Ryan Markewich of Creative Roots joins the podcast to share a fascinating approach to running a lean, profitable landscaping company with a big emphasis on gamification and open book management.

From humble beginnings in lawn care to building a multimillion-dollar design-build-maintenance company, Ryan has done it all — and then some. He’s sold most of his business to a group of employees and now focuses on mentoring, systematizing, and driving performance through creative engagement.

Ryan explains how applying the principles of "The Great Game of Business" transformed his company culture. By teaching employees to understand the financials and allowing them to help define and measure success, his team operates with ownership, even if they aren’t literal owners.

He emphasizes how numbers aren’t just math — they’re stories about people. When team members understand their impact on the score, they play to win. From mini-games to long-term goals, Ryan’s practical approach to employee ...

In this power-packed episode, Brad Stephenson, CEO of Newcastle Lawn and Landscape, joins Brittany Auman to share hard-earned lessons from his climb from laborer to majority shareholder of a 100-person landscaping business.

Brad didn’t found Newcastle, but he shaped it. His journey highlights what’s possible when you embrace opportunity, empower others, and focus on creating career paths — not just jobs. Starting as a field worker and later becoming a minority and then majority owner, Brad’s rise mirrors the core message of the episode: great companies are built by lifting people up.

He dives into the importance of projecting opportunity when trying to attract and retain talent — especially entrepreneurial-minded individuals. Brad discusses how understanding personality types (using tools like the DISC assessment) helps create roles where people can thrive.

Leadership is another major focus. Brad opens up about personal struggles — from addiction to burnout — and how those experie...

In this episode of the Kid Contractor Podcast, Brittany Auman sits down with Trey Chilcoat of From the Ground Up to explore the journey of starting a landscape design-build business during one of the most unpredictable times in recent history — the pandemic year of 2020.

Trey shares how he transitioned from working in commercial construction to taking a leap of faith and launching his own landscaping company full-time. From purchasing the company name in high school to managing large-scale apartment builds, Trey’s path wasn't linear, but it was deeply instructive.

He talks about the first-year challenges of equipment failures, financial sacrifice, and having to do any kind of work that came his way — from fences to grading — just to keep things moving. He also explains the shift from hiring friends to building a reliable crew of dedicated professionals.

A major theme of the episode is smart investment in equipment. Trey discusses the importance of mechanization, even at an early s...

In this episode of the Kid Contractor Podcast, we sit down with Henry Evans — author of Winning with Accountability, executive coach, and founder of Dynamic Results. If you've ever felt like you're spinning your wheels trying to scale your business, this one’s for you.

Henry shares his personal story of early success, devastating failure, and the powerful lessons that came out of it. From nearly joining the FBI to losing everything after 9/11, Henry’s journey is packed with real, hard-earned wisdom about leadership, communication, and building businesses that last.

We talk about:

• What accountability really looks like in a company

• Why vague language is killing your team's performance

• How to scale from $1M to $10M (and the inflection points along the way)

• The common leadership mistakes that sabotage growth

• Why making the complex simple is a competitive edge

One of the most powerful takeaways? Your intentions as a leader don’t matter if your team isn’t...

Ready to sharpen your skills and level up your crew? Our next in-person training at The Hardscape Academy is set for April 11–12, 2025, and it’s packed with essential education and hands-on experience for contractors at every level.

Whether you're just starting in hardscaping or sending a new hire to get properly trained, this two-day experience is designed to build a strong foundation for success.

What You’ll Learn:

✅ Paver installation basics – tools, layout, patterns, and compaction
✅ Retaining wall installation basics – block systems, geogrid, drainage, and more
✅ Landscape lighting fundamentals – intro to low-voltage lighting systems
✅ Basic budgeting – know your numbers and start pricing with confidence
✅ Operating machinery – safe operation of common hardscape equipment
✅ Job site data capture – how to document and track your work in the field
✅ Hands-on training – you’ll work with materials and tools on real builds
✅ Catered sit-down lunches – refuel, relax, and connect with othe...

This conversation with Kory Ballard was one of those episodes that sticks with you.

We’ve had Kory on The Kid Contractor Podcast before, and he always brings the heat—but this one hit different. It wasn’t just about business, blades, or branding (though we talked a lot about that). It was about leadership, boundaries, relationships, and the grind it takes to grow something big—and the cost that can come with it.

Early on, we got into something that seems small but is actually massive: being specific. Kory shared examples from his own companies—Ballard Inc. and PerfiCut—where a lack of clarity led to confusion and missed expectations. “Make it look good,” doesn’t cut it anymore. “Be nice to the customer,” is too vague. Define what good looks like. Be clear on what a win is for your team. As a leader, if you’re not specific, you’re setting your people up to miss the mark. I needed that reminder.

We also dove into the story behind Ballard Inc.’s success—26 years in the making, fro...

This episode was a burner — short on time, long on value. I had Mike Andes on The Kid Contractor Podcast, and man, it was like drinking from a fire hose.

Mike’s the founder of Augusta Lawn Care, a franchise with 170+ locations across the U.S., Canada, and even Australia. He's also the mind behind a ton of great content and systems aimed at helping contractors build businesses that don’t own them. And if you've never heard the story of how a dump truck PTO nearly ended his career — and sparked a total systems overhaul in his company — buckle up. It’s wild, humbling, and powerful.

One of the biggest takeaways from our conversation was about getting the reps. Whether it’s estimating, selling, leading a team, or learning to follow up — most people just don’t put in the time. They say, “Oh, sales isn’t working,” or “P4P doesn’t work for my team.” But have they really tried? Like, tried 100 or 1,000 times? Probably not.

Mike’s story about how pay-for-performance (P4P) was born out of ne...

Every now and then, I get to sit down with someone whose story really opens up the world a bit—and this chat with Andreas Baumgart did just that.

Andreas runs a landscaping company in central Germany and joined us for an episode of The Kid Contractor Podcast that turned into a fascinating dive into how landscaping is done across the Atlantic. Let me just say—despite the language and miles between us, the challenges, victories, and philosophies in our work are strikingly similar.

Andreas, who you’ll find on Instagram under the handle @wir_lieben_gaerten (which translates to “we love gardens”), shared the journey of how he took over what was once his family’s struggling business. After his parents’ company ran into legal and financial trouble, Andreas and his wife took a huge leap of faith—started from scratch, took out a major bank loan, and launched their own company in 2019.

What I loved most about our talk was hearing how deeply connected Andreas is to both the design and build ...

Man, this episode with Jesse Weidner got me fired up for the season ahead. It’s always a treat bringing folks on the podcast who are sharp, dialed-in, and just genuinely get it—and Jesse is absolutely one of those guys.

He’s based out of North Dayton, running Weidner Landscape, and has carved out a niche in high-end softscape installs. No big paver patios, no massive retaining walls—just tight, clean, well-executed landscaping work. And you know what? That’s what I admire about Jesse—he knows what he’s good at, and he sticks to it. There’s a lesson there for a lot of us.

We talked equipment setups (you know I geek out on that stuff), and he’s running a slick little operation: a one-ton dump, a mini skid, and a two-ton excavator with an Encon tiltrotator. The guy’s crew is running lean and efficient, banging out $10K–$25K installs in a few days at a time. It’s not about scaling for the sake of scaling—it’s about growing within the margins and keeping the team and the work tight. I l...

Hey folks, Caleb Auman here, back with another episode breakdown from The Kid Contractor Podcast. This time, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Kory Ballard—an absolute legend in the Green Industry. If you’ve been around long enough, you know Kory built Perficut from scratch into a $25 million business before selling it. Now, he’s running Ballard Products full-time, and he’s got a wealth of insight on growth, leadership, and the tough realities of building a company.

This episode wasn’t just about business—it was about what it takes to win, what it costs, and how to protect what you’ve built. Let’s get into it.

Building and Selling a $25 Million Business

Kory’s journey started like a lot of ours—just a kid with a mower. By the time he was out of high school, he had crews running, and over the years, he built one of the most well-known commercial maintenance and snow removal businesses in the Midwest.

But here’s what stood out: Perficut wasn’t for sale when it got bought...