EP# 172 - Matt Lombardo's Blueprint for Elegant Landscapes and Balanced Living

Could resilience and adaptability be the keys to entrepreneurial success? Join us as we welcome Matt Lombardo, the spirited owner behind Lombardo Landscaping, Lombardo Build Group, and Lombardo Pools, who shares his transformative journey from Buffalo, New York to sunny Estero, Florida. Starting his first landscaping venture as a teenager, Matt takes us through the evolution of his business, emphasizing the power of detailed planning and the intricate artistry involved in luxury outdoor design. He candidly recounts the hurdles he faced, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the strategies that helped him distinguish his services from typical maintenance work.

In this episode, you will also get a glimpse into Matt's personal life and how he masterfully balances his thriving businesses with family commitments. Discover how he makes time for his wife and three kids, relishing moments through trips and soccer games, and even finds room for his passion projects like camping, cooking, and his latest restaurant venture, Lombardo's Pizza. We delve into his comprehensive design firm that manages projects from inception to completion, highlighting their specialization in breathtaking outdoor living spaces. For those curious about Matt's services, he shares how to connect with him through his websites, phone lines, and a show center where clients can experience the quality of his work firsthand.

Lombardo Landscaping & Water Features, Inc.
Lombardo Pools
Lombardo Luxury Build Group
Matt Lombardo
7200 Bucks Ln,
Fort Myers, FL 33912
239-788-2755
contact@lombardolandscaping.com
lombardopoolsflorida@gmail.com
WEBSITE-Landscape
WEBSITE-Pools
WEBSITE-Luxury Build Group

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.

Speaker 2: 0:11

Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 172 of the Good Neighbor Podcast Estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Matt Lombardo from Lombardo Landscaping, lombardo Build Group and Lombardo Pools. Welcome.

Speaker 3: 0:24

Oh, welcome.

Speaker 2: 0:25

Yeah, pleasure Excited to learn about everything that you do. It sounds like you do quite a bit over there, so let's jump right in. And why don't you share about what you do?

Speaker 3: 0:34

Yeah, so we've been in business down here a little over close to about 20 years regarding Lombardo landscaping. That's what we kind of started off at and, as over the years we've morphed, we really specialize in custom luxury designs and outdoor living environments for people here in Southwest Florida. And so over the years we've kind of morphed and we now have a luxury pool division we've had for several years, as well as our construction division. Really, our goal overall is that we internally myself I am a designer and we have a design team on Staff View Designers and we really just specialize in getting people that custom dream outdoor backyard space, designing it, taking it from the design phase all the way to the execution of getting the job completed.

Speaker 2: 1:23

Very nice, very nice to the execution of getting the job completed. Very nice, very nice. Well, let's back up your story a little bit and help us understand how you got involved in all this.

Speaker 3: 1:31

Yeah, so originally I'm from Buffalo, new York. I was born and raised there, landscape wise and even like some of the construction. You know, since I was a young teenager, I worked. I was not given things in my life. My parents made me work for things, which is a good thing, uh. So I've had to work and then, when I was 15 years old, I'd saved up enough money and I actually bought my own truck equipment and started my own landscape business in Buffalo, did that for a few years, sold that business um, did pretty well for myself, being a teenager and moved down here when I was 18 years old. Yeah, then at 18, moved down here, worked at a couple of places locally here for a couple of years regarding landscape as well as construction, and then, you know, started my own business down here in 2006. And basically since then I've been, you know, just growing the businesses and growing the different divisions and have a great team of staff and employees behind us. You know, that's kind of where how the journey started and where it come from.

Speaker 2: 2:38

So you mentioned your journey. I mean, we've all had some type of I want to say obstacle or challenge maybe along our journey that kind of helped define who we are today. Is there something that happened along your journey?

Speaker 3: 2:51

There's been a lot of obstacles. You know one thing I'd say as a business owner it's, you know, when you're growing from. It was me in a pickup truck when I started to now. You know we have, you know, 40 plus employees and crews and a lot of subcontractors and great partners. You know there's challenges of just growing along the way and learning to adapt with the team.

Speaker 3: 3:19

You know, whether it be employees, customer needs, the industry just in general changes and the demands of people changes. Some of the big ones, obviously, the more recent, larger one struggles like going through COVID as a contractor was a nightmare and just supply chain as well as workers, client expectations extremely probably the most difficult thing I think you know, during code for us being a contractor during that time and trying to maintain client satisfaction crazy difficult, but it did. What they did do is allow us to become stronger and, um, you know, it shows you when you're down and there's weak areas. It highlights the areas that are weak and forces you to either succeed or you got to give up, and giving up is not something I believe in.

Speaker 3: 4:14

So, you just got to fight a little harder and work harder, being resilient and then pushing through.

Speaker 2: 4:21

That's what you got to do Exactly Resilient and then pushing through. That's what you got to do Exactly. So are there any myths or maybe misconceptions surrounding what you do that we could kind of clear up for our listeners?

Speaker 3: 4:42

Well, one thing you know, that comes to mind, you know, because we want specifically, I'll say, with our landscape business. You know, we are actual landscape designers, landscapers. We do architectural drawings and professional design services, 3d writers, all that. There's always that oh, you're a landscaper, you guys cut grass, can you? You know well, no, there's a big difference between maintenance companies and actual landscaping. So you know, we are a design company first, then we are a landscape contractor. We don't even actually perform maintenance.

Speaker 3: 5:08

It's not what we do we got out of that years ago because that's just maintenance. It's necessary and I value people to do it, but it's a very cutthroat. That's how we do. That's definitely one misconception there.

Speaker 3: 5:22

concept, um, you know, there's something that applies to as well definitely the construction and pools you know we are not a cookie cutter pool company or someone who's just a handyman out there building random things. Um, one of the definitely myths, you know, is that, you know, people just think you could just start this project, whether it be a cooler construction and not have a design playing in place. Well, you know. Well, other companies tell us we don't need a design. Well, that's not how we operate as a you know more luxury custom company who offers high quality service products.

Speaker 3: 5:53

With what we do, it starts with the design. We have to have a design, you have to have a plan, and it's really, I tell people to support their protection as a customer as well as ours as a contractor that we're all on the same page. So that's definitely one I'm going to say. I don't know if it's a myth or a misunderstanding of the industry, but it's not a cook-and-cutter mystery.

Speaker 2: 6:13

Absolutely. Now you mentioned design. Are you seeing anything that's trending lately in the industry or changing?

Speaker 3: 6:22

I would say definitely landscape-wise. Obviously there's a big push for low maintenance, environmentally friendly. There are definitely concerns, you know, going more native, you know Florida friendly type plants.

Speaker 3: 6:36

In Florida friendly doesn't have to be native, it just through plants that you know, you use minimum requirements of water fertilization, but that's definitely something trending, landscape wise, when it comes to the construction and pools, you know, biggest trend in general, which is great for our industry, is that people are realizing that Florida, you can enjoy the outdoors year round. I mean, people have this kind of ties back to the last question but missed the session that like, well, it's the summertime, it's bad, you know. Well, if you design an outdoor living environment in the correct manner, think about areas that you're going to use that are shaded and also have proper air ventilation fans and you have water. You, you know, the reality is your outdoor living space can be enjoyed year-round in florida. Um, it's just usually, you know, the conception of sitting outside in the sun in a wide open spot with no shade and no breeze. Yes, that's torturous, you know, but that shouldn't be how you design your Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 7:35

We live in Florida to be able to enjoy the outdoors and we want to be able to be out there A hundred percent. So you mentioned you were from New York originally. What brought you down to Florida? The weather Like all you down to Florida.

Speaker 3: 7:50

The weather, like I was right, yeah, from Buffalo especially, which is not the capital of the sunshine in New York. So it's just, yeah, I mean, on my spring break I think it was my senior junior year in high school actually I came down to visit some family. Year in high school, actually, I came down to visit some family and uh, I just, you know, at that time I had my own landscape business, which you, buffalo, you only can do maybe four months of the year. I need a snow plow, yeah, which is something I didn't want to do with shovel snow. So I just, you know, I was young and I said, you know what?

Speaker 3: 8:20

I was like this is crazy people live here and you can do this year round and have this kind of sunshine, so I I pack things up and I move down and never I'm the same way.

Speaker 2: 8:33

I'm from Wisconsin and I love my parents, but I blame them for not being born down here. I'm like come on, yeah. So outside of work, I know earning or owning multiple businesses like you do. When you do have a moment of free time, what do you enjoy doing?

Speaker 3: 8:50

Well, I do. I have an awesome family. I have a beautiful wife and three young kids. That with the businesses, spending time with my family is my number one priority. If I'm not working, I love being with them. If we can take trips or we're just playing soccer in the backyard we're a big soccer family Outdoors, I love if I get a chance to go camping, doing those type of things, I want to make personal fashions. Cooking I love cooking. We may talk about this in another show, but, yeah, I just started a restaurant, a lombardo's pizza restaurant, so I make cookings. Uh, cooking food has always been a passion, part of my family and just for generations, and so, yeah, but um, being with my family outdoors, cooking, that's. Those are my following your passions.

Speaker 2: 9:37

That's what you got to do, exactly yes. So is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about what you do that maybe they wouldn't be aware of?

Speaker 3: 9:48

Probably. I mean, the biggest thing I know I mentioned a little earlier is the fact that you know we we are a design firm. Our biggest thing to help our customers is looking for someone who takes that project from the start to the finish, meaning we meet with them initially to go over what it is they're looking for, what their needs are, to the design, to the actual getting the permits that are necessary to actually executing the job. We have great project managers in-house on staff that run our jobs. So we're really kind of a unique company in that we are with the different companies we have. We are a licensed commercial pool builder, we're a licensed contractor here in Florida, as well as a licensed landscape company.

Speaker 1: 10:32

So they can actually hire me.

Speaker 3: 10:34

It's taken me a lot of hard work over the years to attain these license and and so we can really take it from the professional like a landscape architectural drawing, 3d renderings. We can take it from that aspect of the project all the way to the completion um permits and all to the end for a customer. So that's you know, ideally, what you know. A lot of times what people don't realize because the reality is there's, we're fairly unique. There's no contractor in florida that specializes in the outdoor, and not just specialized. It's my passion, it's creating outdoor beautiful living spaces is a passion of mine. We can build brand new homes. It doesn't excite me as much as it does to build someone a beautiful backyard, whether you be the water features, a pool, koi ponds out their kitchens, purpose hard space whatever it be.

Speaker 3: 11:22

You know, that's, that's our audio, lighting, all that stuff. So you know, do you know that? Let us be artists? In our company we got a few, you know, good designers and sales people on staff and it's really an art for us. We're not just building a pool, we're not just putting landscape. It's an art. It's making something beautiful, making the customer happy.

Speaker 2: 11:39

That's that exceeding customer expectations and and really putting your heart and soul into it and providing that customer service. So I love that. How would the listeners go about contacting you if they had any questions or needs that need to be addressed?

Speaker 3: 11:55

yeah, there's a couple ways um. We have a great website, um a couple websites.

Speaker 3: 11:59

One is the lombardo landscaping, one from our landscaping. com as well as lombardo pools um, and then there is lombardo luxury build group, uh, any one of those sites, but um also feel free to call us we. We have uh always have someone there pick up the phone monitor. Friday eight to five. Uh, they can reach us at two, three, nine, six, three, four, five, four, seven, seven. That's our uh landscape line, but the other companies phone lines you can call those as well. So calling us, emailing us, is great. We also have a beautiful show center um right off the legal road, um about, let's say, a little under a half acre of an outdoor display show center where we have landscaping, we have a water feature, some patio areas for clients. They're welcome to come by and walk around and take a look at things as well. Regarding to meet with, whether it be myself or one of our team members, that's something that would typically require an appointment, but they are always welcome to stop by and check out who we are and what we have.

Speaker 2: 12:57

Very good, Matt. It's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you on the community soon.

Speaker 3: 13:04

Thank you, jim. Likewise, I appreciate the opportunity and hope to hear from you, or some of the neighbors as well.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnp estero. com. That's gnp estero. com, or call 239-296-2621.