Mike Arnold, owner of Creekside Outdoor Living, shares his journey in the outdoor living industry and the importance of creating a positive work culture. He emphasizes the need for proper pricing and educating clients on the value of quality work. Mike also discusses the challenges of dealing with projects that were poorly executed by other contractors and the importance of tearing out and starting from scratch to ensure a high-quality result. Mike shares insights on creating a positive work environment, managing a team, and integrating faith into business. He emphasizes the importance of building a positive culture and showing appreciation to employees. Mike also discusses the role of his team members, including the mechanic who takes care of maintenance and fabrication. He highlights the significance of effective communication and staying on the same page with projects. Mike shares his personal journey of faith and the impact it has on his life and business. He encourages others to prioritize knowledge, relationships, and good work.
Takeaways
Sound Bites
Chapters
00:00
Introduction and Company Overview
02:10
Mike Arnold's Background and Love for the Outdoors
05:59
Expanding Services and the Importance of Proper Pricing
08:38
Educating Clients on the Value of Quality Work
16:23
Dealing with Poorly Executed Projects and the Consequences
27:25
Building a Positive Work Environment and Appreciating Employees
30:00
The Role of a Mechanic in a Landscaping Company
33:12
Effective Communication and Staying on the Same Page
35:59
Integrating Faith into Business and Finding Fulfillment
53:17
Prioritizing Knowledge, Relationships, and Good Work
Keywords
outdoor living, landscaping, hardscaping, pricing, quality work, work culture, client education, work environment, team management, positive culture, employee appreciation, communication, faith, mechanic role, effective communication, personal faith journey, knowledge, relationships, good work
Mike Arnold, owner of Creekside Outdoor Living, shares his journey in the outdoor living industry and the importance of creating a positive work culture. He emphasizes the need for proper pricing and educating clients on the value of quality work. Mike also discusses the challenges of dealing with projects that were poorly executed by other contractors and the importance of tearing out and starting from scratch to ensure a high-quality result. Mike shares insights on creating a positive work environment, managing a team, and integrating faith into business. He emphasizes the importance of building a positive culture and showing appreciation to employees. Mike also discusses the role of his team members, including the mechanic who takes care of maintenance and fabrication. He highlights the significance of effective communication and staying on the same page with projects. Mike shares his personal journey of faith and the impact it has on his life and business. He encourages others to prioritize knowledge, relationships, and good work.
Takeaways
Sound Bites
Chapters
00:00
Introduction and Company Overview
02:10
Mike Arnold's Background and Love for the Outdoors
05:59
Expanding Services and the Importance of Proper Pricing
08:38
Educating Clients on the Value of Quality Work
16:23
Dealing with Poorly Executed Projects and the Consequences
27:25
Building a Positive Work Environment and Appreciating Employees
30:00
The Role of a Mechanic in a Landscaping Company
33:12
Effective Communication and Staying on the Same Page
35:59
Integrating Faith into Business and Finding Fulfillment
53:17
Prioritizing Knowledge, Relationships, and Good Work
Keywords
outdoor living, landscaping, hardscaping, pricing, quality work, work culture, client education, work environment, team management, positive culture, employee appreciation, communication, faith, mechanic role, effective communication, personal faith journey, knowledge, relationships, good work
Enmanuel Tejada (00:00.814)
recording not for the intro
Enmanuel Tejada (00:13.262)
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Digital Toolbox Podcast. My name is Emmanuel Tahara. I own a digital marketing agency and I also run this podcast. So I hope you guys enjoy it. Today our guest is Mike Arnold from Creekside Outdoor Living. Mike, go ahead man, introduce yourself.
Mike Arnold (00:30.139)
What's up, man? Mike Arnold, Creeks Out There Living. Like you said, we are a design build firm out of Chicagoland, but more specifically, Crown Point, Indiana.
Enmanuel Tejada (00:40.526)
Boom, let's go and might so somebody who doesn't know you, somebody who, who for some reason lives under a rock doesn't know who you are. How would you describe yourself and your company? Like the specific details of it? Like what's your elevator pitch to a customer?
Mike Arnold (00:56.315)
Well, you said yourself and your company. So if I were to first explain who I am, I am first and foremost, a Jesus Christ follower. I desire every part of my life, not always perfectly fulfilling it, but I desire that all my life glorifies God in some way, shape or form. And really everything else should be an outlet from that. My company, Creekside Outdoor Living, what we do is we design and build outdoor living rooms, outdoor spaces.
So, you know, we're putting into 3d designs somebody's backyard or front yard I mean that there's no limit to what we can do outside but we're doing swimming pools and patios and kitchens and bars and retaining walls and all that kind of stuff So that's that's what you would call hardscape. That's that's a very typical term in our industry is hardscape But also doing a lot of the soft scapes up as well with the plants and all that we have a full maintenance department as well we have about
Enmanuel Tejada (01:30.926)
Thank you.
Mike Arnold (01:53.723)
I think right now 10 or so field staff people that are commercial maintenance. So that's sending crews out to do mowing and fertilizing and all that kind of stuff, snow plowing in the winter time. But yeah, that's kind of the genetic makeup of who we are.
Enmanuel Tejada (02:10.766)
That's awesome. And I'm so excited to get into each and every one of those things that you mentioned. So let's get started, Mike. I mean, when you were in high school, who was Mike Arnold in high school?
Mike Arnold (02:20.443)
a redneck. I, I was, I like to be outside. I had a group of friends that we all just, we love to be outside. I love to be in the outdoors. I had jobs that were outdoors. I never really had a job. It was like an office desk kind of job. and so that, that probably is a, as a natural flow to then what I, what I do now kind of it's a.
Enmanuel Tejada (02:22.03)
Hahaha!
Mike Arnold (02:46.363)
My, I guess my personal position is like more of a white collar of blue collar industry. Right. so yeah.
Enmanuel Tejada (02:50.926)
Hahaha
Wow, that's awesome. And you said you like doing a lot of outdoor things. Were you into like camping? Were you into like retreats and stuff like that?
Mike Arnold (03:02.043)
Nah, I mean, I'm kind of a bougie camper, if anything, I'd be more of a, I'd be more of a glamper for sure. But, I don't know. We, me and my buddies would do stuff like hunting or right, riding dirt bikes, like that kind of stuff. yeah.
Enmanuel Tejada (03:05.934)
I'm going to die.
Enmanuel Tejada (03:16.75)
You were a fancy redneck.
Mike Arnold (03:20.379)
fancy redneck, that's right. That's right.
Enmanuel Tejada (03:21.838)
Dude, you gotta put that in the bio, hashtag fancy redneck. That's awesome. That's awesome right there. And so after high school, you loved outdoors. Did you go to college or what was your role like after high school?
Mike Arnold (03:25.019)
I'm sure I'm good.
Mike Arnold (03:35.291)
So yeah, right after high school, I jumped into Purdue university and it was for architectural engineering. And, I was about a year and a half in or so. So I had started doing some lawn mowing and minor landscaping stuff to pay my way through college. and while I was at college, I hated college. I was, I had these like three hour long and some of the stuff I liked, like they were talking about architecture and, and computer aided design. And I think that, you know,
Enmanuel Tejada (03:55.342)
Yeah.
Mike Arnold (04:04.443)
The stuff that I learned there does help me today. but man, I was in like a windowless room for three hours and I'm like, I was cutting class to go work outside and college is supposed to tell you what you want to do in life. And college taught me, I didn't want to go to college. So, I ended up dropping out, and going, if I ever want to come back to this, I can't, but I didn't, it didn't really need to, the business just kind of took off and I'm like, let's go. Let's just see, let's just see what the thing does.
Enmanuel Tejada (04:35.182)
Wow, man, that's very interesting. It's actually because you're extremely successful yourself and it's actually like kind of a trend, right? Most successful people don't go to college or even if they did, they probably dropped out to go into their business. So you mentioned you would cut class to go and do things outdoor. Does that mean you were running Creekside or some sort of landscaping business while you were in college?
Mike Arnold (04:54.555)
That's correct.
Enmanuel Tejada (04:56.366)
Was it Creekside or was it something else at the time?
Mike Arnold (04:58.139)
It was Creekside. Yeah, it's always been. I think at the time it was like Creekside landscaping or Creekside lawn and landscape or something like that, to which we've now rebranded Creekside Outdoor Living just to really kind of hammer down on the fact that we are a distinct type of landscape firm. It's not going to plant Nancy's Bushes down the street. Though we do that, that's not necessarily our sweet spot. Our setup, our machinery setup, our employee setup,
Enmanuel Tejada (05:02.67)
Mm -hmm.
Enmanuel Tejada (05:18.158)
No.
Mike Arnold (05:25.531)
everything is geared towards the outdoor living space.
Enmanuel Tejada (05:28.942)
Gotcha. And that's a great way right there, right? I mean, I talk because I do digital marketing, right? So I have all of my clients. Most of my clients are landscapers. I try to preach to them like, yes, yeah, you love putting down more. You love doing flower beds, but it's not really the most profitable thing that you want to do. So you don't want to brand yourself. You don't want to put yourself in a box, right? Customers will think that you only do that one service. So at the beginning, did you start off with just mowing lawns, regular maintenance? How was this the beginning like of Creeksci for you?
Mike Arnold (05:58.907)
Yeah, that's basically what it was. It was mostly lawn mowing and taking an occasional landscape job. And then it came to the point where, you know, we were doing kind of half and half throughout the week. It was like doing the mowing and then go into the landscape. Then kind of grew to have enough work to where it's like, okay, we really need to start branching this and have, you know, dedicated crew for the mowing and dedicated crew for the landscape.
Enmanuel Tejada (06:23.47)
Wow. Okay. And when you say at the beginning when you were doing landscape, does that mean like hards keeping is like little small projects, maybe like a patio.
Mike Arnold (06:31.867)
Yeah, I mean, the very beginnings didn't we didn't launch right off into patios. If anything was hardscape, it'd be more of the paver border kind of stuff or, you know, smaller retaining walls. But the majority of the landscape stuff we were doing was with plantings and mulch and stone and borders and that kind of stuff downspout burials, whatever.
Enmanuel Tejada (06:40.846)
Thank you.
Enmanuel Tejada (06:50.902)
And when you first started expanding, how did you learn all of these things? Right? Like it's very different to go from just throwing down mulch, putting in some nice flowers to starting to build out patios. Did you have somebody that kind of mentored you or how did you find the people and the team to be able to fulfill that type of work?
Mike Arnold (07:12.667)
I think that the internet is an amazing place and it has been for a very long time. YouTube university is a real thing. you know, so you, you can, you are like 20 videos away from being an expert in anything. and I think that's, that's a lot of what I did is trying to learn the proper methods through, of course, seeking out some mentors here and there, but, mostly, you know, trial and error and learning from others in the industry or, you know, we use heavily and have for a very long time, a company called Unilock, they're a paper manufacturer.
Enmanuel Tejada (07:18.126)
Hahaha
Mike Arnold (07:42.555)
And leaned on them a lot for, for methods for installation and all that kind of stuff. And I also did hire on some people at that time, that came over from other company, like builders. So they also were very familiar with the proper procedures for that kind of stuff too.
Enmanuel Tejada (07:52.59)
Yeah.
Enmanuel Tejada (07:57.966)
Cool, I didn't know that actually. So Unilal provides the materials, but they also provide installation methods and the way to go about it.
Mike Arnold (08:06.011)
To a certain extent. Yeah. I mean, there are actual certified installation methods. There's a company, an organization called ICPA, ICPI international concrete paper Institute. I think that's what that acronym is. and I, I know that they will refer to their standards a lot. and so I don't, it's not like Uniloc offers formal training, but they have really, really good representatives, that will come alongside you and just give you, you know,
Enmanuel Tejada (08:19.086)
Mm -hmm.
Mike Arnold (08:35.227)
Hey, this is what most people in the industry are doing around here, you know.
Enmanuel Tejada (08:38.798)
That's awesome. And I saw one of your recent projects actually it was so much and I know that you use a lot of Unilock material for it I think it was one of the It might ring a bell when I describe it here, but it was you guys had a steps coming down You guys had a kitchen that had a fireplace on top of the bar area. Dude. That was sick I was like, holy shit. Would you say that's the biggest project you guys have done?
Mike Arnold (08:56.539)
Mm. I know what you're talking about, yeah.
Yeah.
No, no, that, that project actually was one of two projects that made it into Uniloc catalog this year. So that was really cool. We, I want to say two or three years ago, we had our first project in the Uniloc catalog. And then this year I didn't even know that I was flipping through the pages. Like, I knew that one was going to be in there. And I flipped it again. I'm like, what? We got to like, we're the only company that has two full spreads in their catalog. So that was, that was kind of a, a badge of honor.
Enmanuel Tejada (09:25.262)
I'm out.
Mike Arnold (09:32.931)
but no, that, that was not the biggest one. actually I think the biggest one we've done to date, we just got completed on it. It was the, the majority of the last year. and that was kind of a similar project with a pool and multiple retaining walls. It was a pavilion and a pergola and a kitchen, a walkway going all around the house, tons of lights. yeah, that was a, that's a lot of fun.
Enmanuel Tejada (09:59.47)
can imagine man and you know what let's zone in on that one specific project right because that was the biggest one you guys have done to date so let's talk about first how you landed this project how did that come into you
Mike Arnold (10:12.347)
Man, I think that one may have been a referral from somebody. And a lot of, a lot of our much larger projects nowadays do come from people seeing us online and going, Hey, this is kind of stuff that we want to do. And this is, this obviously is a company who's capable of this caliber of a project. So that, that stuff helps as well. But I think this, this individual one was a referral of a friend. So.
Enmanuel Tejada (10:38.05)
Wow. And then how did you scope it out? Because of course we know, especially in hardscaping, pricing things out accurately is everything. It can either make or break a project, right? Because if you go too low, you may not be able to cover the expenses. You may not be able to pay your guys or you're coming out of your pocket for that. But if you price it too high, it might turn some people away. So how did you find the sweet spot to give the right price for this project?
Mike Arnold (10:54.747)
Yeah.
Mike Arnold (11:04.571)
Yeah. I mean, it's, I really don't look at it as a sweet spot. It's just, it is what it is. And sir, Mr. Client, you have to either be comfortable with the budget or you have to change the design. Right. And so I always tell clients like this, this is not, you know, we're not throwing darts at a dart board with price. Like it is, it is scientific. I'm trying to figure out exactly what does this thing going to cost? Because it's at the end of the day, it's very simple. It's materials and labor.
And, you know, labor obviously encompasses trucking and equipment and all that kind of stuff too, but, it's, it's, it's not guesswork and it should be. And if it isn't, you, you don't have a business because you're either going to be, you know, your price is going to be to the moon and people are going to be like, you're insane, or you're going to be, losing your tail on a project and you will go bankrupt. So, it's just here, here's the project. Here's what this component costs. Here's what this component costs. So sir, what would you like to do?
That's that's, it's as simple as that. It's, it's not a matter of, you know, trying to find like a middle ground. It's just like, here's, I know what the costs are and I know what the costs of running the company are. And there's an overhead that has to be recovered and there, you know, like the, the insurance and the truck payments and the fuel and the, you know, the office person salary and, and all, and I'm not, not, not, not. I mean, there, there's, I mean, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
that a company has to recoup before they make a dollar. So you have to factor all that in as well.
Enmanuel Tejada (12:36.046)
Yeah.
Yeah, and you made a great point, right? I mean, of course you as the owner of the company, everybody else has to get paid before you do, right? So those expenses are key, especially for material. So I like the way that you went about that too, because it's like, okay, I know exactly what the materials cost. I know exactly what the labor costs. There's no if, ands or buts. Like this is the number you either take it or you kind of leave it, right? So in these high end projects that you do, do you find yourself having to negotiate or, or
Mike Arnold (12:55.323)
Mm -hmm.
Enmanuel Tejada (13:05.998)
the client kind of comes back and says, no, can we tweak the numbers? Or do they just say, yes, I know your value, I know what you can do, here's the money.
Mike Arnold (13:13.851)
Yeah, I mean, we'll have that all across the board. the, the clients that want to work with us, work with us. The ones that don't don't, the ones that are shopping off to the best price, don't end up going with us because that's, it's not a best price type of situation. It's, this is not like you're going to, you know, in your mind that you need to go buy, Toyota Corolla, right?
And you just, you know, the exact car it's brand new. It came out of the same factory, but you just have to call around to five dealerships to see who's going to be the best deal. This is not like that. And consumers have that mentality, the majority of them have that mentality that like, well, this is just a better price. And so therefore it's a better value. I want the best bang for my buck. Okay. sure. Well, don't be calling me when the thing fails on you and you, you need the whole thing tore out, you know,
or every kind of corner was cut. So, yeah, we will definitely from time to time have folks that are going, well, this person was, was lower. I'm like, then go with them. Like you're, you're bringing it. You're, you're trying to tell me that, you know, you, you want me to lower something and I don't have the capability to lower it. So, I mean, we can lower it, but what, what do you want to take out? Like, what do you, what, how many square feet do we have to reduce to get to that number? Right. So it's, obviously.
Landscape and hardscape designs are malleable. And that's the reason that we do these designs is to be able to move them around. And if they don't like the design, cool, great. We can move it around more fit a little bit until it's in their sweet spot. And then we move on to budget. it's not in the budget you need. Okay. So can we phase this out? or can, is this one particular portion here too big? Can we shrink this back a little bit to then fit within your budget? so some that that would be the.
the extent of negotiation, I guess, which is not really negotiation. It's just like, Hey, what, what part of this do we have to pull out? cause I'm not in a position to negotiate because I can't go and negotiate with my crew to say, Hey, can you work today for half the price? It doesn't, the costs are the costs. So there's no room for negotiation.
Enmanuel Tejada (15:24.11)
Thank you.
Enmanuel Tejada (15:27.854)
no room for negotiation. And you're absolutely right. I have a neighbor of mine, he owns a couple of Porsches. He's a big car guy. And I asked the salesman, you know, oftentimes people when they come in here, they know what they want to buy. Do you often find yourself negotiating? He answered, he answered it the same way that you did. Right. Like people kind of know when you're walking into that Porsche dealership, what you're buying, right? You're not buying a Honda Civic. You're not buying a Corolla. You know that the price is going to be at a certain price and you can't negotiate it. Right. Or else you just go down the street to the
other dealership. So I think you're absolutely on the head with that. And have you ever, and also what you mentioned too is awesome as well about when a client wants to go so cheap and you, they tell you, I found somebody else that's cheaper. And I just saw one of your videos on Instagram, I believe it was, so you went, you were doing a lawn care job and you saw the patio that got built by somebody else and you were pointing out all the things they did wrong. How often does that happen?
Mike Arnold (16:22.907)
A lot, a lot. I mean, we, I don't know. I should know this metric, but I don't, I don't know what our specific closing ratio is. I would really like to know what our closing ratio is from the first call to close and what our closing ratio is from, you know, actually having discussions and designing quotes to close that figure that last one, I mean, we're, we're for sure not signing more than half of the quotes that we're giving out. I mean,
far, far less than that. so of course there's going to be folks that, that end up either not doing the project at all or go with somebody else. and I sometimes will, will know like what the quality was because they'll call me a couple of years later and say it's falling apart. or I'll have driven past and it's, it's accessible to the road and I can see it and go, gosh, this thing is horrible.
and you almost, you almost feel bad for the people, but then you don't because it's like, they should know like they, like they had the ability to do the right thing, but they didn't. And that's where it's like, I don't know what the line is between, ignorance, like the client doesn't just doesn't know. and I don't even know what the word is. Like they, like them knowing versus not knowing. Right. and so it's like, do I f -
Enmanuel Tejada (17:20.334)
Fuck man.
Mike Arnold (17:47.419)
I don't know how to feel bad for them or to be like, you don't, I don't, I really fight having a, I told you so attitude, right? Because if somebody calls me back out to a project that's falling apart, it's like, yeah, that sucks. Like I, I, I feel for you that, you know, you chose this route and now you're left with this situation. The guy skipped town. You can't even get ahold of them. You don't even know where to send a lawsuit letter if you wanted to go that route. so yeah, just kind of a bad scenario when that happens.
Enmanuel Tejada (18:17.358)
That's, I would imagine that. Yeah. Because people, a lot of times just because the price is cheaper, doesn't mean that it's a better deal. Right? You know, you get what you pay for and does when something like that happens, when you get a call from a client that rejected your quote a year ago, and now the retaining wall is falling apart, the patio spacing is all messed up. How does that work to get that in order? Do you just fix what the other person missed or do you tear it down completely, start it back up and scratch?
Mike Arnold (18:45.115)
Complete tear out, complete tear out, complete tear out. I can't, I mean, if the client wants me to put a bandaid on it, okay, sure. And I'll give them a price set and I'll explicitly put in the contract, like no warranty on this. Like I, like even the thing that I fixed will probably come apart because all the infrastructure on the backside of that wall or underneath that patio is, is crap.
So if I know that a patio is falling apart, I don't trust anybody else's foundation, but ours. I can't, I can't put, I can't have that liability. So if somebody wants me in the, in the case of a patio, that's all falling apart. That whole thing comes out down to subsoil, all the base material, everything. because I'm assuming a, they probably didn't dig deep enough B they probably didn't compact the soil C they probably didn't put a fabric membrane in there. They didn't put enough stone. They didn't use the right stone. They didn't compact the stone.
so I have zero ability to have credibility in, somebody else's foundation work.
Enmanuel Tejada (19:49.294)
until they at the end, they end up paying twice instead of paying you the price that you requested at first a year ago. They said, no, 50 % off of this company. A year later, you're under paying 100%, the initial quote. If not more, because now you have to tear out what's there and then bring in the new material, then bring in, wow, man, that position must suck.
Mike Arnold (19:59.003)
That's right.
Mike Arnold (20:02.459)
Exactly. Yeah.
Mike Arnold (20:13.403)
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it does. That's a good way to put it.
Enmanuel Tejada (20:19.182)
Holy crap, man, that, I feel that, I feel for that person. But that's why we have decisions, right? You either go, you know, cheap man pays twice. So, choice is up to the customer at the end of the day.
Mike Arnold (20:30.555)
Yeah. And at the end of the day too, it's like, how do we educate, the consumer more on the front end? you know, how, how do we, how do we convince them that like the road they're going to walk down, if they go that significantly cheaper route, how that's going to end up badly because all they, nobody has a crystal ball. I don't and they don't. And so they can't look into the future and see that thing failing. All they see right now is a flashy number on a paper. So it's, it's very, very difficult.
Enmanuel Tejada (20:58.734)
Wow. You know what you just made me think, cause I know that you do 3D designs, right? So would you think, would you think there's a way to create a faulty scenario like a year later, like a faulty scenario from somebody that built the same landscape that you're going to build, but with the faults on it, right? Like maybe you can show the spacing if it's not done correctly between the retaining wall and the two pillars on the sides, or maybe the paver patio has.
know, spacing that's not laid the con, the floor wasn't compacted properly. Maybe you can showcase too much spaces out of thing. Would that be possible to recreate that scenario?
Mike Arnold (21:35.931)
Yeah. I mean, and this, this is why I do this stuff on social media, right? Because I, for better or worse, I have to assume that somebody's watching that piece of content. And I hope that some of those people are my client base. so that's my way of, and I'll get comments all the time on that. Like you're crapping on somebody else's work. You're right. I am. Of course I am. Like horrible things have to be ridiculed or, or else they're just passed on as acceptable.
Enmanuel Tejada (21:56.654)
Yeah.
Mike Arnold (22:03.995)
And I, and I also, I need to show people like this is the result of horrible contractors. so that's, that's really at the moment is really my only method of conveying that idea, to the public.
Enmanuel Tejada (22:21.806)
through not ridiculing, but just pointing out flaws in other people's work.
Mike Arnold (22:25.435)
Yes. Yeah. Correct. And I'm not naming names when I do it, right? I'm just going, Hey, I'm this thing shouldn't do this. Like a properly done job performs differently, you know?
Enmanuel Tejada (22:28.814)
I respect it, I respect it.
Enmanuel Tejada (22:42.062)
Absolutely, absolutely. And you know what, Mike, let's talk a little bit more about your team, right? A lot of what you do, yes, you put, I'm not sure if you created three designs yourself or if you have a department for that, but the actual builds of these amazing projects that you guys do, a lot of it falls on your team. So how did you put together a team that's able to fulfill the work that they do with the quality that they do it?
Mike Arnold (23:07.259)
That's something that I would literally look to God for. When I say that God opened doors for me to walk through, that's one of the doors. I feel very, very blessed to be in the position that I'm in. I have regularly felt, if you ever heard of the term imposter syndrome, right? Like, who am I? Who am I that these awesome people would want to come work for me? Right? And I feel that every day when I go out there to look at these projects, I'm like,
Enmanuel Tejada (23:15.936)
way.
Enmanuel Tejada (23:27.374)
Yes.
Mike Arnold (23:36.987)
could gosh, this is such a cool project. And the way that they navigate around certain problems is just, it's great. Like they're doing a great job. I have, I have the absolute best team. and I think that once you start to get that team, you, that team starts to attract other team members too. and then I think that the more that I,
I think you have to become a good place to work. and when you're, when you're marketing yourself, you have to market yourself, not just to clients, but to also staff members. there's a reason that Google headquarters and Apple headquarters have like adult playgrounds in them and have like, you know, these fun zones or whatever, or ping pong tables or pools, whatever, like you have to be a fun place to work because long gone are the days where.
People go to work just for a paycheck. People want to go to work and have a purpose. People want to go to work and have fun. they don't want to go to work and get yelled at all day. I've had regulated people that have come here before and said, yeah, this, this other company, like just screamed at you all day and they're just mad at you. And I'm like, man, I feel humbled that you'd want to come work here, man. I'm like, this is great. Like, like join our team. Like I want us to be a fun environment. And, I think having a, a good culture is.
if I've had coaching on, on the stuff, it's been how, how best to foster a good culture. And it has, that has probably been the biggest struggle of, of my existence and my company is how do we do this? How do we identify a bad apple and quickly extract that because a bad apple will, will be a cancer to the company's culture and create an environment where people don't want to work and you start losing those people.
Alternatively, you have good people in place who are happy, who are joyful, who find the positive in things and are encouraging and lifting up other people. That's creating a positive work environment and people want to stay and bring other people to you. so I think that's, that is the number one thing is like making sure. I mean, it all starts at the top, right? All, all crap crap flows up, in, in a company, right?
Mike Arnold (25:58.907)
You get all the problems you get, you know, in, in rightfully. So you want to give all the praise to the guys that are building it, because they are like, those are the boots on the ground. Those guys are doing awesome. so like it's, it's first starts with the owner. and like people really underestimate how far you can go in life and business if you are a good person and if you are a likable person, and if you're not, you're.
going to have a hard time doing anything, let alone have people that want to come underneath you and work with you. So, I, I, I, I have to focus first on myself, right? I have to focus first on, I, you know, I sit here in the mornings and, and I take my cues from this thing, right? This, this thing is my guidebook. This, this is the ultimate manual for how to live your life. This is the ultimate manual.
how to be a good person. This is the ultimate manual for how to be a forgiving person and be a giving person. So it starts, it starts there. So it starts, I believe with, with the morality that, that God, instituted and then going, okay, how, how do I then apply that to this company and, and make this, you know, a, a place of peace for people, you know, you have people that are, well, we have humans, right? Our, our, our, our employees are humans.
and humans have problems and humans are coming from other families where there's humans and they have their own problems and they're coming here going, I don't want to go to a place that has even more stress. Like I want to go to a place that is a place of peace. So it's like, how do we create a peaceful work environment? How do we lift our people up? How do we encourage them? Me and my management team, we're always having that conversation. Like what more can we be doing? What, you know, is it another Taco Tuesday? Is it a...
You know, my, my guy will, will bring in donuts on a Friday. just try to regular regularly do things that show like, Hey, we appreciate you guys. Like, of course there's always a time for discipline and there's always a time for hard conversations. And ultimately also there's times to cut ties with people that are not performing. And you have to do that too, because if you, if you keep on board people that are dead weight, you're now direct, even if they have a good attitude.
Mike Arnold (28:21.083)
Like you're bringing down the morale of the people who want to do a good job and who are working hard. So there's just, there's man, there's just so much that goes into that. But, but I think having a positive culture is the ultimate key for having a good team.
Enmanuel Tejada (28:36.366)
Wow, that was amazing. That was an amazing explanation there. And I love the fact that you kind of give praise to the man above and the way that you take leadership from him and then you're able to bestow that leadership downward toward the rest of the company. And I also love how you mentioned that you're not just marketing and selling yourself and your vision to your clients or your future customers. You're also selling that to your...
Employees right because we're constantly selling our own employers on why they should stay with us why they should stay here And yeah, you know the benefits and maybe the taco Tuesdays and the parties and all that That's a part of it. That's all very very important to build that culture, man So I really really admire the fact that you you touched on all those topics And I also want to touch on your faith in a second year, but I wanted to ask you one more follow -up on that It's like how many people are on your team right now? How many people are in the office? How many people do you have on the field? How does that look like for?
for Creekside right now.
Mike Arnold (29:32.283)
I think it's about or just under 30 right now. 30 total. and then I have our construction manager, maintenance manager, Carrie downstairs. She's our, our, our office girl. She's fantastic. She's the first face you see when you walk in. Super happy girl. we have, Robbie is my mechanic. Cindy's my designer.
Enmanuel Tejada (29:39.118)
30 below.
Mike Arnold (30:00.347)
Derek is our design sales. So we got about, six office, six, six, I guess, non field people.
Enmanuel Tejada (30:13.75)
Wow, so 27 guys that are on the field or well 2024 or 20.
Mike Arnold (30:20.123)
Mmm, yeah, it's between 20 and 25, yeah.
Enmanuel Tejada (30:24.302)
Wow, man. And you guys are able to do all the things you do with just 25 people. That is amazing. That is amazing. And so how do you, how do you manage your team? As far as you mentioned, Robbie's your mechanic. So he's, I'm imagining he takes care of all the, the vehicles. He takes care of all the rentals that you guys have, make sure they're maintained. How does, how, what, what does that role look like actually? Yeah.
Mike Arnold (30:31.003)
Yeah, man.
Mike Arnold (30:49.307)
Our mechanic. Yeah, no, he, he is, extraordinary. he is the fixer of all things. so yeah, our, our, anytime our, our vehicles have an issue or skid steer excavator all the way down to a weed whacker, any, any kind of mechanical issue. And I mean, the bigger that you get, the more problems you have like that. So, yeah, he's, he's on top of the maintenance of all the stuff. you know, has his own schedule of, of when, you know, an oil change needs to be done.
Enmanuel Tejada (31:05.326)
This is it.
Mike Arnold (31:18.939)
so there's, there's the regular routine maintenance as well as catastrophic, whatever type of failure of some sort of machine. and he steps in a handful of other ways to, you know, we're on the shop. We need to, we need to build something. You know, he just, he just fabricated up a, we, we needed a mixed fuel, tank. so, because our guys previously were, were taking small canisters of oil as you know,
blowers and we wackers, they take a different type of mixture of fuel, not just, you can't just go to the gas station and dump gas in there. So you have to have it mixed where our guys are doing that on site. And sometimes doing that on site, the mixture can be a little bit off and sometimes even the guys, are, they may not be the best at mixing it. You know, we've had that before too, and that could sometimes ruin motors. So, you know, a, we wanted the mixture to be good and view wanted to, if our guys are out there working, we don't want them happen to be a chemist with.
Enmanuel Tejada (31:45.454)
Thank you.
Mike Arnold (32:11.611)
fuel. We want to do that here. so we, we, he fabbed up, a mixed fuel tank and he welded it all together. He, he's just, he's fantastic.
Enmanuel Tejada (32:21.518)
Wow, that's amazing. And I've actually, the reason why it intrigued me that you mentioned that role is because I haven't heard that actually before. Like most times it's either the owner or one of the guys that's out in the field that takes care of maintaining the mowers, stuff like that. But you actually have a dedicated role for that. That's awesome.
Mike Arnold (32:35.803)
Yeah. Yeah. I think after a certain size, you have to, I mean, at a very small level, yeah, you're, you're taking your stuff down to a local repair shop. but then after a certain, certain point, it's like, you have to have somebody in house for that. I don't know how, I don't know how we would function without them.
Enmanuel Tejada (32:54.222)
Wow, and he's on full time with you guys. It's not like he's like, he comes in sometimes when needed. He's like full time every day he has tasks to do.
Mike Arnold (33:01.851)
yeah. All day long. Yeah. I mean, the tasks sometimes can grow so large that we got to pull somebody from the field to come in and help them. So yeah.
Enmanuel Tejada (33:12.558)
Wow, that's very, very interesting. That is very interesting. And how about the rest of your team? How do you guys all stay on the same page as far as projects? Like what type of like CRM do you guys use? How many meetings do you guys have meetings? Everybody's in person or these virtual meetings. How does that look like to manage 30 people? Everybody's on the same page doing their thing.
Mike Arnold (33:14.875)
Yeah.
Mike Arnold (33:35.259)
Yeah. So, I mean, I, I'm not doing much, if not any of like the day -to -day management of the field staff. I, I give pretty much full autonomy, to my managers. and I say to you, I trust you. And so I trust that the, how you're going to deal with that situation is going to be the right thing. you know, and if somebody from the field says, you know, they, they try to sidestep them and come to me, I'm like, well, what did they say? You know, trying, trying to really give.
that leadership structure a chance. so, I mean, we, we have regular, regular, like management level meetings, in here and, but then there's, there's a lot day to day too. So on the maintenance side, I'm, I'm not really hearing a whole lot of, you know, stuff that needs to come to me. my guy is pretty much, you know, handle all that. I am, I'm much more involved on the construction side.
so I'm having a lot more conversations with my construction manager on a daily basis because, you know, there might be a job that I sold, so I have to be involved on that or, any other plethora of, of type of stuff. So there, there's some conversations that are very day to day and some that are just week to week. Yeah.
Enmanuel Tejada (34:50.478)
and your communication with the customers for projects that you sold, do you communicate with them directly or does your project manager handle that?
Mike Arnold (34:58.139)
Yeah. So if I sold directly, then there's obviously the natural proclivity for them to want to reach out to me. So I'll try to create a group chat, text wise, that's just me and the project manager. Cause otherwise I'm just Chinese telephoning everything and that's not productive. so I try to encourage them to either connect directly with the project manager or the worst case scenario, we come up with like a three way chat.
Enmanuel Tejada (35:18.158)
Mm -hmm, and that's just a regular three -way text message chat.
Mike Arnold (35:21.883)
Yeah. yeah. Yeah. No, no other special platform. I mean, don't broke what don't don't fix. What's not broke texting works.
Enmanuel Tejada (35:27.726)
Texting works. I love it. That's awesome. And so Mike, I kind of want to touch a little bit now on your kind of religion and a couple of things on your personal. So you know what? This question that I'm about to ask might incorporate that into it. So what does a typical day look like for you as a CEO, as a man of faith, as a family man? How do you structure your days and go through us with a day in the life of Mike Arnold?
Mike Arnold (35:58.875)
It's a tornado. So an ideal day starts with I'm usually up between five and five thirty. And ideally, I'm in the Bible. I like to try to spend half hour to an hour of reading and praying and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, today it was like I woke up and I like I had to get in here right away. So it's like that that got pushed back a little bit, which I.
Enmanuel Tejada (36:00.494)
Thank you.
Mike Arnold (36:26.491)
can't stand, but it is what it is. Like that sometimes happens, but I mean, I'm in my office and my Bible's in my office. So it's like, I can after this podcast, I can go and pop into this thing if I need to. Right. So, get to the office and you know, kind of chat with, I really like to be here for the morning rollout when possible, just to say hi to the guys. I love, I love it. Like I, you know, somebody, if somebody said here's $10 million for you to never have to go work a day in your life again, I'd pass. I couldn't, I couldn't do it. I love it. I love, I love.
Enmanuel Tejada (36:35.598)
Love it.
Mike Arnold (36:56.155)
getting up, going to get my coffee, driving into work, listen to the radio a little bit, being here for the rollout like that gives me life. I love, I love seeing these guys and joke around with them in the morning. It is like I live for it. and so I like to be here for the rollout. Sometimes I have morning meetings that are like right away. So I have to go straight there and I missed the morning rollout. It is what it is, but, so yeah, we'll, we'll be here for the rollout, which shouldn't ideally take more than a half hour. Our rollout time is about seven.
so then after that, conversed a little bit with the managers. and then from then on, man, it's just, you know, meetings, meetings, meetings all day long. before this podcast, I had something at seven 30, eight, nine, 10, 10 30. And then this, this 11 that popped on. Yeah. So, it, it's, and they're, they're meetings that range from meeting with a client, prospective client, meeting with a manager, meeting with a vendor, meeting with.
accountant, it has become a lot of that. And so it gets, it gets pretty crazy. And then in between, I'll try to get out to a job site here or there and not to, not to manage it, but to just view it and just to kind of bask in the presence of these amazing craftsmen and just kind of hang out with them a little bit, video them, take pictures, cause it's thrilling. That's another part that I just love. Like that's, that's something that I will never hand off or give up. Like I love.
go into these job sites and just being around that atmosphere. And, so it's a fun time for me. I, you know, being a business owner, you kind of, you have the, the people call it the luxury of making your own schedule, but little do the people that say that, no, your whole life is working. So I sometimes ideally I'll try to leave around to.
and go to the gym. I'm usually in the gym for like an hour and a half, two hours. Do the whole that. That's, that's my relaxation time is, is going to the gym, hitting a sauna, hitting a cold plunge, doing all that kind of stuff. I love that. But then I'm right back at it right afterwards. So I leave the gym and I'm working for another three, maybe four hours. And then I'm usually working. What's that? At that point, I'd probably be from home. There's sometimes it'll be at the office.
Enmanuel Tejada (38:55.406)
video.
Enmanuel Tejada (39:06.606)
From the office or from home? From the office or from home?
Mike Arnold (39:13.723)
but I mean, that's necessary because I'll have piled up a lot of emails and that's when you have like fewer distractions is to, you know, you can hit those at the end of the day. So, I'm a lot of Saturdays, even some Sundays, I'm doing a lot of work. So, that's, that's, that's pretty much it. That's, that's my day.
Enmanuel Tejada (39:33.262)
Wow, that's awesome. So you, what time do you usually hit the gym, sauna? That was middle of the day almost.
Mike Arnold (39:38.811)
Ideally around two o 'clock and okay, there's a reason specifically to is because it's it's meal structure. Okay. So you have your coffee and then you have some ideally some breakfast. And this is for somebody who's like trying to gain muscle. Somebody who's like, you have high metabolism. So it's like, Hey, you want to hit breakfast, want to hit lunch. And then right after lunch, hit the gym, you can get a protein drink and then you're not disrupting dinner. There's some people that can go and like do a morning workout. I don't have the ability to do a morning workout. I have to be up way too early just to get in here.
Enmanuel Tejada (39:43.15)
Yeah.
Mike Arnold (40:08.699)
So I don't have morning morning workout ability. So, two o 'clock I found is like a real good sweet spot for me.
Enmanuel Tejada (40:16.078)
2 o 'clock. That's awesome. And that's awesome. Like imagine leaving work or leaving the office. You know, you're pumped up. You go and get the work out midday, then you come back home and then you're starting work again. I think that's, that's, that's awesome. That's a great time to kind of disconnect.
Mike Arnold (40:28.795)
It is, it is a good rhythm. It's a good rhythm for that because like right after a workout, you're just like pumped up to go back to work. Like it's not like, this is such a long day. It's dragging on. Like you're just in a completely different mindset and I'm ready for another three hours. I'm like, let's go. Like, yeah, yeah, let's, let's hit it, man. Let's, let's do some emails. Let's do some, some zoom calls. Let's do what we got to do.
Enmanuel Tejada (40:35.406)
Yes.
Enmanuel Tejada (40:42.222)
Especially after that cord punch.
Enmanuel Tejada (40:50.446)
That's awesome. That is awesome right there. And how does your family life look like? I don't know if you're married, if you have kids, if you're dating, how does that look like for you right now?
Mike Arnold (40:58.875)
I'm unmarried. I have no kids. So, you know, doing the date dating thing, right? So, yeah, I mean, later on in life, I ever get married and have kids. That's going to be, I will probably have to make some adjustments because my whole life right now is occupied. so that, yeah, that, that, if that time ever comes, that, that will likely be a.
Difficult adjustment, but it'll be a worthwhile adjustment. So
Enmanuel Tejada (41:29.39)
I would work for all, I love that phrase, I would work for all adjustment. And so how does that look like for you right now as far as, your, like how old are you by the way, Mike? 35. Okay. Awesome. So you're 35. And after you leave work, like, do you have any activities outside of work that you're into? Any hobbies? Things like that.
Mike Arnold (41:40.443)
35.
Mike Arnold (41:52.027)
The gym, that's it, dude. That's, that's, that is my thing. If I have like, I'm not a big, like huge, I mean, I like motor sports. I actually, side note, I was actually a chaplain in NASCAR for five years. this was while I owned Creekside. and like, yeah, I would travel. I would, I would, Friday I'd be done working. I'd go hop on a plane, fly to a track and I do chaplain.
Enmanuel Tejada (42:10.958)
What?
Mike Arnold (42:20.027)
ministry stuff to the NASCAR environment and then come back. So, but so, yeah, racing, that kind of stuff has been my, my kind of thing. So, I don't know, that's something that I'll watch occasionally or, you know, I got, I still go dirt bike with some buddies and do that kind of thing. I mean, that's very seldom. It's like, it's dwindled down to like three to four times a year now, but, no, I mean, my, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah.
Enmanuel Tejada (42:43.15)
wow. So you still got that inner redneck in you.
Mike Arnold (42:49.915)
I don't, I don't know, man. I'm not a big, like, you know, hit up the boys and go hit the bar kind of guy. if anything, like I, my enjoyment is in a book or in a gym. That's, that's where I love to be.
Enmanuel Tejada (43:04.846)
Love it, love it, love it. And by the way, what was, what was, what did that look like for you being a chaplain? What did that entail? Like what were the responsibilities? What does at the end of life of that look like?
Mike Arnold (43:15.867)
Yeah. So, there's a ministry called motor sports, sorry. MRO motor racing outreach. my gosh. and that was actually in the seventies formed by NASCAR drivers. If you've ever heard of like the petty family, Richard petty, like, like those kinds of guys, were church going folks and they're like, Hey, like we on Sundays are away from our church. We have a whole traveling congregation here. Why don't we just do church at the track?
so it formed from, it formed from that. And now MRO is in most major, motor sports arenas. So, you know, there's, there's chaplains in, in, you know, dirt bikes, there's chaplains in every division of NASCAR. so yeah, I mean, what it looked like as you traveled to the track, you, you know, you have a NASCAR credential. So you're, you know, you're going wherever you're, you're.
Enmanuel Tejada (43:44.11)
yeah.
Mike Arnold (44:10.459)
Your, your person that you are dealing with is, is basically everybody but the fan. So it's the, it's the NASCAR driver, the crew member, the owner, the NASCAR official, the media people, everybody that kind of makes that traveling circus work, is who your person is. and it's, it's what was called a, a ministry of availability. so you, you know, practically like I do the prayer right before the national anthem.
So I do that for, you know, the crowd and all that. And, I was, I would do chapels occasionally. So a chapel would be right after a driver's meeting. I do a quick 15 to 20 minute chapel. and, you know, of course, if there's a, a bad wreck or something like that, you're in the ambulance with the driver and you're, you're at the hospital with them and you know, practicalities like you're conveying insurance information from NASCAR to the hospital and you're doing that kind of stuff.
But I mean, the end goal of that was to be a presence of God at the racetrack. And chaplaincy is something that is kind of intentionally behind the scenes. It's not something that's supposed to be flaunted. And so you would never know that, you know, the Major League Baseball has a chaplain in almost every single team. There's an Atlanta Braves chaplain. There's a chaplain for everything.
our, our head guy there, his name was Billy Muldin, had guy at, at motor racing outreach. he was actually formerly the chaplain for American idol. So American idol had a chaplain. Yeah. So there's chaplains for like everything. So, and the goal is to just be an agent of God out in the world. So you're, you're, you can obviously invite people to church, right? And you have people come to you.
Enmanuel Tejada (45:50.798)
Really? They had their own tablets.
Mike Arnold (46:07.227)
Well, this is just kind of the opposite. You're going to people.
Enmanuel Tejada (46:11.631)
And it makes a lot of sense, right? Because there's obviously a lot of people at those events. It's a good way to spread the word. And how did you get into your faith, by the way, Mike? Have you always been a believer? Was it instilled into you from your parents? Did you find it later on in life? Or how was that?
Mike Arnold (46:27.803)
Yeah, I mean, I grew up, I grew up in a Christian home. you know, I, I went to, you know, church and Christian school and all that kind of stuff. So I was always surrounded by a lot of people, that were of faith. So I kind of had that upbringing. So it wasn't from scratch, if you will. but I, I didn't, it wasn't really serious to me until maybe, you know, second, third year of high school. I had a really good group of friends that, you know, we.
have really good conversations regularly. We're going through similar things and trying to navigate that, you know, through the lens of scripture. and I don't know, I think after there's a lot of hardships in life, right. And that's a result of, of sin being in the world. And you start to see the bad, you start to feel the bad, you know, you have a heartbreak from a relationship or you have difficulty with health, or you have something that's going on. And it brings you to the end of your rope and you're going,
man, there's nothing in this world that can bring me ultimate joy and satisfaction like God can. And you know, you start to realize that you're going to die one day and you're like, huh, you know, I have an investor's mentality, right? I'm investing in real estate and I'm investing my time into this business, but how foolish of an investor am I if I'm not thinking about time after I'm dead. So like, I don't want to build up treasures just on earth. I want to build up treasures that are eternal. So.
I mean, I feel like for me, it's been just practicality. Like, okay, fact, I'm going to die. Fact. There's an afterlife. Like, okay, so what do those things mean? Like, okay, that means that there's a God that did create the world. Fact. so it's, it's been very, very like, just looking at what is true and what is right and, what is, what is an unchangeable, undeniable fact. and also I think.
You go through life enough and you search after things and you think that you're going to be satisfied when you get that car. You think you're going to be satisfied when you get to be to this business size and you're going to be satisfied when you get that girl and, and you get all these things and you're like, okay, why do I still want something more? There's a, there's a John Mayer song that says it's called something's missing. And he's like, he starts listing off all the things he's like, friends.
Mike Arnold (48:52.603)
Check money, check a well slept opposite sex check, but something's missing. So it's like their CS Lewis said, if I find it myself desires that nothing on this earth can satisfy. I can only conclude that I was made for another world. So this is, this is just practical. Like nothing in the world has the ability to completely satisfy nothing. Like there's a reason why celebrities got it.
Enmanuel Tejada (48:57.998)
Huh.
Mike Arnold (49:21.499)
keep getting another car and keep getting another wife. Like it doesn't, they didn't satisfy them, but there is something that does that. And I want to be happy and I want to be joyful. I want to have peace. Like I think every human does. And I, it's, I found it. It's right here. And so like it's, that's just, it's just been practical. it's an obvious truth that joy is found in this.
God and this Jesus. So that's kind of the fundamental foundation of my faith.
Enmanuel Tejada (49:58.862)
Wow, and I really really appreciate you getting into that mic right like I know this is like a podcast that Is we're very open here. We talk about everything so i'm glad that we're able to have this conversation right and anybody that's listening that perhaps may want that has questions about faith I know that even on your website might you guys have a prayer section? Can you talk a little bit about that how that started what your goal is with that?
Mike Arnold (50:21.467)
Yeah. So, that started in COVID when everybody was freaking out and there were, I remember seeing companies that were like, we're donating money to do this thing. We're donating money to this, whatever. And I'm like, man, I don't really got money to donate, but I'm like, I can offer something better. Like I can offer prayer because that's better than money. so, and then after that, it just, I'm like, you know what? I just kind of want to leave it up there because I, again, I believe like,
All of life should be to glorify God. And that's not just in church. Like once you leave church, like then what? Like if, if my business is doing nothing, but just generate money and you know, provide jobs, like that's just in my opinion, it's not enough. I, I want it to glorify God and I want it to be a, I have a platform, right? For better, for worse. I, you know, we have a quarter million people that follow us on all platforms and it's like, I have.
unique, the unique ability to have something that I say go far. And if I have anything that's valuable to say, I want to say it on those platforms. I want to say it through this business. So I mean, I'm just a believer that like God puts you in different places to be a chaplain to what, like, if you're a believer in God, you are God's agent to that. You're, you're an insurance fine. You're to the insurance world. You are my agent there.
You're a mechanic. Okay. Then your circle of people is mechanics. like I'm, I'm in landscaping. So my audience is people who are in landscaping or people who want a landscape project. And they, I mean, they'll, they'll hear it. They, they can do whatever they want with it. But like, I'm, I'm going to talk about it because I, I think that talking about landscaping is valuable. I think that showcasing the work that my guys do is valuable.
There is something infinitely more valuable to talk about and that's God. And I'm not going to shortchange people that. So.
Enmanuel Tejada (52:24.334)
And I respect that. Yeah. I mean, you've built up an audience. I think you have complete control over that. And it makes a lot of, it makes it personal. Right. It's not just, yeah, we do landscaping, we do hardscape and we're in it for money. You're in it for passion. You enjoy what you do. You want to put out the message that you believe in. I respect, I respect that. Yeah. And like you said, if you have the audience, they are ready and you know, you can impact them. Why not impact them positively instead of just trying to line your pockets or bring in more money? And, you know, I really respect that.
Mike Arnold (52:52.763)
Yeah. 100%.
Enmanuel Tejada (52:56.11)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And Mike, I do want to respect all of your time. I know we're coming up on about an hour here. I wanted to ask you, if you were to start over, what advice would you give to yourself? Right? Let's say you're a young landscaper. You have ambitious goals. You want to do great things with your business, with your team. What's a piece of advice that you would give to somebody listening that's at that stage?
Mike Arnold (53:16.731)
Yeah, a couple of things I'd say grow small and grow smart. I think I tried to get too big, too fast and it bit me, for a while. in some small ways I'm still crawling out of that hole. but I mean that, that you gotta, you gotta be smart. and I think there's not enough value in education. and I don't mean college education. I think I, unless you're going to be a lawyer or a doctor, I think colleges is.
just a waste of money nowadays. I think it's a scam. I really do think college is a scam. that not for everything, but for, for most things. so, you know, if you're just starting out in this industry, you need to know what the heck you're talking about and you need to know how to install these things and you need to know what it costs. because if you don't, you're going to install something improperly.
Enmanuel Tejada (53:51.598)
Hehehehe
Mike Arnold (54:11.323)
Or you'll install it properly and you won't make what you need to get yourself to the next job because you're going to go bankrupt. it, it's a, it's a, it's a dance. So, I would say to people, yeah, that, that are just starting out, I think be content with where you are. keep grinding. No, no, that, you know, good things are on the horizon. If you just do good work and you are a good person.
you treat your clients well, you put your clients in a position to refer you, right? You, you have to think like every single person you're dealing with is a potential mouthpiece for your company. So give them something good to talk about. and, and learn all you can. Like there, there is no excuse nowadays. There is so much free content available online to learn anything that you want to learn. So knowledge is key. Relationships are key with other people in the industry.
And good work is key.
Enmanuel Tejada (55:10.158)
Wow. I love that right there. I love that. Good work is key. Put your client, put yourself in a position to get referrals, put the client first, put your team first. Mike, I absolutely love that, man. I absolutely love that. And I appreciate your time being on this podcast, giving us, you know, an insight scoop into your life, into your beliefs, into all the free advice you gave us, man. So I really, really appreciate you. The audience really appreciate you, man. Thank you so much for being on this podcast. Mike, how can somebody get in contact with you if they're a
Potential customer that wants a landscape or project complete or hardscape project in Indiana How do they get in contact with you?
Mike Arnold (55:47.163)
Yeah. I mean, I think our socials are a really good place for that. I think our Instagram is, our at is Creekside Outdoor Living. you can look me up on Tik Tok. It's Creekside Mike, but I think the username is Creekside NWI. same thing with Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, all that kind of stuff. And of course, you can always go to CreeksideOutdoorLiving .com.
Enmanuel Tejada (56:07.374)
awesome. And if somebody's listening to this and they have some questions about their faith, their religion, if they may be looking for work and you may be offering, what's the best way to get a hold of you from that aspect?
Mike Arnold (56:18.171)
I would say the same thing because I monitor heavily the inflow of messages that come through on those social media channels. And that's usually the, that's the most common place that the public will try to reach out. So that exact same thing, just reach out there.
Enmanuel Tejada (56:32.654)
Awesome sounds good. Well guys there we guys have it. We had Mike Arnold from Creekside Outdoor Living He was an amazing guest go follow him and all his socials go reach out to him if you guys want to collaborate with him reach out He's amazing. Let's go stay blessed. Have a great day boom
Mike Arnold (56:50.267)
Peace.