week summer vacation at the same time. We weren’t initially sure what to do, but we knew we’d built a good organization. So, we said to Teed & Brown management, “It’s yours for two weeks.” We left it in their hands but said we’d be available if we were needed. By the time we both returned, not only had they not reached out for more than a few quick questions, but we found the company had grown. They had signed up new business while we were away. It made us proud that we had built a good organization that could run without us.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN BUSINESS? My biggest challenge has been internalizing and understanding that management styles must evolve. The management style you use at a certain size might work well at that size but won’t necessarily work any longer once the company grows to a certain point. Understanding you have to constantly change your management style and the structure of the company and systems as you grow to accommodate that growth is a big realization—and a challenge. There’s no perfect blueprint for how to do it—just something you have to be aware of and ready to handle as you grow. WHAT MOTIVATES YOU ON A MONDAY MORNING? I love the challenge of trying to grow the business and develop a more comprehensive and larger company. For the last several years, we been growing at about 25 percent over the previous years. The challenge that motivates me is about thinking toward the future. What do we need to improve now at Teed & Brown but also what problems will we run into a year from now that we should prepare for? Working on those strategies keeps me motivated weekly.

WHO IS YOUR BUSINESS MENTOR/IDOL? Instead of having just one, I like to draw a lot of inspiration from a lot of people. For instance, you take someone like Steve Jobs. He is such a visionary and was so fearless in moving forward with his bold ideas and vision. He had such confidence and willingness to make mistakes and that was truly inspiring to me. But I’ve also heard he was horrible to work for. So, I don’t see him as someone I want to emulate as a person leading my employees. But in terms of boldness, he really inspires me.

There are other business leaders who have been great at building a really positive workplace culture, which is something else that I strive to do. Another inspiration to me is Abraham Lincoln for the primary reason that after he won and became president he pulled together “a team of rivals” that included the people fighting against him. He got them to come on board and become part of his team, so he wasn’t surrounded by “yes men.” That is probably one of the reasons he was such an effective leader—he wanted to hear other opinions besides his own.

WHAT LED YOU TO BECOME AN NALP TRAILBLAZER? Over the last 25 years of business I have learned such a tremendous amount through trial and error and kind of wish I’d availed myself of the program at an earlier stage for myself. I think a lot of the mistakes we learned over the years could have been avoided had we talked to others who’d been through it. So, I wanted to be able to give back that way— to help others learn from our trial-anderror process.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BUSINESS BOOK? There are many, but one that sticks out as being unique is “The Goal.”

The reason I enjoyed it is the author is innovative in writing from a fictional standpoint but still develops business lessons he wants to get across. You learn some tremendous business lessons about how complex organizations can run.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO OFFER THROUGH THAT EXPERIENCE? I think just from my own perspective, I’ve moved away from a lot of the turfgrass management work and much more into the business leadership and company building end of things. I think so many people are in this industry because they are good tradesmen. They start a company and build it. But then they don’t have a lot of interest in the behind-thescenes management that goes into running it. That’s boring to them or simply not their area of interest. They want to be out there creating new landscapes. What I hope I can offer is enough insight into that end of things to show it’s equally fascinating in its own way.

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AND YOUR BUSINESS IN FIVE YEARS? We have a five-year plan in place. We are hoping to add three more locations to make it five in the next five years. We also plan to be two-and-a-half to three times our current size in terms of total customer volume and revenue.

Skip Thompson of Tidewater Landscape Management

WORKING IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY AND DEALING WITH CRAZY hours and a young son at home, Skip Thompson of Tidewater Landscape Management actually found his way to the lawn and landscape industry in order to be able to obtain more manageable hours. He started at a golf course making minimum wage and filling sand traps during construction. He worked his way up as he went along.

“I did not go to college but I realized early on that if I was going to continue in this industry that I needed something, so I started the certification process and became a Landscape

Industry Certified Manager in 2002 and Technician in 2003,” Thompson shares.

Seeing what the power of certifications could do, Thompson has also been a member of the International Certification Council (ICC) and served as chair for the last three years. He helped to write the current lawn care exam and was a subject matter expert on the transformation of the hands-on exterior technician exam into an online, written exam.

Over the years, Thompson worked his way up in management and various roles, finally landing at Savannah, Georgia-based Tidewater Landscape Management in 2009 as director of operations for the military division. In 2018, he took on the role of CEO.

“I have had a lot of help along the way from a lot of people in order to get to where I am today, and I’m extremely grateful,” says Thompson.

A desire to “give back” some of that knowledge is what lead Thompson to become one of the newest NALP Trailblazers. We reached out to find out more. process and Industry C and Tec

WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT IN BUSINESS? Seeing people advance through the ranks and rise up and better themselves for themselves as well as their families. That has been really rewarding.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST BUSINESS CHALLENGE? Of course, like everyone says, it’s always labor. But it’s also a matter of finding the right people. You can find people who are willing to work but finding the right people is a challenge of its own. We’ve done a lot of different things to address this. We’re looking into the Apprenticeship Program right now. We’ve also made efforts online, through referrals and even going out and hanging local fliers. It’s all about continuing to be creative and varying your approach. You can’t do just one thing.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU ON A MONDAY MORNING? The fact that it’s a new week. You get to face new challenges and new opportunities for that week with a clean slate. You can’t carry stuff from last week into a new week. It’s always got to be a fresh slate. And with that comes new obstacles to overcome, which is challenging but it can also be fun.

WHO IS YOUR BUSINESS MENTOR OR IDOL? I like John Maxwell. He provides a great perspective on leadership but also life in general—on being a better person.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BUSINESS BOOK? It would be John Maxwell’s book: “Failing Forward.” I like that he points out that failures are not always detrimental, but at end of the day probably more helpful in leading you to successes. You have to fail to move forward. Ultimately, how you handle failure is what really makes a difference.

WHAT LEAD YOU TO BECOME AN NALP TRAILBLAZER? I was nominated and honored to have been. I just wanted to continue to have the opportunity to work with NALP. I’ve been on the ICC for 13 years and am recently coming off as chair. I’ve been really blessed through my career with help, and NALP has been a big part of that. I believe that if everybody helped everybody else a little bit it’d be a better industry. We all need to help one another. Personally, NALP has helped me a lot and my involvement with them has been a wonderful opportunity. I always encourage people to take advantage of what NALP has to offer as there are just so many resources.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO OFFER THROUGH THE NALP TRAILBLAZER EXPERIENCE? More than anything else, I’m just looking forward to having the opportunity to give back. I was so fortunate to be helped on my way. If I can help somebody in some way— whether it be operations or business or even just their outlook, then I’m more than willing.

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AND YOUR BUSINESS IN FIVE YEARS? I expect to still be in the industry and in this company. But I also want to continue to grow our people and our leaders, so they become leaders not only in the industry but in the community around us. Just being able to better themselves as people is something that is important to me. TLP

EDITOR’S NOTE: For more information, visit landscapeprofessionals.org/trailblazers.

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