Owner- Smith’s Gardentown (Wichita Falls, TX) Growing Plants, a business, and a family.
Wichita Falls, TX
Joined January 2022
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- Followers10.2K
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I made a joke on Facebook about buying a tower downtown and turning into “Smith’s Gardentower” and now the people actually want me to do it.
@molzer heeeeeelp
Same sentiment. 1/4 of my staff will be elated today. 1/4 will be pissed. The other half don’t give a crap who is in office.
Me, I’ve got work to do. Business is hard no matter who is in power. I will continue to do my best and to love my family.
Now buy some plants.
In 2008, I was working in the Transamerica building in SF for a hedge fund when Obama won. The Stanford MBA was in tears happy while the Harvard MBA and founder were not pleased.
In 2016, I was working at a hedge fund in the GM building when Trump won. People were crying on the trading floor in a bad way at 6am. Some left work early as they were too distraught. Some didn’t come to work as they took a personal day.
In 2020 I was living in the Upper West Side when Biden won. NYC crowded the streets to celebrate.
In 2024 when Trump won I was driving to a factory at 4am and none of my employees cared.
Today none of my employees will care. They will show up, I pay them. That’s the deal. Nothing will change.
Since 2016, I’ve had a daughter, left NYC for New Jersey, seen my Chiefs win 3 Super Bowls and have seen both sides say it’s the end of the world. Inflation is a real problem and both parties have played a large role in it.
I’m still alive and that’s cool. Some people are excited today, others are sad. That’s normal.
All I know is that whatever problems and jobs I had yesterday (still have debt to payoff, still have customers to please, still need to be a good husband and father) are the same they are today, and I’m just going to keep on going. I love being in America and feel grateful I live here.
I still would love that end of year Santa Clause rally for the stock market though!
Some of the earlier poinsettias are really starting to color up now. The rest are starting to turn. Right on schedule.
I have a Grok Bot named Iron Mike. He's my full-time fitness and nutrition coach.
My Apple Watch workouts and health data sync to him automatically. By 5 AM he's sent me the day's workout with sets, weights, rest times and form cues, plus a shorter version for busy days.
For food, I snap a photo of my plate and he logs the calories and macros. At 5 PM he sends my totals and a dinner idea.
Each morning I text him my weight and he tracks the trend. He watches my sleep and recovery data to decide how hard to push me. Every Sunday he recaps the week and plans the next one around my schedule. He even ordered me high-protein snacks.
There is basically no friction for logging anything. I snap a photo, send a number or a quick voice note of how my workout went.
It knows my home gym equipment because I sent it pics of my gym, so it only suggests workouts I can do with what I have on hand.
Really, really digging it.
One of my Grok Bots combs through all of my business social media accounts (600,000+ followers) and finds all comments and DMs that need a response. It gives a daily report at 8am and drafts responses to each of them.
I can quickly scan through and approve or change any of the drafts and then have it send them. It also does scans throughout the day for anything it deems as urgent. If it's not urgent it gets added to the morning brief.
You can test me on this by commenting questions on any of the Smith's Gardentown accounts and you will get a reply from me in less than 24 hours. TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, 𝕏, LinkedIn, and SnapChat.
I'd been feeling guilty because we get many comments and questions that never get answered, because it was previously too cumbersome and time consuming to sift through all notifications across different platforms.
Game changer.
It’s incredible how fast I’ve ditched Chat GPT after switching to Grok Bot. I didn’t think it would happen because I have YEARS of history with Chat. It knows me, my business, etc.
I’m just getting so much more use from @bot and it’s learning everything else really quickly.
Kress stopped by the store today and showed me a robotic mower that's approaching things from a completely new way. Imagine a landscape maintenance crew of 1 person instead of 3.
Instead of having multiple mowers that stay and charge on their respective properties, this one mower can service many different properties.
When you take it to a new property, you map the perimeter one time and it remembers it forever. As many properties as you want.
Now the fun begins. One guy with one trailer shows up, unloads the mower and it starts cutting the grass on its own. Now he's free to edge, trim hedges, pull weeds, all while the mower does its thing. Done? Load it up and head to the next one.
8 hour run time, 40 inch deck (there's a 60 inch too). It never needs a lunch break either.
I'm really intrigued by this one. Curious if the commercial landscape guys start picking these up. Would you run your crew this way?
I bought this this morning. Here are 2 shot comparisons. Regular iPhone vs Chromograph.
Just doing some point and shoot. Wasn’t trying to be artistic and didn’t mess with the sliders.
Definitely gives autumn vibes. I will mess around with it some more.
So I recently badgered my cinematographer @steveyedlin into making my ideal iPhone still camera app. It shoots RAW, bypasses the iPhone's look processing and instead uses the same image processing we use on our movies. apps.apple.com/app/apple-sto…
This is NOT AI! This is an unbelievable, but true transformation. Pictures were taken in 2020, 2021 (right after planting) and 2023.
When the designer chooses the right plants and the customer does proper upkeep, you can get a spectacular result.
This landscape features Walker’s Low Catmint, Red Yucca, and Yucca rostrata.
The entire cybersecurity world freaking out for the past week, meanwhile I’m handing my keys over to Grok Bot like:
“I was faced with the very cruel reality that life is extremely unfair and arguably more unfair for business owners when things get hard.”
My brother died exactly 4 years ago.
The months after he died my lighting business went to complete shit as a went out of state to plan funerals and the person in charge of operating my business apparently despised me more than anyone could have ever imagined but waited until this stage to really stick it to me 😂
I’m 1000 miles away… Customers motherf***ing our company phone because of how bad of a job we were doing and no one was returning the calls.
Meanwhile I’m getting “everything is great over here Steve go be with your family” updates until the texts started coming to my personal phone from clients…
That started the longest 2 years of my life.
We did somewhere around $350k in top line revenue and LOST MONEY… DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD THAT IS TO DO IN CHRISTMAS LIGHTS?!
I had to accumulate 6 figures of debt on consumer credit cards just to avoid bankruptcy (in hindsight, I probably should have just filed)
I was faced with the very cruel reality that life is extremely unfair and arguably more unfair for business owners when things get hard.
This time of year is a painful but also oddly cathartic reminder of how much can change in 4 years…
4 years ago if you told me I’d be debt free and back at a 9-5 in 4 years I would have cried tears of joy.
But no, 4 years later the business checking acct looks like this 5 days before Halloween with zero outstanding debt outside of 3 company vehicles.
All of that other debt is paid to zero. I have a leadership team that has been with me since that year and it’s less stressful now than it was back then.
Sure, the bank account screenshot is a little taboo and maybe pushing it… But this is a temporary lighting business and I’m here to remind you of one thing:
It’s actually NEVER as bad as you think it is… and it’s also never as good as you think it is either…
Business ownership is incredibly hard (especially the early years). Anyone that tells you otherwise hasn’t built shit.
Thanks for reading
It’s Monday morning at your W-2 job. You’re about to make a presentation to the leadership team. You’ve been preparing for weeks for this moment, when suddenly your phone starts blowing up….
It’s Javier, the foreman of your mowing crew from the boring side-hustle landscape biz you own. “Hey boss, two of my guys didn’t show today. Mrs. Holder is pissed because we couldn’t get to her last week, and she has family coming over tonight. But we also have to finish the apartment complex today or else we are gonna lose that contract.”
Before you can even reply, a text comes in from your planting crew lead. It’s a picture. They tried to back the trailer into a customer’s driveway, but smashed into a brick mailbox and knocked it over. Oh, and the dump trailer door won’t open now either.
Now you’re mad, but Javier is waiting on a response still. You tell him you’ll call him back. An email notification comes through from Google Business Profile. “A customer has left you a review. Click to respond.”
Curiosity gets the best of you, so you open the link to read the review. 1 star. Angela said: “customer service is horrible! I remember when I could call this place and a real person would answer the phone! Apparently the new owner thinks people would rather talk to an AI assistant.”
Your presentation starts in 5 minutes.
I made it into a Business Insider story!
Not for business mind you, but for my poop habits.
Still counts though! Momma, I made it!
Some employees are pushing for bidets in office bathrooms, arguing that the fixtures can boost morale and save money on toilet paper. bit.ly/4dUX6IP
Hey @SMB_Attorney my daily dad joke calendar made me think of you.
This video now has over 1 Million views on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. I’m talking over 1 million on each platform, not just combined.
Certified banger.
Don't throw those mums away just because they're done blooming! 🍂🌼
Those beautiful fall mums still have plenty of life left in them! Most mums sold at garden centers are garden mums, meaning they can be planted in your flower beds and enjoyed as perennials year after year.
@Michaelfiore shares how to give your mums a second life in the garden, where to plant them, and when to cut them back so they can return next season. You might even get blooms twice a year!
Before you toss those crispy mums, watch this! 🌱
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Any of y’all play Pokémon Go? My kids got it on my phone and it turns out we have a gym and a Pokestop here at the garden center.
This will get my kids out here and walking around more, we gotta take over that gym!
