The Mow Money Mindset
The Mow Money Mindset podcast works to support commercial and home service lawn care and landscape businesses. We combine insightful interviews, honest product reviews and thoughtful discussion focused on helping service providers think through ideas, issues and ownership. Our focus is to create practical, motivating, digestible, and informative content for our listeners.
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The Mow Money Mindset
Sweat Equity: Why Hard Work Yields Small Gains First
Ever wonder why it feels like you're working yourself to exhaustion but barely moving the needle? That's not failure—it's the natural beginning of compounding success.
Drawing from personal experience, Dana takes us through his entrepreneurial journey that started with homemade yard signs created with dollar store markers and his daughter's art supplies. For nine straight months, he earned just $163 weekly despite relentless effort—then suddenly made $12,000 in month ten without changing his approach. This powerful illustration of how success compounds reveals why persistence through minimal initial returns separates successful entrepreneurs from those who quit too soon.
Using a compelling analogy from professional boxing, Dana explains how fighters train intensely for 8-12 weeks—changing diets, sacrificing family time, enduring physical pain—all to perform for just 36 minutes with no guarantee of victory. Similarly, business success demands disproportionate effort before the breakthrough moment arrives.
The podcast explores how our definitions of both "success" and "hard work" evolve throughout our entrepreneurial journey. What begins as physical labor often transforms into mental challenges; what seems like an ambitious financial goal often needs adjustment as we understand business realities. Through sharing his story of building a lawn care business from nothing to sustainability—including a devastating setback that nearly reset his progress—Dana provides an honest, unfiltered look at what entrepreneurship actually requires.
This episode isn't about motivational platitudes; it's about setting realistic expectations so you can mentally prepare for the long game of business building. If you've been feeling discouraged by seemingly small returns on massive effort, this perspective-shifting conversation will reinvigorate your commitment to staying the course.
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Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Mo Money Mindset. My name is Dana. Thank you for checking out today's video, if you're watching this on YouTube or if you are catching this wherever podcasts are played. I wanna thank you for just listening in and giving some of your time today. I'm hoping today's episode to be very impactful.
Speaker 1:I've been thinking a lot about it. In fact, just to be honest, this is my second take. I did a 25 minute take about a week ago and I just said you know what I want to really refine this thing down and do it again and kind of solidify and the principle of hard work and how extreme hard work and effort usually yields us minimal result at first. So I think, let me, let me disclaimer this, or should I say, let me put this in perspective. Success is not linear. It's actually progressive, it's compounding, and so what happens is you know, as time goes on and as efforts continue, what, what, what you accomplished you know what I'm saying In a certain set of time or in a certain, with a certain amount of effort you know what I'm saying in a certain set of time or with a certain amount of effort, you start to be able to accomplish more and more with less and less effort, less and less time. So like golly, for my people that are listening, if you think about a graft right and you have a curve starting at the bottom zero and then gradually it increases and goes to almost a vertical straight up, that's, that's really kind of how success is. So you have this period of time where you're putting in all this effort but at the beginning of the graph right there's just like this little bit of success, just the needle moves only so much. And then there's a point where there's like a shift, and that's when you start to see it rise and rise, and rise and just continually expands. And that's really how a lot of things work in life and in business. And so today I wanted to talk about that concept a little bit.
Speaker 1:Again. I'm not, I don't have any notes or anything. I'm just here in the studio sharing some thoughts and some things about the mindset behind this, where this came from. Let me tell you guys, I had a. What was that?
Speaker 1:I was having a conversation with my employee and one of my employees, I should say and while I was talking with him, he was telling me about, you know, some dreams and things he wanted to do with his own business or starting his own business and own company. And I said I think that's awesome. You know, I was in your shoes when it came to this business here that he's currently working for. I told him I was in his shoes when it came to this podcast. This room, when I walked in here, was just a room. I'd never done a podcast before. And I said you know what I'm going to do a podcast. I'd like to podcast. I love listening to them. Why not do one myself, like seriously? And so I told him like I remember being in that space having these dreams and kind of thinking like how far off they are and just with all my past businesses that have failed and didn't do well, whether it's because they themselves, I just was a bad businessman over them, or whether it was just, you know, I just wasn't tough enough to stay in the game. I mean, you know we're not going to go back down that rabbit hole.
Speaker 1:I think I addressed some of that in one of my earlier episodes. But I was talking to him and I said you know, I think that's awesome. I said I want to give you some perspective. I want to give you some perspective, because there's a lot of people who they think business is one thing or they think business works one way. And sometimes what we see on social media and you know, admittedly, youtube, you know what I'm saying Instagram, the reels and stuff, sometimes what we see there makes us feel like business kind of moves a certain way. Or, you know, just do these things and you'll find success.
Speaker 1:And I think the other half of the coin that I'm talking about is not just the work, but it's also understanding what success is, having a definition of what that means to you, you know. And so let me back up and start at the beginning, because I'm getting excited and I want to just jump in. Ok, so let's start with those two things. Let's define what do I mean by extreme effort or hard work and what do I mean by success. What do I mean by extreme effort or hard work and what do I mean by success? First of all, these things are just as much subjective as they are objective, and so, yes, you can go into Webster's and find, you know, an actual definition for success. As someone who wants to own your own company or your own business and wants to do your own thing, you have to know what those things mean on a personal, deep, intimate level. Okay, and so, prime example, let's keep it simple.
Speaker 1:When I started this business, I said what is success to me? At that time, six years ago, success to me was forty five thousand dollars a year, because my last job that I worked before starting this company, they put me up for promotion and I asked for forty five thousand. They were only willing to give me forty two thousand to do the position, and so I turned it down and I went and started my own company, and so that was my first goal. So for me, going from zero no business, no experience, no customers, no clients, no equipment, no nothing to a place where the business was watch this making $45,000 a year, I was winning. That was success for me, okay. Now what I didn't understand at that time was about taxes and, you know, deductions and overhead and all this other stuff and registration. I didn't understand all that. So I quickly had to readjust my definition of success right, and I quickly had to, like, come up with a new definition that allowed me to live. I realized just because the business made 45 doesn't mean that I took home 45. And so those were just the nuances, like it's an evolutionary thing. What was success to me six years ago is not success to me today, right. So I think that that's important.
Speaker 1:Now, when it comes to hard work, people people define this, I think, to, on a personal level, different ways. Some people do not find hard labor. Or, you know, being outside in the elements, sweating, lugging around mulch, like you know, patio pavers, whatever it is you do, concrete People don't find that to be hard work. Some people like this just is something they enjoy to do. They actually get, they love it. You know what I'm saying. It's not difficult or challenging for them. So I can't just sit here and say hard work is when you're sweating and you know X, y and Z. When you're sweating and you know X, y and Z.
Speaker 1:What I've noticed is my first three years as a solo entrepreneur, I was doing what I consider to be hard work at that time. Watch this Three years ago that was hard work. Getting up every day 8 am to 8 pm, out in the sun, out in the heat, grass. I got allergies, all this stuff I'm lugging around equipment, opening, you know, closing gates, doors, dealing with dogs Like that was hard work, right, and so that's what I considered it.
Speaker 1:Now go to the last three years of my business, where I started hiring people and I got a CRM and I got an accountant that said get all these documents together, keep track of this, do this in QuickBooks, do that. I started coming up with contracts, I started getting commercial clients and things like that, and I found out that, even though I stepped away to a degree from actually being outside in the field doing the work, what I found a lot was being behind this computer and burning my eyeballs out for three, four hours a day doing estimates, emails, uploading documentation for taxes and accounting purposes, doing things for new hirees, setting up training programs and putting people into the system. Ohio means jobs and all this like doing all that stuff recording social security numbers, setting up payroll, documenting guys hours for the day. That, to me, burned me out, I want to say, even worse than actually physically going out and doing the work. There was so much mental energy that had to be poured into that. You had to think ahead, you had to forecast, you had to budget, you had to balance, you had to make sure that numbers were accurate. And I don't know about you guys, but math was my worst subject. I hated it with a passion. And so to be in a position where you're behind a computer with X's and O's and numbers all day or should I say for a good portion of the day that to me became hard work. I would have headaches, my eyes would fatigue and twitch and it was just like man I'm not doing nothing but sitting here, you know, on this computer. But it was a form of personal hard work and I was like yo, I wouldn't wish this on nobody. I'd rather go back out there. Cut grass like this is trash.
Speaker 1:Learning the skill set of being a leader right of how to manage people and personalities, a leader right of how to manage people and personalities. I never had employees before three years ago. I didn't. I was an employee my entire life up until six years ago, and I never had employees until three years ago. So it's a whole different skill set. It's a whole different um pressure and weight. You got to learn how to talk to people. You have to learn how to deal with people's attitudes and when they're having bad days or their mistakes and things that end up costing you personally or your business, money and opportunities, you have to learn how to manage that and manage yourself within managing that. Manage your own emotions with how you manage that, because you have a lot on the line. So that, to me, became my definition of hard work.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I was talking to this young man and I'm telling him and I've been encouraging him the whole way. You know, I don't want him to feel like my, my, my desires for him to stay here and be, uh, an employee at you know, b Leaf Law and Care for the rest of his life. I try to make sure that I point out his strengths to him and I encourage him every step of the way, what he's doing here, but I also take an interest in what he wants to do personally, because I want to make sure that the vision that I'm casting for this company can fulfill and fit his vision inside of it. So, yes, I am trying to show him that there's opportunity here to move up to scale, to do other things, but also I don't want him to feel like as an individual, I want his life to revolve around my goals and aspirations for my business, and that's something that I've learned from dealing with employees for the past three years.
Speaker 1:Before, it was always like buy-in, buy-in, buy-in. You're going to be here until I say so or until you just mess up so bad I got to fire you. But I need you to understand this is what we're doing, this is what it's all about, what I have planned, and for some people that works. But I think for a large majority, once you start hiring five, six, seven, 10 people, you realize not everybody's going to fall in that category. Not everybody cares to buy in. Some people just want to check. Some people really do have a desire to do their own thing or do other things. This isn't something that they would necessarily have chosen. You know, life just kind of threw them some curveballs and now they're in a position where they feel like this is what they have to do to survive. And so you have all those different dynamics when you're hiring people and you have to think about and learn how to manage. And so I learned really quickly.
Speaker 1:Well, it took me three years, but I learned over the last three years that I need to have some type of interest in investing in the people, versus just everything being about the company, everything about my vision for the company and how they can, you know, help me accomplish that vision. I want them to know that, like, they are cared for as people. So anyways, getting beyond that, I'm talking to this young man and, you know, I just start asking him some thought provoking questions Like how, how much money would it take for you to you know, if you said, like today I could go start my dream, how much money would it take? These are thought provoking questions. He never thought about that before. I'm like you got a dream and you don't know how much it will cost you. So let's start there. You know what I'm saying. Let's start with that. What do you need? What are the? What are the things you need to to to do this business? How much do those things cost? Okay, great, so now you can at least say I know that I need to make this much. I said you know what's funny is we grow and develop this business. Here's the model and here's actually where you can make that amount of money. Right, like I start pointing those things out to him like, hey, just keep it in your back pocket. I'm not saying you got to go this route, but if this is the amount of money you need to make a year, guess what? This position will pay that amount. But to get there, we have to fulfill this part of the vision, this part of the goal that we're in in the company. I was just kind of talking him through that and I said can I put something in perspective for you? This way, you're not discouraged when it happens, when you finally decide within yourself I'm going to make the jump. I'm like let me lay this on you when I was training boxers both amateur and professional, but I want to deal with professional because that's usually what most, I think, people understand Professional boxers, when you get to the highest level, there's 12 round bouts. Okay, so there's like a eight, 10, 12, but we're going to go 12 round bouts. You're in a 12 round bout as a professional, highest level. Three minutes a round. That's a total of 36 minutes of work. Now watch this Boxers they actually prepare for a fight eight to 12 weeks.
Speaker 1:Now this is on average. Some are a little different, some are a little more, some a little less, but on average a fighter is going to prepare eight to 12 weeks out from a fight. They're going to start camp, which means conditioning strength. They're going to be doing a lot of skill work. They're going to have sparring at least two or three times a week. A lot of times they do two a days. They do a morning session and an evening session, or a morning session, a mid session and an evening session. Right, there's going to be a lot of diet and regimen. There's going to be a lot of road work and running for their condition. There's going to be all these working pieces. They're going to work with various coaches that will tailor and help to hone in different skills and weaknesses and strengths, and so all of this is going on for hours on end over the course of eight to 12 weeks, all for a 36 minute fight.
Speaker 1:Have you ever thought about that? Think about how much effort goes into 36 minute fight. They're doing eight to 12 weeks of all of this running and dieting and lifting weights and fighting and sparring, and this and that fighting and sparring and this and that Also, they can perform for 36 minutes. Think about how many hours went in in that eight to 12 weeks just to perform for 36 minutes. And guess what? There's no guarantee that they're going to win. They're going to put in all that work, all that effort, all that time, all that blood, all that sweat, all that uncomfortability. They're going to leave their families a lot of times so that they can stay focused on the goal at hand. All right, they're going to deal and be put in a lot of uncomfortable situations. They're going to lose some sleep. They're definitely going to change their diet and habits. A lot of the comforts that they have when they're not preparing for the fight those go out the window. All of that stuff shifts. Their entire lifestyle has to shift for a 36-minute fight, and then there's no guarantee they're going to win.
Speaker 1:So it is in business, so it is in life. Does this mean you should not put the effort forth? Absolutely not. Everyone's pretty much heard that saying you'll miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take. Go for it anyway. But I told him, I want you to keep it in perspective though. Keep it in perspective Now.
Speaker 1:I had some things happen to me, uncontrollable things. My car got in an accident, not because I ran into somebody. It was a single car accident. Nobody got. Nobody else in the car got hurt but me. No other cars were involved, just my vehicle. The car I was doing 70 on the highway hit a nail. The tire blew out, sent me into a spin, and the impacts ended up breaking a couple bones and leaving me down for six months from being able to work last year. So this was an uncontrollable thing, but it hit me and it left some effects. I lost half of the employee, half of my customers. I lost all of my employees.
Speaker 1:By April 1st, I was a solo entrepreneur. I was back to year one. I'm in year six. I was back to year one doing everything myself. No cry, baby, no tears about it. I thank God that I'm alive. You know what I'm saying. This isn't to get pity from anybody or anything like that. I'm just trying to put it in perspective. Something happened that really had nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my negligence. It was out of my control. A freak accident, boom, but it completely shifted and altered the course of my business. And here I am in year six. So if you would have told me in year one, six years from now, you're going to be right where you are today, you're going to work tirelessly and effortlessly excuse me tirelessly and relentlessly over the next six years. And guess what? In April of 2025, you're going to be back where you were in January, in April of 2019. I'm sorry, april of 2020.
Speaker 1:Technically, I didn't start until July 20. Technically, I didn't start until July. Crazy. I said how would you feel about that? He said I would have been quit, I never would have stayed with a business that's going to end up there. I said, right, make sure you still want to start a business. I did all those efforts for the last five years. There was no guarantees. I'm one of the people who got a taste of that. There was no guarantees. Who's to say that your health won't take a decline? Who's to say that your marriage is going to survive? Who's to say that something won't happen in the family? Who's to say that? Who's to say that there's no guarantees? And I was like, look, I put in all that effort just to end it back a year one. Now, of course I'm speaking metaphorically. Right, I have a website. Now, I didn't have a website a year one. Right, I have some brand awareness and brand recognition. Okay, I had half of my clients still, so I went into this season not at ground zero. I had half of my clients still, so I went into this season, not at ground zero.
Speaker 1:So let me let me say this in context, but what I was, I was just trying to explain to him like look, man, I want you to be able to receive your dreams. I want you to count the cost so you don't end up like I did not start nine, 10 businesses and when stuff don't go your way, you're out. When something bad happens, you fall apart and you can't do it no more. When you get under some intense pressure, you fold. Or when you realize you're putting in all this work and you're only moving the needle an inch, you don't get so discouraged, you're throwing a towel. That's what I was getting at with him, man.
Speaker 1:So when it comes to the Mo Money Mindset, I think that to my brothers and sisters that are in this industry, that are starting it out, if you listen to enough people that have been there, done that, they'll tell you they all went through that phase. They all have been through something. You do this business, any business, long enough. You'll run into a problem that you do not believe you're suited to handle, that you do not know if you can handle or make it through. You feel like you have no solution for you don't know where to go, what to do, who to turn to, what your next move should be. I think every successful business and business owner has been there. Business and business owner has been there. And one thing they have all have in common is that when it happened, they didn't throw in a towel, they didn't quit.
Speaker 1:It may take me a little longer to find a solution, but I will find it because I will not stop. And that's what I wanted to get him to understand. And I just wanted to encourage him a little bit. And that's what I wanted to get him to understand. And I just wanted to encourage him a little bit and say I want you to think a little deeper. There's nothing wrong with you wanting to have your own business and all your own business, but I want you to think a little deeper before you make that jump. And for those of you that have made that jump, I want you to be encouraged. I want you to be encouraged.
Speaker 1:It takes a lot of effort when you're trying to lose weight. It takes a lot of effort. You're going two, three weeks, you're going hard, you ain't eating no junk food, you're in that gym every morning, you're sweating, you're tired, your body's sore and achy and you get on a scale and you've only lost four pounds. I know, I've been there. I'm there right now. I'm going through that right now. Right, but those small successes doesn't mean it's a failure.
Speaker 1:Small success, minimal success, the success that doesn't measure up to the idea in your mind or the idea that culture and society places on you. From watching all these social media gurus and reels and stuff like that, all that stuff that's not really rooted in the reality, they're giving you just the highlights. That's not real success and if you're trying to chase that in a matter of two months, three months, one year, two years, five years, you're going to hurt yourself and you're going to be gravely disappointed. Now look, there's outliers out there. There's people that make it happen. I know some cats that are half my age that are making, you know, multi millions doing what I do. So I'm not saying that ain't going to be you or that can't be you, but what I am saying is for the majority of us that are on this journey. I want you to be prepared and I want you to be encouraged to put all the effort, all the blood, sweat and tears, all the extreme, rigorous, relentless grind behind your pursuit of what you find to be success and not get discouraged when all you see is a little bit of this, a little bit of money, a little bit of that, and that's what I was really trying to get at, even with my initial story with me at the beginning in 2019. I said I just need to make $45,000 because that's what I need, that's what I was looking for in my job. They couldn't give it to me. So I said I just need to make forty five thousand because that's that's what I need, that's what I was looking for in my job. They couldn't give it to me. So I said I'm going to start my own way and figure it out myself. And little did I know I was going to work as much as I was. You know what? If you go back to my Facebook for those of you that know me on Facebook if you go to Facebook, you'll see where I literally.
Speaker 1:I didn't have money, and so I took my daughter's markers. She had markers and things. I went to the dollar store and I bought like a 50 pack of cardboard I don't know what it's called black backer board or something like that and I bought some stencils from the dollar store and I made my first yard signs. I made them. My mother had access to the printer at her job. I made them. My mother had access to the printer at her job. I had her print me off 500 flyers that I made on Word. They're on my Facebook where I started.
Speaker 1:I didn't have money to buy, to go me to make 50 yard signs that were, you know, the size of a 60 inch TV so I could stick them in people's yards and at intersections. I had to make them like with marker. I would sit down in my living room at night and marker them and stencil them out. You know what I'm saying. Like I know some people's like is that work? That's work. I did that for hours and then I had to go pass them out. I went door to door you know 10, 15 neighborhoods, six, seven hours a day, putting flyers in people's mailbox and in the creases of their doors and their windshield wipers. Like All of that work Watch this just to at the end of it. All of that work, watch this just to at the end of it. The end, the culmination of all that work.
Speaker 1:My first year I made one hundred sixty three dollars a week. One hundred sixty three dollars a week was the return on investment for all the work that I put in, for all the walking through the neighborhoods, for all the canvassing, for all the writing and creating my own posters and signs like crazy, and most people would have quit right there I was like, no sir, no sir, whatever the price is that I need to pay to see the success I want to see, I'm willing to pay it. I had my mind made up and so I did it again, and I did it again, and I did it again month after month after month, relentless, and so I made $163 a week for the first nine months of my business. I tell this story, I think, on episode one of the podcast, back on season one, episode one. And in month 10, I made 12 grand. Do you see that what I was talking about with that graft? You see what I'm saying? The success compounded. I went from having 20 total customers to I don't even know. I probably had like 50 or 60. I don't know something, I don't know, I'm just throwing a number out there. I probably had like 30 or 40, maybe doubled it, and I made 12 grand in month 10 of my first year.
Speaker 1:But I didn't change anything. I just kept the same effort that I did on day one I applied on day one of month 10. And by the end of month 10, it produced $12,000 in revenue. And since then, you know, it's gone up and up every single year. Every single April it increases. Now this April was a little different because I lost half of my clientele and some other things and all that, but all in all, so today's episode was really just about that mindfulness factor, you know, and I just wanted to encourage this young man to like spend a little more time, like really minding his dream, asking, like critically think about it, so he can be better prepared to see the success he wants to see.
Speaker 1:You know, if I wasn't in a position where I didn't have any options, like I have made up my mind like this is my option. I will not fill out another application. I will not ask somebody else to give me what I believe I'm worth and get denied. That was my driving factor. And since I had that driving factor, it was like there's no other option. I'm not going to to go and start another company. I'm not going to try another business model. This is what I'm doing. This is what I'm going to use to get there. I've seen other people do it. I know it can be done. I can learn to do this myself, and that's that's just where I stood.
Speaker 1:So I just wanted him to be encouraged, like yo, you know, discover your why. Think about what you need to really make this dream happen and understand that I'm going to be real. It's probably going to require a lot more effort than you ideal or you imagine, and it's probably only going to produce that much success initially. But with time, with consistency, you'll see that thing compound and grow beyond your wildest dreams, and these last six years I have seen that happen in my business. Now am I a multimillionaire? Am I a millionaire? No. Am I a multimillionaire, a billionaire? No, no, no, no, no, I'm not, I'm not. But what I'm saying is the business has grown beyond anything that I would have thought I could accomplish, has grown beyond anything that I would have thought I could accomplish. $40,000 was a hefty, impossible to reach goal for me six years ago. So many companies are doing much better than me. There's so many guys out there that are killing the game.
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to give some perspective and context, but let me not get in the weeds. I've went a few minutes beyond my uh schedule time. I wanted to make this a 20 minute episode, but you know, I kind of got excited and my mind was racing and so I just had to go with the flow. But thank you guys for joining me today. Listen, if you enjoyed today's content on YouTube, please don't forget to like, comment and subscribe.
Speaker 1:If you have any suggestions or questions, let me know in the comments below. Listen, I'm not no, I don't have no private coaching or nothing like that. I'm not even offering that. I don't feel that that's in my wheelhouse right now. But I'm just saying I am trying to be a resource. So if you have some questions about business, about, specifically, lawn care, landscaping, home service, avenue type stuff, listen and I could be of help. Don't be scared to ask. I'm gonna do my best to make sure I uh, make sure I answer your guys's questions.
Speaker 1:And if you're catching this, wherever podcast to play, please give us a five star review and show us some love right there in the comments section. Help get the word out and help me expand and grow this podcast. I really would appreciate it. I am back in full effect, glad to be here. Thank you for your time over these last 30 minutes and I will see y'all on the next episode Extreme efforts, small success in the beginning, but keep your head on, keep your head to the grindstone and you'll see that thing compound and take off. Y'all didn't see that. You'll see that thing compound and take off. All right, man, y'all have a great week. I love y'all, I appreciate y'all and I will catch y'all on the next one. Peace, thank you.