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Morton MUSE & News
Rooted in Morton: Todd Staley on Business, Family, and Community Part I
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In this episode of Morton MUSE & News, we sit down with Todd Staley, the heart and hands behind Staley Lawncare and Landscaping. Todd isn’t just a business owner—he’s the CEO, operator, foreman, and sometimes even the janitor of his thriving local company. But beyond the mowing stripes and landscaping projects, Todd is a man deeply rooted in Morton, dedicated to family, community, and the people he works alongside.
We talk about his journey from mowing lawns as a teenager to leading a multi-truck operation, the lessons he learned from his parents, and how he carries those values into his business today. Todd shares candid stories about the challenges of running a small-town company—weather, employees, and all—and why he sees his role as more than making a yard look good. For Todd, it’s also about mentoring, giving second chances, and making Morton a better place, one lawn (and one person) at a time.
If you love hearing about hometown businesses, grit, and the good people who help a community thrive, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.
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Welcome to Morton Muon News, where we bring you events, highlight the voices, and celebrate the unique charm of our community from local happenings and business spotlights to heartfelt interviews with people who make Morton special. This is your go-to source for staying connected with all things Morton.
Tune in and let's discover what makes our town truly remarkable. One story at a time.
Morton Music News is Back, baby. It's been a while. I think I had my last interview in here with Jordan Pic Meyer. Oh, more than a month ago. If you haven't had a chance to give her episode of listen, check out in the show notes. Additionally, I thought now would be a good time of the year because my kids just went back to school.
It's September 3rd, two. Also, maybe check out Don St. Stern's episode on Protecting Kids. His whole episode is about how AI is working its way into Morton Schools and how teachers are using it in the classroom. It's all. Very interesting stuff to me. I love that. Talk about ai. I don't think it's going anywhere, so it's might as well be something that we have to try and learn to work with.
I do have a special guest here today and I'm excited to introduce him to you. A a friend of mine I love when I have friends on the show, but first I wanted to go ahead and talk about a couple of the statistics on the show. I was, I having a whiskey drink with a friend the other day and he was like, Hey, how's your podcast going?
And I was like, you know what, let me pull out my little Buzz Sprout app and tell you a little bit about some of these, the statistics. 'cause I just I really kind of like getting into the granular details about where the show is reaching to. So for a little small town in the middle of central Illinois, we have over 1500 downloads, 1,705 downloads to be exact.
The top episodes right now are the first one is with Katrina Fitzpatrick and Bob Hornsby, where they talk all about 19 years of state championships at the Morton High School. So crazy. Second episode most listened to is with Tom Van Ness, who has his own podcast now about turning. Grief into gratitude.
A, a very heart touching story about , how he lost his wife and how the community responded in that kind of tragedy for him. The third most popular episode is relevant at this time of the year because it's about cross country. My kids are in cross country, and it's about last year's Morton Junior High School state champion team with coach Alfonso of the Morton Junior High School cross country team, and one of the star athletes inside of that squad who is now running on the high school team.
His name's Owen Berg. , The son of a, another really good friend of mine. And then a couple of other cool statistics locations. It can report back to me where people are listening from and it's neat to think that I'm doing a podcast here about the people in Morton, for the people of Morton and somebody in Prosper.
Texas is listening to it. Somebody from Clarksville, Arkansas, Manchester, Iowa. I have a total of 197 different cities who have reported and downloaded an episode of Morton Muse and News. 30% of people are listening through Apple Podcasts, 19% of them through Facebook. 89% of people are listening to them from their phone.
And so that's my wrap up on all of the statistics about Morton Muon News. If you're interested in giving any of the other episodes, past episodes of Listen, go listen, go find Scott Wittig's episode, go find Paul GRE's episode about Johnson's Floral, and you know, reach out and communicate with me.
Let me know if there's somebody who you're interested in having on the show. Some neighbor, I'm really looking for this I'm looking for a guy, he's, let's say 74. He's an old war vet and he makes toys out of wood in his garage. I want that guy, I want that guy on the show. I don't know his name. It's probably like Earl or something, or something like that.
And he's got old war stories, and he is gonna tell me about how when Morton had two roads and how traumatic it was, when that one stop sign got put in, I'd like to meet. So if you know Earl and he's your neighbor. Um, you know, tell 'em to come on over. We'll sit down and, I'll pour 'em a glass of whiskey and we'll, we'll talk old school Morton.
But today we have a friend of mine, Todd Staley. Say hi for the first time. Todd. Hello. Welcome to Muse. This is awesome. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's a beautiful day here. September 3rd. Is this your favorite season?
Yes. Fall. Okay. Fall. Me
coming into hunting
season,
coming in I, I've always known need to be a big hunter.
We'll, we'll get into some of the personal stuff too. Todd Staley is the owner, operator Manager, C-E-O-C-F-O, janitor, janitor of Staley Lawn Care and Landscaping. Yes, sir. Did I get all the words right in the right order? Yes. Okay. Um, and I've known Todd for 20 years. I bet. Yeah. Almost 20 years. 20 years.
We don't hang out on the regular, but we've always had this Venn diagram of my people plus family and then your people and family. For sure. And we were much closer. Probably 10 years ago before we both started having families. That's right. And stuff like that. That's life. That's life. Right. So, um, but always so happy to see Todd.
I mean, if I were to be pumping gas at the Casey's and Todd pulls up to fuel up too, I'd go over and I'd give you a hug every yes, every single time. Even if it were raining, that's
us. Been hugs are good hugs.
So, uh, my effort to try and reach out to small, local, town business owners right inside of that top five of my list, it was like Johnson's Floral, I gotta get Todd Staley on the show.
I want to get uh, Weston and Rachel from Eli's, onto the show. 'Cause these are places that I know live and operate and run businesses in Morton. And and so here's Todd to do just that. Uh, Todd, first I wanna start with some of these rapid fire questions. Sure. Okay. So these are just quick choices.
You just tell me what your first instinct is. No overthinking. I wish I had like a small. I don't dunno, like ping pong balls or something that I can shoot at my, my guest if you spend too much time on that question. Coffee or energy drinks to start your day or something else.
Coffee wife would kill me if I had energy drinks.
I know that's tough's More and more we read about it. That stuff's not good for you. Mm-hmm. Hmm. I think it's one of those things. I tend to make these questions long. All right. Where's my so ping pong ball. Where's my soap box just shot. Yeah. I need to give the guest a little ping pong ball gun. I think it's one of those things where like in 15 years we're gonna look back and be like, man, we really had that one wrong.
You know, phones in, schools, energy drinks in the vending machines.
I could've get, I could've gotten straight A's if I had a phone in school.
Maybe a lot of the kids are getting straight A's if they have phones in school. I just read yesterday that Arkansas has a state law banning cell phones in schools.
That's how it should be. So that's a state law. I didn't know that they would get into that. I didn't either Territory. Okay. I already know the answer to this one. Early bird or night owl?
Both. Early bird with our business.
Oh yeah. But you also like staying up late to get stuff done. Yeah. 'cause or leisure,
when the kids go to bed, that's when I,
free time,
free time to do paperwork Estimates, but still work stuff.
Right? Still work stuff.
Okay. Mowing Pattern. Stripes. Stripes. Okay. Not, not like, abstract circles. A logo of that would be Sweet Staley Lawn Care. That be, that would be awesome. That would be pretty cool. Do you have a choice on a weather app?
Ooh, man, they're so fickle. I know, me and my wife, we have, we have a battle one year on this one, and then the next year it's like, oh, that one's failing me.
So I switch to, I have four apps on my phone. All weather. All weather. Yeah. So the Weather Channel underground. Noah.
Noah, 25 News And 25 News. 25 news. Okay. I feel like me and my wife are constantly like fighting no, mine says Rain today. And she's like, mine doesn't say anything about rain. I'm like, well, we'll see.
We'll see. Yeah. Yeah. I bet you have to have kind of like a minor in, in like weather. You do forecasting. Being a landscaping, I mean, you see the pa,
I'm no expert, but you see patterns forming over on the other side of the Illinois River coming from Iowa or Southwest. Are
you talking about like through a sonar?
Are you looking up in the sky like a native, like the winds coming from the east Boys. That's right. That's right. I guess it would never come from the east. It's coming from I get pain in my knee. Yeah, there you go. And I see a woolly caterpillar. Yeah. And there's a cow laying in the pasture. I think it's gonna rain today.
Mm-hmm. Not giving birth. Pumpkin festival. Do you volunteer? Do you just go over the festivities? Do you stay away from the chaos?
Enjoy all the festivities. It's great for a community. I used to do the parade years ago. But now with little kids, this is the fun time for me to sit back and watch and have them fall in love with it.
Yes. So it's fun seeing them. And then when I get old, when they get older, definitely we will be volunteering.
Kids don't, aren't usually aware. And your kids are pretty young, right? Yes. Yeah. They're not usually aware of like, the future calendar. Do they know that pumpkin festival is like cousins are coming into
town?
Oh, they do know. Oh, it's a, it's starting to be a ritual, which is great. Oh, that's awesome. My wife's not from here. Yeah. And she's like.
Has she fallen in, in love with them too? She starting to
enjoy it. Yeah. 'cause we have, she sees the excitement of the kids. Yeah. She's from a big city, so it's different.
And that's what you love as a parent, like that's your ride. 100%.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's your, uh, uh, that's your ride popcorn. That's right. And your cotton candy. It's my sugar. That's your sh So sweet. Hand tools over power tools. Power tools. Yeah. Okay. I mean, you just have so much work. You just mm-hmm. You're not gonna build a house with a hammer and a nail
Uh, spring cleanup or fall cleanup. We talked about fall being your favorite season. Does that take away from
No. Spring is great 'cause the smells cut grass or things, it's just a different smell and spring and you get excited 'cause it's just that rush. Yeah. I, I know it's a lot of work, but you're just like, oh man, it's that time of year.
I'm gotta go out and see my customers.
And you're coming out of the dull correct. Bulges of, of winter. Yeah. Residential lawn or commercial properties.
Oh, that's a great question. For mowing. Commercial? Yeah, landscaping residential.
Okay. I can see that. For mowing commercial, just because it's a bigger swath of land.
Mm-hmm. And you can just nail a large
area. Well, I started in residence. Well, we can talk about all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay. Radio, podcast or just the sound of equipment while you work. Like you're working, you're on a job. Do you have headphones on? Do you have a bud in your ear? My
mom would tell you that I cannot focus if there's background noise.
Okay. So you need something. If there's I, well, I couldn't listen to somebody talking or music
while you're doing your homework and stuff like that. Right.
So when I'm in a machine, it's just, it's just the machine. Ear bugs or earplugs, ear protection. Yeah. And
that's it. Got it. Grilling or ordering pizza.
Do you like to work the grill?
I love to work the grill. Yeah. The caveat to that is I'm in 90 degree weather. I come home, I don't wanna stand in, find that fire. So spring and fall, winter grill. All the day long. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I come home. Do you grill in the winter,
like snowing out and you Well, I mean, yeah.
Yeah. It's, oh, I got a buddy who sends me pictures like. With his, with his boots in snow. And he is like, making a roast. And I'm like, okay. Okay. Good for him. Shout out to Ben Weller. Yeah. Uh, Morton High School sports football, basketball season. Do you get into high school sports at all? Your kids aren't old enough to be, they're not old enough?
Yeah. No.
Okay. Are they in sports? Not yet. Not yet. So my oldest is into dance. Okay. So she loves dance. That's sporty. Yep. I mean, you sweat. We, we tried her, get her in soccer. Yeah. And it was the coldest April. And like on record and windy, that first impression stuff is huge with kids. And I'm out there holding her hand and she's in in snow
Yeah.
Outfit. And she's like, shivering. And she's like, well, why am I here? Right. And you're like, I don't know.
And she's never wanted to go back
because your mom and I wanted you to be here. That's right. That's why. That's right. Poor kiddo. All right. That wraps up the rapid fire questions, not so rapid fire.
Sorry about that.
It's all right.
But it gets us a little bit of a snapshot of Todd, and we'll get into some categories of questions. Our first little category is personal background. Do you want me to go through some of these questions or do you just want to tell me, because I don't know that I know.
I know you're a Morton Knight now, because I don't know if you grew up in Morton. Do you just wanna talk like Yeah, we talk,
yeah. So my mom has been a, been in this community since she's been born.
Okay.
I was born here. Okay. And then when I was four and a half, my dad got transferred with Caterpillar.
So I'm a cat brat.
Okay.
We moved to Tennessee right outside Nashville, Franklin Okay. For like three years. And then majority of my childhood was spent in Canada, Toronto.
Oh, I do know that about you. That's right. So,
so after three years old, you say, or no, you spent No, four, four and a half years here. Okay.
So born here and then transferred to, to national. Yeah. I had kindergarten, first grade. Maybe even preschool, kindergarten, first grade. Yeah. And then second grade we moved to Canada.
Okay. And then from Canada, second grade to when?
Yeah. So in seventh, after seventh grade, so eighth grade I came back to Morton, we moved back to Morton.
'cause of the job. Yep. Brought you back. Sent my dad back. I think the work visa was up. Okay. And it was time to get home. Okay. I had two older brothers. My oldest brother was going to college, so I think my mom was ready to be back in the United States
so he can go to the United States colleges mm-hmm.
And stuff like that. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. How was your time in Canada?
Awesome. Yeah. Great. Still have one of my best friends, we still talk, he just came down with his kids for the summer or Awesome. But for like a weekend. Yeah. Yeah. Great experiences. Love Canada. You still go back? Yeah. I used to go back every year, but now once we got kids, it's hard, it's hard in the young stages, traveling
grandparents to bring 'em to, and
eventually when my kids get older, we will go back.
Yeah. And show them. Yeah. 'cause there's a lot to love about Canada. Yeah. But there's,
yeah. Yeah. And then hunting being one of your things too, right. I would imagine that you have. So I go, yeah. I usually go waterfall hunting every year in Canada.
Okay. And I just haven't been since COVID. Okay. And then we keep having kids, so my wife would tell you I'm addicted to hunting.
Okay. I bet. Yeah. Every single time I bump into you, it's I don't hunt, but you still talk to me about it. I still remember a time there that you were trying to convert you, you were trying to convert me. You were like, I'll give you some of my old gear. I, I'll take you out. I'll show you how to do it.
And I'm like, that's really nice of you, but, well, you're a
hands-on guy. You wanna know where your meat's coming from?
I it's coming from the store. I don't know what field it's coming from, but yeah. I could see myself getting behind it. And I think that's my hesitation to get into it is because it's addicting.
It's addicting. It's expensive. It's expensive. Um, it takes a lot of time away from my family. Oh. And for those reasons now's not the time for me. Right. Um, and my
work slows down. So then. Yeah. Loves that.
So then you come back to Morton seventh, eighth grade. Yep. Eighth grade you said? Morton High School graduate?
No,
went to pure Christian.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
So went to pure Christian, graduated from Pure Christian and then
sports in high school?
Yep. Okay. Basketball and soccer. Okay. Loved playing sports. That's why
your
daughter was on the soccer team. My wife Whatcha talking about? Yeah. Yeah. It was me. And then came back, or sorry, graduated PC s Yeah.
But I still had jobs in the Morton. Yeah. I worked at the a w Root beer stand. Oh, okay. For years. I worked at, I don't know if you remember, you weren't probably here quiz. I was around Quiznos used to have Quiznos by Kroger's.
Yeah, no, I remember Quiznos. I was working at the junior high school. I used to go there all the time.
Okay.
I still remember the husband and wife. I was one of the first employees couple. Oh, you worked there? Mm-hmm. You maybe made one of my sandwiches. No,
I didn't last very long.
Oh, okay.
Great food. Yeah. I just got a better job offer.
I loved how Quiznos was like, yeah, we're gonna do something different.
Mm-hmm. We're gonna toast the bread. And that was like, enough for people to be like, oh, okay.
Agreed.
And then now do Quiznos even exist anymore? I don't
know. Yeah.
I don't know. I think Jimmy John's chasing him outta
town. And then I just, you know, college ICC and then graduate Bradley.
Okay. What degree,
uh, business marketing business.
Okay. Did you always know, I mean, this is getting into the next stage of the first stage of the business, right? Was it always a landscaping business in Never your mind never was a business
at all? Never. I just, I'm very thankful for my parents and Okay. My dad instilled hardworking
how did he do that?
'cause I have somebody in my life I'd like to, two kids I would like to install, make them pay for things. Make them pay for things. So my dad
had a good job, a cat, okay. Yeah. Um, but my dad never drove fancy cars. Yeah. And he could have paid for the things for you, but he was like, no, you gotta go work for it.
Gotcha. You know? You know, and I'd be like, oh, so and so is, it's like, well, we're not them. You can go. And he'd be like, I remember if this one time saying you can go move in with them. I don't think he was serious. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But making it like realistic this is not how our family's gonna be.
Right. This is
where you
are. And I think he sat me down, I don't know remember where, or maybe my mom and him after dinner. 'cause I told her brothers.
Yeah.
And they said, so we want you to go to college, how are you gonna pay for it? Okay. And that's kind of, and that was, and that's the mindset. That was the catalyst that my parents, yeah.
Mainly my dad pushed, how are you gonna pay for things like when I turned 16? Yeah, you're gonna have to get a car. Yeah. Insurance, gas, gas. Yeah. How are you gonna pay for this? Because mom and dad are not paying for it. So then I started working at the a and w in eighth grade root beer stand and then Quiznos a couple years later.
And then I started mowing my neighbor's lawn. And this is where it's kinda all started. He had 24 landscape beds and I would go there after school. Yeah. Mow. He's very particular, not one. And his driveway was like. I'm going to try exaggerate, but a quarter mile long back from the woods. Yeah. And if he came home and there was like a blade of grass stick.
Blade of grass over the grass. No. Or even a leaf. Yeah. That fell on. He's he'd call me like, Hey you, you
missed one. You missed it.
And then we just became really close 'cause he had three little girls. So
he pretty much taught you?
Not,
I mean, 'cause there's not
a
whole
lot to talk. No, he's a doctor.
He didn teach me. Okay. I learned from all my mistakes. Yeah. Best teacher, just asking questions.
The best teacher is what? Learning from your mistakes? Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah, sure.
So just figuring out what works, what doesn't work, and then just going on from there. And then realizing that I can make more money.
Mowing, push mowing yards.
Right. Okay.
Then at a Quiznos.
And how old were you when this, you got this? 16, 16, 17. Yeah. 16. And so that's how you were paying for your gas and all that kind
of stuff? Yeah. I used my mom's minivan. I borrowed a friend's trailer.
And you were loading up Oh, you were loading up the lawnmower.
Yeah. Was it a push?
My first one was, and then I used my dad and we still have it. My daughter just drove it. My first rider.
First
rider. Very nostalgic, very cool.
All John Deere.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I actually crashed that into a fire hydrant and tried to hide it when I was 16.
Oh, that's a good story.
Yeah, it's great. Uh, how do you crash? A mower that's going three miles an hour.
Wow.
Hmm. Um,
uh, yeah. The
distractibility got got correct? Yeah. It is easy to crash that stuff. I mean, it's wax. Yeah.
Going too fast. I was supposed to mow the lawn before my parents came home on vacation or wherever they were.
And you're zipping through. Zipping through and it couldn't stop and smashed.
Yeah. All that speed is relative to the vehicle you're on, right? Mm-hmm. I mean, so I, I could see that. Did you damage the fire hydrant? No. No, I don't think so. Yeah. Oh, not going fast enough. I bet that had to be pretty sweet though, to see your daughter riding on Oh, it was your second mow.
It was, it was Thoughts and opinions about the heritage place over here. The flicking jurors going outta business. Yeah. So what's going on there?
I dunno. No, I do know. Well, but you do know. I do know. And I dunno, we can talk about that later. Yeah. No, it's sad because I'm, it's, I was John Deere committed all my commercial mowers of John Deere.
I have steel power tools. They've been great. There's, the owner was always there like at 6:00 AM so I could go in and get a part. Yeah. Or pick up a something that they fixed. Yeah. And just we had to start your day. Great. Yeah. 20 something year relationship. 'cause they're the first ones when I was 16 that I bought stuff from.
Wow.
And it was just sad. Just they sold out, they sold the Heritage, right? No, Martin Equipment. Oh, okay. Flinger sold to Martin Equipment. It was a good move.
Okay.
And then Martin Equipment sold it all out to Heritage.
And then Heritage shut it down. S like
we're getting rid of all our small stores. We only want big Ag dealer ships.
They kept a couple small lawn and garden stores. There's one in Bloomington. Yeah. But it's so, it makes me mad. Makes me real mad. Yeah. Because this was a very successful business. Great people. I mean they've been there forever. Great people ever, like those
people who are employed there.
Mm-hmm. Great relationships that are just basically gone 'cause they've had to go look for other jobs.
Yeah. And I saw these people on a weekly basis.
Yeah. Ts, TS heritage.
Yeah.
Unless you can provide the Staley team with some new equipment, then. Good for you and it's not right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right. Well, I had to ask, because I know that's your equipment, that's your line of work shops
a mile.
I've always brought
my equipment and stuff like that there. And then just the other day I saw that they were like bringing everything down and got rid of their, I just thought they were doing a renovation. Sure. And then I drove past and through the windows I saw the floor was empty. I'm like, what
happened there?
You never wanna see businesses leave.
I know. Especially small town businesses like that. Mm-hmm. And Morton's done such a good job of supporting it 100% that it's like, it could have survived. Like, I would've
loved to have the conversation with whoever decided to close that three states away.
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Come to the store. Right. Not even see what it's about.
They hadn't even driven through this town. Right. So, alright, let's talk business. We started to touch on the very beginning of it. You decided you went to Bradley University, got mm-hmm. A degree in, uh, at marketing. Marketing and business.
And then was it pretty logical for you? Was there a space after college with your degree that you did something else?
I remember having the conversation with my dad. Love my dad. Just great to make me think of things. You always talk to me about your dad. He must be a good guy. Yes. Further down the road, like what's your five year tenure year?
Or have you thought of this? I guess. Yeah. And he might not phrase it like that, but mm-hmm. How are you gonna pay for insurance someday you're gonna have a family. How are you gonna pay mortgage, buy a house? Right. 'cause
if you're self-employed, you
don't come with all those kinds of, he was, comes from cat and back then you had pension, full healthcare.
Even when you're retired, it was fully given to you. Right. So I completely understand his mindset. So I went to Bradley I was working 40 hours a week plus going to school. So like when? Yeah. So when people say things to me's, just like, dude, do you have time? Yeah. And it might not just be working, but there's the doctor that I used to work for, his favorite line, which I hate the line, there's a little bit of a truth.
There's 24 hours in. It's a workday, Todd.
Yeah.
You don't, you know. Yeah. That's 24 hours in a day, right. You can get it done.
You can work as much of that as you need to get that job done. Right. Yeah. Without
going crazy. So there's a balance. There's a balance. I
understand where he is getting at though.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
'Cause it's just excu, you know? Yeah. It's just excuses that we tell ourselves that we can't do something. We do. We're our biggest,
I'm like that with my diet.
Are
you looking at me? Is that what you dieting? No, no. Me like sugar man. Those little Debbie snacks. I have a hard time getting outta Menards without a box of those things.
Try taking your kids there now. Yeah. There's a, there's
a couple of aisles that don't have the little Debbie snacks at Menards. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, I've gotta go through IL five.
Luckily you're skinny. Yeah. So, yeah. I dunno how I do that. Come work with me. Yeah. Yeah. And then I don't, anyway yeah. So my dad's like, Hey, what do you, you know, so what are you gonna be doing?
How are you gonna be paying for this, this great, this little side hustle you got, you're debt free coming outta college. But, but now what? But now what? This has been a great ride. Yeah. Yeah. And I've always been like, oh, I guess this does probably have, I gotta grow up, not grow up. Yeah. I gotta do something.
I gotta do something else, because I gotta think. So I hired two kids to take it over and take what? Over the bus mowing. Oh, so you had,
you had had the business up and running Yeah. When you were working Bradley and
I was,
or going to school at Bradley. Okay. And
not, I'm tooting my own horn, but the job offers that I was getting, I was making more money in six months, mowing, push, mowing yards than I was getting full-time job benefits.
That's how, okay. And that's how I paid for Bradley, debt free. Yeah. So I hired two kids to mow while I went and was a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch.
Oh.
Yeah,
you just threw me a curve ball there.
Mm-hmm.
Okay. So you've got a business running on the side, right? With two employees, right.
They're making, and you're paying,
paying them,
and you're still attending Bradley classes or you're at this in time? No, I'm done. You're done. And then you go and try, you go to try to get a commercial kind of job.
Yeah. So now I'm a, yeah, I wearing suit every day, have a secretary into the phones. It's kinda like a dream job when you're in college like this is, sure, yeah.
This is what I wanted as a businessman. Yeah.
How long
did that go for? About five months.
Oh
no, I apologize. Three months. Three months. I had started for my series six and series sevens and the, I think what the issue was, I started. In June and it's beautiful out. And I would sit in my office looking outside.
Oh. And you're like, I just gotta get out there. I gotta get out. I
can't sit, like my wife won't go on a cruise with me because I can't just sit still. Like, I will probably sink the ship by pacing or walk. You'll wear out the boys, right? Or like, yeah, like we were talking about earlier, about maybe going to Japan.
Like my wife would never she'll say, I don't know if I can get on plane that long with you. Yeah. Unless I sedate you. Because, yeah, just anyw who, so I just sat inside looking outside, going, man. And I remember saying to myself, I have this degree. I did what my parents asked of me. And I, and I don't mean that in a bad way.
I'm glad they pushed me that way. It's right. I think if I would've said, Hey, I want to go different avenue, my parents would've been supportive. I. Right. It was your time to diverge. And they, and I think it's great that they push me one way. Yeah. Sometimes if you just don't do anything, then that is doing something and then Yeah.
Kids just stay idle and they're 30 years old and have nothing. Yeah. So living in the basement. Yeah. Which is more apparent these days than not. Um, I know. So I was sitting inside, looking out. Yeah. Going, man, what? I have a chance to do something here.
What I can always use my degree. Yeah. Let's just give us a five year run.
Okay.
And basically I just hung up.
You already had a foot in the door? I already had a foot running a business. 'cause you had two employees running mowers. Pretty much all residential
mowing at that point. All residential, mowing.
Yep. Great. Customers, everything. Did you have a fleet of
vehicle at all or is it like every two?
I had two. Two. You had trucks? Trucks? Yep. Okay. And I just remember in October I was just like, I'm done. Like I. To the Merrill Lynch team. Yeah.
Okay.
And then I was like,
and they were like, no, Todd.
So my dad's that's fine, but it's winter coming in the winter, like, you're season Yeah.
You can't mow lawns now. I'm
like, whatcha gonna
do bad
timing, Todd? Yeah.
So, thanks to my dad and mom, I, okay, I gotta find a side hustle. I gotta do something in the winter. Yeah. So I went and worked at g and d, used my business degree in the winter. Okay. They set projects aside from me Okay.
In Morton.
Okay.
And then after doing that, a couple winters, I got into snow removal. Okay. And so that's how, that's what took care of my winter.
And you still have that in your envelope of, of things that you do. Yes. That leads me to the next question is like, what kinds of services does stately lawn care provide?
I'm obviously mowing. Mowing. We talked about snow removal,
fertilization all yard stuff. We pro predominantly do residential landscaping and some commercial landscaping. Okay. Um. Lawn care is strictly commercial. Unless it's like an HOA. Yeah. We don't do much residential lawn care. We're just geared for bigger properties.
Yeah. So it's hard to have trailers and trucks that are geared. Right. So it's just easier for me, for my business. Sure. Um, story and plan just to do commercial. And I just, I think part of that is I pushed so many yards and bagged. So many times I'd come home, my truck would be my little dump, my little truck would be piled high with lawn clippings.
Yeah. And then I gotta put it on the tarp, shovel it out of the tarp or out of the truck in the tarp, drag it to my parents' backyard, dump it in a ravine. Yeah. And I just remember So you're moving this
pile of stuff like three times every night. Like every night I come
home. Yeah. And then I was like, someday if I can afford a commercial mower, a zero turn.
Yeah. That's what I'm gonna do. Yeah. I'm not gonna have my team or whoever's working with me, I'm not gonna put 'em through this every single time. They go outdoor work every single day. Even though. I don't know why I thought that way. Yeah. So anyways. Well it's '
cause you kind of, you have to keep it, I don't know.
You kind of have to keep, I would like to think that you have to keep moving. Right. You know, if you just stay in this zone of like, especially when that zone is this initial stage of just doing residential lawns. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, it's just like, how can I make this more dynamic for me or else I'm gonna get bored doing it.
Mm-hmm. And then once I get so bored doing it, I'm gonna start looking for a whole nother thing to do. That's maybe not related to this thing I've already started and I've built up so far. So what can I do inside of my wheelhouse that can still keep this engaging for me? Right. Right, right. Yeah, that makes sense.
Makes sense. Do you, so, uh, what do you think sets Staley Lawn Care apart from other lawn care providers? You talked about some residential stuff. You talked about a little bit of commercial. You do snow removal, snow removal mm-hmm. Fertilization and all that kinds of stuff. There's other places in and around the area.
Why is, what do you Yeah, that's different. That's, that's
a great question. What's great about our community is it has a lot of great choices to choose from. Yeah. There's a lot of great long hair landscaping companies that are invested in our area and, you know, it's, it's nice that they can open, Google or whoever they search for this Right.
That they're not, there's a lot of 'em. They're not gonna go wrong with most of the people they're gonna choose in this area. Right. Which is great. It stinks for me, but it's great. But I think what sets us apart is, I'm still in the field every day. The business number is my personal cell phone number.
You are gonna get ahold of me eventually, if not that day. Yeah. Or if you text me, I, you know, so if I looked up daily
lawn care on Google right now, that number is yourself. Correct. Wow.
So you're not gonna talk to a third party handling phone calls. Right. A receptionist. A receptionist. It's gonna be me.
Yeah. Or and I think that's what sets us apart. I pride we're not perfect. I still make tons of mistakes, um, that if there is an issue, I try to handle it pretty quick. Yeah. And come to your house or your business Right. And address it.
So from what I hear you saying, it's like this is the personal owner.
It's a personal touch. Owner's touch. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's important. I mean, for some people especially the people who are investing a good amount of money Right. On a landscape project For sure. I mean, they're re-envisioning their yard and all those kinds of emotions that go into that.
And perhaps even stemming from a place where they've been burned before and they're like, oh yeah, they sent out these people and it was different people every time. Mm-hmm. And I had to re-explain so many things and they left all this stuff behind and it's a mess. And so knowing that they can deal with you Right.
There's personally one a problem that
arises or they have 15 different questions. Yeah. I can come back and keep coming back until
kinda like in this old school mafia way. Like I got a guy like, you're that guy.
I'm that guy for the lawn care. I just wish I had hair to slick back.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And a larger trunk for the bodies.
That's right. For the non-paying customers. That's right. Um, so what's the busiest time of the year?
Oh, is it all busy? Yeah, I,
it doesn't just fluctuate.
It doesn't fluctuate. No. Um, April, may, may is probably our busiest. Okay. 'cause grass is full swing. Like if we have a late spring Yeah. Then we're not mowing in Mar or we're not mowing.
April, we're just landscaping. It's when the landscaping's full swing in landscaping or lawn and lawn care is full. Okay. When everything's full. Yeah. Okay. When things full, when it all kind of bottlenecks into the same month. Correct. Okay. And then it, it's just hard to, nowadays it's hard to keep people on board at work.
Yeah. And I over what would you say
is the average, we're talking about staffing now, right? Mm-hmm. So these are some of the pain points of running a business. Oh my goodness. Yeah. It's,
since COVID has been brutal, like I used to be able to replace, and I don't mean that in a bad way, but if someone quit or found something better, which is great.
Yeah, yeah. I could find somebody within 48 hours. Yeah. A couple people and. Now it's I think three years ago I had 17, first day no shows. 17 different people said, yes, I wanna come in work. They didn't even show up.
Oh, in the year? In the year. Oh.
I mean like if I did that my first, so they got through
the motion of like, yes, hire, I applied hire, interview, I talked to 'em, I interview with you.
Even like have, sometimes we'd even meet the shop just to show 'em Yeah, this is the equipment. Yeah. We'll be here Monday morning ghosted. And then you text 'em like, okay. Because then you're like wondering, yeah. Are you stranded? Something hap, yeah. Yeah. We'll come pick you up. Nothing. What? And it's okay if you found something different, just let that employer know, like, Hey, communicate this ain't gonna work.
Okay.
Then it's like COVID changed that, huh? Mm-hmm. Coming out of COVID. Right. Coming out of COVID. So like
22. Mm-hmm. Something
like that. And I think, a lot of parents still pay for things. I don't know where the money comes from, where these Yeah. Younger adults don't have, yeah. Have to have jobs.
Maybe the parents got conditioned into, you know, I mean even like high
school kids, like a high school kid could come mow for me and after taxes clear six, $700 a week. Good money. That's, that's good money for a kid to sit on a mower. Yeah. It's not push mowing and Right. Shoveling
and we're talking how many hours after school, obviously.
Um, you know,
30 to 30 hours a week. Yeah. Okay. And that's, that could be a lot. But it's really the summertime is when they're gonna make that money. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I will work with kids in the summer, in the springtime. Or they can come in on the weekends. If you're good and you Okay.
Okay. And that's a good gear gig. If you're going to local colleges, then you always have a summer in the jo, like a summer. Something that you can come back
to for sure. Because you've already established that relationship and trust
that mm-hmm. Get people to come back. So there is no one busiest time of the year other than maybe may, may, June, July starts slowing down.
'cause now we're getting 'cause because everything's too hot. Y well, rain delays. Oh, okay. And it's not as wet or a lot of times when, when it rains in April and May, we don't have the heat units to dry out the ground. So landscaping could you pushed back? 'cause your property could be too muddy or too wet.
Yeah. Yeah. And you can't build a foundation. So
many, so many things to consider. I mean, you have lots of factors and things to kinda work through to make Oh, for sure. Some, so many of them out of your control outta your control. Employee's not showing
up. You've got weather to contend with. Oh, my wife would tell you, I used to have anxiety waking up at five 30 in the morning.
Yeah. And like, okay, who's calling in sick? Yeah. Or what storm just popped up? Or during COVID, like you,
because as a business owner, you have to think ahead. Have to think ahead, and that's where anxiety comes from. Correct. In all of my studying of, you know mm-hmm. This kind of topic. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And it's hard to not think ahead and be a good, successful business owner at the same time.
Right. How do you do that and not have that lead onto onsetting, bouts of anxiety. Right. So I
try to teach to my employees is let's not stop. Let's stop being reactive and let's be proactive. 'cause we know things are gonna come down the pipeline that we can't control. So if we can be proactive knowing that something like this might pop up Yeah.
We can handle it better than like
having it just hijack you. Right. Hijacked.
And there's still gonna be things that nothing's in our control. Right. So. Right, right, right. Um, I mean that's has to do with my faith. I put my, trust in God and I think that's helped a lot where I do get some anxiety.
If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have this business and he could take it away at any time.
And so it's easier to lean on that where if he wants me somewhere else
Yeah.
You know, then
so knowing that he hasn't taken you away, this is where you gotta be and it's gonna be fine. That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, yeah. And it's just. Employees. Like right now I have a great group of guys and I try, like, I just try to help them out. Okay. The best I can with teaching 'em how, 'cause a lot of these guys didn't have a father or a mother like I did. Okay. Teach me things.
Okay.
And so it's,
do you find that that's common amongst these guys that come and try and apply?
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
For sure.
Something about the landscaper outside working kind of demographic of a person. Um.
Yeah.
Okay.
No, I mean there's a lot of guys that work with me that have good homes too. Yeah. Okay. Like I came from a good home and I start along care business,
but you just see that these guys are the guys who are most in need of maybe like a little bit a leading Right.
They probably tried the fact they tried to, they tried working in the factories. Mm-hmm. Or tried other jobs. Yeah. And they just didn't like it for whatever reason or fast food or what other service industries and then oh, I like mowing.
What about you though makes that part of, to make you feel like that's part of your, I don't wanna say responsibility, but part of like your desire, like, to help small business owner, like you're the goal is operation number one, make money, provide for yourself and your employees.
Right? Right. But from what I hear, you're saying like, you're talking more about doing all of that. But in addition to that, like, I want to teach these my guys, I wanna teach these guys something.
Right? Because I, why, why? I mean, I, I just feel so blessed. Oh, you wanna share it? I wanna share it. Okay. And you know what my dad and mom taught me and the love they gave me, a lot of people don't have that in the world.
And I'm a very blessed individual. Oh man, you're giving me goosebumps here, buddy. And I just, it's, yeah. If I tear up, I apologize. But some of these dudes, not dude, some of these guys, yeah. Just come from horrible homes and
it just kind of breaks your Yeah.
And like they'll come up with these excuses and sometimes I have to pull 'em behind my shop and let 'em cry, or we cry together or,
mm-hmm.
You know, we
have hugs and a lot of times sometimes these same guys will go away. But they'll come back.
Mm-hmm. They'll go off to try and find another job. Yes. Right. We just didn't, but they, they'll like that. They'll come back like, you were
correct. Not toot my own horn, but Yeah. They just don't have people to lay it out to, to think ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. So it it, I mean there's stories that come home to my wife and it's just like, I don't
That you're relaying to her mm-hmm. About these guys' lives. And how you find yourself in a position
like, I wanna help 'em. Even though like sometimes you can't help people that don't wanna help themselves.
Yep. And that's where I struggle 'cause I as a man, I wanna fix things. I wanna fix problems. Mm-hmm. And until somebody gets it.
Life that's the
hardest though, when you see somebody with a problem mm-hmm. That you think you could maybe provide some or influence, you know, for them and they're even unaware of, but their
parents don't, can't hold jobs either or their parents are not involved in life or it's, so you just try to show them love, kindness, and give them grace.
'cause God gives me grace. That's just what I do and I probably give more chances than I should. Uhhuh and I get burnt way more than I should. Yeah. And that's the
only way to do it. That's the only way to do it. Yeah. Just accept it, you know? Mm-hmm. It's like it's gonna be hot out there. Like you, you still gotta go out there.
The biggest, I
mean, what makes the like rough seasons with employees is when the other ones call me that are doing better or on a different profession. Yeah. And they just wanna talk or say, man, you're right man, I got a kid now. Or, you're right. You were thanks for being there. Thanks. Right. I guess it's not necessarily you're right.
It's just Thank you. Yeah. I get it. I mean, the fact that there's, thanks for pushing me that they're even calling you back. Correct.
I don't have any old em, employer bosses. I guess I got a couple at the school that I could call and, and talk to.
Yeah. That's, that's unique. Yeah. You do know that, right?
I, no, I do not know that. Yeah.
You should know that. You deserve to know that. Thank you. It's, you know, this, that, it's just ugly out there sometimes. You've already talked about the circumstances that these guys come to you, and they're, they're history, right?
And to know that you are out there doing something beyond just giving a paycheck to some of these guys, I don't know. That's kind of special.
You know, they haven't worked for me for six years, but then I still get invited to their weddings. That's pretty cool. Yeah.
That's evidence, right?
Evidence of something. Invited evidence to know that hey, you might get burned even three times outta four, but, that's evidence that you're at least trying. Mm-hmm. And I mean,
one of my, and I won't say his name, great guy, but just. Same thing. Kept going down the same patterns, same patterns.
And finally he got it and got married and he like told his wife like this, because of him is where I'm at now. He
stayed with me.
Mm-hmm.
Got it. Got it. That's all really good, deep meaningful stuff. Ha ha Has this, that wasn't like that initially though. No. Amongst all of the many things that have changed over the course of your, what's this been?
How many years
man? I was 16. I'm 43 now.
So you've been doing this for 16 years?
No, I was 16 when I started. Oh, when you Okay. I was about to say that's over 20. That math doesn't
math up. Um, that's why million lawns. Yeah. So how many years have you been doing this, man? I say, what'd you say? Over 30?
No,
25.
25?
Yeah. Okay. What else has changed inside of the industry? You've mentioned a little bit how the employee has changed. Sure, yeah. What el I mean equip, obviously equipment has changed. Equipment's gotten better. Better. Okay. More efficient.
Um.
Gas prices. God, man. Yeah.
How many miles do you have on your truck?
200,000 on my personal truck.
Yeah. I have a feeling that you just, you're all over the place all the time. I am
probably, probably about 40,000 a year on the truck. My truck.
Just, just your truck? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Not How many vehicles do you have in your fleet? Nine. Nine trucks? Yep. Nine trucks. All pulling trailers.
All pulling trailers of equipment and stuff. Mm-hmm. Okay. So what other kinds of, I mean, I guess I'm talking a little bit more about these, these changes to your career and the profession itself, but like resources that you don't have in-house, but you're always American rentals. I would imagine that you're probably going over there and equipment there.
Kelly. Who? Math. Kelly. What's
math as
Kelly? So that's the concrete construction. Oh, okay. But they also have, small engine repair mowers. Okay. So they're gonna be my next flingers. Okay. Okay. So, people that are looking to get their John Deere service that bought from her or, yeah. Old Flingers, and Heritage. Yeah. Go to Mattis Kelly. Okay. Great. Local service here in Morton that will take care of your lawn care needs.
Let's drop some other names of either businesses the Venn diagram of Staley Lawn care. Like, it's not just like you've got everything that you need. Who and what other businesses besides the two that you've already mentioned are part of this like resource pool, this Rolodex of stuff you need.
Sure.
I
mean,
let's talk about in-house first. Like you got managers or they all kind of like the same tier. I'm sure you've got guys at that. So I have a lawn
care foreman and have a landscape foreman. Okay. Both great guys, both uniquely different guys. Both come from different family stories, so it's.
Both have been with me a longer time. My lawn care foreman went away for a couple years and then came back, which was great to see him. Okay. Always kind of soft side for him. And then my landscape foreman great guy. I'm hoping that he takes over the landscape side of the business someday.
Okay.
So I'm trying to gear him
Yeah.
On that side. Set him up. And same with the long, like same with long care foreman. I don't know what his long term goals is. I'm we're trying to work on that.
Yeah. You gotta have that dad talk, right? Like you used to have We have Dad talks on a lot of other things.
Oh, okay. Yeah. What's your plan in five years?
Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, so that's, so I got two long care landscape managers and then each crew has a crew chief. Okay. And they relate back to the lawn care guys.
Gotcha.
Are foreman.
What about businesses? We talked a little bit about math as Kelly talked a little bit about American rentals.
Do you have other people inside or outside of the community that you tap on? I mean obviously running equipment and stuff like that.
Yeah. I mean, Tremont, I get my gas delivered from Tremont local guy there. So that he delivers your gas to my shop? Yeah.
How does that work?
A big fuel gas tank.
Oh, and then you have a holding tank there?
Yes. So that you can just
fuel up, fuel All my trucks. Oh. And equipment. That's pretty cool. A big diesel and a big because of my guys just, I will not
bump into you at a gas station unless you're fueling
up the truck. Well, it's funny 'cause my guys will get my truck to move it if it's blocking something like, man, your truck is never full.
It's always almost on empty. Yeah. It's always like. I hate spending time filling up my truck. Yeah. I need to be doing something else. Gotta go. I gotta go. I gotta go. Well, gotta go. Yeah, that's right. Gotta go. So that's another thing, right? That's right. I mean, I support a lot of the, or a lot of the local businesses are customers of mine.
Great customers for years. Trying to think on who else.
Let's talk about the number one though. You got support by your parents. Mm-hmm. Wife at home, wife
at home,
right? That, that, yeah. I mean, I
definitely,
that's gotta be like the, almost like the council or the adv adversarial, you know, I mean, my wife at home, like, whenever I'm like struggling with work, it's just like, what do I do?
So my
wife is amazing. She. A little bit on opposite ends, which is great. She's the one that calms me down. Okay. Especially in the storms. Yeah. She can think clearly and articulate really well. That's important. That's something that is something that I can't necessarily do that well.
Yeah.
So
I'm not agreeing with that.
I just, I understand. I, especially when things get like hectic it's just like, I can't even say why I am,
or I'm seeing all having, having a hard time because I'm so upset. Yeah. Or like you said, cloudiness. It's just we're able to sit on the couch and break it down, break it down. How do I respond to this customer or how do I respond mm-hmm.
To this, it's mainly usually employees for the most part. Yeah. And it's great and it's, the sad thing is in life, that sign is you hurt the love, the ones you love the most. Yeah. She gets the brunt of it. I come home stressed out. Yeah. And it's, you have three little kids and it's hard to turn that off.
'cause as a business owner, your phone always ring. You're putting up fires. Customer's still calling her, texting me at 10 o'clock at night. It's dude, I'm, I got a family like. Yeah, we can address it unless it's an absolute emergency. Emergency. Emergency. Yeah. But I'm not another plumber or electrician, so it's very rare that there's gonna be a landscape emergency.
Right. I mean, it has happened, but it's rare. Anywho. So, yeah, my wife is great. She's the backbone. She keeps everything together. Together. And it's, there is not a better feeling than coming home and having your little kids scream in your name and run up to you and give you big hugs.
Yeah. That's what keeps me going. My wife and my kids. You know, I can call my dad sometimes and say, run some of my business ideas. 'cause he was in the Caterpillar world for so many years.
Mm-hmm. The best thing is just connections. He understands long scope mm-hmm. Kind of stuff. Right? Oh, they're like, I might not do business with other local business owners. Maybe they don't have grass or landscaping on their buildings, whatever. Right. But there's people that I call for advice. Which has been huge.
Yeah. Don't ever be afraid to ask questions or Yeah. Concerns like, how did you do this? Right. My mom would always say, I was always as a kid talking to the adults and not necessarily with the kids. 'cause I'm always asking these questions. And one lady went up to my mom was like, isn't that kind of weird?
Your son's always like hanging out with the adults. And my mom's like,
no.
No. And he, he can spend more of his life as an adult than he is as a kid. Correct. 100%. Yeah. And it's like, your son can't even look me in the eyes. Right. At least my son can look you in the eyes and have a conversation.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. My son's kinda like that too. A little bit. So let's move on to expertise and tips. I, I, from what I hear a little bit of what you're saying, you said make sure that you ask questions. Right. So that kind of brings us right into this next category of tips. Um, but my category of questions is more about like the, uh, the client, the customer, right, right.
Lawn care, taking care of your landscaping or even tips on how to be a good customer. To a person who's coming to your house to do some landscaping. So, you have somebody call you up and they're like, Hey, I got this project idea. What are the things that you find that people are either like delaying and it's become a big problem and Hey man, we could have got to this a year ago and it would be a whole lot less work and a whole lot less, time and money.
So gimme an example of what that might look like.
So the industry laughable joke is high school graduations. Like, you know, your son or daughter is going to graduate
Oh yeah, yeah. In
May.
Oh, so you're saying people call you up, you know, four ago, you
know, four years ago that your son and daughter is gonna graduate in May.
Most athletes, yeah. And when they call you two weeks before graduation, it's like, I need this patio, or I need all this redone because I'm having a big graduation party. It's like, that's a no, that's a no. Or you try to do the best you can. Yeah. Yeah. It makes it
tough for
you. Oh yeah. Because you wanna help 'em.
'cause you want to help 'em out. A lot of times it's family and friends. It's like, come on, you knew.
Yeah. Four years ago, you know,
and I got a book out months. Weeks in advance. Mm-hmm. Now, if it's a small, just a simple mulching or couple plants great. But sometime my yard looks terrible, I need to sod it.
It's like, okay, the sod won't even take when you have the, until you have the party. So everyone wants to stay off the ground, like, right. Yeah. And if we have, anyway, so, all right. So planning ahead. Planning ahead is tricky and help, customers sometimes, not all, but think they're the only ones.
Oh, and I'm just waiting by the phone for you to call me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or for Ben to call me. And it's like,
so understanding if they call and leave a message like, Hey, you know? Right. Todd's out on another job right now, he'll get back to you later. Right, right. Okay. That's
why texting, I, it's, I love relationship building.
Texting though is the best way to get ahold of me because nowadays. You, you can kind of catalog it like an email. I can 100% I can at questions, addresses, and then we'll meet face to face. Right. And then we'll build this relationship and
your downtime and you're gassing up your vehicle.
You're like, okay, I gotta take care of some of these messages when I, or
at night when I'm getting like, oh, I didn't return these text messages. Yeah. And then, but there's so many spam calls that use local numbers. I know if I picked up every phone that number that called me, I would never get anything done.
Yeah. I love when I pick up the phone and I'm like, hello? And there's no answer there for a brief second and only when I say hello a second time, they're like, and you hear that little click and you're like, hi, this is, I'm like, bloom, boom. Yep. They've got some sort of a program on their end.
That's okay. Rude then, right?
You can be rude then, right?
I don't like swear at them and like, no, but hang out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I just like, oh, sorry. I can't hear you. No, I don't. I don't even take time to do that. Yeah, it's funny that's when you stopped hanging out with me, hit the, stopped taking my calls.
No, no, no. Not at all. So we've talked about tips on Morton residence. Or, or customers like, needing a little bit of guidance on how to lead or be their part, play their role in mm-hmm. In this kind of relationship of being a client to a landscaping business. Let's talk about where the Venn diagram comes between business and community and you being in Morton. Do you have some opinions about like, places in Morton that you'd like to do business at?
Um, obviously Eli's a little bit of coffee. Okay. Yeah.
I try to support businesses that support me. Yeah. If I need their service or product. Yeah. Like we take care of a lot of the Culver's, okay. My, my kids love Culver's. Yeah. They would've loved it anyways, regardless. Um, so it's, you know, in other restaurants, in other communities that, I try to take my guys there, eat or show them that, Hey, let's make a presence. Ooh.
Where are you going in Morton to take your guys to eat?
Dax is good. Yes. I gotta get Dax on the show. Yeah. That's another one of those small businesses I'd like to get here. Right.
Dax, gimme a call. Call Ben. He wants to show.
Yeah. I just wanna
have him on the show. Yeah. Bring some wings too. They do have good wings. Oh man. I've gotten carry out there many times just for the wings. Yeah. Today would be a good day to sit on that little side patio. Ding. You're gonna have to go back to work. Yeah, me too. Well, I actually have to do one of your jobs today.
Well, not a job like you guys. I have to trim hedges.
Oh. That's the least favorite of mine.
Yeah. I'm not really looking forward to it. I had a lot of dusty hedges in my, just stuff's falling on your face. Yeah. And it's just like, lot of dust. It's in your way. And then if
they're, if they're big overhead, I should clarify that.
They're big overhead hedges. Those are the tough ones. When, yeah. I'm up on a ladder below chest high. It's fine.
Yeah. Don't, and then when you're done, you're not done. 'cause all that stuff's on the ground. You're like, now I gotta pick it all up. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So I'll be doing that for about five hours today.
Well then you'll appreciate what we do for a living.
Oh, I already appreciate what you do. Yeah. I've feel like I've become like the jack of trades. Like I got landscaping. I'm doing I'm doing plumbing with all your rental properties. Plumbing. Sure. Yeah. I'm doing electrical work. I'm I'm hanging paneling and insulation in a, in a cottage, kind of thing.
And. Yeah, I've learned how to do a lot of that stuff. Just kind of me sitting cross-legged on the floor with YouTube in my lap, you know, like learning how do I correct this P trap and Right.
Well,
that's how you
learn.
Yeah. That's how you learn. I mean, that's how, I mean, YouTube is the best.
Mm-hmm.
But it's also a little bit of a demon in my pocket, you know?
'cause I'll be with the intention of sitting down learning how to do this. And next thing I know, I'm watching something about the NFL season.
I'm sure you have like an electrician or a plumber looking at these YouTube videos like, oh, that's not the way to do it. Like, oh yeah, there'll be stuff like landscapers, like they're doing all this stuff.
It's like, no, that wall's gonna fail. Yeah. Looks good. But a year from now that's gonna fail. Yeah. So it is tough. Like figure out what works, what's right. Right. Yeah. So sometimes you gotta use a little common sense, but Right. Like plumbing and electricity. I don't know. That's not my realm.
Right, right, right, right.
Alright, let's continue to talk about community stuff. Kids are getting excited about the pumpkin festival. You got cousins
coming in from out of town. Yep. From Kansas City. Oh, right. So they're starting, this is their third or fourth year day stay with you guys. Yep.
Oh man, that's so exciting.
Yeah. That's great. Yeah, it's about to get. Crazy at your house? Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Sugar, ice. Yep. Yep. And then so yeah, no, that's great. Staying
up late and then crying and breaking down At the end of the day,
the word, yeah, we gotta go home.
No. Yeah. Yeah. More rides.
No, we, you,
if you wanna do this tomorrow, it's 1130, you guys have to go to bed.
And they're just like, so and so took my whatever and Yeah. But all of that other stuff that comes before it, it makes it worth it, right? Mm-hmm. You know, all those smiles and the giggles and the inside jokes and they come sliding in from the hallway and they say something and they go running back through the hallway again.
Yeah.
Right. How many more sleeps until, you know, p Fest, that's what they say. So it's how many more sleeps? How many more sleeps? So that's a night. Yeah, it's a night. Yeah. How many more nights before pfas.
How long do the cousins come in for? Before PFAS? Like several days. They just
know, well, they just come Friday.
Oh, okay.
Friday. So we're there Friday night and through Saturday with the cousins. Okay. That's Sunday? Mm-hmm. Awesome.
You guys go I think we go Wednesday. Okay. We like to go on opening day. I think we do. We go one time. It's a little bit not as busy. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That day. Yeah, we're looking forward to that.
No, it's great. It's a great time. It's great for the community and it's great to see people that you
Yeah, Katie loves that. Sure. I mean, I have a bad uh, habit of recognizing, I'm not the only one recognizing faces, but it's been so long since I've seen this person like, oh man, I know that was a parent, or your student, a kid.
Or, think all your students, the students are even harder. 'cause they, now they have a beard. Right. Or it's a mom holding a baby and she's Mr. V. And I'm like, Hey, hey, cute kid. Yeah. Um, and then they say, you maybe don't remember me. And I've just gotten to the point to where I have to be honest and be like, it's been a long time.
Like, I recognize your face. Yeah. But give a last name and I can tell you your first name. Wow. You're
better than I
am. Yeah. Well, I'm not, I'm, I'm pretty good. 90%, 90% of the time I can pull out the first name. Right. Because I'm, I was used to like going through the grade book and having last names first and just recording it all that way, right. I can remember it that way. Todd, I'm so, thankful to see you love bumping into you all of the time. Any other projects you got going on here in the future before we wrap some things up? Like, either landscape projects or personal projects? Like what do you got going on in, in the life of Todd Staley?
Oh, that's a, that's a tough one. This one's off the script. I've got the list of questions
here, but Yeah. I like, I like to know I'd is the dad question. What do you got going on in five years? Maybe not five years? What do you got going on, dad? This isn't the time.
Yeah. Um, really is focus of my kids. Yeah.
And that's what drives me, my wife and my kids. That's my biggest. So that's your plan for like next 15 years? That's Yeah, that's my next, yeah. Three little girls. Yeah. That's my focus. So trying to not mess that up too much. You should sit down with Pete
Martin.
Mm-hmm. Great dude.
Great dude.
Mm-hmm. Four
daughters. Four daughters. I know. Yeah. My good. Uh, I
don't think that they all have kids yet, but he's
a grandfather. Great business I support is Wayne Lip Waller Excavating here in town. Okay. And my shop's next to them and he's a. He's got four daughters. And so we talk, they're just getting outta the house now.
Somebody
who you can really relate to. Mm-hmm. And you can see the longer scope picture Yes. Of yes. What it's like to have four daughters. Yeah. And, and Right. To see them go away and live their lives and start families and all that kind of stuff.
We got some big retaining wall projects that we gotta use, like high hose for these big blocks.
That's always fun. It's like Tetris. Oh, okay. I enjoy those. Yeah. Pick a quick stuff. Different. Yeah. We just started doing them probably three years ago. Okay. And it's fun. It's fun. You, it's just something different. It's challenging.
Yeah, yeah. Changes it up just at the right time. Mm-hmm. Or I've been doing the same stuff for a couple of months now, and now we gotta go get that rental excavator.
Right. Whatever under the job site. I, you, you can change your
mindset. Like, that's what's fun about my job is I'm always learning, still, always. You know, and it's different. Every home is different. Yeah. So when we landscape a house or a business, it's, everything's different now. There is like, keeps it fresh.
Yesterday I went and picked up some flowers from our local business, uh, cake and Jade, I think, I believe. Is that the. It's next to blue sky Old mens gardeners.
Yes, yes. Great people. Yeah. Yeah.
Johnson floor is great too.
Yeah, yeah.
It just happened. I was passing by.
You're like, I gotta get this now.
I got Yeah. Anniversary flowers. Okay. Last minute They're closing. And any who?
Yeah.
A friend of ours. Well,
flowers are tricky 'cause if you get 'em too early, you know,
so I'm getting flowers from my wife and luckily she should be having them now 'cause today's our anniversary.
Oh, happy anniversary. Thank you. And a daughter turned
three today or two today.
Two today. A birthday and anniversary on the same day. Right? Oh man. Your anniversary's gonna be overshadowed by that birthday for at least 15 years.
So that.
So the doctor where I started my business. Oh, little rabbit trail.
Oh, we're going back to the beginning.
Yeah. Oh, I love this. He you know, I worked for him for years and then that's when I decided like I, I would take on side projects. Yeah. And people would call and be like, oh, I saw you did that, or Can you do this?
I'm like, no, but I'll figure it out.
Yeah.
And that's a mindset. It's a mindset. So anyways, he delivers babies. He's an ob. Okay. And his daughters became like my sisters. I was like, I'd go on vacations with him. I would really? Yes, I would. His wife was a phenomenal cook. I would eat, the little girls would come out, I'm like, Hey, can you come eat dinner with us?
I'm like, heck yeah. I'm not turning down that meal. Yeah. And then, because she's from the south home cooking. Okay. And then I'd go home and my mom would be like you gonna eat dinner? And I'm like, I just ate. I already ate. So I never did that again. Yeah. Oh, she got mad. You, I ate two meals. Oh, okay. Yeah.
So anyways, his, my oldest daughter is named after his oldest daughter.
Intentionally not just the same name intent. Yeah. Correct. Intentionally. Oh that's adorable.
So we're so close. He got outta came outta retirement to deliver our babies.
Oh.
So it's pretty special. Pretty special. Pretty special. And he got a lot
of really good fibers like holding your backstory together.
I mean, that's almost like a great character in a book, you know, like these things that, you know. Sure. I don't know I kind of tend to see these lives inside of books and think that they're unbelievable, you know, like impractical almost, you know? But it's something written by like a Hemingway, like a good old, classic novel like, man that's just a Norman Rockwell painting.
I love Norman Rockwell. You know, like seeing that all the family sitting at the Thanksgiving table all and the one kid who's like chewing on the one chicken wing and the other kid who's like poking the other kid in the face. And those are the kinds of fibers of good old classic American kind of culture, stuff like that.
And I feel like some of your backstory and this, the idea of that your doctor coming outta retirement to deliver. Your three kids and naming your daughter after his daughter mm-hmm. And working with some of these managers that you've, worked with for so long and
very blessed,
Todd. It sounds like you're doing the, you're doing the good job.
You're doing it right and yeah. I mean, you should be proud of where you're at.
Thank you. I make a lot of mistakes though,
But the fact that you say you make a lot of mistakes is again, another mindset, you know, you have to be honest with yourself. Mm-hmm. You nobody's perfect. Right. You mentioned earlier, I'm a big fan of the stoics, and you said none of this stuff is in our control.
Right.
And any day can all be taken away. Mm-hmm. So you have to go into it with this, almost like speaking outta two sides of your mouth at the same time of being like, Hey I, I know where I'm at, but I also don't know I don't have control over. You wanna be in the moment. Yeah.
But you also got a plan.
You also gotta a plan. Yeah. If
you're not planning, you're not gonna, yeah. You can't keep looking backs.
You can't stay in one place. You can't always be looking forward and you can't just always ignore, what's right here in front of you right now or else, that, that sounds like a bad place to be.
And I think that's the hardest part for entrepreneurs or business owners or anything in life is Yeah. What keeps you going? Yeah. What's, we all can stop if anything. Yeah. Yeah. So what, what drives you? What inspires you? You have to find that inspiration.
Right. And right now it's your family, your kids family, your managers, your relationships with your customers.
It's another little side story. I. One of my best friends growing up, his dad owned a carpet store, sold it by the time I think we became good friends, bought some land. Yeah, we went out there every weekend fishing. Swimming four wheeling. And I was like, man, if I could have this someday for my family, yeah, my kids, that would be a dream.
'cause this has just been awesome. Yeah. I want be, help my kids to have this. So then, I worked really hard to buy a piece of land and to build a lake on it. And now we're starting to enjoy that. And that was my motivator before I even got married. Like my mom would say, what if your wife someday doesn't want to have this land?
Or doesn't like swimming in a pond or doesn't like four-wheeling? And I'd be like, well, I wouldn't marry her. But yeah, that wouldn't be my wife, but
that would be somebody else's wife.
But you know, just more planning like, and then. Just, that was my motivator. I wanted to provide things for my family whenever I did, I didn't get married until I was 34.
Yeah. It was, and I don't
think I would've been able to start my business in my twenties just 'cause I was, I could have Right. But when you add kids and wife, it's hard.
Yeah. Yeah. Like to stagger it in this way mm-hmm. Was, uh, definitely a complimentary. Right. It all just fell in line for you.
Right. It sounds like you're a sharer. I mean, it's not like you're wanting to share your blessings. You're wanting to share, um, your relationships, your time, and that's the one thing that you know, you do have control of. Right. Right. Of all the things that we don't have control of, we've got control of our time.
And I appreciate you sharing it with us today. With me today to the listeners today. Uh, Todd brought me a bottle of campfire whiskey. That's right. Sharing. Hi Wes. I appreciate that. Hi, Wes. And I have, um, like for all my guests pens there for you, uh, to choose from. They're zebra serasa pens.
I love a good pen. They just glide and they don't smear. And they check all the boxes for me. So you've got a couple of choices there in front of you for you to take and yeah. I love it. Thank you. Sign your checks with those. I always need a good pen. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It'll probably end up being in that, that dish tray inside of your truck.
And That's right. And I always need 'em. That's where it's always, that's where they go. They always break and run
out. Or
Todd I, i've had conversation with you so easily. Thank you. It's just so nice to be able to connect with you after having these times in our lives where we come together and then we split apart, and then we come together and every single time I see you again, I said it before, but it's always worth a hug.
Well, thank you. So you've always been one of those friends. That's great that you can always, we, we might not speak for a year or two. Yeah. And then we can always come back. Yeah. Yeah. And that's relationships.
Yeah. And that's trust. Mm-hmm. You know, always have had good impressions of our time that we've spent together and good conversations too, right. Todd, I appreciate, appreciate you being on the show, and we're gonna go ahead and sign off.
All right. Well, thank you.
Thank you. Hey, this is Ben. Thanks for listening to this episode of Morton Muon News. I'm excited to share more stories with you, but I need your help to keep the content growing and engaging.
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