Ezra McCarthy
Hello and welcome back to the Lawn Care Blueprint. Today I have a treat for you guys. We’ve got Seth Jones, editor of the Landscape Management Magazine and editor in chief of Golfdom and Athletic Turf. For more than 20 years, he’s helped shape how the lawn and landscape industry pros see their work and its future. So today we’re going to be going over trends, electric equipment growth, and some stories behind Landscape Management 150 List. So, sure glad to have you here, Seth.
Seth Jones
Thanks for having me, Ezra, it’s a pleasure, appreciate you reaching out and always happy to talk about my magazines and what we do and hopefully some of your listeners are familiar with this.
Ezra McCarthy
Yeah. So I’m just curious, how did you get into this role at Landscape Management? Have you been working there a long time and why do magazines editorial work in the first place?
Seth Jones
It goes back to the very beginning of my career I majored in journalism at the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism there and I wanted to get into magazine writing that was either there was a newspaper sequence back then a magazine sequence you can get into marketing and get into Different things in the journalism school I was a big fan of like sports illustrated and Esquire and Mad Magazine and Playboy and your name and I just I read every magazine I could get my hands on that that interested me and wanted to get into maybe either sports or pop culture that led to an internship in Lawrence, Kansas to the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America where I worked on their magazine called Golf Course Management which focuses on golf course superintendents and what they do. I started as an intern that hired me full time and then I ended up working there for about 12 years. I even met my wife there so that the GCSA was very good to me. While I had that job, a competitive magazine called Golfdom reached out to me and offered me the editor in chief position which I took. This was back in 2009 I believe.
And so that magazine is owned by North Coast Media based in Cleveland. So I’ve had that job for 16 years. And while I was doing that job, the sister publication to Golfdom is called His Landscape Management. And the editor in chief position opened on that magazine. And they asked me if I’d be interested in giving that magazine a try. And of course, I said yes, because it’s a big magazine with a huge readership and a great audience and a field that I was already interested in. Having covered the golf side of growing grass for so long, I was well aware of the lawn care side and even done a little bit of work for him here and there. So I was aware of what the magazine was and so took that job and I kept my Golfdom job as well. For about six years I was editor in chief of both magazines. That’s why I have no dark hair, I’m completely gray headed now. But it was a good run. And recently I hired my old friend Scott Hollister to come on board with me on landscape management. That’s really improved my, that’s just been a big game changer for me to have someone, because he worked with me back at the GCSA back then. So I’ve known him since I was 21 years old.
We’re old friends, so it’s good to be working with my old buddy again. So the industry kind of chose me, in a sense. At first it was because I wanted to get into, I thought I saw the golf job as a way to be into the sports field in a way. And I do enjoy golf, I enjoy playing, I enjoy watching TV. And then that evolved into landscape management as well. And it’s been really cool because the two magazines have a lot in common, but a whole lot of differences too. There’s a lot to be learned about the lawn care market that’s just widely different from what the golf guys are doing.
So it’s been a cool shift in the way I and the different hats I wear. So I’ve enjoyed the experience for sure. North Coast Media there in Cleveland has been just a really great employer that they have six publications that they publish and I go up to Cleveland probably about three or four times a year to see my team up there. It’s a neat gig.
Ezra McCarthy
So for those listeners who most of them probably have heard of it, but for those who haven’t, what is Landscape Management Magazine? Who is it for? And then I’m just curious if you’re open to telling us what is the size of the publication today? How many people are receiving it? And then what does kind of it look like at this point?
Seth Jones
Yeah, I’m happy to actually and all that information we’re very proud of and we do want to share it because it’s not secret at all. It’s a free magazine. So first let me start off landscape management is a magazine meant for anyone who is in the lawn care and landscaping industry We try to service a wide variety of readers whether they’d be in their mowing lawns if they’re installing irrigation if they’re doing design build they’re doing snow removal for their plot if they’re doing turf and ornamental applications you name it. We wanna help those readers.
The magazine’s got a long history. It’s been around since the 1960s. It’s been under a few different names throughout the years, but it’s a free magazine. So if anyone’s interested in learning more, visit LandscapeManagement.net. That’s our website. You can sign up for a free subscription.
We’re doing about 60,000 print copies per month. We believe very strongly in print. If you go online and we have a media kit, if anyone’s listening who is like, you know, I’m learning about this magazine where you can click and see down to what we cover each month, what the topic is going to be each month, because our magazine is 100 % supported by our marketing partners, our advertisers. And so when you pick up issue landscape management, you’re going to get about 50 % of the content is going to be stories we’re written by our staff and industry experts about what’s going on out there and hopefully timely articles considering what month it is.
And what’s forthcoming in the seasons. And then the other half of the magazine is gonna be some of the newest equipment that you can get your hands on, the newest things that our advertisers want our readers to know about. And so there’s multiple ways to kind of find out about what’s going on in the market because obviously I’m not the guy doing the job, but we listen to a lot of people. We have a lot of folks who do the job and they help us and they write for us at times. And then we have those marketing partners who know very well what their readers are needing and if they have something that they think is gonna be important for them to know about, they’ll come to us.
Buy an ad page from us, they might buy a whole package for a year, that might go on to include the website, include our social media feed, and the number really grows exponentially beyond our print readers. So you can imagine when you add in the digital footprint that we have of unique readers, it’s about double of that print, maybe even more. It’s just based on, we kind of know who’s coming to our website each month, we kind of can track all of that, and it’s such a big market, such a big industry, where any of our YouTube videos or our posts on X, posts on Facebook post on LinkedIn might catch some people’s attention who aren’t aware of us and they’ll click and they’ll end up on our website and then they’re down a rabbit hole they’re like…
Oh you know that’s one thing about being on your on your podcast as well as is that I’m happy to get landscape management’s name out there we do feel like we are the number one magazine and brand in the industry in terms of reporting on this industry based on our metrics and based on how long we’ve been around but then when I travel to trade shows and stuff like that there’s still people who walk by our booth say to quip and they’ll look at my magazine and they’ll be like what’s this and I’m like you’ve to grab a copy. If you’re here at this trade show and you’re looking around, let me bring this trade show to you every month because that’s what we do. We want to help the folks in the industry. It’s a community.
It’s something that they work hard in and we don’t want them being sequestered. We want them to know about what other people are doing and how they’re doing it well and if they’re successful with it and what might be next. So we’re very proud to let people know who we are and what we do. If you go to our website and click on the About Us page, we’re very public about how long we’ve been around and how big we are because it’s all good news for us.
Ezra McCarthy
Something I’m curious about, have you seen obviously digital is kind of taking over as far as the publishing space? Even with that, have you seen growth in your paper publication or has it kind of been holding steady while the digital has kind of taken more of the lion’s share there?
Seth Jones
It’s a great question and it’s something you can even do studies on really because it depends on your age and it depends on if you have ⁓ like you can even talk about podcasts on something like that. How are people consuming their media now based on are they at their computers? Are they on their phone? Are they listening to it on their headphones? I’ve been encouraged to start reading my stories into the microphone and just so people can listen to them if they’d rather listen to them than sit and read them.
Now in terms of print, print’s expensive and that’s one of the things about having a magazine is you got to consider. We want our readers to qualify for the magazine. We’re not just gonna like throw these out into the wind and hope people pick them up because there’s a cost involved. But what we’ve found with print is that people find it very valuable in the sense that it comes into their mailbox, they can read it themselves, they can throw it on the break room table, other people can read it. And there’s also some studies that show, not to get nerdy research on you, but there’s some studies that show that people retain information better when they can physically hold a copy and read something. That’s why a lot of colleges and universities used to go to a point where they were trying to cut out the print book and just encouraging the students to get stuff on their tablets or whatnot.
What they found was that students started not retaining the information as well to the point that they were going and taking the article, the books and they’re just getting printed on at the local copy shop and then highlighting stuff because that’s the way students kind of gobble up that information at that age. So we’re very dedicated to our print product, but we’re also very appreciative that our digital product is very valuable and our website does. We’re selling advertising on our website. Obviously ⁓ there’s banner ads, there’s all sorts of ads. Our e-newsletter, it has advertisements in it.
So we’re trying to just really take advantage and be everywhere where our readers are because we don’t know based on their age, based on their preferences, on how they want to consume media. My biggest fear is to work, put hours in on a cover story and then just to have someone delete the email with the story in it because they’re just like, too busy for an email that day. I’m like, man, I worked on that story for hours and it’s just in an email form. So I’m grateful for the print and the thought that folks that we have such a big print circulation and I feel good that those print copies are gonna end up in someone’s hands and hopefully in a break room at some point. And that always makes me feel good when I go visit someplace and I see back issues of landscape management sitting on the break room table or in the lobby or whatever. Cause I figured that at some point somebody’s rifled through that magazine a couple of times and those magazines until they hit the recycle bin, they’re gonna live for a while.
Ezra McCarthy
So you recently launched an M&A guide for the industry. Do you mind? Obviously, this is your bread and butter. You’re dealing with long landscape businesses. What do you think companies should know about navigating, whether they’re buying out a company, whether trying to merge them? Maybe they’re looking to sell and they say, how can I set this up to succeed?
Seth Jones
To answer that question, I mean, I think that to set up a company to succeed when it comes to M&A, and I wrote about this and that issue, it just, feel like it’s a divisive topic. Some people either are appreciative that someday that’s going to knock on their door and they’re going to listen and some people are why did I work on a third generation family-run business just to sell to some faceless Mr. Monopoly man coming in into my office and I even told the story of a company that I know of that keeps their front door locked now because some private equity money would what the representative would walk in acting as if they had a meeting with the owner and the owner had never heard of this person.
And it got to the point to where they were like, don’t we get we got this by appointment only. We’re not running a convenience store here. We don’t, we’re not going to let strangers walk in anymore. And they put that up on their on their front door by appointment only. And frankly, that probably makes sense because how often does a lawn care or a landscaping business have people just come in and knocking in their door to come pay their bill in person or something like that. Right? But I do think that the reason that we wanted to do that mergers and acquisitions guide is just because it’s such a commanding topic in the industry right now. And whenever we would do our state of the industry report we would always put a section in there about where we talk to some experts on what’s going on right now with M&A, what they’re hearing, what their advice is and whatnot. And then we realized like, why are we making this a section of the state of the industry report? This is just its own thing.
And so that was our first one and it was an interesting trip to we’ve actually freelanced the story out to a writer by the name of Mike Zawacki, who’s a longtime industry writer who’s won multiple awards for us. And we felt like he would be a guy who could really throw himself into the story. I encourage readers to go check it out if they’re interested in it. He did some myths and truths about M&A. And then I think for the business owner, you just got to decide on what side of the fence you’re on with &A. Is it something that are you going to be a company that’s wanting to acquire some people? Are you going to get acquired someday? Are you going to just stick to yourself for as long as you can and hope that your children take over the company? And I think that all of those people are veined by me. It’s kind of like we talked right before we jumped on that I’m into music. I love music and I appreciate other people who like music and I don’t care what kind of music it is. It could be jazz, could be country, it could be easy listening. I like alternative rock.
I like rock and roll but I think that we’re all in the sense that we’re in an industry where it takes hard work to be successful. You gotta be very forward-facing with your customers. And when it comes to the M&A question, it’s like asking which star is gonna follow this guy next? You just don’t know what to expect. And is it gonna be a pleasant experience? Are you gonna be vacationing for, are you gonna stay involved with the business? I know people who have pretty much experienced all of it from reaping some very great rewards from it. And I know some people who somewhat regret what they’ve done. So it’s just kind of, just an interesting topic in that M&A. I don’t think that M&A, I’m sure we’ll bring it back.
We’ll probably keep reporting on how the industry’s, what companies have been acquired, who are ones that are really growing based on it. But I don’t know that when it comes to the horror stories of M&A, I don’t think people really want those stories printed. We’re not into anonymous source type deals. So those are the stories you got to hear around ⁓ the water cooler, around the local pub or something like that, because we’re just trying to tell the stories of what people are willing to tell us. It’s a very rich environment for what you can hear about on that topic. The stories are ranging far and wide.
Ezra McCarthy
Would you tell the listener, what is landscape management 150? And then as you’ve made those, what do you see make some of those top companies stand out?
Seth Jones
We do this LM150 issue every year. It’s our guide. We go out and we ask companies to share their numbers with us and based on revenue, it’s the largest 150 companies in America. A lot of the people come to us with their numbers. We have our former editor in chief, Marisa Palmieri. She runs point on this for us and she’ll also go out and just find some of the numbers in some cases where the company’s public and whatnot. And so we put this list together every year just as a way to really celebrate how the industry and just show, one, is kind of a factual report on who’s the biggest company, who are the top 10 biggest companies, what to make the number 150, what’s the minimum amount of revenue you needed to make to make the list.
And just that way we have it and then we have a historic perspective on how big the industry is. We can also show how much has this company gone up, gone down, what’s what in what categories are they really growing in? Is it because of acquisitions or whatever? I like to think of it kind of as a I’m also a sports fan and when it comes time to draft my fantasy football team, there’s all these that come my way about which quarterback is gonna have a big year, which running back should I be looking at first.
There’s all these numbers to look at. For us, it’s like our version of let’s crunch some numbers and really look if you’re into this industry and you’re curious about how these companies are doing, here’s the biggest 150 companies. One of them is surely in your backyard at some point you know of and here’s what they’re doing and here’s what kind of numbers they’re reporting. So we’ve been doing it for a long time. We’re grateful to have a lot of cooperation within the industry in terms of our readers and also our partners. This recent one was sponsored by a trio of some of our loyal magazine advertisers.
It was Aspire, John Deere and Weathermatic. When I go to trade shows and it’s really cool because a lot of times I’ll be sitting there just taking notes and kind of listening and they’ll put this list up and someone will put this list up on their PowerPoint and they’ll cite us like, Hey, according to landscape management’s most current LM-150 report and they’ll start talking about, there’ll be a reason that they wanted to bring something up. Maybe it’s like, here’s how many of those companies that we work with.
It’s a fun way. When you have a magazine like this, you want to do stuff that really celebrates the industry. You want to celebrate the industry as a whole. And you also want to celebrate the individuals in the industry. And it’s a way to do both. So you think about any magazine that you love and you think there’s always like, it’s kind of like our time person of the year. We don’t really have a person of the year, but we have the companies of the year and stuff like that. So it’s something, it’s a way to really to just celebrate the industry and show people how this behemoth is just growing and growing and growing.
Ezra McCarthy
As you look at that year over year, what do you see really pushes those companies to the top? Would you say it’s branding? Would you say it’s marketing? Would you say it’s team members? Or what do you see that really makes them stand out, some of these top performers?
Seth Jones
The top top ones are obviously they’re major companies we’re talking, you know, I mean that are obviously huge and those companies have the resources, they have the staff, they have the HR, they have the marketing, they have whatever they need at their fingertips because that’s what you need to have. Any company that gets that big obviously. I think, you know, so an easier way to answer that question is probably look further down the list. The companies that like more in the down to 40, 50 million dollars and like what are they doing? And I think that a lot of them are relying on the latest equipment and software learning from their competitors.
I think they’re very, I think they got great branding. They also have someone probably with both hands on the wheel that is very driven to make the company go. And because a lot of folks in the industry who are successful and success can be defined in many ways depending on where you’re at in your business. But the folks who are really driven are, they’re gonna push. And if they’re gonna keep, I was talking to a guy, Noe Loarca out in, I think he’s in the DC area. And he said that his peer group came in to visit with him.
And one of the guys said, you know, the best thing about you, you’ve got your foot on the accelerator and you’re doing, you’re growing and you’re doing right. You know, don’t take your foot off the accelerator. And then he kind of stopped and he goes, I don’t even know what taking my foot off the accelerator would be like. And I’m like, yeah, I get it. And you could just tell, as he was talking to me, could tell he’s like, he’s not going to stop. He’s going to keep pushing and pushing and pushing because that’s his passion. Being a business owner isn’t for everyone. Being a driven business owner on a flight back to Kansas City yesterday, I sat next to a farmer and he was telling me about all the acreage he has out here in Northeast Kansas. It’s an interesting conversation, but it’s work.
You can tell this guy, he’s got some major equipment he has to purchase to take care of that many acres and stuff. So I think drive, I think you have to have someone, multiple people who are really driven to see something succeed. And I’m not saying it’s not okay to just enjoy your size if you’re at the size you like, but the big companies that are growing have somebody who’s got that foot on the accelerator and doesn’t know how to take it off.
Ezra McCarthy
I love listening to stories. I don’t know how many podcasts you listen to, but there’s one called Founders. And now I’m fritzing on the guy’s name, but it’s super fascinating. There’s something time and time again, he basically reads these biographies of founders. And one thing that consistently comes up is relentless maniacal focus in a lot of these people. And I think it’s true. A lot of the people that are succeeding in business are definitely like that.
So you’ve been a bit in the landscape industry kind of as an observer writing about it for a long time. Has there been any shifts in the industry that have just really surprised you as you’ve progressed these past years?
Seth Jones
I do typically ask my readers that like what shifts what are you seeing with your clients? What are some of the things you’re seeing and of course, you know I think the biggest thing to happen in our most immediate time was when COVID hit that really changed the industry so much in the certain terms that just people came more introspective and realized that maybe the best spot was right there at their house and stuff like that so I mean I think that in a hundred years from now we’ll look back and well if that’s worn off by now by then or what but from 2019 when we went to that lockdown, even our industry was like, what’s this mean for lawn care and landscape?
And then a lot of states, I mean, if you think back, well, it was a mandatory occupation. They put it in the same category as like, well, we need our doctors and we need our nurses and we need our emergency medics and we need our grocery stores to stay open and we need our gas stations because we’ve got gas and you know what? We need our lawn care too. Okay, we’re good. So hats off to whoever got that done and they stayed in business. But then going past that, the way the American homeowner just really fell in love with their personal space. Even to the point to where I feel like if you look at how many people live in it, city living is good for folks for a while, but I feel like a lot of people want to get out to the suburbs and beyond.
And I think that’s a big thing for folks where they just, for our industry, anyone who, if you move into a new house, the first thing you’re looking into is like, do I want to rip out those bushes? What were the previous owners thinking? That’s been something that I think that all of us should understand was just a really seismic change in the way people think about where they live. It was along with it, there was a lot of death involved, I’ll always keep my, anyone who’s listening who lost a family friend or family member to COVID, obviously I sympathize. I just think it was such a thing that really just made people think about the way they live their lives. And by happenstance, this market really got a big boost based on people wanting their own home to look great and for it to be a place where they can hang out and invite the neighbors over and whatnot. Then from there, it’s other trends, I would say is just, I do think that we’re getting to the point to where people like you look at the average age of our readers and what they’re doing. And I think there’s more acceptance into that there’s just the technology is coming for us.
It used to be what’s good enough. What was good enough for dad is good enough for me. Dad didn’t know about AI. Dad didn’t know about all this software we’ve got. Even the way these attachments are now what they’re doing on some small equipment and things like that. So I think that there’s definitely a willingness to get a little bit more exploratory when it comes to new equipment to help people get the job done. Because one trend that hasn’t changed is that the labor pool is still just, it’s just not good. It’s a rough patch for folks. If they don’t pay well, there’s other jobs that are easier to do in air conditioning for folks who aren’t into being outside and working up a sweat.
And unfortunately, that might be a trend too, is that there’s, I’ve heard someone say, second here, someone if they worked on a farm they’re hired because that takes a work ethic and a lot of the young people, they might be surprised the amount of hands-on hard work it takes to be in this industry and they might not last long in there. Yeah, so there’s a lot of guys out there who are struggling with that. So those are some of my trends just off the top of my head. I could probably go on, but that’d be officially on a soapbox then.
Ezra McCarthy
Yeah, we’ve all struggled with those things. What is one favorite tool or piece of equipment you’ve discovered recently? And I’m curious, what do you think about battery powered? It’s so funny. I was just thinking about when I was thinking about battery powered. I’m sure you remember the DEWALT mower that caught on fire at Equip. I think it was two years ago. And I was just thinking about, whoever’s job it was to demo that, that would have been a bad day. But what’s your opinion on the battery equipment? And I know that’s something that’s kind of coming in and then automated, like robotic equipment.
To be honest, I think right now, personally, I feel like it’s a little overhyped just seeing what’s there. I mean, we all know what’s there. You’ve got stuff in people’s yards. If everything isn’t perfect, what’s your opinion on that and what do you see kind of coming down the pipe?
Seth Jones
I’ll touch on your first one because I did have a pretty fun experience recently in terms of something that I did and there’s some videos online of me with this but I was with my friends over at Polaris recently lent me a sportsman 570.
Ezra McCarthy
Which is what?
Seth Jones
It’s an ATV. And so it’s just to keep it in my garage for a couple months and just to include it because I do a lot of videos with my job and just to talk about stuff. They were like, hey, you know, just throw them in your videos once in a while, you know, just if you want to drive up on it whatever. just boy, we had a lot of fun with it. It was a fun experience and I had to think about some of the practical applications with it.
And so personally, that was one that we got to enjoy out here. I live on five acres. So we’ve got kind of we got there’s always some work to be done out here. And so my son and I got a real big kick out of having the Polaris sportsman with us and other tools that I enjoy. I do like to operate mowers and I get to jump on a lot of them. I wish I could get it, I have my mower and I’ve had it for a while and it’s been pretty loyal. I’m probably due for an upgrade soon, so I’ll be in the market to figure out what I want to move into next. And then to jump into the battery, was it battery or robotics that you wanted to talk about Battery.
Ezra McCarthy
Battery.
Seth Jones
So, I am less of a disbeliever. I think that, two ways to answer the question. I think, like I just went and attended the Zero E Expo out in Campbell, California, put on by the folks at Gardenland Tools and Towa Industries. California has a different thing going on than the rest of the country. But some of the things I’ve learned about some of the batteries and the way that these batteries are advancing and obviously the charging is going to become a big issue. And I don’t wish that the way that’s being thrust upon California is unfortunate. But I do think that eventually the people are going to it’s kind of like I don’t know if you’ve ever ridden in a Tesla.
The acceleration is just incredible. And I was in Las Vegas in an Uber that picked me up. It was my first experience in a Tesla. And this light turned yellow. And then, I mean, it’s pink. And the driver just hit it. And I was like, what’s he doing? And it pushed us through so fast. My wife’s riding shocked then. I’m just like, she’s right next to me. And I was stunned. And then we got out. And I told her, was like, can you believe that ride we just had? And she was like, she’s like, what? And I’m like.
Ezra McCarthy
Was it a plaid? Do you remember what model it was?
Seth Jones
I don’t know. I just know there was a big sunroof on it. It was kind of sporty. But I don’t know what it was. And I don’t know where Tesla’s gonna go. Obviously, there’s some things going on there but I think all these technologies are getting better. And I always here people Ezra, like what are you gonna do when you need to dispose of them. What are you gonna do when you need to recharge them? Well, I think they’re gonna do and try to figure that out. I do think, and it might not be in a year, it might not be in five years but I think there are some guys who are already doing it, they’re figuring it out.
The other thing I would say is this, this is very local to me. Panasonic just built a giant factory just a few miles just from where I live on K-10. And it’s the biggest economic development program in Kansas history. They say it’s gonna bring 4,000 jobs to the state. Well, they were saying that about two years ago. They just had their recent grand opening, probably about two three Mondays ago. The first thing they said is, listen, this isn’t the grand opening that we’re hoping to have. And here’s why.
And the reason is because when that economic development package was passed, we gave them a lot of tax breaks here in Kansas, our governor, she looked at the writing on the wall at the time. At the time, Biden was in the office and he was giving a lot of tax breaks to try to propel this electric vehicle movement and they even had car sales the numbers on car sales on that were battery-powered really were growing steadily and suddenly Americans seem to be to be buying this and I’m actually able to talk on this a little bit because in the local paper political pol-sci guy at the University of Kansas did this is like an op-ed on this thing and they talked about the you know what just what changed. Well what changed is the office changed. Now, Trump’s in office and he’s not interested in what’s going on there and there’s not as much there’s not that support from the government to pursue that like it was.
And all of a sudden this dream factory that Kansas got is now a little bit of a risk. Kind of like what’s going to happen here? And I think they’ll still be building batteries there because there’s it was going to be supported in Texas. I think outside of Austin, there’s a huge Tesla plant, all these battery needs that you drive by and you see these massive factories to build these things. And now it’s kind of like, well, was that the right move or was that a little premature? And I think Governor Kelly would be just fine with accepting like, hey, things happened. But at the time, we made our play. We pushed our chips on this thing. And eventually, maybe it’ll pay off. But maybe it’s not going to pay off like we thought it did right away. So locally, we’re experiencing that.
I’m watching something like that. I’m watching the way. I could ran it off several companies that are really coming on strong with us right now about how do we get more in front of your readers? What do I need to do? And it seems to be something that’s not going away anytime soon. So I don’t want to be the guy I’ve always told people when it comes to any type of technology, it could be snake oil or it could be the best thing since sliced bread. But I want to be the first to report on it. And I want to let the reader decide because they’re going to know more than I will. But I definitely want to be there because I don’t want to be the one who missed out on it. And they learned about it from somebody else. So in that sense, I’ll always be open to hearing what the new gizmo is.
Ezra McCarthy
Last question here. What’s one great business book that you would recommend to the listener and also one podcast that you enjoy as well?
Seth Jones
Oh boy, I laugh because, one, I don’t read a whole lot of business books and two, I really don’t listen to podcasts at all. Yeah, it’s funny because people tell me that. So I have a job where one, I don’t have to commute. I don’t drive anywhere. I work from home. And two, I love music. I could always put on Led Zeppelin before I put on a podcast. I’ve tried with podcasts. I’m a big Cheese fan. I put on Cheese podcasts and I’m just like, no, I’d rather read about it in the sports page. So I’m just old school. I’m stubborn.
Ezra McCarthy
You’re missing out. Well, Seth, sure do appreciate you coming on today. There’s been a lot of interesting information. If they’re interested in landscape management, maybe even getting the magazine themselves, where is the best place to find it? And then perhaps if they have a question for landscape management, how could they reach out if they wanted more information?
Seth Jones
I’d encourage people to go to landscapemanagement.net, check us out. And we’re also obviously on all social media, but probably the easiest way to connect with us is to go to the website, click around a little bit, and you’ll see that there’s a way to connect with us there too. We love to hear from readers. We love to hear pitches from readers on stories, even if it’s just about your own company or if it’s about something you think we should be writing about or something we should be writing less about, let us know.
And we’re always, we got a lot of readers. There’s several of us, we got a big staff. We try to keep up as well as we can, but I’ll tell you right now, I’m about 300 emails behind as we speak. And once we log off, I’ll be 350 emails behind. So it’s just one of those things, but it’s a fun gig. We try our best to really report on the industry and share with folks what we think is coming up and it’s free.
Ezra McCarthy
Well, Thanks, Seth. If you’re interested, be sure to go check out landscapemanagement.net. That’s a wrap for our conversation. Don’t forget to check out landscape management. And if you enjoyed this conversation, leave a rating and review and we’ll catch you on the next one.
